Pinterest

I want to quickly introduce Pinterest. Its become a great resource for all things. 

Take a peek My Pinterest Boards here.

Pins are visual bookmarks for useful things that you find anywhere around the web. Just 'pin' it to your chosen subject board for later use. 

Bee Amazing

My children have always had an infatuation with watching science and nature programmes.  Essentially they grasp knowledge by the experience. 

Recently it was National Insect Week here in Britain, and the good old BBC had been showing a programme about beekeeping. This sparked a passionate engrossment with bees. And a long home school project...

Querying our local Entomology Group, I found local Green Project, whereby members of the community can help to rear fruit and vegetables and take home the harvest. The managing director of the project, kept bees! It really is a small world after all, and happened, to turn out to be a friend of a friend who agreed for my family for a closer look-see.

We observed a bee check, where the whole hive's health is monitored. Its important to know that the queen is there, first and foremost, and that she is laying. Checking for disease and that there is enough room for the brood as well as that the bees are producing honey. To be involved in this was the highlight of our school year! By observing the bees' activity in the hive and have their behaviour pointed out to us, the children learned far more than from a book or TV show. The beekeeper wants to put the girls forward for Young Bee Keeper of the Year! What a privilege! 

We would like very much to have our own apiary one day... For now, we have offered to adopt a nest from environmentally friendly pest control company, who relocate bees nests.

Keeping Bees - Vivian Head

Home Run - Summer Term

Apologies for the absence of posts over June. We had such a wet May, that once the clouds cleared, we downed tools and went to chase the sun.

Wonderful hot days on the beach, made way for pleasant evening bike rides. We have to take the warmer, drier days when we can, British weather is known the world over for being changeable and often wet, I'm sure!

We have a flower farm by our neck of the woods. They make essential oils and wonderful soaps and bath salts.

We harvested the lavender, having waited for the right weather for it to be done

We took a lovely little impromptu educational trip for the girls one sunny morning. Chatting to the distillery guy and the pharmacist guys, who were only too happy to help and stop work for an informative chat and show us how the oil is produced with frankincense and myrrh from Somalia. 

Back home researching where myrrh and frankincense comes from 

They gave us some pieces of myrrh and frankincense. Love fun days like this when everything falls into place and the family can make memories and be educated at the same time. They have asked us back as a HEd group to help with the harvesting next week. We are looking forward to being able to be a part of that! 

Cream teas, coconut shires, picnics, and petting zoos at the village fete made us realise that Summer is actually just around the corner. It has felt out of reach for many, many months.
At this time of year, as passionate a homeschooling mum as I am, I inevitably look forward to storing away the workbooks and winding down till September, and taking on a leisurely pace without deadlines.

 Nature diaries, maybe a little notebooking, a Summer reading list, 'brushing up' on our art techniques, and a plethora of days out will take us through the holidays.

Using Literature for Language Arts

Living books, Charlotte Mason called them...

Superb, satisfying pieces of literature that have stood the test of time over decades, to still thrill and enlighten the reader generations on. Except now we can sometimes use these works as historical fiction, to show us attitudes, dress codes, and problems of the day. Feelings and emotions missing from textbooks. There is a distinct connection between literature and social studies. 

We visited a stately home where we were able to dress up in costumes. They had filmed Pride and Prejudice here.

How do we use literature to benefit our family homeschool?

Firstly by reading aloud to the children, books like Beatrix Potter, who needs no introduction, (See the page on Unit Studies) and classic children's poems by poets such as Christina Rossetti, Mary Howitt, Alfred Noyes, and TS Elliot. In our family, these have well stood the test of time and are in the hearts today of our grown children. Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories are nice to read aloud.

Visiting a stately home, the girls were able to act in a Shakespeare play

The girls' Dickens project

Then there are some wonderfully illustrated, but also unabridged versions (which may be of importance to some families ) of the classics such as Secret Garden, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Chronicles of Narnia to introduce the child to in due time.

Shakespeare's works are available for all ages and abilities, some are very child-friendly and colourful and we have found them to be the perfect introduction. (see the Shakespeare post)

Talk on William Wordsworth at the local museum

We can't talk about classics without mentioning Dickens. The epitome of the classic novelist.  Again available in most key stages to suit age and ability. Good study guides are also available. 

Such a lot of literature is available for free online nowadays, and study guides too. Sparknotes is a particularly definitive list: Sparknotes

We visited Jamaica Inn

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Shakespeare for Children

Oliver Twist for Young Readers

Spider and the Fly

By Sun and Candlelight - Compilation of poems

The Highwayman - Illustrations may upset younger children in this edition

Aesops Fables with Scripture References

Gift of the Magi - Lovely illustrated version

Sense and Sensibility - Abridged - There is a workbook available to accompany this book

We went to see Alice in Wonderland ballet

There are modern classics that you may want to explore, such as Goodnight Mr Tom, Number the Stars, or Tom's Midnight Garden. All have good guides to accompany them. For reading aloud to children, the iconic Enid Blyton always uses good English, though I have yet to discover a study guide. (wink) Paddington Bear is still special in my heart from hearing it read as a child. The Shoe stories by Noel Stretfield or Phoenix and the Carpet, Bedknob and Broomsticks, Five Children and It, Mary Poppins, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, or Charlotte's Web are all family favourites. Robin Hood, and Anne Frank's Diary are even available in cartoon style.

Being Poldark fans we made a trip to the mines

The opening scene in  the Poldark series

Number the Stars Guide     

There are many worthy literacy guides for various key stage levels. These may differ in style, so one may actually be the piece of fiction that will give a glossary for each page (The writing tends to be large print and maybe abridged for the child's confidence. I have never found abridged versions to be detrimental to progressing to the unabridged version later on, quite the opposite. It can light a spark) to the full play, with study guide, character analysis and historical context. 

Importance of Being Earnest  - Full play and summary guide

Treasure Island - younger children vocabulary building version

CGP Guide Macbeth KS3

CGP GCSE Twelfth Night

We have found good text books that include literature excerpts for study.

This is the project the girls did on Narnia. We even made Turkish Delight

Learning Language Arts Through Literature, available by grade, is a year long Christian program, available in the UK from Christian home education suppliers Ichthus, Rainbow and Conquest. (links available on the resources post) 

Secular text books can be useful too. We have found many a living book excerpt. 

Letts Literacy Guide Yr 4 - uses exerts for comprehension. Collins does a similar one called
Focus

Literacy World Essential Texts Stage 3 - available with Teachers Edition Worksheets and Student Skills Book

Have lots of fun discovering your family favourites!

Nature Notebooking and Journals

“As soon as he is able to keep it himself,
a nature diary is a source of delight to a child.
Every day's walk gives him something to enter...” --Charlotte Mason

From age 3 my children have kept a very brief note and a sketch of insects or any other interesting specimen that caught their eye in the garden.  Many times they have come rushing in to tell us about some amazing creature that they had discovered, and we duly put down pens and went to ID it. That still happens...

There are two main methods - the diary sketchbook, where you take a good quality book, paints [use water from the source you are painting; river, waterfall or ocean] and pencils or pastels along on a trip and do on-site.

The more detailed, A4 notebooking pages are done at home and kept in a folder. There are many sites to print off free ready-prepared topics. Our favourite is Notebooking Fairy

and Pinterest has many links too.

Recording their rock collection for an Earth Science project

On a nature ramble

What else are trees for, than for reading tree books

There are many websites and books on the subject, here are a few to get you going... And the good news is that you don't need to live in the country, we live in the city - wildlife has a habit of springing up everywhere.

Wild Days

Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady

Nature Notebooking

Enjoy it!
50 Things.  - not strictly journal keeping but has a free booklet to keep about nature
Penny Gardner - CM methods
Getting Started

Turtle Satellite Monitoring - project

An exciting textbook that my children enjoyed was Science and Stories. Giving literature as a springboard, it catapults into the world of many scientific subjects.

 Science and Stories

The children reminded me recently of a project that we had fun with. It was tracking turtles. They wanted to see where 'their' turtle was now!

• They read Turtle Watchers and completed the study guide in the textbook. The textbook also gives other useful resources. 
• Compare sizes of species
• Print out a life cycle of turtles
• Research migrating paths of females
• Choose a turtle to track
• Print a map of your chosen turtle's habitat
• Read Sea Turtles
• Make a New Vocabulary list
• Learn anatomy

Off we went to the natural history museum

As Turtle Watchers is set in the West Indies, the children listened to calypso style music on YouTube, made an authentic menu and learned about the culture.

I'm glad that the kiddos had so much fun, and didn't forget about the project. We are now working on a real-life similar project with our local cetaceans group.

Preparing for Future Life

Education is simply 'preparing for life.'  It can be invaluable if your children can experience a real-life situation. By observation in the workplace, or any particular area where they can really delve into the layers of 'how it works'.

There is no replacement for active involvement. We are very fortunate as home educators, that we may be able to do this so freely.

We were allowed to go along on a real-life archaeological dig

The girls were asked to film and interview the archaeologists 

I have mentioned in past posts about becoming a participant in volunteer work. I suppose this is part of that  - grasping experience to see how things are really done in the big wide world of grown-ups.

The list of places we have taken our children/intend to take at appropriate ages, is something like this:

We visited a lifeboat station while on holiday in Cornwall

We visited a sculptor in her workshop

• Crown court - there just may be a future barrister in our midst, or a member of the jury (in a past life, I was a legal secretary so very interesting for mum too)
• Take part in public meetings

• Livestock market - of particular interest to one of our children who longs to be a farmer
• Day on a friend's farm, 'helping' out - I use the term loosely 
• Visit to a coastguard post - quiz the coastguards, who are usually very talkative, about their job 
• A trip on a fishing vessel or watch the 'catch' being brought to shore - then follow up with a visit to the fish market

Watching the crab fishermen unload their catch

Visiting a dairy

• Any opportunity where a friend can take your older child into their workplace
• Some museums or zoos offer to be a 'worker for the day' - usually for a fee
• Volunteer at a local livery
• Forest 'school'
• Visit an artist's studio
  
• Visit to a fire station
• Visit an auction house
• Visit a place of fine art conservation 
• Go on an archaeology dig
• See how a boat is built or visit a boatyard
• Visit an ice-cream or chocolate factory
• Visit your local recycling plant
• Help at an animal shelter
• Attend military open days
• I'm sure there are many, many more...

Military open day on HMS Pembroke

In order to happily pursue a path in life, we need to know what's out there, and how we can obtain it. If our children have had some insight into at least a tiny part of what makes up the world, then it may help them make an informed career choice or just to be a little better informed.

Visit to an ice cream factory

 

Project Based Education

Part of a nature study, off to observe seals in their natural habitat

It has yet to stop raining so what better way to make good use of time indoors than to get back in the saddle of Project Based Learning. 

On a holiday field trip Dolphin watching

Entomology day at the local museum

Clay Egyptian death mask

Took a trip to Chester to study the Romans (this is a genuine Roman garden)

After trying styles as we came across them, we felt most comfortable with this as a family. The children had fun, and retained information in a holistic way, rather than by educational deficit.  It focuses on obtaining and organising facts in your child's own way. Its about what they know,  and not focusing on what they don't know 'yet'.  This can be shown in lapbooks, displays, models, notebooking and many other ways.

Project Based Learning

PBL Book

Have a look at our Project Gallery page to see what we have been doing.

Part of our Viking studies, we visited a Viking village

The children wanted to know more about the Mustelidae family; weasels, wolverines, mink, otters ect. So a unit study was set in motion with You ~Tube clips and Wikipedia under their belts, the children went off in search of exhibits at the Natural History Centre. 

Crafting an animal cell

A  self directed unit study about Pirates, Smugglers and Wreckers was much enjoyed too.  As a real treat, we were able to see Pirates of the Caribbean with a live orchestra.

Where did the new term go?

We always find it tough to get going after the Christmas break, [one too many mince pies, perhaps ;) ] and then to make up for it, suddenly we find ourselves cramming play-dates, museum trips and study trips into the calendar, and barely taking a breath. 

We have reached an equilibrium now it's nearing the end of February.  We have all settled down to a routine, and are back taking part in on-line classes with our American cousins from Currclick.com once again. I've been taking some on-line studies, and getting back into education mode has been fraught with adverse, and sometimes comical, conditions, typical of a HEdding family. 

Online live classes were very exciting

Getting out has been difficult with weeks of storms and rain. Yes, the weather has held us back some, but Nature clubs and studies have been resumed in preparation for Springtime.  There is hope ahead...

Frog spawn

Migrating swans

Planting

Testing the soil's pH

There are plenty of good, fun educational activities to do indoors in the meantime. Chinese New Year gave the opportunity for plenty of museum sessions. It found us at a Chinese Calligraphy class again, where strangely enough the teacher recognised the children from last year and showed us photos of them on her phone, which she had shared with her own teacher back to Hong Kong. [see past posts for some hints on how to bring the celebration into your HE] 

Mandarin lessons

 Beach-combing offered up some specimens previously unseen by us. As HEdders, we are a versatile bunch and can use any teachable moments to our children's best advantage, when we view the world as our classroom.

Painting snails to monitor their activity