Home Education UK Diaries January 2025

The first month of the year is over and it’s been a bit of a crazy one! January is my youngest’s birthday, plus storm Éowyn caused a fair bit of damage here. The first time I’d heard of schools and shops all being shut for strong winds! Hopefully February brings more blue skies and less stormy weather, although snow would be nice.

Here’s a what the kids have learnt this month!

Table of Contents

History

The kids love history and as always we listen to various podcasts that discuss history topics. These often include Greek mythology and historical mysteries. They both still enjoy watching Horrible Histories too, so that’s always useful for their history learning as well.

We also visited Edinburgh Castle on a VERY cold day in January (using our Historic Scotland membership). We had visited last month for the Castle of Light, but hadn’t been to explore the indoor exhibitions for a while. It was interesting to find out more about the military use of the castle, learn the history of the 1 O’clock gun and watch it being fired. Plus we saw the Honours of Scotland (our Crown Jewels!) and a few parts of the castle that we don’t normally see, such as the dog graveyard!

Another day at the end of the month we visited Perth Museum (it’s free!). It’s been open for around a year now, after a multi million pound refurbishment. I have to say that it’s an amazing museum with lots to see and plenty of interactive areas. The stone of Destiny is the big showpiece and it’s great to see it returned to Perth again. We also loved looking at the ancient artefacts, a giant canoe made from one tree trunk and various other historical artefacts.

Geography

Although we haven’t been away anywhere, we have plenty of maps and globes around the house that the kids are exposed to. They have a fairly good knowledge of world geography, particularly the teenager.

We did have some interesting chats about weather, due to storm Éowyn. It was rather devastating up here in Scotland. Although it was only our fence that fell down, much of the country had no power! The photo of the building above is not my own, posted on a facebook group, but it was a discussion point with the children.

Science

Perth museum had some nice exhibits that discuss science topics. Such as the different Scottish animals upstairs, a microscope that you can check out different parts of insects and plants and discussion on DNA analysis of bones.

The children also have had fun building Lego designs of their own and also with friends at Lego club. This is a Gollum Lego piece trapped in a cage at Lego club.

Science also includes Podcasts such as Tumble and Wow In The World. They have some great science episodes for the children.

Maths

Both children have been working through the Beast Academy maths program. They aren’t hugely keen on doing maths, but understand they should know the basics to build on in the future!

We have also been playing various board games, including Rummikub, chess and Ticket To Ride. All great for learning logic and maths problems. Although I don’t understand how they know which piece is which when they swap out the chess pieces for minifigures!

Language

The eldest is always reading and I still sit down with the youngest to listen to him read occasionally. The youngest is much better at reading now and only has to spell out a few words. Even with spelling out he understands the majority of it, unless the font makes it harder to read. I’m still believe the youngest may be dyslexic, he has a lot of indicators, but as it’s so costly to get a diagnosis privately (only option for home educators) and then there’s no help once you have a diagnosis, it seemed pointless to go down that route. Instead we’ve slowly and gently helped him improve and he’s getting there in his own time.

Writing anything by hand is always an issue here. The kids have no interest in it really, so we’ve been practising a little a day this month to help improve their writing. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but it certainly needs to be legible!

Clubs and Groups

The kids usual clubs and groups were running this month. Although a few were off due to staff illness and the storm/damage.

The children do an assortment of clubs with the eldest going to Scouts and Dodgeball. The youngest choosing to do Scouts, choir, drama, gymnastics, dancing, lead climbing and another drama group. They also both have an online session each week coding via Minecraft Education.

Socialisation

On top of the groups listed above, the kids also have various home ed meets they attend. Alternating Lego and board games club and 2 park meets each week. So they socialise with other children and adults all the time. I especially love it when the entire group of home ed children from 4 to 13 make up games and play altogether. This is much more like real life, isn’t it? We don’t only hang about with people the exact same age as us!

Art and Music

There hasn’t been too much art being created this month. However the youngest is always playing songs and singing, mostly musicals. He also went away with his dance group one evening to watch Mary Poppins the musical in Edinburgh, which was very exciting. Especially as they had a dance workshop with one of the cast members first too!

Physical Education

I’m not sure why I need a physical education section here! If you know my children then you will know they are always active! Whether it’s swinging from a tree, to running about playing with friends. They are rarely still.

However, we have also been on lots of walks this month. A day skiing at Glencoe, which was excellent, I loved the views as much as the skiing! And also a couple of hours archery and axe throwing for the youngest’s birthday.