Bank Holiday Fun

This has been a great weekend: with lots of family time, hours of garden time, and two nature walks. They loved showing off their woodland spoils to their friend next door. There's been an extraordinary number of bubble baths due to them coming in from the garden absolutely filthy from top to toe, and they filled a washing basket just between them! As our learning journey moves forward constantly and weekends are not traditionally recognised, there was plenty of home educating to counterbalance the outdoor adventures. 

We woke up our sleepy brains with a good Spanish session which all three children are loving and picking up fast. This morning we had several renditions of Jack Hartmann musical educational videos on colours and alphabet. We sang 1-100, and looked at days of the week for the first time. I also sang a Spanish song about colours to them which I am sure they will learn quickly, if only to stop mum singing it to them.

Breakfast time approached and as they sit round the farmhouse kitchen table looking out over the garden, we used this time wisely with mental maths and spelling time. Kira answered 2+3, 5+5, 10+5, 15+5, 20+5, 25+5, 30+5 and 35+5 correctly before she became bored. Fair enough for a four year old. Sophia recited her 2, 5 and 10x tables to me correctly which was great and Xander joined in by counting 1-20. Stars all round for everyone. As August is drawing to a close we had a final spelling test from the word families we have learnt this month. I was impressed with how spellings we were able to learn and retain in these first four weeks, including from the 'At', 'Ow', 'In', 'On', 'En' and 'Ug' word families. The girls are excited what spellings await for them in September, so they can write even more words! Sophia in particular loves the fact she can write words without mummys assistance now, and whenever she wants too, on any picture she likes. While the girls were writing their spellings Xander indicated he wanted to learn his left from his right, and by the end of breakfast time he was confidently offering the correct foot and shoe, he learnt that fast! 

It was time then to finish up lessons for the day back upstairs in the school room. Xander read a Paw Patrol book to me, while pointing out the details of the pictures. Kira read an Usborne first reader to me cover to cover, both the parents and the child's part, and then immediately turned to her latest workbook and finished off her 'Snappy Learner Spelling' aged 5-7. Sophia was busy constructing puzzles, but soon lost interest due to missing pieces, so she went on a treasure hunt looking for them. 

A quick change of pace saw us back downstairs to the kitchen. I was busy tidying down the kitchen, completing the morning household chores and baking cupcakes and I had given them the TV remote and their ipads and said it was free time. I wasn't half way through the cake mix before the girls were down with me armed with story books, pencils and paper. They wanted to have a writing lesson, copying from their chosen book and then have a play with stencils. Absolutely no problem, it kept them busy for another twenty minutes whilst I was finishing off. Snack time was a freshly blitzed banana smoothie and cupcakes warm from the oven. 

Dad emerged from his office and it was time for a batch cooking session of bologanise which we then tub up and freeze. We have a repitoire of dishes we make on a monthly basis including curries, Chinese chicken style dishes, a chilli, a variety of soups, pit beans and  roast dinners. The girls were watching with interest, helping to stir the massive vat of a saucepan we have which is big enough for a child to crouch down inside. No joke, I cannot lift it when it has a dish cooking in it. 

We moved seamlessly from this cooking activity to an afternoon outside for an awesome bbq in the beautiful sunshine. The girls assisted with throwing cherry smoked wood into the bbq and Sophia tried to ignite a branch by rubbing two stones together and was getting frustrated from the lack of a spark. They practiced on the skateboard and enjoyed an al fresco dinner, chilling together in the shade. 

There we have it everyone, a busy but relaxing time, enjoying our time together as a family, capitalising on the good weather. I hope you all had a great Bank Holiday. Feel free to drop a comment telling us what your adventures were, celebrating the end of August, which has been such a long month! Does anyone else feel like we've been waiting for September forever?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning From Your Environment

Image
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...
Read more

Role playing Is A Serious Business!

Image
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 ...
Read more

Always be thankful

Image
 It was December 2021 when Miss Jo, The Children's Coach contacted me and offered the girls free places in her January zoom class. This was the tutor who had organised and ran the summer fun project which the girls had been nominated and awarded for bravery. The girls absolutely loved her as a teacher and had immediately bonded with her. They wrote her letters and talked about her every day during this project.  I took her up on this very kind and generous offer and the girls had a regular half an hour zoom class every Thursday on the theme of gratitude. The girls were the youngest ones in the class and they handled it really well.  Sophia wrote the classes on the calender, scheduling in the lessons, for the month. Kira took a postcard written to her by Miss Jo, which she had received the previous year, to bed with her every night until the classes took place. She read it to me as her bedtime story.  The first thing Kira said to Miss Jo on class, was to thank her for...
Read more