Home Education Diary March 2025

I’m afraid I’ve been so busy in April that I have only just got round to writing this post! Hopefully I’ve remembered most of what we did last 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

As always history begins with podcasts. This month it’s mostly been Who, When, Wow for history. The children have also read plenty of fiction books about historical subjects, from Titanic to Greek mythology. Although they are fiction, they still include plenty of factual information too.

Whilst visiting Durham for a press trip, the children and I visited various interesting historical sites. Starting off with Durham Cathedral, we learnt about when it was built and by who. Climbed the steps to the top of the tallest tower. Then explored the cloisters and learnt how the monks used the sun to tell the time with a hole in the wall!

Next was Locomotion, the largest collection of historic rail vehicles in Europe. There were so many different vehicles it took a couple of hours to explore! But we also learnt more about rail snow ploughs, trains that once carried elephants, saw the famous Rocket and Queen Alexandra’s train carriage.

Beamish is well known in the North East of the UK. Although I had never visited (well, apparently I have, but I was a young child and have no memory of it!) and really wanted to take the kids. Beamish is a huge open-air museum, featuring areas from the early 1900’s, the 1800’s and even some more modern 1950’s town. We learnt lots of cool things, particularly in the 1900’s town.

The final Historic place we visited in Durham was Raby Castle. It’s one of the most intact medieval castles in England. It was still lived in until recently and often used by the family for special family occasions. We learnt lots of interesting facts from the guide as we explored the castle.

Whilst in Edinburgh for a day trip we visited the Sir Walter Scott Monument. It’s an iconic landmark on the Edinburgh skyline and although I’ve walked past it thousands of times, I had never ventured up! So the kids and I went up the monument, learnt more about the writer himself and the people who wanted to build a lasting monument to him.

Also in Edinburgh, we visited the Museum of Childhood. There are 5 floors packed with old toys and memorabilia, great to see what childhood was like throughout the times! And also free to visit!

Geography – Home Education Diary

Geography has mostly been restricted to discussing maps this month. Although we did discuss a little UK geography when heading down to Durham for a couple of days.

Science

As usual, our science topics revolve around podcasts. Mostly Wow In The World, Tumble and Mysteries of Science. All cover recent scientific topics or questions from other children. They can be quite in-depth but in a child friendly way.

We also really enjoyed reading the Oyla magazine and made some giant bubbles using their recipe. The science of bubbles is included in the magazine and it’s a really fun and interesting science topic!

Whilst we were in Edinburgh we also visited the National Museum of Scotland. There are so many parts to explore! But we focussed on the technology section, music and animals. This is a great place for science and history loving kids!

Maths

The children have been completing 10-20 minutes of Beast Academy 2-3 times a week. It’s not their favourite learning app, but it has definitely improved their math skills. Something that they don’t tend to work on as much without a bit of a push!

Other math activities have included board game playing and measuring ingredients for baking.

Language – Home Education Diary

Both children have been reading a variety of books. The youngest is still not 100% fluent as a reader. But he is definitely getting there, just needing help with unusual or extra long words. The eldest as usual is reading every book he can get hold of! Whereas the youngest is put off with too long books and prefers to read graphic novels and listen to audio books of longer books, such as the Hobbit.

We’ve also been practicing writing, particularly joined-up writing. Neither child likes to write often, so again this is something I’ve pushed them to practice as it appears they wouldn’t try otherwise!

Both kids are enjoying Duolingo. The eldest is learning Spanish and the youngest German. They seem to be picking up a fair bit using it. But I think we’ll need to head to the respective countries to see how much they understand!

Clubs and Groups

All the kids clubs and groups have continued this month. These include Scouts, Lego club, board games club, gymnastics, dancing, drama group, dodgeball, climbing and show rehearsals. Most of this is the youngest, the 13 year old prefers to do less.

The 11 year old also had a Scout sleepover at a local aquarium, sleeping in the shark tunnel! So that was a great adventure!

Socialisation – Home Education Diary

The children spend a lot of time playing with other home educated children during the week. The youngest also spends a lot of time with schooled friends at weekends too. They have plenty of time to socialise at clubs and groups too.

Art and Music

Not much art creation here this month. However we did visit the Royal Academy of Art in Edinburgh and looked at some of the students artworks. We had mixed feelings on the different types of art and whether we thought they were good or not.

The youngest also spends a lot of time practising musical theatre songs and singing in general!

Physical Education

Both children like to run around and play outside a lot. So they certianly get plenty of exercise! This can be at home, meeting up with other home educators at local parks and even visiting the Ninja Warrior Experience in Edinburgh this month.

The children and I also go out for walks regularly. This month we visited Brig of Turk and walked to Loch Venachar, and a shorter walk to Kilmadock graveyard.

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