A Learning Experience to Remember: August 2021-August 2022

I officially have no more babies left. Xander is approaching three and a half years old now, time is racing by. Due to his tiny stature, as soon as he started moving around, the phrase 'Careful, Xander's in the mix!' became a family phrase whenever Xander approached the girls, especially if they were playing rough and tumble. Due to his size he was easy to scoop up and rescue, one hand in the midst of curls, arms, and limbs, usually would produce a wriggling little man squealing with laughter.  My little buddy has completed his first review week:  *Months of the year *Days of the week *Counts 1-100 *Counts down 10-1 *Counts in 10s, beginning to do 2x table *Basic mental maths addition 1-10 * Can rip paper, beginning to use scissors *Continents * Can read 80% of level one books unaided  *Rainbow colours and mixing *Recognises animals who live on a farm  *Beginning to know planets  * Knows details on service vehicles He plays on his Fire Amazon tablet frequently, ...

Kira works every day voluntarily, but doesn't necessarily share what she's learnt during a day. I am okay with this, she has some formal learning time with me a day but most is child led on her own free time. I recognise the music from the tablet which signals which game she is on, so I can tell which spelling or reading game she is playing. She absorbs knowledge like a sponge and is always learning, thinking or processing. She is really trying hard with her writing, and we are slowly changing her pencil grip as her hands are strengthening.  Lately she likes to spend time figuring out spellings, she'll sit there with paper and pencil and sound out the words. She can recognise if she has spelt it correctly or incorrectly. Recent words include 'pirate' and 'meow'.  Kira can be obsessive in her interests and currently 'Gabby's dollhouse' from Netflix is a current firm favourite. When it is Kira's turn for the tv she will watch this show constant...

The expression of gratitude is often an underrated emotion. This state of mind sometimes can be misplaced in the busy life we live in, and not be kept in the forefront of our consciousness. It is not always easy for us to find the good in our lives and not only acknowledge it, but to embrace and summon the gratitude towards it.  As human beings we can find it easier to be selfish and take everything for granted, whether it is material items, health, or our loved ones, and not think to give back. To be selfless can take more thought, one of the ways we can work towards this goal is to have 'an attitude of gratitude' as my mother would say. This phrase used to drive me mad during my teenage and young adulthood. I was an angry mess, hurting, fighting against the world and not wanting to see the good that was there.  However as a mother now myself, I can see the sacrifices that my husband and I make without question for our family, and we have become selfless to their needs. I can...

Autumn has arrived dramatically with drawn in nights, pitch dark mornings, flash storms and high winds which had my husband rescuing the trampoline from flying away into the neighbours garden one evening. The girls love going out in all weathers but I drew the line at play times out in the freezing temperatures with rain lashing down. Unfortunately we had a week of charming weather like this so we bunkered down in the house and waited it out.  Maths update: The girls are adding in fives and tens with their mental maths, and Xander is surprising us by counting in multiples of five and ten. Sophia is filling out times table wipe clean books, using the multiples she knows. They are learning multiples of three currently. The learning aid clocks keep disappearing from the school room as they draw an unfathomable fascination from all three children. Sophia wanted to practice telling the time the other day and because she could not find one, she used her imagination and created one out of...

The last few weeks have flown by with lots of hospital admissions and autumn cleaning at home, in readiness for Christmas, as well as teaching the brood! It has been home for a few days, back in hospital for a few days in an ongoing cycle. Thank goodness for home education in these scenarios! It's amazing, that despite the constant upheaval which has been our life these past six months, the children are making tremendous personal progress in their skills and knowledge. I believe that if you take home education seriously, progression can always take place, no matter the current life scenario.  We have two young girls who are keeping up with their school life despite their mummy and brother disappearing every few days.  Sophia has massively grown in confidence over the past month, and her reading ability greatly reflects this change in attitude. She is reading for pleasure from the bookshelf which is a joy to witness. She has voluntarily chosen to start the Unicorn Academy serie...

The morning period is personally the best time of day for lessons for my girls. They are alert, focused and raring to start lessons, consequently breakfast lessons are an established learning time. I have a captive audience, they are in the kitchen with me anyway learning how to prepare the food, tidy down and set the table. This session can be the best for attention span and concentration out of the entire day, so I have learnt to capitalise on this precious half hour.  This morning we learnt twenty spellings from two word families. They are storming through their word lists, quickly approaching the 200 mark in only a couple of months. I cannot recommend this learning style enough, the girls are retaining their spelling knowledge and are actively using the words in their artwork in their free time. Today they also requested spelling tests to be their handwriting practice, and did further spelling practice on top for another half an hour through choice.  The rest of breakfast ...

There is so much potential for learning on car journeys. This time Sophia's attention was caught by seeing electricity pylons and wind turbines and she was avidly asking questions about these. I briefly introduced them to her and offered to set up some follow up science educational YouTube videos at a later date. Good old 'Dr Binocs' came through and the children have been eagerly learning about fossil fuels, renewable energy and electricity. Sophia has started writing down her thoughts and knowledge on electricity in her new science book. It is a great sidestep from their current topic of light, which is being learnt enthusiastically. They have loved their light experiments, as simple as they were, including going into a dark room and shining a torch, seeing how a pencil seems to change when placed in a glass of water, just with a light shining on it. Observing what materials allow light to pass through and which cast shadows, and performing shadow puppet plays on the wall...

This first week of October has flown by, centering around Sophia's 6th birthday, and our learning journey has strongly been influenced by new crafts which were gifted to Sophia.  Arts and crafts have an important role to play in teaching and reinforcing skills, particularly for those who are in early years education. Sophia has decorated a clock for her bedroom, counting in fives around the clock as she coloured. It was a project that required great concentration, she wanted to stay within the lines and create an end product she was proud of. She chose a beautiful and elegant colour scheme and took regular breaks to make sure she kept concentration, to rest her hand. She would go outside to play, then come in and work on the next piece.  She was also gifted with a weaving project, and this was the first time she had seen this skill so she had a lot of questions about what the skill was used for. Following her interest we watched YouTube videos to show her the history, art and ...

This last week heralded an unexpected extended stay in hospital with Xander fighting several serious infections in his bloodstream, so whilst the staff worked to prevent sepsis, our family had to adjust to hospital life once more. Home education has to continue both for the girls and little man at this time, as it is not a one off occasion but is our way of life. It is not an excuse to not learn. The pattern of learning may change under Daddy and Grannie's care, but what is important, is that the learning journey continues. The girls applied existing knowledge and skills to new situations, enjoyed a lot of physical education and learning new skills.  Sophia likes being post mistress and collecting the letters from the front door. She has been practicing reading from takeaway menus and writing down dishes, before she put them into the recycling. As she helped to prep the meals she was reading from the back of the packets, utilising her skills from outside of the traditional reading ...

Physical education can be a loaded topic within the home schooling environment. It is not stated by law within the UK that it has to be included as part of a curriculum or be part of a childs life, where in some states of America it is mandatory. I have heard varying opinions from UK based parents on its place within a childs life. I will be discussing physical education options for physically able bodied children within this blog.  It is easy to cultivate a love for a sport from an early age, and it can be a wonderful bonding activity for families, as well as a great way for your child to make friends and learn important social skills. There will be parents who strongly encourage ballet, swimming, football, gymnastics, martial arts, tennis, cricket for example and that is awesome, I cannot wait for it to be the right time for my children to explore some of these options. There are parents however who may not be able to afford this route, or may not be sporty themselves or may not ...

The groundwork for the following topics has been laid over the past couple of years. Last year the girls learnt the definition and distinguish between carnivore, herbivore and omnivore, and could place animals into groups, who lived in different environments. However they were not massively interested in the topic and as I could see they were not retaining knowledge beyond the basic facts I shelved the topic. It is so important that children stay interested in a topic, especially if they are autistic. I have observed that forcing a subject will only cause them to completely switch off. So we stepped back and moved on to another topic at the time. Consequently habitats, living things and food chains were on the goal list for this academic year. The girls seem to be full of surprises this year and after unexpectedly having a win with the topic of magnets I let them scroll through their science educational playlist to choose their next topic. They chose habitats! They were really engaged ...