Home Education Blog Diary July 2026

July has gone by rather quickly, however we have been away from home for the majority of the month! With the first half of the month in Ireland, then a camping trip to the Isle of Canna. Finally we spent a week with grandparents. The 12 year old also managed 3 nights away at Scout camp within that time as well! I think the 14 year old was happy to be back home for a rest at the beginning of August!

But did they keep up their learning? Learning comes in all sorts of forms, and no we haven’t been doing anything formal. Fortunately you can learn a lot, especially when travelling.

Table of Contents

History

Whilst travelling in Ireland we visited a lot of historic places. So this subject was definitely covered extensively this month! We also had a lot of driving around, so plenty of podcasts were listened to, including a couple of history podcasts.

We visited Carrowmore megalithic cemetery and took a tour around the massive site. There was a lot to learn about, certainly an interesting place to visit for prehistoric history.

Loophead Lighthouse was great to visit as we could learn about the history of the lighthouse, what they used before the lighthouse was built and some myths and legends about Loophead. There is also an EIRE sign which links back to WW2 when Ireland was neutral and letting both sides know which country they were flying over!

We also visited Craggaunowen Castle and Crannog in County Clare. This gave us a great perspective on what it would be like to live in Ireland on a crannog and ring fort. Also learning about the ancient Ogham language, togher walkways and wood carving without electricity!

We definitely enjoyed learning about each type of structure and how people lived. There was also the Brendan boat that St Brendan sailed across the Atlantic. Nobody is quite sure where he landed, but the reconstruction of the boat and story was very interesting.

Nearby was Bunratty Castle and Folkpark. A large medieval castle with many rooms decorated as they would have been in medieval times. It was great to walk around and see what it looked like.

The folk park consists of a large open-air museum with buildings moved or reconstructed from various parts of Ireland. We learnt about different ways of living or even house type depending on the location in Ireland.Inside you can learn about the occupants history and circumstances. Some buildings also had actors, with the school master being our favourite!

In County Kerry we visited the transatlantic cable museum. Which is small but a brilliant museum to learn about the 8th wonder of the world! It’s all about how the cable was laid between Ireland and North America to allow quick communication via telegraph.

We also booked a trip out to Skellig Michael where monks built beehive huts and various steps up to the site on a tiny steep rock in the ocean! It’s a beautiful site, but also has amazing history, you can see the places they slept, channels used for catching rainwater, a graveyard and steps previously built by the monks. All at the top of a rocky pinnacle!

Also in County Kerry we visited a tiny coastal car park so we could see the dinosaur prints along the shore below. They were made by a creature 385 million years ago that was basically an early amphibian. We could even see where the tail dragged across the ground.

Also in Kerry was Blennerville windmill, where the kids learned about the different stages of grain production and how grain was milled before windmills. The guide was excellent with the kids. The same day we drove down to the Dingle peninsula and visited Cashel Murphy and the Gallarus Oratory. Cashel Murphy is an ancient settlement built from stone, complete with souterrain that you can crawl through! Gallarus Oratory is a tiny religious site, use as a small church, built in the beehive hut style.

In Northern Ireland, on our way home, we stopped at Titanic Belfast. It’s an excellent attraction and well worth visiting to learn more about the Titanic and what happened after.And on Canna we found some more souterrains and crawled inside to have a better look. Souterrains are a bit mysterious, but the general consensus from historians is that they were probably used as a pantry, to keep food cool.

Geography

Geography mostly covered our trip across to Ireland, seeing where we were on maps and its location compared to Scotland. We also visited Canna and looked at the maps on the Calmac ferry to show where we were in relation to the mainland and other islands.

Geography is closely associated with science, so looking at flora in the different habitats is also included. I was pointing out a lot of the different flora in the Burren landscape of County Clare. Plus wetlands in Tralee and of course the geology of Ireland. We collected quite a few rocks, including many hagstones and some with fossils in them! The spectacular cliffs at Kilkee and geological formations of the Skelligs are also very interesting.

A trip into the caves under the Burren was fantastic too, seeing a very old stalactite hanging from the ceiling, one of the largest in Europe. Of course there was the geological formations in the Burren too, with large flat limestone pavements, and interesting shapes formed. Great to walk around and for kids to climb!

Science

Science has also included various podcasts, including The Rest Is Science and Wow In The World. However, we also found plenty of scientific things to interest us on our trips too. A lot of those were wildlife sightings! Ecology is a great scientific subject, learning about animal and their habitats, plus what outside factors affect them. The kids loved seeing puffins on both Canna and the Skelligs. We even saw Minke whales and heard corncrakes on Canna and gannets at the Skelligs. We had to look up Corncrakes behaviours too as the one at our campsite never seemed to stop calling ever, all through the night it croaked!

The kids, and us, also enjoyed learning about the telegraph at the transatlantic cable museum. Especially using Morse code to try and send messages, it’s not as easy as it looks!

Maths

I can’t say that there’s been a huge amount of maths going on this month! Any maths has just been working things out in day to day life, so it’s been fairly basic. But we’ll get back to more in depth maths in August!

Language

Unlike maths it’s hard to completely avoid working on languages! The kids have read books and the youngest has also been reading various information things himself whilst travelling too. Although the youngest hasn’t written anything, the eldest did spend a good couple of days writing two sides of A4 in tiny writing in the process of creating his own train top trumps. Then another afternoon creating the top trumps in Canva.

Clubs and Groups

The kids usual clubs and groups have all been off for the summer. However, the youngest did spend 3 nights at an International scout camp where he didn’t know anyone. Fortunately he made friends and had a great time, doing lots of different activities. Including river rescue, climbing, circus skills, trading badges and more.

Socialisation

Although our usual activities haven’t been on, the children have still seen friends several times this month and the youngest had a weekend of socialisation at camp. Socialisation also include real-world socialisation, talking to people outside our family and friends group. They’re less good at talking to strangers, but I am trying to demonstrate that it’s ok to talk to new people by chatting to people myself!

Art and Music

Music has mostly been the youngest singing a variety of various musical theatre songs. Beetle juice and Little Shop of Horrors have featured highly this month. Along with Hadestown songs.

There hasn’t been much in the way of making art or appreciating it this month.

Physical Education

With so much time travelling and visiting places I think we’ve managed more than enough for PE! There has been walking of various lengths every single day, anywhere from 3km to 16km. We’ve also carried heavy bags of camping equipments, kayaked on the sea and across lochs, swam in the sea and bodyboarding many times in Ireland.

We had a great cycle from Tralee to Fenit along the greenway, in 33C heat! And climbed up to the top of Skellig Michael to see the beehive buildings the monks built. And there was plenty of time to run across the sands on beaches, play frisbee and catch with the Velcro ball paddles. Plus playing in the woods during a bushcraft session.

We also managed a SUP lesson and surfing session in County Sligo, plus kayaking on Lough Gill and walking in the area too. The youngest also did lots of fun activities at scout camp.