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Home Education Scotland
It’s the beginning of the month and I’m back with another update to our home education journey in Scotland!
A quick note for those new to home ed. A lot of people who are new to home education in Scotland are mistakenly calling it ‘homeschooling’, so I just wanted to mention why we call it home education in Scotland. All the official guidance is written as ‘home education’ or ‘education by other means’, so to keep local authorities right it’s important to use the correct terminology. It’s also important to remember to refer to it as home education so that it encompasses all home educating types, from autonomous education to those who replicate school at home.
Anyway, on to our home education diaries for last month. The kids have been learning a lot as usual, from science and history to art and exploring the outdoors. As well as an excellent Easter egg hunt!
Home Education Science
Science for us has always included a lot of outdoor education. Simply exploring the outdoors is science itself and it’s great to watch the kids discover the world around them. As parents we are here to facilitate interests and pond dipping is something my children enjoy doing every so often. We recently asked at a local nature reserve if we could pond dip in the boggy pools and they agreed. Although we didn’t catch the newts that we had hoped for, there were plenty of whirlygigs, tadpoles and midge larvae!
The littlest has a good eye for spotting wildlife and this month he’s been the one to notice the newts and tadpoles in ditches. Or the bright green tiger beetles on the path. It’s fun to watch them find and spot tiny wildlife all around us!
Whilst visiting my parents in the West of Scotland we found a Canadian goose nest with 3 eggs. The eggs were fairly large and the down feathers were keeping them warm. We didn’t stay long and hoped the geese would come back quickly despite them being chased by an angry swan!
Lego as usual has made an entry in our science section. Lego building is a STEAM activity and our eldest particularly enjoys building things. At home he has been busy building new trains and a train ferry for the trains to go on. I think we really need to go on one of the last train ferries in Europe this year, they all seem to be closing! Whilst camping in my parents garden at the end of the month the kids both had fun building small vehicles. The eldest has also been building using K’Nex too, which is a new material for him.
Science Podcasts and Books
Science podcasts are always fun for the kids to listen to on journeys. So whilst we are in the car they often request Wow in the World or Tumble to listen to. Both are great for communicating science discoveries to kids in a fun way. They know a surprisingly good amount of general science knowledge and can tell you all about tardigrades, smart toilets and how bees can do maths!
I also bought a number of the ‘You wouldn’t want to live without…’ book series. They include titles from extreme weather to antibiotics and predictably the kids are loving them. Both my children love non-fiction books that have silly cartoons as well as actual facts. So these are perfect!
History For Home Educators
Along with the science podcasts mentioned above, the kids also enjoy a great history podcast. History Storytime – for Kids is fantastic as it’s two young girls and their dad narrating the stories together. Every Monday there is a different 10 minute podcast. This month has included the history of the toilet, Prince Philip in WW2 and the United States and WW1.
The ‘You wouldn’t want to live without..’ book series also has a ‘You wouldn’t want to be a…’ history series. Titles include a Viking Explorer and Sail on the Titanic. Great for learning more about history in a fun way!
The eldest also requested some more Titanic books from the library this month. Then spent ages sitting outside in the garden reading them. So I imagine he now knows a lot more about the Titanic than I do!
Visiting History
We live in Stirlingshire and fortunately we could still travel around our area in the Trossachs during the lockdown this month. For one of our walks we chose to take a walk around a section of Stronachlachar where we could see how the water was taken from Loch Arklet to Loch Katrine. It was also fun to visit the Royal Cottage and pier that was built for Queen Victoria in 1859, when she was visited for the opening of the aqueduct. She never stayed in the cottage as the gun salute was so deafening it broke the cottages windows.
On another walk through the forest from Kinlochard we followed the trail of aqueducts, some above ground as bridges! They go all the way to Glasgow to provide fresh water to Glaswegians. Quite interesting to see them, especially as there seems to be ongoing work to maintain the pipe system and large pipe lying beside the path to investigate.
The 7 year old was very interested in the stone age after reading some stone age books. So whilst visiting my parents he chose to set up a stone age workshop. He happily worked away breaking rocks to produce different tools and selling these to us! His grandpa then made a ‘spearhead’ flake into a spear for him, which I’m not was a great idea. He can be quite scary with sharp items!
English Learning
We take an autonomous approach with their learning, that includes reading and writing. I believe that kids will learn what they need to when they are ready and able. The eldest is now often seen reading both in the house and out. He taught himself to read at 8 years old and I can see his reading confidence grow the more books he reads. He currently enjoys reading graphic novels and non-fiction books about different aspects of history. Of course it’s not just books, that helps grow reading confidence, he also has access to various kids magazines, plus all the writing in the world around us!
The youngest is still not quite ready to read yet, but he is learning in his own way. I’m sure he’ll get there when he’s ready.
Both children practice their writing occasionally, although the youngest still gets frustrated with his pen control. I thought it might be nice to get him a nature journal to practice his drawing more, then he might find it easier to write. The nature journals live in their rucksacks and often come out either in the car or when we stop for lunch on walks. The 7 year old has mainly drawn family and nature items, whilst the 9 year old prefers to draw history images such as WW2 and Titanic! He also likes to annotate his history images.
At the end of the month they both took part in their first Outschool class with a friend who moved down to Cornwall. It was about making Treasure Maps, which they loved! I helped the 7 year old annotate his map, but the 9 year old wrote his himself. Some of the spelling isn’t perfect, but as he was spelling things like ‘deception’ it’s fairly understandable! We now have a lot of treasure maps in the house!!
Maths – Home Education Scotland
The eldest has requested to start reading the Life of Fred books again, we read the first two months ago. So we are now reading Cats, which is just as weird as the others. But it does explain different math principles throughout the books with questions at the end. As it’s American I explain the difference between our money and USA, but also miss out parts that are religious. We’re not religious at all, but the Christian religion and god are only mentioned a couple of times for each book. So it’s easily skipped at the moment! I just want to note that the kids do learn about different religions and beliefs around the world. I just don’t like those that preach things in maths books.
Geography
Whilst we haven’t specifically looked at anything to do with geography, it has of course been part of their everyday lives. The geography of how everything is connected, populations and the economy are all parts of human geography. Whilst visiting the Forth rail bridge (to a visit a nearby beach) the children could see a little bit of history as well as how the two sides of the Forth estuary were connected by humans.
Our walks during the month included a visit to Stronachlachar where we learnt about the Victorian aqueduct that is still in use today. Although I mentioned it in the history section, it’s also relevant to human geography as well as the physical geography of the landscapes that the aqueduct was built. We’ve also touched up on glaciation, how they are formed and moved, plus the many erratics we find throughout the countryside. Although I think it would be easier to understand this by actually visiting a glacier!
The eldest spent some time, whilst beside Loch Venachar, making a medieval village out of sand. He decided to include castle, ramparts, enclosed village and an outpost in the water. This is more historical I guess, but shows he is thinking about the geography of the land and where humans would have placed buildings in relation to the land and each other.
We’ve also looked at how everywhere is connected during our walks. We can often see landmarks when we are higher up in the hills. Plus we have walked some areas in loops or even from one valley to another. So the children can see that just because it is a long way from point A to B in car, doesn’t it mean it’s far when you can walk over the hills!
Unstructured Play – Home Education Scotland
The vast majority of the kids lives is playing and the biggest proportion of play is unstructured. They love to be able to freely play whatever they and their friends like, which is a great way to be. When we’re at home they play with friends locally and when we are out they are often playing with either home ed friends or each other.
They both like making up games to play with their toys and often like filming their games in a fun kiddy documentary style!
However we’ve been lucky enough to spend a lot of time at the end of the month on beaches whilst visiting granparents. They also met their other grandparents in their garden, where they could properly play racing around the garden and climbing trees.
Whilst out on our walks they spend a lot of time jumping over and climbing things. It’s just the done thing for kids isn’t it? Just making up games and trying to outdo themselves!
As we can travel further we’ve also headed up to different areas we haven’t visited in a while. Including Tentsmuir beach to play on the beach and walk through the forest. There was also an unexpectedly good adventure play park for them too.
Exercise
As we weren’t allowed to meet up in our usual home ed groups we chose to spend a lot of time exploring Stirlingshire. Walks varied between 5-9 miles long and the kids enjoyed them, despite the eldest normally complaining about going on a walk to begin with! But unfortunately for the 9 year old he was often outvoted on going for a walk! The difficulties of having multiple children. I always made sure he had time at home later for whatever he wanted to do too.
We were also able to meet my parents again after a long 4 months. We met halfway at Inverary before we were able to camp in their garden. It was a lovely 7 miles walk around the forest beside Inverary and this beautiful spot beside a humpback bridge. It would be a great swimming spot if it was warmer!
At the beginning of the month we also had an elaborate Easter egg hunt that I set up for the kids. I had eggs hanging from trees, balancing in containers over a stream and hidden in bracken. They had great fun trying to get the eggs back!
Music and Art
Art has mostly involved the children drawing in their nature (or history!) journals and map making. However we have also taken part in a photography challenge this month. Each few days there is a different theme. From black and white to portrait or animal, the kids can usually find something for them. We’ve actually missed the last few days as the kids have been busy, but hopefully we’ll catch up with them soon.
Clubs and Groups
The eldest has had cubs for the last month via Zoom, but at the end of April they started meeting face-to-face for night walks and bike rides.
Littlest has had gymnastics outdoors all month, there’s only 3 in his class. However they’ve had to battle winds blowing the mats away and heavy rain whilst practising!
Next month everything should be starting up again for the kids, which will be good for them. Although it does mean I have to remember more things!
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