Home Education Support and Diaries - June 2024

It is well into July now and I’ve been very busy, so I haven’t had a chance to write this until now! June was the last month of the Scottish school term, so there were lots of end of term activities at the kids club. Including 2 different shows and a gymnastics competition for the youngest. It’s definitely been a busy month!

This monthly blog post is partly for me to keep track of what we do, but also to provide support and inspiration for other home educators. So you can see that home education does not need to look like school.

Table of Contents

History – Home Education Support

Scottish history has been a large part of this months learning. Mainly because we have started collecting the Historic Scotland History Hunt cards. There are 7 cards available to collect from different types of properties, including castles, standing stones, towers and industry. The cards are only available to members of Historic Scotland, which we have been for many years!

Doune Castle

Doune castle was our first castle of the month and we were quite excited as the grassy courtyard area was open and we could even enter the kitchens via the courtyard steps. Normally it’s cordoned off to allow the grass to regrow after filming Outlander or similar television programmes and films. It was once the home to the uncrowned king, Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany. He amassed large areas of land in Scotland and may even have had a hand in murdering his nephew. Although he was never crowned king, he was the sole Governor of Scotland for 18 years whilst James I was held captive in England. The children enjoy listening to the history using the headphones.

We also bought the Historic Scotland Top Trumps, which have been well used this month. The kids are getting quite good at knowing the dates of the first part of each property, Skara Brae being the best in that respect! It’s amazing what they can learn from Top Trumps!

Inchmahome Priory

Our next historic property was my birthday day out, to Inchmahome Priory. Somewhere we hadn’t been to since pre-covid when it was then shut for 4 years! 2024 is the first year it has been opened since 2019, and I was very excited to be back! The priory is on a small island in Scotland’s only Lake (Lake of Mentieth) and has a history of use by monks. However, it also had a brief visit by a young Mary Queen of Scots during the Rough Wooing, prior to her escaping to France.

Huntingtower Castle

The 3rd castle was Huntingtower Castle. The kids chose to complete the quiz at this property too. They don’t often do them any more, so it’s nice to see them take interest. The member of staff at the property was also very knowledgable and really good at telling us more about Huntingtower, including some things we didn’t already know, despite visiting many times previously.

The final historic property of the month was Linlithgow Palace at their spectacular jousting event. The palace was a bit too busy, so we didn’t see too much of the building, we’ve visited many times in the past, so we already know a fair bit about its history. The main event for us the jousting event, which is always amazing to watch and feels like a step back in time. The re-enactors were very interesting too, the kids learnt about different weaponry and I enjoyed a little weaving using a trollen wheel.

Of course we have been learning more history than just our own country. The kids still love listening to their Greek history podcasts, Greeking Out and Live From Olympus. So there has certainly been a lot of Greek mythology as usual. This has also been added to by the eldest’s enjoyment of the Percy Jackson book series, anything Greek mythology related is a hit!

Science – Home Education Support

Of course the kids still love their science podcasts, from Wow In The World to Tumble and Mysteries of Science. However, we do learn science in other ways too! Not many scientific books have been read, but we have visited a few places that help with learning certain science topics.

The gemstone museum near Fort William was a highlight for my rock loving 10 year old. So many beautiful stones to see and learn about. A lot of them volcanic of course, so we discussed a little about rock formation and also fossil formation.

The huge tree on Inchmahome island in Lake of Mentieth is ancient. Probably planted in the 1600’s and now has a large cavity that you can fit inside! Always a highlight to see and discussion around how the cavity formed, yet the tree is still alive is always interesting.

On the same day the kids were playing with swan feathers in the water at the edge of the island. Looking at the water droplets roll off the feather. I asked them to find a down feather and see what the difference was when they put it in the water. Of course the resulted in discussion of how birds waterproof their outer feathers and why they don’t do this to the down feathers. Both types have benefits for the birds. These type of conversations happen a lot, just experimenting or curiosity in daily life and then interesting conversations occur.

Fire Station

Another fun activity in June was a visit to the local fire station. The kids had great fun sitting in the fire engine and trying out the hose. But they also learnt about different equipment used in fire fighting, how fires spread through houses and what to do if there is a fire in their own house. Science is always part of life and this is evident in what makes fires, common ways fires are started in homes and simple things such as heat and smoke rising, so you should crawl low down if there is smoke on the way to your exit.

Geography

We didn’t head abroad this month, however there was still plenty of chat about our trip to Costa Rica last month. Repetitive conversations are great for consolidating memories and facts. They often check where it is on maps too.

This months travels took us on a short camping trip to the Western coast between Arisaig and Mallaig. Beautiful Camusdarach campsite is the perfect spot to camp beside the beach! We also took a trip over to the Isle of Muck for the day, stopping at Eigg to drop off/pick up passengers. So the kids could clearly get a picture of this small group of islands, me pointing out Eigg, Muck, Rum and Canna from both the islands and mainland. I plan to get a good Scottish map so they can see the locations of all the Scottish islands clearly.

Maths

Both children have been using Beast Academy throughout the month. This has just helped consolidate learning, as I started them on a fairly basic level to work their way up into more difficult questions. They certainly don’t seem to enjoy it as much as Prodigy maths, only doing 10 minutes or so at a time.

We’ve also discussed maths concepts whilst using board games and everyday things such as making meals or telling the time.

English – Home Education Support

The eldest is a voracious reader and always has at least 1 book on the go. He’s worked his way through the first Percy Jackson series and is now reading the Apollo series. The youngest is reading the 13 storey treehouse to me and is getting much better at reading himself. Although he does prefer to read out loud to me as he says it more fun when he can enjoy it with somebody else. He’s still not at automatic reader stage, he has to work at spelling most words out still, but can usually work out what it says. He’s just a little slower at reading as it takes time to decipher the words.

Not much writing going on, which is normal here. Neither child enjoys writing, but they do a little here and there, such as writing the answers to quizzes at Historic Scotland properties.

Clubs and Groups

The youngest has had 2 dance shows, a choir concert and gymnastics competition all in the one month. The dance shows went well, although he could certainly practice more next time, but we were away in Costa Rica the few weeks beforehand!

He was awarded 3rd place at his recreational gymnastics competition, which he was very happy with! He’d worked hard to improve his floor routine, he’s much better on the vault. With him managing a one handed cartwheel without stumbling, which is something he’s been working on.

He also had his last Cubs meet, where he was excited to be ‘floured’ as a goodbye. He’ll start scouts after the summer. The eldest also finished Scouts for the summer, he’s not so sure about having his little brother at the same scouts!

Other weekly groups the kids have been doing include lead climbing, gymnastics, drama, choir, dodgeball and Lego club.

The Arts

Neither child has been doing anything directly crafty or related to drawing/painting. However, the arts includes music, they have used their keyboard, drama, the youngest takes part in drama classes weekly and went to see his friends in Aristocats Junior.

Also, visiting historic properties gives us a chance to admire art in older forms. Including painted ceilings at Huntingtower castle and carved stonework at Inchmahome Priory.

Socialisation – Home Education Support

Every week we meet with friends, these are sometimes at regular weekly home ed meets and other times ad-hoc meet ups with close friends. Plus there is the usual meeting friends locally after school and at weekends, chatting with family and even people in shops etc.

Socialisation can’t really be avoided unless you keep your kids indoors all day, which clearly we don’t!

Physical Education

The kids are rarely still, both are constantly moving around and often running about the garden and street when we’re at home. We also explore other areas, from forests, where climbing trees is a priority, to long walks in this hills, visiting beaches, swimming and body boarding in the sea and climbing over rocks. The kids are pretty adept at climbing over things and don’t seem to find longer walks to difficult either. We took a ‘short’ walk with my parents that ended up being 10km long!

This month was also the Lidl Mudder challenge, so they had fun getting muddy, and trying out all the obstacles. Both kids found the obstacles fairly easy, many children struggled with running up the curved slope to the top. However both of ours practically leapt over to the other side at the top!