I am thankful for home ed

Well we are into October already and I am not quite sure where the year has for so far! It had been a year of change with making the decision to  home educate, this being something we will now do with our 2 children! 

I an really thankful that we found home education as it has made my happy little girl return and the sad grumpy little girl leave! 

This week has been a funny week with the change in weather making us all a bit grumpy but the beauty of home ed it that you can chill out and cuddle up when needed! 

So we started on Monday by doing a family history course at the local library and lookin into our past somethin the girls really enjoyed! Tuesday we met some other home ed families at a play centre and had a great time! Home ed was not effected by the teacher strikes! On Wednesday my car was due it MOT so we spent the first 3 hours of the day hiding from the rain in the towns central library, we read stories used the computer and completed lots of workbooks, then when the rain stopped we went for a walk round the town! 

Thursday was another strange day we all felt a bit ill so snuggled on the sofa in the morning and then went out to a toddler group in the afternoon when we returned we put on an audio book and cuddled on the sofa with mugs if hit coco, this has been the highlight of my week! 

And today Friday we went and to our first home ed book club, nervous as I had organised the event and was wondering what the turnout would be but it was great and we really enjoyed ourselves and are looking forward to the next one in November! We did the story funnybones!

Now to finish the day the girls are both at happily doing worksheets, something the only do if they choose to but they seem quite content!

Relaxed

Today has really been a lovely day although to onlookers we may seem to have had a lazy and unproductive day if you look closet you can see it has been a great day for personal development!!

This morning we started our day by cleaning up the garden and then going to our second secluded garden which is used a bit like an allotment! There we picked elderberries, blackberries and baking apples! Then we went back to the house and got ready for a trip to the park. There at the home ed meet my eldest daughter in her words made new friends- she had a fantastic time playing with a wonderful group of children! Mid afternoon we came home and the cleaned out out chinchillas, followed by writing  another poem and playing with a maths jigsaw puzzle. Now it is imaginative play with dad before dinner and a few board games, although it has been a pretty relaxed day my girls have ha dryer chanc ego learn about animal care and domestic routine as well as growing and harvesting your own food and making friends! All valuable and often under rated skills!

Show time......

Well it was our village show on Saturday and so this week has been themed around making things that can be entered into the different children's categories for the show, this has meant a really fun and crafty week and i just wanted to share some of the fun and fantastic things we had done and then after the show tomorrow hopefully I can share the results with you as well

So first my 3 year old has made a greeting card for one of the entries - Age under 16 - a greetings card

next entry is one from each of my 5 year old and my 3 year old and is a painting or collage of outer space

Then my five year entered a poem into the show and was up against entries from children aged 7 upwards and I am very proud to say she got second place for her wildlife poem

As well as this they both entered a plate of 4 cupcakes decorated, model space rockets, vegetable animals (they are meant to be a bear and elephant) and miniature gardens.  We did not win any other prizes but had a fantastic week making everything and it really added a sense of purpose to this weeks craft.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!!!

The deep and twycross zoo

Well it has been a very busy week! 

On Monday we went to a home educators day arranged by the deep in hull, it was a lovely day out and  my 2 girls really enjoyed it and it gave them a great social opportunity with some other home ed families. They attended a workshop on seaside clean ups and we are going to make a model of the seaside to follow it up.

We loved looking at all the wonderful selection of sealife there and wizard around the centre the first time and then went for lunch in the cafe (my 2 had eaten all of their packed lunches before we even got there) and then went for a second look around before heading to our workshop and then with 2 extremely tired girls heading home! 

All the excitement on Monday meant Tuesday (and Wednesday) were very relaxing and chilled out days that were mostly spent doing leisurely activities such as reading together a couple of nature walks and some baking 

On Thursday we were on the go again and went to an organised visit to twycross zoo! Well the kids had another fantastic day and by Friday they were truly shattered! It was a quiet weekend anyway!

It is fantastic that here is such a vibrant home ed community and that people are so proactive in organising activities! We are always very grateful to the people who organise these events and thankful we live somewhere where home ed is so widely a choice of many!

 

Week 1 with a smile

This was our first week of term and we have had a good time following on from Mondays fun we attended our local home ed groups not back to school picnic on Tuesday where the kids had a fantastic time, we also went on a tram ride which was a rare treat as we don't use public transport often as there are very poor bus links from our village. 

The on Wednesday we had another great day and attended a course on personal safety, a fantastic experience and some great hands on learning scenarios which really helped deliver the message. 

On Thursday we had a fairly easy morning learning Spanish with muzzy and the in the afternoon we run our local church parent and toddler group. 

Friday we spent all day at home but it was by no means boring. We opted for a crafty session and this is what ensued

We also did a bit of baking and made some yummy bread 

And this week we discovered a great free web game for learning and practising phonics

Www.teachyourmonstertoread.com

Kids design their own monster and then travel around various stages learning phonics sound and practising words. Both my girls have been thoroughly addicted.

Looking forward to see what next week brings. 2 outings next week one to the home educators day at the deep in hull on Monday and an organised home ed trip to twycross zoo on Thursday. Busy times! 

Our first day of school!

Well today was the day and I tried to keep it as I pressured as possible I started by drawing pictures of everything we wanted to achieve by the end if the day on the chalkboard so my little one could
rub the off as they were done 

This worked well and we had completed everything by the end of the day although we didn't really start until 1pm! 

We started the day by going to the park and the kids had a fantastic time

Then on our return we had some lunch and watched a bit of muzzy spanish and that was really the first formal learning we had done all day and that wasn't even on the plan!

When that was over my eldest customised her avatar on study ladder and then did a bit of English work followed by playing on khan academy and at this point I don't think she realised she had done any learning as far as she was concerned just playing. 

We then started to build a castle out of sugar cubes... Something that is an ongoing project so will keep you posted 

After this a bit of blackberry picking......

And then we returned home to start using our James Dyson foundation ideas box and coloured in what we think a design engineer should look like

I think they a rather good for a 5 yr old (left) and 3 yr old (right)

All in all a fantastic first day of the term and looking forward to many more fun filled days!!!!!!!

 

Notice boards, sparkles and sock animals

Well today has been a rather busy one, the little one was up at 7am and spent the first hour of the day beautifully playing with small world figures and having a lovely imaginative time, then when her big sister got up we went downstairs and they decided it was time for craft. Well there was glitter everywhere and half finished picture left on the table as we went to church, but on our return the craft continued and we had a fantastic time with glitter as you can see

Well the girls decided it was time for some role play of knights and princesses so off they went upstairs with dad to do this and I decided it was time to get the display board ready for the news term and now I have my reward stickers and a couple of pieces of work on display but other wise I am ready for a new term

Blackboard has a pirate map on but is otherwise ready to go 

And of course the book bag is ready for the library visits 

Well the fun didn't stop there we decided to have ago at making sock animals and made some cute cuddly toys out of old socks

There was a lot of cutting and sewing but I think the final results are not too bad we have a cat

And a bear

And a little monster

And to finish off a lovely day we played a trio of board games, junior scrabble, dominos and Lego shave a sheep! 

Who ever said learning is just for school days?!?!