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Home Education Diaries
February was yet another month of lockdown here in Scotland and we’ve been told lockdown is to continue until 26th April at the earliest. Needless to say this has affected the kids home education, simply from lack of home ed groups and extra-curricular activities. Although they are lucky enough to be able to see local friends, it’s not the same at all.
They have of course been learning this month as always, everything is a learning experience! From learning about friendships to learning more about history, children learn so much through everyday play. Although we don’t label ourselves as unschoolers, this is pretty much how our children’s education has developed.
Science
We usually do a lot of science based activities, including meeting with our science group each week. But this has obviously stopped for the moment and any science we do is on our own. Lego of course still features highly in the kids science education, building with Lego is great for engineering skills. The eldest also has a Lego Creationary game which is basically Pictionary, but using Lego to build things instead of drawing. It was fun and great for spatial awareness to build different models.
With Let’s Go Live on YouTube several mornings a week the kids have been learning more about Egyptians, food, Climate Change and coding. It’s a great show for kids as it’s packed full of fun facts, great science and fun makes too. Plus Maddie and Greg clearly have great fun making it and so it’s full of giggles! It’s currently on every Tuesday and Thursday during lockdown, although this will probably end when lockdown does.
The kids have also been doing the John Muir Discovery Award, which has involved lots of different challenges. Including some fun science activities. One of the weeks they learnt about soil layers and chose to make edible soil profiles (this is not the first time for making these, they love anything to do with food!).
As part of their John Muir Award challenges they need to learn about their own wild space. They chose theirs to be a favourite spot in a local woodland. It’s been great to watch them discover their wild place and find out more about the wild plants and animals that live there. A favourite animal had to be the little Robin that likes to watch what they’re up to! The children made it a nest box to hang in the woodlands and also made these 3D lifecycles showing the eggs, chicks, fledgling and adult Robin.
Other challenges including making a rain gauge to measure precipitation, although they need to weigh it for when there’s high winds! It’s a simple thing to make, but interesting to watch it fill up!
Bob the John Muir Award squirrel had fun flying on the kids homemade paper aeroplane catapult. It worked really well and the kids were pleased with their new toy!
They also created a couple of written pieces. Although not keen on writing the kids were more interested when they realised we could type things up and use different colours and fonts etc on the computer. I think they realised it would be much easier and more fun doing it that way! They wrote a short piece about Adders, including how their young is born and where they can be found.
Learning about birds from the Garden Bird Watch last month was extended with the RSPB game Wing It. You need to race around the UK and Ireland to find different birds, in the process learning more about different British bird species. The kids seem to have enjoyed this game a lot during February.
Another fun game with some science background is Evolution. You can use different cards to help your animals evolve to be better carnivores and find out which traits can help them survive.
Not pictured are the many books I’ve read to the children about science topics. They both particularly enjoy anything about the atoms, molecules and the periodic table at the moment. I’ve also got my eye on a fun periodic table game that I think my 9 year old will especially enjoy!
Podcasts Wow In The World and Tumble have been listened to periodically, whenever there is a new episode out. Although as we are driving less we don’t listen to them on repeat as often.
History
History has included reading a fair amount of books to the children too, World War 1 and 2 have been top of the eldest’s agenda. He is particularly interested in the aircraft and bought some of those foam war planes (that you used to get from the corner shop for 20p) with his own money. We have also been listening to the podcast History Storytime for Kids. Learning about the rescue of the Danish Jews, Gandhi, the history of Burma, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and repeats of the Battle of the Bulge (a favourite at the moment). The girls who create the podcasts enthusiasm is brilliant and definitely makes it great for other kids to listen to.
The Horrible History board game that our 9 year old got for Christmas has been a good history tool. Even us adults have learnt new things! It’s great to get an idea of a historical timeline and also have some different facts about famous people they have heard of through podcasts and books.
Let’s Go Live had an Egyptian week, which was fun for the kids to watch. Although they did know most of what was discussed on the programme already, I think it’s good to repeat these things to remember them. They were also quite pleased that they already had good knowledge of the Egyptians and could answer any questions on the show easily!
At the end of February we went for a walk to find some ancient rock carvings in the hills nearby. The walk over bog to get there wasn’t easy, neither was finding the rocks! But it was amazing to see the carved cups and ring marks when we did find them! Amazing to know that they are over 4000-6000 years old!
English
We have read a lot of books together as usual, the kids love to listen to different stories or non-fiction books being read. They have also been enjoying using Reading Eggs, although littlest is now at the point where it’s a little too difficult for his abilities. I think he may well want a break from it for a while as he builds up his abilities.
Eldest has also been reading books on his own and often stopping when we’re on walks to check what signs say. He’s still very happy that he learnt to read himself and makes the most of it!
The 7 year old has enjoyed playing one of the Orchard Toys games we have that requires spelling. It includes looking through a little red ‘magnifying glass’ to see the letters.
The children also wrote some pieces on the computer for the John Muir Award and an acrostic poem by hand. Littlest’s poem was about Robin’s and the eldest chose bat (possibly because it was the shortest word he could choose!).
Maths
We discuss different maths ideas and help the children answer maths questions that arise through play or games. Littlest particularly loves Orchard Toys timetables Heroes, which you can only move after correctly getting the time table sum correct. I think it’s mainly because each of the characters have their own fun superhero powers you can use to stop baddies!
Other board games have included Labyrinth and Ticket To Ride. Ticket To Ride Europe is a favourite of my eldest as it involves trains, but there’s also maths involved in this. We played plenty of other games too, most of which include some maths or logic.
It’s also been a busy month for baking! The eldest has been enjoying baking oat and banana breakfast muffins and they both had fun making other bakes, including cakes and biscuits. Weighing is an important maths skill which they are getting good at, although they might need to be slower with full boxes of flour!!
The eldest decided that they needed a party for one of his little soft toys. So they also made lots of party food for the birthday party. Including baking chocolate cakes, cookies and chopping up fruit and veg.
Geography
We often talk about different geography terms, whilst out on our walks. I need to find a good documentary or book to show the kids glaciation as we see glaciated valleys a lot on our travels. We also have this great RSPB game the kids love, which gives them a bit more help on where the main cities of the UK are on the map. There are also several different nature reserves around the UK which are named too.
On our walks we’ve discussed all the features we can see, pointing out local features so they can work out their place in the landscape. It certainly helps when there are hill to climb and wide open landscapes below!
Unstructured Play
Unstructured play in February has included a lot of snow play. We were lucky enough to have several weeks of more and more snow, so the kids were out for several hours a day playing in the snow, sledging and snow scooting down hills and generally having fun in the beautifully white snow.
There was plenty of building with the snow and races down steep hills with friends. Although it gets a bit annoying having to dry out the snowsuits each day, it’s still a great activity for lockdown!
Exercise
Clearly exercise has included walking about in the snow, particularly up hills to scoot down again! They were definitely exhausted being out several times a day in it!
We also went for walks once the snow had melted. Including some beautiful upland areas. I definitely like a bit of adventure. Even though they weren’t long walks it was still nice to get out and feel like we were away from the current restrictions.
Cycling has been popular too, both out with friends locally and further afield with me. The kids definitely enjoy being out, but I must remember to bring extra snacks!
Music and Art
Art has mainly been crafting, the children made some fun items using Baker Ross products. The littlest also made jewellery for friends and family that he sent off or posted through doors locally.
As part of their John Muir Award the children also made some land art using sticks. Both made a raven out of sticks on the ground. Not too obvious to passersby, but the kids were happy!
Another activity was making a Hapa Zome banner. This is basically bashing flowers and leaves until the dye leaks out into the fabric, dyeing it. They spent time sewing up the top with the sewing machine to make a pocket for the stick to hang it.
But their favourite craft this month was making green men on the trees in their wild space. We used air drying clay and surprisingly the faces have lasted over 2 weeks already! I thought the rain or a person would have destroyed them, but they are still happily stuck to the trees. both children want to make more of these faces!
Clubs and Groups
All the clubs and groups the kids normally attend are currently stopped. The exception being the 9 year olds Cubs group that is meeting online, which he’s loving! And also the youngest is taking part in his theatre groups production of Annie Jr, all shot at home and locally by parents and sent in to be edited into a video.
All Of Our Monthly Diaries For 2021
- January 2021
- February 2021
- March 2021
- April 2021
- May 2021
- June 2021
- July 2021
- August 2021
- September 2021
- October 2021
- November 2021
- December 2021
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