Home Education Diaries August 2022

Scottish schools went back this month, so we had a lovely ’Not Back To School’ picnic with home ed friends to celebrate. It was great to see so many new and old home educators together for a meet again!

Table of Contents

History

The kids have particularly enjoyed learning about history as always! We’ve visited a few castles, including Stirling Castle this month. Reminding themselves of the history that we have previously learned on our visits.

We have listened to plenty of history podcasts, from Greeking Out by National Geographic Kids to Who When Wow and History Storytime. We’ve also read various books with history themes and factual books too.

We also went to the Riverside Museum in Glasgow for the first time since the pandemic. It hasn’t changed at all in the main museum and the kids had fun exploring all their favourite exhibits again. The Tall Ship Glenlee doesn’t have any of the interactive parts at the moment, which is sad. They always loved using the conveyor belt with ’coffee’ and ’flour’ sacks, but hopefully these are reinstated again soon.

Children outside Riverside museum Glasgow

Geography – Home Education Diary

As usual we have discussed different places around the world and used globes and maps that are around the house. The eldest and I visited the Falkirk wheel when his brother was busy in rehearsals for show in a week. It’s always fun to watch the Falkirk wheel in action, lifting canal boats and even kayaks from the low pool up the hill, replacing several locks.

There is also a stylised map of Scotland and it’s islands, with all Scotland’s canals represented and even a water wheel representing the Falkirk Wheel. We did our best to identify all the canals and islands, although some are too stylised to be 100% sure of which island they represent.

Learning about Scottish geography at the Falkirk wheel

Science

Science this month has included podcasts as usual, with Wow In The World and the Mysteries of Science being current favourites. We often listen to the podcasts when we’re driving to meet friends or going to a group.

The eldest has particularly enjoyed baking alone and has been choosing various recipes over the month. All have been desserts, although I’m hopeful that he might try making some other savoury recipes too!

We went through all our board games to see if there were any to get rid of, which meant the kids remembered some we hadn’t played in a while. So we spent quite a while playing Organ Attack (great for learning human biology and diseases), plus the eldest decided to do a solar system jigsaw that has been hiding for a while.

Minecraft education classes have been a favourite of the kids. Learning coding online is definitely useful for the future.

We also had a great afternoon tea in Edinburgh which involved making different tea concoctions that the kids loved. Not serious science, but still science!

Finally we have seen various wildlife, including some dragonflies on our walks. Always fun to watch, although it was trying to land on my head!

English – Home Education Diary

The eldest spends a large amount of time reading different books. He was reading the 6th Harry Potter book recently, but seems to have stopped for a little while at the moment. Instead he’s been reading Wings Of Fire novel series to his brother. It’s great to hear how easy he finds reading out loud, considering he’s never had to do it!

The youngest hasn’t chosen to use Reading Eggs this month, but has been ’reading’ some other books and looking at the pictures. I’m never entirely sure if he can actually read some of the words or not! However, I know he will get there in his own time.

Maths

The children have begun a Minecraft Education Coding class online through Plassroom. They are enjoying it so far, learning how to use the different types of coding to make a little robot clear up litter to save turtles, build ladders and other things too. Being able to code is certainly something that becomes more important with the development of technology!

The children have continued to do Prodigy maths and board games. Prodigy is basically a wizard themed computer game that you need to answer maths questions to proceed with spells. Board games have included El Dorado, Trekking the World and Forbidden Desert.

Clubs and Groups – Home Education Diary

At the beginning of the month our 8 year old took part in a local theatre group ’Show In A Week’ of Shrek the musical. He absolutely loved his time singing and dancing in the show. Plus he got his name in the official theatre programme as ’Little Shrek’, which he had to act at the beginning of the first scene.

Other clubs and groups all went back this month too as Scottish schools went back mid-August. So the children are back at dodgeball, the youngest went back to Cubs (still no places available at Scouts yet for the eldest), gymnastics, dancing, Stagecoach and drama, plus his weekly swimming lesson. They both chose to try out chess club this month too, which they are enjoying. The eldest is already fairly good at chess, but it’s nice for him to play other kids rather than just his dad or I!

Both children have also been continuing with their home education NICAS group too. They are now well on their way to finishing level 2!

1000 Hours Outside

We have spent a lot of time outside. Even when at home the kids have been playing in the garden or outside with friends. We’ve also been on various walks and visited different summer attractions such as mini golf, sunflower fields, inflatable obstacle courses and playing on the local football field.

The children are now at around 650 hours outside. I do think we have missed adding some hours when we’ve been busy, but still it’s a good number!