Home Education Monthly Report May 2026

May has been a little bit crazy with the 12 year old’s end of term show rehearsals, rehearsals for another musical show and him going down to Birmingham for Junior Theatre Festival. Which means a lot for driving for us parents! Although, admittedly, we didn’t have to drive him down to Birmingham!

We did fit in quite a lot of other things too, so it has been quite a productive month. Plenty of learning going on, both intentional and unintentional via life skills. Here’s what the kids have learnt this month!

Table of Contents

History

The kids have listened to various history podcasts, mostly around Greek mythology, but also learning about other mythology from Crash Course videos. The eldest had a trip to Bo’ness and Kinneil railway to explore the museum with it’s vintage trains (he’s a train fanatic).

This month we’ve visited a few historical places, particularly at the beginning of the month when it was beautiful weather! We haven’t been to many places along the Antonine Wall, so that seemed like a good starting point. Many people don’t know that Scotland also had a roman wall across its width. It stretched from near Glasgow across to Bo’ness in the East. We visited Rough Castle fort near Falkirk, which was a major roman fort, with various defence systems. The huge ditches are still very obvious (this was a turf and ditch wall, not stone built). We also headed a little further along to Croy to see the Silvanus sculpture and Auchinstarry play park.

Another location we visited was the Atlantic Wall on Sherrifmuir. It was a replica of the block wall that the Nazi’s were building around mainland Europe. This was built on Sherrifmuir, above Dunblane, so that soldiers could practice attacking the wall and working out how to break it down for tanks to get through.

At the end of the month we also visited Linlithgow Palace on a very wet day. This was built by various kings over the years, starting with King James I of Scotland and final additions by King James VI. Both James V and Mary Queen of Scots were born here, so it has a lot of interesting royal history. It’s also a great complex to explore, with plenty of rooms!

Geography

As part of a blog post around the World Cup we bought lots of world flags for decorations. The eldest and I had fun going through the flags, working out how many we knew and looking up the other flags online. I was impressed at how many he knew.

The eldest and I also visited the Falkirk Wheel, which is part of the Scottish canal system. This joins the Forth and Clyde Canal to the Union Canal, lifting boats up to the canal rather than requiring navigation through 11 locks. It’s quite a feat of engineering and an important part of Scottish history, science and geography.

Science

Both children have tried a couple of science experiments. The eldest been trying out some MEL science experiments, see photos above. Whereas the youngest chose to play around with density experiments.

They have also both been building Lego and listening to podcasts such as The Rest Is Science and Tumble. I highly recommend The Rest Is Science for older kids, it includes a lot of theory and is easy to understand, but has some very big topics included. The kids of also watched some Theatre of Science videos too.

Maths

Although the Rest of Science is clearly science based, there is a lot of discussion around maths too. Including a great couple of episodes around infinity and the different types of infinity.

The children have been doing some online apps to support their maths learning. Mostly just reinforcing basic principles before they try anything more difficult.

Of course there is always the life skills such as measuring things when baking that are also part of maths. And then multiplying numbers quickly int heir heads to work out how to divide things around their friends.

Language

The eldest reads plenty and the youngest is improving significantly despite having dyslexia. He has a dyslexic tutor who visits weekly to help with reading and he’s certainly improving with his spelling. Although tricky words that don’t follow normal logic always trip him. I’ve found that texting friends and reading song words when listening to his favourite songs are helping.

They have also both been practising their handwriting skills and computer writing skills.

Clubs and Groups

All the usual clubs and groups have been going on as usual, these include Lego club, board games club and dodgeball that both children take part in. Plus choir, Scouts, drama, dancing, gymnastics and lead climbing for the youngest. He also has rehearsals for Alice in Wonderland and a visit to Junior Theatre Festival (with extra rehearsals too!), so he’s been very busy!

The eldest prefers to do less clubs and more time at home. But he did get a chance to visit Bo’ness and Kinneil railway and go segwaying whilst his brother was away for the weekend.

Socialisation

The kids see their home ed friends several times a week and also chat to other people each week too. The youngest has quite a few friends at each of his activities, especially drama, so he’s often chatting to friends. There’s a definite difference in the amount of socialisation time between my two children. One likes to be with friends as much as possible every day, whereas the other prefers shorter amount of time and more time at home in peace and quiet. Everyone’s social needs are different so I do my best to make sure both are happy, with just a little compromising.

Art and Music

I can’t say that the kids have done much art or crafts recently (I have though!). But they both have been using the keyboard at home and the youngest is constantly singing along to musical theatre songs every single day. I only get peace when he’s not here or he’s listening to an audio book instead.

Physical Education

We visit the park with friends a couple of times a week, where the kids generally run riot. Recently there was a thunderstorm at the park with a huge cascade of water pouring down the path. Of course the kids had great fun playing in the river of water and waterfall coming off the road.

The kids also do extracurricular sports and activities, plus walking with me and visiting local play parks together too. I think they get more than enough exercise!