Home Education Summer Holidays Diary - August 2024

August has been a very busy month as we were away a couple of times and it was the last couple of weeks of the summer holidays in Scotland. So all the kids groups and clubs started back, meaning a lot of working out times for me! I also finished sorting the kids rooms, with the soon-to-be teenager having a re-paint of his room from the babyish toddler design to a more grown-up version. Although the image below doesn’t show the addition of plenty of new shelving for Lego and framed pictures! The youngest has got a new high sleeper bed, with a desk and chair (he’s very pleased with this part!) and plenty of storage for all his things. Hopefully it will stay as tidy!

Anyway, aside the new room layouts we’ve also been home educating. It never stops, even in the holidays you can’t help learning something! As I’ve mentioned before my children aren’t keen on workbooks or worksheet and prefer a more autonomous way of learning. So there is very little sitting at desks working.

Table of Contents

History

Both children finished the summer reading challenge and in our area you get a few rewards for this! One of them being free tickets to the National Wallace Monument. Which of course meant a trip there (had to pay for myself of course!). The kids love the layout of the monument with lots of fun interactive things for kids, plus the wooden sculpture trail. If you ever visit look out for my two children in the Wallace monument leaflet, it was taken when they were very small and the sculpture trail had just opened! During the visit the kids learned (or re-learned) about the battle of Stirling Bridge and various famous names from Scottish history.

The kids also listened to some history based podcasts, including Who, When, Wow and Greeking Out. Although they are still waiting for the next series of Greeking Out to come out. We’ve also discussed various parts of history in our everyday conversations or whilst reading various books.

The eldest also visited Summerlee Heritage Centre with friends. Learning about mining and trams in the Coatbridge area.

Geography

A trip to Lanzarote was sufficient in showing the kids the location of the Canary Islands in relation to Spain and North Western Africa. They seem to understand the location of most European locations, although the youngest is more likely to forget. He now has a magnetic Europe map beside his desk to fiddle around with and hopefully remember where each country is!

We also had discussions about volcanic landscapes whilst on Lanzarote. And how the landscape here was formed and why there is so little vegetation. We also saw the wine growing areas which consisted of vines in little dips in the ground. So this led on to discussions about humidity and climate due to the hollows in the ash.

Just a note – if you’re ever worried that you can’t answer your child’s questions, it’s ok. Nobody is going to know the answers to ALL the questions their kids ask. Google is your friend (although check the source) and it’s good for the kids to know that parents don’t always have all the answers either!

Science – Home Education Summer Holidays

As always we listen to a variety of science podcasts, from Tumble and Mysteries of Science to Wow In The World and Earth Rangers. This is our normal thing to do whilst in the car on the way somewhere!

Science this month has also included various real world experiences. The favourite had to be seeing over 100 dolphins off the Lanzarote coastline. Learning about their behaviours and bait balls (big balls of fish trying to stay together to get away from predators). An amazing experience and highly recommended!

We also visited the cactus gardens in Lanzarote. Where we could see various cacti and succulents, learning how they survive in arid conditions. Obviously we also had some prickly pear cactus juice too!

And as it IS Lanzarote we also learnt all about volcanoes! Including some cool demonstrations of how hot it is just below the earth on the area where the restaurant is. This included cooking chicken above a hole in the ground and pouring water in another hole to make it spurt back up as a geyser! We also took a bus tour around the National Park to see various volcanic features. The nearby free volcano museum had more information about how volcanos work and the flora and fauna of Lanzarote.

English

At the end of August we went to the World Book Festival and enjoyed listening to Cressida Cowell talking about her books. A new short stories book about Hiccup’s world is out soon and then another new Which Way book out next year. One of my favourite things is watching all the children in the queue and then audience happily sitting reading books whilst waiting. It would be lovely if this could be the norm.

The kids have also both been reading themselves. The eldest is working his way through the last Rick Riordan books, with a few other books thrown in when he has to wait for the next one from the library. The youngest has been reading to me and also the Dog Man books to himself. He’s definitely getting much better at reading, just need to practice so he can read quicker, then he will be happy reading the longer books himself!

Maths – Home Education Summer Holidays

Both children have been doing Beast Academy, an online maths programme, sporadically. I try to remind them to do it every day or two, but ultimately other things happen and it gets forgotten about! But they have both done a fair bit of the lessons this month.

Maths is also part of everyday learning such as telling the time, measuring and in various board games we play.

Clubs and Groups

The 10 year old had his show in a week at the beginning of August. Performing in 3 shows at the end of the week. It was Little Mermaid and he was very pleased to have a few lines and a dance part as a chef.

The kids groups also restarted halfway through August, so we are back into the full swing of activities again!

Socialisation

Throughout the holidays both children had time socialising with friends. The eldest visited the park and Summerlee heritage centre with friends and the littlest was at drama camp. There is also plenty of socialisation each week at home education groups during the term time too.

Art and Music

Art this month involved the kids making a few different crafts and drawing in the car or at home. The youngest also spends a lot of time listening to music as well, practising his singing voice!

Physical Education – Home Education Summer Holidays

We obviously had a lot of fun on holiday, including plenty of time in the water, both at the pool and in the sea! Lots of swimming and running around enjoying themselves.

We’ve also been cycling together a few times and walking on the Isle of Gigha, where we also met a stone person someone had balanced!