Primary Home Education

J has a new desk.

Yesterday M picked up a desk from Free-cycle for J, it is now in the kitchen, as most of B and D's studying is done sitting at the kitchen table, and J is well chuffed with it (what an eighties saying).

Its in good nick as well, another great free pick up, and he sat at it straight away, making things from his book, and drawing pictures.  This was all at 8.30pm.

So I have a lot of printing to do and a few plans in mind for J.

English

I like the story telling project ideas, they seem to be mainly from American sites, so most of the books I will probably have to find free online or order from Amazon as they do not seem to stock these in our UK libraries.

I have got this book though, and J loves it - The Giant Jam Sandwich

There is a Unit Study available at Homeschool Share which includes map skills,problem solving, rhyming words, art, science and cooking.

Dr Seuss - quite a few activities to go with the Dr Seuss books.

Fairy Tales - will be looking at The Gingerbread Man, so we can make Gingerbread Men.

Also lots more ideas on Pinterest

We were also given a big bundle of learning to read books, and I alsopurchased from ELC in their sale, Alphabet writing cards, which are wipe clean which is handy.  J is enjoying practicing his writing at the moment, and has great pride in being able to write his name, as shown in his latest piece of art work

Maths

As with my other two children, I do not like to force anything complicated to do with maths on them at an early age.  Both my older two covered the basics of adding,subtracting, multiplication and division up until the age of 10, and then I started to introduce fractions, algebra etc.

So with J, will be following the same method, using printables from here and workbooks on the odd occasion.

(good article here about teaching maths)

J gets pocket money each week, and has recently made himself a money box, as we are trying to teach him that if he wants the more expensive toys he has to save for them.  This is good Maths.
(although, he was going to save this weeks pocket money, but blew it in one go on a Playmobile magazine as it had a really cool figure in it apparently)

Science

Experiments for our experiment jar:-

• Raindrop experiment
• Colours
• Dry Ice
• Colours and milk
• Absorbing
• Amazing milk
• Magic Ketchup
• Why apples turn brown
• Ice Cube Experiment
• Water Cycle Experiment

I have to get a few more bits and pieces, and have a science box which I keep most of the materials in:

kitchen roll

food dye

elastic bands

plastic bottle

rubbing alcohol (still to find)

vinegar

lemon

apples

plastic plates

plastic cups

ice cubes
string

Autumn - Also a science experiment related to Autumn, once I have found the rubbing alcohol - leaf science activity.
This is a great booklet to print out which we will be using Autumn Leaves Activity Booklet.
Another printable - Autumn Scavenger Hunt

Geography

I have signed us up for the Postcard swap. and have on order a World Map.  We will send the postcards, and hopefully receive too, and look at the different places on the map. We have just sent cards to Russia, USA, Netherlands, Germany and Belarus.I also found a map of the UK in Poundland.

(bit of a wonky photo)

There is also a good free e book here

 It covers  9 different countries from around the world, and has  information,  photos and  activities for children for each country.

J has recently shown an interest in the different forms of clouds, and whether it may or may not rain, so thought it would be a good time to talk to him about the Water Cycle.
There is a good video here on You Tube and will use the raindrop and water cycle experiment alongside this.
Also will attempt to make a Weather Kit and track the weather with this printable.

History

After M and J made this fabulous castle the other day

J has shown an interest in Castles, so we have booked a visit to one of our local castles through the English Heritage Site, (free educational visit).

I always think the best thing for children of this age to do is to get out and about and look at all the History around them.
We will be following the History of the our own town, and any other towns in our area which have a town trail.  Also Museums, National Trust Sites and making use of the Heritage Open Days next week.

And of course watch Horrible Histories as it is such fun.

Art

He has access to lots of art and craft materials, and does this every day (I know this because of all the mess).

PE

He runs around like a lunatic all day - end of!

Think I have covered all the subjects now- so this blog post should double up as a report  to give to the LEA.


My plan for J and his Home Education Journey may vary a little from how I did it with B and D.  I steered away from workbooks, learning to read books, phonics and writing until they were around 7 and 8.  It worked well as both of them had learnt to read and write by the age of 8, mainly teaching themselves.

J seems to like the workbook approach, but I am not sure how much of that has derived from seeing his older siblings work in that way, so it maybe that I will set him some structured tasks each day, and then that will be his school work, as he likes to call it, done and dusted.

Then we can begin on the important task - learning through everyday life!