Morning Meeting
I hold a morning meeting for between 30-40 minutes per day with both girls. I read the following curriculum out-loud:
Who Is God? – Chapter Five – Will You Choose Wisely? Instructions on how to make sensible and wise decisions about your life.
Mystery of History Vol 2: The Early Church and the Middle Ages. We completed the following lessons: The Vikings: Their Family, Their Homes and Their Faith; Methods and Cyril- Missionaries to the Slavs; Alfred the Great, King of England; Lydveldid Island (Iceland); The Maori of New Zealand; The Great Zimbabwe of Africa; Good King Wenceslas; Otto I and the Holy Roman Empire; Vladimir I of Russia; The Song Dynasty of China; St Simon and the Coptic Orthodox Church.
The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way. We completed Chapter Twelve: Does it Change? – No way, Says A, including Why Mars is a Little Loopy; Chapter Thirteen: Aristarchus Got it Right – Well, Almost! which looked at the changing seasons and how far away the moon is from the earth; Chapter Fourteen: Alexander’s City which covers the library of Alexandria and the lighthouse at Alexandria’s harbour; Chapter Fifteen: What’s a Hero? learning about Hero of Alexandria and all his simple machines and the gadgets he invented; Chapter Sixteen: Euclid in his Elements including sightline and airlines and the geometry surrounding cones. We also looked at prime numbers and learnt how to use Eratosthenes’ Sieve
Vincent’s Starry Night and Other Stories. We have learnt about Frederic Edwin Church; Berthe Morisot; Claude Monet; Eadweard Muybridge; Georges Seurat; Vincent Van Gogh; Camille Claudel; Paul Cezanne; Georges Braque; Marc Chagall; Marcel Duchamp; Varvara Stepanova
English
Abigail:
Read Alone – Abigail has finished The Bane Chronicles (What Really Happened in Peru, The Run Away Queen, Vampire scones and Edmund Herundale, The Midnight Heir, The Fall of Hotel Du Mont, Saving Rafael Santiago, What to Buy the Shadow Hunter who Has Everything, The Rise of Hotel Dumort, The Course of True Love and First Dates, The Last Stand of the New York Institute); Lord of Shadows; Queen of Air and Darkness; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels all by Cassandra Clare
Rebecca:
Read Alone – To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before: PS I Still Love You by Jenny Han; The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes; The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes; The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes; The Elephant of Tusk temple by Joshua Davidson, The Cruel Prince by Holly Black, The Wicked King by Holly Black and she’s started Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan.
Spelling – Becca goes over to her Granny’s for individualised spelling lessons. She is working through all the National Curriculum words years 1-6. Becs finds spelling really hard but having 1-2-1 with granny is really helping.
Maths
Abigail
Abs is working her way through Key Stage Three maths and will almost definitely be finished by summer. Abs works for 60 minutes per day on maths. This month she has completed the following lessons and tests:
Becca
Becca began her Key Stage Three maths last term and is making good progress. She works for 60 minutes each day on maths:
Abigail (Aged 13-14, Year 9)
Abigail’s main school outside of maths and English is mostly science based.
Abs has completed the whole Environmental Management GCSE. We’ve decided not to put her in for the exam this summer, but instead to focus on learning the material well. Granny is testing her on the glossary at the back of the book. Abs has been working her way through the revision book which came with the course. Time wise, Abigail works with Granny for 30 minutes on Environmental Management and 30 minutes independently on the revision work book each day (5 hours per week).
The GCSEs in Psychology and Sociology are going slow and steady which is fine as she is doing them over two years, and maybe even over three. She has finished The Brain module and will be starting the module on Perception after the half term holiday. Abs is still working her way through topic three on Crime in her sociology. This seems to be a super long topic which she hopes to complete soon! Time wise, Abigail works independently on her Sociology GCSE for 60 minutes per day and on her Psychology GCSE for 60 minutes per day using resources provided by online homeschool providers ‘Homemade Education’ (5 hours spent per week on each subject).
Rebecca (Aged 10-11, Year 7)
Rebecca’s main school apart from the English and Maths is 100% creative. She is currently studying towards a Level One qualification in Mixed Media and another Level One in Textiles.
We have been focusing on her textiles this month almost exclusively. She has needed to do a lot of work on completing the design of her jelly fish dress, which is proving much harder than we first thought. There is a lot of trouble-shooting in terms of vision verses skills. This month she began making her dress. We have had to record on video each stage so that the examiners know that she has done the work. I’m not allowed to post the video as it is exam material but here are some of the photos of the process so far:
She has also started a new course which she does completely independently called Ellis’ Worldventures Design and Technology. I’m so pleased we started this course. I really do recommend it! She has made dioramas, metal flowers and all sorts of drawings and plans as well as learning how to create a power point and learning about biomimicry. I need to get photos of her work because it is brilliant! Se does this course with ‘Homemade Education’ but it is not marked and I don’t mark it. I bought it in for Becca to have work to do which did not have to meet criteria – basically this curriculum is for Becs to enjoy and for her to explore her creativity without being judged on it. I have been blown away by everything she is creating.
Extra-Curricular Activities
This has been a much busier month for both girls. Each Sunday morning, they have both been volunteering at church by working in the creche. They are learning a lot, serving the church and thoroughly enjoying themselves in the process! Sunday evening they have their church youth group after the church service.
Monday afternoons are spent doing some physical activities with other homeschoolers, which they both love. Monday evenings is another youth group which meets in a church nearby.
Tuesday evenings both girls attend children’s choir, after which Becca spends the rest of the evening with a precious homeschooled friend whilst Abigail attends Army Cadets. Every couple of weeks, she has a physical training session, where the goal is to improve on her own performance from week to week. To this end, Abigail now goes jogging at least 3 times a week, often more, and is building the number of squats and press ups she can do in one go. Each week, she comes back beaming having improved ever so slightly on the day before. This month she passed her
Wednesday, Abigail goes to Explorers with one of her friends from church. She has spent fun times doing quizzes, participating in discussions and challenges. One particularly memorable challenge was being dropped off at a site in groups of three and having to navigate their way back to the scout hut. She came home tired and bone dirty but with a huge smile on her face, having thoroughly enjoyed every moment!
Thursday, Abigail attends Army Cadets again. She is learning lots of things, and is maybe beginning to find her feet. All the other cadets go to the same school so all know each other and I think she feels a bit left out sometimes. That said, she doggedly continues to go, determined to learn how to fit it. All of us offer her ideas to conquer the half hour of social time they have half way through. It is this time she struggles with the most, and often wants to cry. She doesn’t though and I am so proud of her for continuing to go even though she finds it hard.
Friday’s are spent with friends or with their sisters. Becca has lunch with Lillie at least once a week, and the four sisters often go shopping together to the nearby town and have video nights together, snuggled up on the sofa
Each Saturday we have Girls’ Club, something I got from reading Sally Clarkson’s book of the same name. Money circumstances have meant that we have needed to curtail our spending somewhat, so most Saturday’s now we watch a video and pop some pop corn. We’re still together but it doesn’t cost us anything.
Becca has also been spending lots of time with friends who live just up the road from us, and has even had a sleep over (on her own!) at their homes. She has also slept over at her Granny’s house a couple of times this month as we have needed her bed for guests. She loves this and always has morning coffee with her granny to start her day!