A few days late, but at least it’s sorted before we go away! This is our April update on what the kids have been learning over the course of the month. Of course there are plenty of information on the ‘UK homeschooling resources’ that we use. I’ve tried to link to as many things as possible. But we don’t use a curriculum as part of home education, so what you find is resources from an autonomous learning family. Basically the kids choose what to do and when, with a little suggestion from me if they would like ideas.
Table of Contents
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, we use podcasts a lot as part of their history learning. It makes it easier on drives to different groups and meets, the kids are too busy listening to argue in the back seats! We recommend Greeking Out (a new series has just started) and Live From Mount Olympus. Both are excellent for learning about Greek mythology in a fun way, but there are also lots of other mythology covered from around the world in Greeking Out.
Who, When, Wow is also excellent for learning about historical figures in the first couple of series. The the latest mystery edition of the podcast is great for discussing historical mysteries. This month there was the discussion about what happened to Alexander the Great’s lost tomb and superstitions around Friday 13th.
Whilst up at Pitlochry for a few days, we visited Blair Castle. We learnt about the history of the families who lived there. The formation of the Atholl Highlanders, the only private army in the UK. And a little about the different lairds who have lived here. It was also interesting to learn more about the village of Blair and how Blair Atholl took over as the main village due to it’s location.
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Birnam Arts Centre Beatrix Potter exhibition was a great place to find out about the famous writer. She used to spend many summers near Birnam and Dunkeld as a child and young adult. We learnt about how she spent time drawing scientific images of fungi and how she and the family lived up here during their summers.
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Science
The kids also learn a lot about science from podcasts too. There are so many awesome podcasts to recommend. But we would definitely recommend Wow In The World for interesting topics from scientific journals, always told in an amusing way. Earth Rangers discusses different animals and their habitats. Tumble discusses relevant scientific questions, often from children’s questions and with guest speakers. Then there’s Mysteries of Science from the Week Junior. They have everything from how to read minds and the Big Bang theory to dark matter!
Of course they has also been plenty of Lego building, particularly by my eldest. He’s been refining his Lego train designs and making more of his city (his entire room is taken up by a Lego train track and city growing up around it!).
At Pitlochry we visited the dam visitor centre. It’s an interesting place, but just a small exhibition space downstairs. This was sufficient for my two to spend an hour leaning about the different parts of the dam. From how the fish ladder works (to allow salmon up the dam to their breeding spots on the river. To why LED lights are better for the environment and where is best to position a hydro electric dam. It was definitely a great place to learn about both science and geography topics.
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The children and I also visited Briarlands farm on a home ed trip. Aside spending a lot of time with friends on the jumping pillows and go-karts, they also enjoyed meeting the guinea pigs and feeding the lambs! A nice bit of agricultural and animal biology lesson for them.
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Maths – UK Homeschooling Resources
The kids have finished all the levels of Prodigy Maths, but we haven’t tried any other online fun math programmes yet. I’ve been told Beast Academy is similar and fun for kids, so we may try this in the near future. These are things the kids have chosen to do, after I’ve shown them the home page to see if they would like to try it.
For the moment math has mostly been through board games, including Zeus on the Loose, Shut The Box and Trekking the World. But also through measuring for baking and general games the kids play together that seem to involve a lot of counting of coins in their heads!
English
The eldest spends a lot of time reading (wherever we go!) and I’m always impressed when he chooses to use longer words that he’s read. He definitely has developed a great vocabulary from reading. We don’t bother with any English learning programmes as the kids aren’t interested. They can learn all about nouns and verbs etc. if they choose to do exams later. It’s not something that will enhance their love of reading and learning at this stage.
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The 10 year old does spend time reading with me. If left on his own he tends to just enjoy the pictures and read one of two single words in speech bubbles. But we’ve come to a bargain that for every chapter of a book he reads to me, I’ll read him an extra chapter of his book at bedtime. He can read slowly, so he much prefers someone reading to him as he likes the longer chapter books. They are too overwhelming with the number of words for him at the moment, so he prefers to be read these. Currently he is reading the first of the 13 Storey Treehouse books to me.
Geography
We often discuss where we are going on trips and next month we are off to Costa Rica. So there has been discussion about where it is and how long it takes to fly there! We often chat about different countries on the world map above the table at dinner time.
This month we also headed off to Pitlochry by train. So the kids learnt a little about locations of train stations up the line to Pitlochry and then Blair Atholl. We also learnt about how geography of a location can affect the positioning of hydroelectric dams when we were at Pitlochry dam visitor centre.
We’ve never done any ‘formal’ learning on geography. However the kids have a good grasp of a variety of geography concepts, including different biomes, how rivers, mountains and valleys were formed, the movement of continental plates and how the earth looked millions of years ago. Some of this is from books we’ve read, others from podcasts or tv documentaries and also from visiting places like Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh. It’s amazing what they can learn from just following interests and learning about what is right there in front of them!
Clubs and Groups
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The youngest has started a new class this month, his NICAS level 4 climbing. He is now learning how to lead climb, which is a great skill and fab he’s started already at 10 years old. He’s one of the youngest in the class!
The littlest also did a mini show in an afternoon during the Easter holidays. It was Fame and he enjoyed his time learning some new dances and songs.
Other classes the kids take include chess club, Lego club, dodgeball (eldest), gymnastics (littlest), dancing (littlest), drama (littlest) and cubs/scouts.
The Arts
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The kids and I visited Birnam Arts Centre on our way North to Pitlochry. It’s a great space and always has a new exhibition on. When we visited it was titled ‘Play’ and the images were all fantastic depictions of children playing and reading. I loved these bird mobiles too, very simple but creative. The kids had a good look around and enjoyed the exhibition.
We also visited Loch Venachar with the children and 2 easels so they could paint the scene outdoors. The youngest really enjoyed this, but the 12 year old was less enthused. He was more frustrated that it didn’t look like what he could see ahead of him.
Littlest also spent some time trying out finger knitting and has made a mat and coaster for himself. It takes a lot of concentration and focus to keep going for as long as he did! That being said he has also taken to spending a lot of time in the garden when at home, practising his Diablo tricks. They’re looking pretty good now!
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Socialisation – UK Homeschooling Resources
As usual we have spent a lot of time with friends. Meeting up at parks, groups and clubs each week. Most weeks the kids see friends almost every day, from home educated friends during the day, school friends after school and after school clubs too.
Other Learning – UK Homeschooling resources
The children have also been practising lots of other life skills. Including helping cooking dinner and washing dishes when we were staying at Pitlochry hostel. Going for walks to enjoy the beautiful weather and completing their grandpa’s 6 mile long Easter egg hunt!!
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All Our Home Education Diary Posts For 2024
- January 2024
- February 2024
- March 2024
- April 2024
- May 2024
- June 2024
Home Ed Posts You Must Read
Pin UK Homeschooling Resources For Later
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