Our Week: On the farm, shapes, bridges, lighthouses and home education group.

This week the children had the opportunity to each spend a night away on a farm in the Peak District with their Granny.

 

Nathanael especially enjoyed his stay, spending time trying to restore an old tractor in the children's play area and searching for ancient artefacts at the site of an archaeological dig!

 



 

Using the iMovie software on the iPad he made a short video about his time on the farm.

 

 

Back at home, our maths focus was shapes this week and we had a 3-D shape hunt around the house.

 

 

We also revised the names of  2-D shapes and made people out of wooden shape blocks

 

 

and Abigail made a circle, square, triangle and rectangle on the peg board.

 

 

We finished off our unit study on the Little Red Lighthouse with a lesson on personification,

 

 

and enjoyed learning about different types of bridges; beam, arch, truss and suspension. We also found out about some of the worlds most famous bridges, our children's favourites being London Bridge, Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia, Moses Bridge in the Netherlands and Henderson Waves Bridge in Singapore.

 

  

Whilst Nathanael was enjoying some time at the caravan, the girls and I had a morning out at a local soft play centre and enjoyed an ice cream after.  

 

 

On Friday we had our monthly Manchester Christian Home Education group and the theme this time was the human body. The children sang together, played games, had a picnic lunch and participated in arts and craft activities.

 

A game where the children had to collect letters out of a tub of shaving foam and spell out God made me.

 In one of the activities the children drew around themselves and had to stick their different organs in the right place. It was good revision for the Human Body project we did last year.

 

 

Our Week

Monday school began with maths and a science lesson on light.

 

 

We then read together the book "A Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge" by Hildegarde Swift. Set in New York City, it tells the story of a lighthouse that is feeling overshadowed by the George Washington bridge which has been built next to it. We are using this as a springboard for a unit study based upon themes in the book such as lighthouses, boats, bridges, New York, personification etc.

 

Books to read for our project.

The children thoroughly enjoyed the book "A Walk in New York" and learnt lots of interesting things about the city. The children then compiled a collage about New York.

 

 

On Tuesday we read together Rachel Lyman Field's poem "I'd like to be a Lighthouse" and the older children wrote their own versions of the poem.

 

 

"I'd like to be a lighthouse

which guides ships so tall.

I'd like to be a lighthouse

 who sees fish so small

and when its dark, I shine so bright

with a great big flashing light!"

Nathanael age 7

 

"I'd like to be a lighthouse

so everyone can see me.

I'd like to be a lighthouse

not a tree."

Abigail age 4

 

Before piano lessons on Tuesday afternoon, we had some fun in the garden experimenting with different bridge designs to see which would hold the most coins.

 

 

This was the strongest bridge, with the card folded into concertinas.

 On Wednesday we had a family day out to Liverpool. Two highlights of the day were seeing the boats docked in the Albert Docks 

 

 

and visiting the Merseyside Maritime Museum.  

 

 

Nathanael found this P&O poster of particular interest, as it had been recreated using Lego bricks.

 

 

In the afternoon we visited the nearby Speke Hall, a National Trust property.

 

Riding on the buggy.

 It was a beautiful afternoon, so we spent lots of time playing in the woods, the park and in the maze. It was lovely and quiet as the schools had started again after the summer holidays. Abigail would have been starting Reception today, if she had been going to school, so it was nice to mark the day with a family day out.

 

 

Building on our theme of bridges,on Thursday we split up into two family teams and tried to construct bridges using newspaper and sellotape that would be strong enough to support two toy cars and passengers.

 

Team A's bridge!

 

Team B's bridge!

 That afternoon we visited a neighbouring homeschooling family, whose Mum, Elisabeth, is from America. She described to the children what is was like to grow up in America, she shared some stories from her childhood and talked about the similarities and differences between her homeland and England. She made the children popcorn to eat, which was a hit!

 

 

As part of our Bible study, we mind mapped all the references to light we could think of in the Bible.

 

 

In our technology session the children made their own working lighthouses out of plastic cups and some battery operated tea lights which I found at the pound shop. I hope to conclude this unit on the "Little Red Lighthouse" next week.

 

 

On Friday morning we enjoyed a nature walk at a local park, documenting the changes in season, seeing how much the ducklings had grown since our last visit and picking blackberries to make into a pie.

 

 

Our Week

 After a three week summer break in which I did a lot of planning and organising, we started back to homeschool this week. Our days have been filled with reading lessons,

 

 

piano practise,

 

 

and workboxes

 

 

which include maths, literacy, spelling and phonics activities.

 

 

On Monday we started our Science in the Beginning textbook with a lesson based upon light, taken from Genesis 1:3 "Let there be light."

 

 

The children carried out some light investigations

 

 

and had fun finding out in the dark cellar that light travels in a straight line and discovering

 how to reflect light using a torch and mirror.

 

 

Each day after lunch the children have had project time.

 

 

Nathanael is working on his chosen topic of Lego.

 

 

and the girls are learning about pets.

 

 

On Wednesday the children designed a new park for our local area.

 

 

On Thursday they practised some songs from the musical Oliver! and worked on organising props for a play they are producing. We also started our Picture Smart Bible Curriculum, which the children thoroughly enjoyed.

 

 

On Friday we made percussion instruments out of plastic cups, pasta, rice and lentils. Next week we are going to try to make some stringed instruments out of cardboard boxes and elastic bands.

 

 

Having an organised schedule has made this first week back a success.  We still had lots of time for fun at the park

 

 

and keeping fit!

 

 

Free play time is scheduled in half hour sessions throughout the day.

 

 

They are even learning to enjoy helping with household chores (most of the time!)

 

It has been a good first week back.

Curriculum 2014-2015

For Nathanael 7, Tabitha 6 and Abigail 4 (years 3, 2 and Reception) 

and any of the younger children who want to join in!

Bible

 

 

Morning Bible Time and related projects

Read aloud missionary books

Memory Verses and Hymn Singing

K-3 Picture Smart Bible

Postal Bible School

Walk thru the Bible

Time Travellers Club

Maths

 

Heinemann Maths

Maths Games

iPad apps including IXL, Primary Maths Skill Builders ages 4-8 or Maths  3-5 and 4-6 from EuroTalk apps.

Real life opportunities to use money when shopping, measuring and weighing in baking, collecting data for projects etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reading

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and lots of library books!

Phonics

Sound Phonics by Schofield and Sims.

Ladybird I'm Ready.. for Phonics!  app on the iPad.

Games such as Pop for Sight Words.

Spelling

Look, cover, write check method using Schonell's Essential Spelling Lists.

Spelling 1 and 2 by Schofield and Sims.

Handwriting

 

 

Schofield and Sims Handwriting Practice 1 and 2

Various workbooks and worksheets

Copy work from the Bible, poetry and in relation to current project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

English

Lots of different projects and lapbooks, using the children's own interest as a spring board. Past projects have included Cowboys, Houses, The Human Body and Genesis.

Five in a Row.

Poem memorisation.

Literacy - Nathanael

Letts Key Stage 2 Activity Book

Galore Park Junior English Book 1

Bible studies

Literacy - Tabitha and Abigail

Nelson English Books

Letts Key Stage 1 Activity Book

Science

 

Science in the Beginning by Dr Jay L. Wile

365 Science Experiments, Big Book of Science things to Make and Do, No Fuss Science Photocopiables, Junior Illustrated Science Dictionary.

Geography

Having researched and completed mini projects on the four countries of the United Kingdom last year we plan to broaden it out to some European Countries and look forward to discovering more about the main geographical features, food and culture. We have also bought a large map of the world for the wall in the living room which is providing a great amount of discussion and learning about world geography.

 

History

 

 

Weekly lessons of History are going to continue with Daddy for the next 6 weeks on their WWI project and then returning to their project in on Ancient History. Resources are  Story of the World, activity book one Ancient World, Lost Civilizations - Time Life Books and various internet and YouTube videos.

Lots of visits to museums and historical buildings, drama, art and technology activities.

German

Rosetta Stone.

Simple oral activities such as numbers and greetings.

Music

 

 

iPad Naxos My First Classical Music app, My Orchestra app and The Carnival of the Animals.

Peter and the Wolf YouTube videos, both orchestral and ballet.

Recorder lessons from Recorder from the Beginning

Nathanael has Piano lessons from Tunes for Ten Fingers

Music theory book Theory made easy for Little Children.

Hymn singing.

Art and design

 

Katie books, A Children's Book of Art, Usborne Art Sticker Book, You can Draw, visits to Art Galleries and lots of opportunities to create their own art.

Simple sewing lessons and woodwork.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ICT

iPad apps, this year we are looking forward to creating e-books using Book Creator for iPad app.

BBC Touch Typing

Lessons in how to use Microsoft word.

PE

 

 

 

Lots of walks in the country, games in the garden, visits to our local parks and swimming pool.

Home Economics

Baking, cooking and cleaning lessons. Little Keepers and Contenders, The River Cottage Family Cookbook, Kids' First Cookbook.

Nature

We have enjoyed some lovely walks lately and spent time identifying birds and wildlife. I intend to build upon this, visiting the same country park every month, to document in their new nature journals the changes in season, birds spotted, flowers identified etc.

RSPB Wildlife Explorers Club.

Sounds like its going to be a fun year!

"And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD;

and great shall be the peace of thy children."

Isaiah 54:13