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Home > Monthly Diaries > November Home Education Blogger Diary 2024

November Home Education Blogger Diary 2024

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It’s getting close to the end of the year! We had a fairly quiet November, but December is going to be very crazy with Christmas events, littlest in a local panto and all our little traditions. So I’m glad November was calmer!

Here’s some of the things we’ve learnt this month, although as always it doesn’t include the myriad of conversations we have about everything!

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History – Home Education Blogger

History has included a visit to Edinburgh Castle for the Castle of Light. Which tells you a little about the history of Edinburgh city for its 900th year, famous faces and historical women who have made the country great! There are also lots of parts that are just for fun too.

The kids have also played board games that involve history, such as the Horrible Histories board game. The facts are sometimes ridiculous, but it’s all part of history!

As usual we listened to various history themed podcasts. Including Who, When, Wow and Live From Mount Olympus.

Geography

We haven’t been away anywhere this month, so no map based geography has been learnt. However, we have discussed rock formation when looking and splitting open rocks in Ayrshire. We found some lovely agate, flint and even fossils. Most of the rocks has some sort of volcanic connection, which makes sense with the area we were in.

We also went for a few walks, including Bracklinn Falls, which is a great river to watch the waterfall action.

Science

Science begins with podcasts, including Tumble, Earth Rangers, Mysteries of Science and Wow in the World. Other STEM activities include building Lego, enjoying bonfires for bonfire night and a small discussion around the composition of fireworks.

Language

The eldest is always reading and has almost finished reading all of Rick Riordan’s kids books. He’s also read the Skandar series and a few other quicker books this month. He’s also been doing a little Night Zookeeper, he seems to quite enjoy the writing programme, although I’m not sure exactly what he does on it (I’m not allowed to read it!). I’ve also insisted he practices his handwriting a few times a week, he’s not keen on writing by hand, but it IS getting better and more legible.

The youngest has been reading graphic books such as Dog Man and Looshkin himself. But he also has been listening to a huge variety of audio books. I’ve also insisted on handwriting practice a few times a week. I don’t mind that they don’t want to write essays or stories, but I do want them to be able to write neatly when they need to!

Both children are now learning languages on Duolingo. The youngest is practising German and the eldest Spanish. Surprisingly the youngest seems to find spelling in German easier than English!

Maths

We’re continuing with using Beast Academy at the moment. The kids like some parts of it, but we have come across some parts which seem a bit pointless or just overly complicated for no reason! The timed ‘games’ are the worst parts for the eldest, he finds it much harder to concentrate on the task when the timer is distracting him.

Maths is also part of baking and board games we’ve been playing recently.

Clubs and Groups – Home Education Blogger

The children also had their usual clubs and groups this month. Including board games group, Lego group, Scouts, an online coding class and a local park meet. The youngest also does climbing, National Youth choir of Scotland, 2 x drama classes, 2 x gymnastics classes and 2 x dance classes, plus rehearsals for the local panto. The eldest also has dodgeball. So we’re pretty busy!

Socialisation

Socialisation is not an issue here, we have a great group of home ed friends we several times a week. Then add in all the groups and clubs they do and we have plenty of time with other people for being sociable!

This month we also went to the cinema with friends to see Wicked – it was awesome! Plus bonfire night with friends and some other social meet ups.

I know socialisation is always the big question about home ed. But if you are worried about this then just join some informal home ed groups and get to know people. If your child is a bit quiet then suggest some 1-2-1 meet ups with other people in the groups you’ve been to. The great thing about home ed is that kids don’t need to just play with children their own age or gender. All children can play together, which I love! We often see kids from 5 to 13 year olds all playing the same game and enjoying it. With the older ones making it a little easier for the younger ones. It’s lovely to see!

Art and Music – Home Education Blogger

The youngest has been rehearsing for his panto, so he’s often singing along to those songs. Plus after we saw Wicked the Wicked soundtrack has been playing on loop! His NYCOS choir also had a winter concert, we saw him singing in that too.

Not much art work going on here, unless you include building on Minecraft education!

Physical Education

We are always moving about in this house! From walking my parents dog whilst they were away for a week, to playing with friends at the park, climbing trees, cycling and plenty more!

As the car was in for a service recently we also had to walk an hour and half home from the garage (we only have one car) and then walk back again too. Which takes a while, but it was fine!

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