I was asked this a couple of weeks ago, and I have been pondering it ever since. I’ve always maintained that I’m a nothing home schooler, not wanting to box myself in and hand other people expectations on a plate. People have enough expectations as it is. And really we do tend to do our……
Tag: Homeschooling
Progress Report on the Individual Projects
This year I asked the children to choose one area of the historical period which would interest them enough to dig deeper on their own. The task was to put together a project on their chosen area and present it at our final medieval presentations in April (ish) time. They needed to come up with……
The Effects of the Crusades
This will be my last post on the crusades (ye ha! We’re done!). Just to get you in the mood for another information overload to do with the Holy wars, here’s a fun music video which towards the end handily touches on the effects of the crusades. There is one of the videos for almost……
One Year Pond Study: Week 43 – Checking out the Overflow
Here is our pond this week: The pond seems so quiet at the moment. There is little to report, with no gulls, two Moorhens and only four Mallards. The children went off exploring as I snapped away at the wildlife (and them): T12 has decided to write a letter to the RSPB (with whom he……
Looking Back: Ancient Greece – Spartans
I’ve found the rest of my photos pertaining to our ancient Greek studies (still can’t find my Roman ones) and thought I’d post some of them in a few ‘looking back’ posts. ‘Looking back’ posts are full of the learning we did prior to me keeping a blog. As they are part of our past……
Explorer Study: Ibn Battuta
I particularly wanted to study the Islamic, medieval explorer Ibn Battuta. Being a contemporary of Marco Polo, who we had studied at the beginning of the year, I felt a comparison study would be quite interesting. Both travelled widely throughout the Eastern Medieval world; both met with similar tribes and peoples; and most importantly both wrote about……
Mr Men School: Mr Happy
Literature We read the following books each day: And I also found a video of the book, which after we had read the story, the children watched on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZd_OxdgmOg I printed out some writing for A5 to do and some pictures of Mr Happy for B2 to do whilst the older ones were doing……
One Year Pond Study: Week 42 – Canada Geese Study
Thank you to everyone who was praying and thinking about me, and for all your good wishes and emails (and for Phil and Vicky for looking after our five children, so Gary could come with me). I had the scan this morning and they said it was nothing to worry about, just to keep an eye……
And Wings to Fly…
My blog header states ‘Homeschooling to give our children roots to ground them and wings to make them fly’. My goal in their younger years is to give the children principles to live by; a happy history to draw strength from and most importantly a love that stabilises them, that they can rely on to always be……
Medieval Mini Presentation
When we heard that Gary’s parents were coming to stay with us, we thought it might be good for them to see for themselves some of the work we have been doing. So we decided to do a mini presentation. Mini because I knew there was no way we would have the time or the……
One Year Pond Study: Week 41 – Ponding with Young Children
Not much has changed since last week, and as we have had Gary’s parents staying with us, we haven’t had the opportunity for a full study. I thought instead I would look back over the past ten months and reflect on those things that have worked to encourage the younger two to pond along side us.……
Leadership Study: Richard the Lion heart and Saladin
We had done a leadership study on Hamurabi when the children were younger, and they had concluded that he was a fair leader, by studying some of his laws that he had written. This time I wanted to take our leadership studies a little bit further. Why do leadership studies at all? One of my……
al-Hasan Scientist Study: Exploring Light and Vision
If you’re looking to enrich your homeschool science with meaningful history and hands-on discovery, an al-Hasan scientist study is a brilliant place to start. Known in the West as Ibn al-Haytham, al-Hasan (965–1040 AD) was a pioneering Arab polymath whose work in optics transformed our understanding of light and vision. What makes a medieval scientist study like this so powerful is……
Exploring Angles and Tessellations: Hands-On Homeschool Maths
This post outlines a hands-on homeschool math lesson focused on angles and tessellations. It emphasizes discovery learning through activities like measuring angles, forming hypotheses, and exploring real-world examples of tessellations. The lesson encourages independent thinking, problem-solving, and enjoyment in math, allowing students to prove geometric concepts themselves.
One Year Pond Study – Week 40: Back After a Break
This is kind of a catch up post for the few weeks I missed over the Christmas period. During this time, although we were at the pond, we did not go camera in hand. More likely we were passing on our way to the local shops! However this week we managed to make a proper……