Using the above book I introduced the concept of opposites. I’m not B3 really understood but she enjoyed listening. I had photocopied some of the book covers of Mr Men and Little Miss characters, which were perfect for playing an opposites matching game: First I had A5 pair up the antonyms: She then suggested we play pairs……
Tag: Homeschooling
Narrating with Little Miss Neat
We’ve been working on Little Miss Neat for the last couple of weeks. One of the activities I am trying to encourage A5 to do is narration. One big regret with my older ones is that I did not do it nearly enough with them. Narration is such an excellent prewriting skill and encourages clarity……
Medieval Feast: Meringue Swan Subtleties
For more information about medieval subtleties see here L11 had a few different ideas for subtleties (small favours served between courses). She has already made some marzipan ‘War of the Roses’ roses subtleties, now it was meringue swans. First she whipped up some egg whites and caster sugar and piped the meringues onto her design……
New School Room: Science Nook
A few of you asked for photos of some of our new educational nooks. I’ll post them as they are finished, and as work is very slooooow at the moment it will probably amount to a post every few months! Anyway, here is the science nook, almost finished: Here Gary is attaching the shelves he……
Precious Memories
This week has not been one of our academic successes. We often get weeks when one or other of us have absolutely no desire to work. This is normal and with the help of the others, the lethargic one is buoyed into action and the week remains fairly productive even for the reluctant child/adult. Very……
The Perfect School Day?
I had a whole different post planned for today until my youngest twin brought me her writing assignment yesterday for me to look over. I had asked them to write about their perfect home school day. T12 had written five sentences about how he would like to get all his school work done in the……
Week 50 – Looking Back Over Twelve months of our Pond
March 2013 April 2013 May 2013 June 2013 July 2013 August 2013 September 2013 October 2013 November 2013 December 2013 January 2014 February 2014 Next Week I’ll be sharing our plans for the next 12 months.
Medieval Fashions: Peasant Girl Design Board
Right at the beginning of this project I had encouraged C11 to make a design board in order to create a clearer idea of the clothes she wished to make for her dolls. Here is the initial sketch: This helped C11 to visualise and consolidate the ideas in her head. They also gave me a……
Medieval Fashion: Peasant girl
C11 has chosen to study medieval fashions for her project. Her intention was to make clothes for a medieval peasant, lady and princess. However, it has been much harder than she anticipated, and it has taken her almost eight weeks to do the peasant doll. We have decreased her wortk, therefore, to a peasant doll……
Precious Moments
This week has been all about our new school room. We had hoped to have it finished by now but we are nowhere near it. Everything takes so much longer when you have five children needing your attention. We have almost finished our science nook: 1) Gary is working on some shelves which we will use……
When Project Work Doesn’t go According to Plan
A massive goal for our little home school is independence. I really want the children to desire to learn and to be able to do it independently. There is a whole different kind of joy which comes from work they are able to own for themselves. Last academic year, each of my older children chose……
Medieval Feast: Invitations
It was essential that the invitations to our medieval banquet were designed, made and sent to their recipients in time for an answer to be given. Therefore, this was one of L11’s very first projects to be completed. L11 had already jotted her ideas down for the invitations during one of her project sessions. I encouraged……
Week 49: One Year Pond Study: Bird Study – Moor Hens
We have two resident Moorhens, who have been there each time we have visited the pond this year. We have never seen them fly, they are there regardless of the times we go (night-time, early morning etc), they have nested and reared their young and are basically a permanent fixture at our pond. Moorhens are……
Precious Moments
This week has been a bit slow in the school department with much of my time taken up creating a new learning space out of our old hallway. The reason for doing this is to have a quiet place for the older ones to study, away from the little ones when necessary and also it……
Law Study: Hands on Democratic Rule
Having had a highly successful demonstration of what an autocratic rule is, we attempted to replicate the democratic rule. We had already learnt about how the House of Lords and the House of Commons was first formed. I found a couple of clips from YouTube for both, primarily to show the difference between the two,……