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?!?!

The end of the school holidays.... Hooray!

It is nearly the end of the school holidays and I cannot wait, not for the reason of many...kids back at school but for the peace and quiet that will descend when the go back! 

Everything will settle down, parks will become quiet again, museums will be free to walk around, and people will stop having free time to pop around! 

We can instil so order back into the household. Although we will still be really busy with home ed activities and visits it will be up to us which ones we do and which ones we don't. And the time in between will be our own not a constant race from place to place.

I am so tired from 6 weeks of chaos and the holidays have not given us a good sense of a normal home ed life at all so roll on September and let the fun begin!  

Total chaos and a trip to the zoo

It has been a while since I have posted, now although I didn't plan on breaking fully for the school holidays I seem to have been swamped with things to do from family visits to running activities at my church! We have done so much and I just keep forgetting to share!

So on Tuesday this week while visiting family we went to Dudley zoological gardens. It was a fantastic day out and we spent 6.5 hours walking around the zoo so we were all very tired. The zoo I built on castle hill so as the name implies there is a castle at the top. The children loved it and now want to learn more about medieval times and knights and castles. So one little visit has given us a project! 

We walked around the outer wall and entry as above and went up the castle the views were amazing

And the range of animals was wonderful we saw tigers and meerkats, monkeys and reptiles. A whole range of creature and now we plan on putting a little animal book together with photos of the animals in and information about each one on the page so a great little science project!

The Sumatran tiger

The Siberian tiger

The Barbary sheep

A dwarf crocodile

And we must not forget the chair lift and the amazing view on the way up and down castle hill

The James Dyson Foundation

Recently I saw a post on a forum about the James Dyson foundation, an how they do an ideas box and an engineering box for schools and that these could also be loaned to home ed families. I decided to send off for one as felt it would make and excellent ongoing science am engineering project and it arrived to day 

The contents was fantastic firstly the air multiplier fan was included, this is only on a six week loan

Secondly was a book of ideas and projects to follow through this could be kept and so you can take your time with it 

You also get six poster to keep 

And there is a display stand that can be used for the six weeks of the box loan 

I will post updates as we complete the different tasks in the ideas box!

The wonders of poundworld

while out today we popped  into poundworld and it is fantastic some of the craft materials and resources thy have it may not sound like and educational destination but it is a pretty decent place to pick up low cost resources.

Sums are a problem fort eldest she is not a sot down and do worksheets sort of child but in poundworld I picked up this

A great way to set work and questions that will feel more fun than overwhelming 

My younger daughter is just learning her letters and sounds and so I picked up the following to help

An alphabet puzzle with picture associations great :-)

We also picked up things that will be very creative including the following 2 books 

Something to fill the time and we may use them for creating our own stories using the setting and characters in the books so a great language starter activity.

Then finally to support our science work and learning of the natural work we have models to build 

One for each daughter and a great stater on where do they live? sub species of elephant? what do they eat? Why do they have long trunks? 

So by looking in unexpected places you can home educate on a budget!