Home Education Blogger Diary May 2025

A little late again with this home education blogger diary! May was a busy month, as was the start of June. So I’m only just writing this mid-June. The 11 year old was away for a long weekend for the Junior Theatre Festival with his drama group, had various rehearsals for different shows and also performed in his dance school shows at the end of the month.

We also had beautiful sunny weather for most of the month, so a lot of time outdoors enjoying the sunshine. Hence less time to write things on the blog! Whoops. Anyway, this is what the kids have learnt in May 2025.

Table of Contents

History

The kids, as always, have quite an interest in history. We often listen to history themed podcasts and the youngest is especially pleased that the new Live From Mount Olympus season is out. This one is about Theseus and Ariadne, so it’s interesting to hear a different perspective from this story, about why Theseus leaves Ariadne.

We have to keep remembering to listen to Greeking Out, as it’s now on YouTube rather than the podcast app. But it’s still as good as always too!

I’ve also been reading a fiction series with the 11 year old about the Mona Lisa. So we’ve looked up the real history behind the Mona Lisa painting as well. Mostly about why it was stolen from the Louvre and returned again.

Other history has included playing a new game that is on Kickstarter, Escape From Pompeii, and also visiting Inchmahome Priory. Inchmahome Priory is located on the Lake of Mentieth in Stirlingshire. Once the home of Augustinian Canons, it was a solace for Robert the Bruce (who visited 3 times when he was king). And also a 4 year old Mary Queen of Scots visited briefly, whilst on the run during the Rough Wooing.

Geography

There’s not been a huge amount of geography related discussions this month. Although we have visited various local places and ensured the children know where they are on a map locally.

We did discuss volcanos, in particualry Vesuvius, whilst playing the Escape from Pompeii game. We visited Pompeii a couple of years ago, so the children know quite a bit about how the volcanic eruption happened.

There were also a good few discussions about climate change after we had weeks of dry and sunny weather in Stirlingshire. The lack of water in the lochs and low river levels were rather concerning.

Science

Our local town had an eco fest, which included a visit from the Glasgow Science centre mobile team. The kids had a great time trying out some of the different interactive science activities. Including many climate change themed activities.

There has also been plenty of listening to science podcasts, including Tumble and Wow In The World. They often share interesting scientific papers in a child friendly way.

Whilst the youngest was away to the Junior Theatre Festival the eldest had a great train themed weekend. First visiting the Perthshire Garden Railway and inspecting how they laid the tracks and different trains running. The second day was to visit the Scottish Model Engineering Trust open day at Wester Pickston railway near Methven. Lots of fun riding on trains, looking at the model trains indoors and at their small garden railway section. Our 13 year old loves trains and this is a great STEM activity for him to learn about.

Maths

The children both do a lesson on Beast Academy maths app every second day. So it’s nice to see them progressing through the levels. We tend to do one type of ‘official’ learning, either maths or English each day, otherwise it becomes difficult to fit in other activities, meeting friends and downtime.

They also do a fair bit of maths when playing board games, especially when they choose more complex games! Every week the kids also have an online coding lesson using Minecraft education. Which involves a lot of maths and I don’t understand most of what is going on any more!

Language

As mentioned above, the kids do 10 minutes of writing every second day. Mostly as they never choose to write anything in every day life. As they are now 11 and 13 years old I’d like them to practice their writing to have more legible handwriting! I’m not looking for essays, just neat writing!

The eldest is always reading several books and magazines, so I have no issues with his reading skills. But I do tend to get the youngest to practice reading every couple of days, just to make sure he is understanding all the words. He’s definitely much better than a year ago, but finds it very slow going. He much prefers audio books for longer chapter books, rather than reading them himself. I do think he is perhaps dyslexic, as even at 11 he still mixes up certain letters and has various other indicators. We’ve been taken it slowly for this reason.

Clubs and Groups

There have been plenty of time at clubs and groups this month. The eldest has been at his usual Scouts and dodgeball groups. Plus we do a fortnightly home ed board games club and Lego club.

The youngest also does these groups (aside the dodgeball). However, he also has two gymnastics classes, two dance classes (tap, modern, ballet, acro and commercial), lead climbing (NICAS level 4), two drama classes, choir and rehearsals for a local theatre show on Sundays. Fortunately he’s decided to drop one gymnastics class after the summer, so that makes it slightly easier on me!

Socialisation

Socialisation has included all the above classes, the youngest’s trip to the Junior Theatre Festival and lots of home ed meets with friends during the week. The kids very rarely have a day when they don’t speak to anyone outside the family during the week. The eldest does enjoy a quieter time at the weekends, but he likes to have some more home time than his brother.

Art and Music – Home Education Blogger

There has been very little actual art, although the children did make their friend a card each. Music has been more the youngest constantly listening and memorising different musical songs. We currently have Hadestown, Beauty and the Beast and Finding Nemo songs on the go constantly!

Physical Education – Home Education Blogger

With the weather so beautiful we’ve been outdoors a lot. There has been swimming in lochs and rivers, climbing trees, running about with friends and just enjoying life. We’re very fortunate that home education means we can spend so much time outdoors and going for walks in the beautiful countryside.