Home Education Diary February 2025

It’s another month, even if it does feel a bit shorter than January! And that’s another month of home education. With the kids now 13 and 11 years old, we’ve been doing this officially for 8 years, although as neither have been to school it was never a huge step going from child led toddler/preschool age to home education. But we’ve learnt a lot, including me, going with the flow and the little changes to home ed over time. And this is what the kids have being doing this month!

Read More About Our Home Educating Family

• Our Home Education Philosophy
• Best Books For Home Educators and Home Schoolers
• How Do You Teach Kids Without Formal Lessons
• The Cost of Homeschooling in the UK
• Educational Activities For Kids
• A Letter To The New Home Educators
• How To Teach Your Child To Read At Home

History

We didn’t get a chance to visit any museums or castles this month. All our free days were taken up by mundane things such as dentist appointments! So not a huge amount of hands-on learning about history for February.

The kids did, however, watch plenty of Horrible History episodes on television. Which may well be funny and silly, but they are also very educational and great for learning about famous characters and times in history. We’ve also listened to podcasts about historical events and the youngest is currently reading a fictional book about time travellers and the Titanic. The book may be fictional, but a lot of the Titanic information is historical fact.

Geography

Although we haven’t travelled anywhere exciting, we still have looked at maps together and have used the globe to spot different place too. There are various maps around the house, so we’re never to far away from that type of geography!

Science

Science has mostly been listening to podcasts about different topics. Including Wow In The World and Tumble. The children have also spent a significant amount of time playing with Lego, which is a great STEM tool for engineering. The eldest is particularly good at creating his own builds from all the Lego pieces he’s accumulated over the years.

Maths – Home Education 2025

Both children are currently working on different stages of the Beast Academy maths program. It’s a paid online program an seems to be fairly good fro maths learning. However, there are a few stages which don’t seem entirely useful or correct. This is not something the kids really choose to do, but as they tend to avoid most maths things in real life I thought 10 minutes of this every couple of days would be worthwhile. They are certainly improving and getting better at quick maths in their heads.

Other than this the kids have been playing board games that include maths and logic, such as Monopoly, Rummikub, chess and The Game of Life.

Language

The eldest has always particularly enjoyed reading. He’s usually in the middle of 2-3 books at any one time. The youngest has taken a bit longer to read fluently, although he happily reads graphic books now. He still tends to mix up or guess words when he’s reading, but is definitely much more capable than a year ago. Reading practice is everywhere, whether he’s learning lines for drama or choosing a new wand at the Lonely Broomstick!

Both children have been working on Duolingo, the eldest on Spanish and the youngest is learning German. I know a little of each language, but it’s the feminine and masculine terminology that seems to confuse them most, particualrly in the German language. It’s definitely hard to get your head around items being feminine or masculine when in English everything is neutral.

Clubs and Groups – Home education Diary 2025

Both children have had their usual groups this month. Aside a 1 week break for the February holidays. Groups include home ed meet-ups, a Lego club and home ed gymnastics during the day. Plus plenty of ‘after-school’ activities with schooled children too, these include: Scouts, choir, drama, gymnastics, dancing and climbing. The youngest is also rehearsing for a local theatre show.

Socialisation

Both children spend plenty of time socialising with other home educated children of all ages. These groups are both at outdoors and indoor groups. Every day they see other people, whether they are home educated children, people at shops or on walks, or other children at after school groups.

Art and Music

The youngest spends a lot of time to listening to music and singing. The eldest is more likely to play the keyboard.

Neither have been very interested in arts this month, although we did attempt to make some outdoor art inspired by Andy Goldsworthy in a pond. I do need to try and get some craft kits to try and encourage a little more crafting at least!

Physical Education – Home education Diary 2025

As the children are often outside, exercise is never a worry here! Every day is spent doing something, whether it’s walking, running with friends, climbing trees, cycling or climbing rocks. They also do various active groups, including dodgeball, gymnastics, indoor climbing and dancing.