A retrospective exploration into our learning journey: September 2020-August 2021

The girls loved learning about castles this last year, and Sophia’s favourite book on the subject was a large one, with lots of intriguing flaps. She could not read the detailed explanations on each page but she found the book fascinating and she picked up a great deal of knowledge from the pictures and scenes. I would often find her sitting in a corner browsing through the pages, and staring intently at a particular detail. I brought a range of book resources to aid them in this topic which they really appreciated, including a specific colouring book, a reading book and a couple of factual books.  They learnt and retained a reasonable amount of knowledge on the subject and loved to revisit it throughout the year. They recognised initially the material used for a castle was wood and then later the materials changed to stone and brick. A castle has big walls, with a flag flying from the top of the wall, and the front door could be lowered and raised by the soldiers who kept guard. T...

Games are an important part of educational  play methodology and the beauty with this teaching strategy is that it grows with the children throughout their early years education.  The girls had mentally outstripped their games last year and whilst they still enjoy playing them they needed a new challenge. I devised a verbal quiz  specifically tailored to their curriculum, across all the subjects and we played it during breakfast time and initially they loved it and found it fun.  The girls mental processes soon became apparent when they started answering questions on a daily basis. Kira has an extremely high response speed and can fire back answers at super cat speed. She would answer first and would be accurate the majority of the time. Sophia needs a longer response time, needs to process, sometimes she would answer the day after.  Therefore this quiz style of gaming quickly became stressful for Sophia and the competitiveness was unhealthy as Sophia started to...

This is a subject which prior to starting this home schooling journey I believed belonged in a school lab and didn’t really have a place in early years learning.  My girls have resoundingly proved me wrong in that assumption, and for the past three years we have been on a magical scientific journey together.  Sophia was so curious, from the age of three wanting to know what made a rainbow and asking questions about her world around her.  I found some great educational presenters on YouTube, namely Jack Hartmann and Rachel and the Treeschoolers who have some fantastic videos for this early years age group, up to the age of seven. There are lots of songs and dances to help little ones to remember the material and the girls   have just taken this subject by storm. In the first year I introduced the topics and then have built upon them throughout the years, extending their knowledge and understanding. I have laid out the topics within this blog, starting with the girls...

Ma ths is one of those subjects that just seems to take place in day to day life with little behind the scenes planning. I simply have a yearly goal I would like the children to work towards based on a reasonable level of progression on from the previous year.  The children greatly exceeded my annual expectations this year and I realised that their logical brains make them perfect mathematicians. I still wanted to make the subject fun, however the girls had mentally outgrown the games brought from the previous years. It was vital to maintain their level of interest and not allow them to become bored with the subject, so I had a little brainstorm with myself.  I loved board games as a child and we had all the usual suspects and would have regular gaming sessions as a family, but one firm favourite was ‘Game of Knowledge’. I wanted to recreate a similar board game which would reflect the children’s curriculum this year. This presented a fun way for them to practice maths skill...

Kira learnt her alphabet last year, however having just turned three years in April 2020 she was not my focus in the reading department as Sophia had blossomed with a new reading scheme of Peter and Jane and was really keen to learn to read.  This was the year when I learnt that age is not the determining factor when children can learn to read, ability has little connection to age. The childs personal interest will determine how successful they will be within the subject.  I had started reading with Sophia at the age of four because I thought that was the age they needed to start learning. I discovered the error in my teaching ways as she was not ready and it was a negative experience for her initially as we couldn’t understand why she wasn’t learning the words. She however came into her own at the age of five.  Consequently, I was not focusing on teaching Kira officially, I just read her bedtime stories and encouraged her to keep the alphabet fresh in her mind. Kira ...

It has been a milestone year for all three of the children within the subject of English. Their progression has been fantastic and they have made us all proud.  All three children have learnt to read and the girls have made a start on spelling.  Their writing has really improved, as has their understanding of story telling within role-playing, and the use of imagination in pictures and within play.  They have embraced English grammar and expanded their vocabulary. Sophia had ended the previous teaching year on a sad note regarding her reading. She had massively struggled and did not enjoy the activity at all. She made little progress in phonics and reading by repetition and recognition.  This teaching year commenced with little change, until I sat down with her in January and had a little chat with her on the subject. I asked her what she wanted/needed in order for us to win at reading, what would she change if she could.  Her answer was simple, she asked for ...

Welcome to our Sept 2020-August 21 learning experience blog!  We are Sophia (aged 4-5), Kira (aged 3-4), Xander (aged 2-3), Mum (hurtling towards my mid 30s!) and Dad (blank look).  During the covid pandemic we were dealing with the shock of Xanders declining bonemarrow function and his increased hospital visits for life saving blood transfusions. This was to lead to a seven week stay in hospital for Xander and myself at the middle of May for a bonemarrow transplant.  I hope you wish to join us in this retrospective teaching journey through undoubtedly the hardest year in everyone's life. A time where home schooling became the norm for every child across the world.  A recap on my educating methods for new readers, which form the cornerstones of our personal learning journey: I follow the principles that we start learning from birth, and the relationship between age and learning remains fluid and flexible, dependent on personal circumstances.  I focus on ability ...