Every day is different. At this time of year I’m trying to tease the children away from their screens and into the great outdoors, though to be honest, it doesn’t usually take all that much encouragement.
This week, Smallest is enjoying Early Readers from Orion children’s books. She grabbed them out of my hands and shot off with them as soon as they arrived. And with a little help from an eager older brother, she started reading Deep Dark Sea facts, in the middle of the book of course. Apparently there are 8 million year old fossils of frill sharks, did you know that?
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And we were tipped off to a whole bunch of reduced Reading Egg apps late one night and grabbed those, so there’s been a fair bit of app led exploration. I’ll write those up more thoroughly if I ever manage to pry the iPad out of any child’s hand ๐
We caught a bee fly in a collecting jar from a handy review Discovery Channel – Bug Barn set (affiliate link). He was a fascinating creature – to begin with I thought that he either bit or stung, but it turned out that the proboscis is designed for sucking nectar out of long thin flowers. Such a clever disguise though, he really did look like a bee!
All of that led to some further bug hunting in the garden with the rest of the set. There’s a net, a barn thing, magnifying glass, tweezers, everything you need to hunt insects, examine them and then set them free again, *if* you manage to catch them in the first place!
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(We were also sent a Discovery Channel 100X Microscope (36 Pieces) but we haven’t fully explored that one yet.)
We did some seed experiments. This is our pea seed, grown in the side of a jar, just before we planted it. Further updates on that to follow.
And today I found a fabulous little game in Lidl while on my weekly shop. It’s ever so simple. A collection of wooden shapes, a card for each shape, and a bag. You put the shapes in the bag, draw a card, and then try to find the shape by just feeling. Surprisingly difficult, and a game that suits all ages from 3 to 50-ahem… ๐
Cost all of ยฃ3.99 – you could make something similar if you were up to making the pictures, but the little wooden pieces in this set are lovely. I did consider buying two sets, and then we could have played Montessori style matching games as well, but I thought this would do well enough.
As well as all of that, there are family meals, games of football in the garden, consoles and computers, and netflix (always netflix). Add in drawing, craft, writing, and bedtime stories, and you’re getting close to finding out what fills our home educating days. There’s a different rhythm to time when you don’t break up the days and weeks into school terms, so it’s not as hectic as trying to fit in everything you have to cram into holidays, and you aren’t doing the decompressing and getting to know each other again thing either. (We did school terms and working for a while too, a few years ago. Been on both sides of this fence, and there’s green grass in both places, honest.)
Do I worry that my children aren’t learning anything, won’t make anything of themselves, aren’t doing the right things? Not any more (or less) than any other parent. Honest. It’s just another path, albeit one less travelled ๐
Disclosure: amazon links are affiliate links. Discovery Channel sets and Orion Early readers books were supplied for review.
Feel free to follow me on twitter if you want to keep up with my in between blog thoughts ๐
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