September 2026 Home Education Diary

September has been incredibly busy, with lots of fun with friends, learning and even a week away Interrailing in Europe. Highlights have definitely been Duinrell in Netherlands, alpacas in Belgium and the eldest’s 15th birthday! A busy, but fairly productive month for us all!

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’ve listened to a few history podcasts recently and the eldest has also been watching the House Through Time Edinburgh series. Learning about the history of the old city through the occupants of one particular house.The eldest has also been watching some of the BBC Bitesize videos about various different history topics.

He also took a trip down to York with his dad for his birthday day out. They spent the entire day at York Railway Museum looking at the various historic trains. Which is something he’s very interested in.

We also visited the Dunblane museum and cathedral at the end of the month, which have some interesting history associated with the reformation and also jacobites.

Geography

We travelled to Belgium and the Netherlands by train for a week holiday. I like to look at where we are on Google Maps and the youngest particularly likes to see the progress of the trains across Europe too. Both children are getting quite good at navigating around train stations and helping find the next platform, even when we don’t know the language!

We’ve also been using the interactive globe for the quiz section. Testing each other on how well we know our country locations throughout the world.

Science

Science always begin with Podcasts in this house, and the top podcast at the moment is The Rest Is Science with Hannah Fry and Michael Steven’s. It’s not designed for kids, but they really enjoy it!

We’ve also bought a few more MEL science kits off Vinted for some chemistry experiments. The eldest has been using the new kits we’ve bought and the youngest is using the old kits the eldest has tried previously. You usually get 2-3 shots at each experiment, so there’s enough leftover for siblings! The 12 year old also has tried some other experiments he’s heard about, such as lighting a candle from the smoke! Well it’s actually the vaporised wax rather than the smoke, but it’s still quite cool!

Whilst passing through London we visited the Science Centre and spent a fair amount of time in the space section. Although we also found Puffing Billy, the first steam locomotive when we were there too!

The kids have also been watching some of the Crash Course videos, including the AI series. Which has been interesting for them. The youngest also watched some of the science videos on BBC bitesize.

We’ve also visited a local stretch of river to watch the salmon leaping up the waterfall. They are on the way back to their spawning grounds, so we checked the lifecycle of Atlantic Salmon. Although we thought they all died once they had spawned, apparently a very small percentage survive and return for a second time!

Of course there is the ever present Lego building going on too! A great STEM activity for all ages.

Maths

Both children have continued with the maths program they have been using, the youngest has been revising previous topics of times tables and angles. The eldest has been working through exponents.

We’ve also had the usual everyday maths of working out times, measuring for cooking and projects. Plus the inevitable time changes that come with travelling to Europe and working out how long between trains!

We’ve also played various board games that involve mathematical strategies and logic. Plus the children are both practising chess tactics on Duolingo.

Language

We’ve started back with the youngest’s dyslexia tutor after the summer holidays. He’s doing well and his reading is getting very fluent. It’s just the deciphering longer, more unusual words that can still be an issue. He also has been reading scripts himself for theatre group and the karaoke words for songs on the IPad. So it’s great to see him getting to a stage where he can read most things easily. Although we will be sticking with the tutor for helping him through the more difficult words that are not obvious in their spelling!

Both children have been reading a lot, with the 15 year old working his way through the Skulduggery books to find out why his brother likes them so much. He’s read around 10 of the so far this month! The youngest has mostly been listening to audio books and is currently listening to the second book of the Lord of the Rings series.

Clubs and Groups

All the kids usual clubs and groups are back on again after the summer holidays. With the youngest taking on his usual dancing, plus an extra ballet class for the next exam, gymnastics, drama, musical theatre rehearsals, lead climbing and Scouts. Both children take part in a monthly forest group (canoeing this month) twice monthly home ed board games group and Lego group, plus meet ups with friends for Dungeons and Dragons and playing at the park.

The 12 year old also had a weekend Scout camp in the rain, with plenty of time on different activities including cycling and playing games with friends.

Socialisation

The kids have had plenty of time socialising over the month. Meeting new home educators at different groups, socialising with school children at after school groups and hanging out with friends.

There has never been an issue of socialisation for us, the kids spend a lot of time with friends and other people at all the different activities we go to. Plus just chatting to people whilst we are away on holiday.

Art and Music

The kids aren’t really keen on art themselves, neither have been hugely arty. But they do like the process art, so the youngest has made a spin art machine using a Kiwi Crate kit and has been experimenting with different paints. He also helped (a small amount!) making a walking stick out of an antler he found. Which he is very pleased with!

The 12 year old also has singing lessons twice a month and is currently practicing the song ‘What If?’ From the Addams Family Musical.

Physical Education

The children both get plenty of exercise, whether it’s running about at the park with friends, walking with me or at different groups and clubs. They are constantly busy with different activities or family activities. They also carry their own bags whilst we are travelling and are very used to walking around with rucksacks wherever we are!

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