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

Our Week

We started our week with a lovely walk at Lyme Park, delighting in the beauty of God's creation.

 

 

It is mornings like this that remind me what a blessing it is to educate our own children. It is a privilege to spend so much time together as a family.

 

 

There is a great adventure playground at Lyme Park which our children love (and its fun for adults too!)

 

 

Later on that day we had our annual trip to the dentist

 

 

and harvested some fruit in the garden, which was made into a delicious rhubarb and blackcurrant crumble for tea.

 

 

We have been out in the garden a lot this week and have had an impromptu snail race. Tabitha's snail won, sadly Abigail's snail was trodden on by Elisabeth walking over the race track.

 

 

I found a climbing frame for sale for £20 on a local sale or swap site, so Paul and I went one evening to dismantle it and bring it home. As it was so old, we had a big job trying to undo all the nuts and bolts, but we managed it and the children are delighted with it! They helped clean it down and rubbed some of the rust off with wire wool.

 

 

Miriam turned 3 this week, so we had our Birthday tradition of breakfast at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Yum!

 

 

And as a Birthday present we had a family day out at Blackpool Zoo.

 

 

Sadly my camera got a drink spilt on it, so these are the only 2 photos I managed to get of the zoo, but here are last years photos if you are interested!

 

 

We have been continuing with our morning workboxes, but are taking a summer break from Science and Geography lessons. In History the children studied the War Poets including Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. The children love to hear poetry and were very inspired to write their own War Poetry.

 

The War is Coming - by Nathanael, Tabitha and Abigail

 

The war is coming,

The battle of death,

The guns are setting,

Banging and Blasting,

In the war.

 

People get killed,

Rats are scrambling,

Over our feet.

 

The war is coming,

The shells are shouting,

Our ears have gone deaf.

 

There is no such thing as,

Dulce et decorum est.

 

 

We are enjoying learning Psalm 100 together and we are also focusing upon memorising a hymn a week. The hymn that we have been learning this week is "Power in the Blood" by Lewis E. Jones.

 

 

 

"For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting;

and his truth endureth to all generations."

Psalm 100:5

Windy Day

Stormy weather was predicted today, so we decided to have a wind themed day! We started off by watching the weather forecast together on the BBC website. We located where we live on the map of the United Kingdom. Following that, we shared together the book Me on the Map.

 

Looking in an old Ladybird book we have on the Weather, we discovered how wind speeds are measured using an anemometer, and we made a very simplified version of our own by sewing lengths of ribbon onto a piece of fabric and attaching it to the washing line! Throughout the day the children checked how much the ribbons were blowing and tried to work out the wind force on the Beaufort scale.

 

 

We then read together the from the Bible the stories of Jesus calming the storm and God speaking to Elijah after the wind, fire and earthquake.

 

Using straws the children blew watered down paint, which when dry we...

 

 

...laminated and made into windmills.

 

 

We read together Postman Pat's Rainy Day

 

 

which gave Nathanael and Tabitha some inspiration for writing their own new story entitled "Postman Pat's Windy Day."

 

 

Tabitha's handwriting practise today was based on storm vocabulary

 

 

whilst Nathanael wrote an acrostic poem about the wind.

 

 

Wild, whistling wind.

Inside we stay, out of the wind's way.

Noisy nights, lots of frights.

Destroying trees, foaming seas,

Wild, whistling wind.

 

 

We finished the day with a trip to the park to splash in the puddles.

Nathanael's Ships and Sailors Lapbook (6 years old)

Nathanael has been keen for a while to do a project on Ships and Sailors, so over the summer he has spent time working on it.  He has read various non-fiction and fiction books on the subject.



Lapbook front cover

 

Inside lapbook with flaps down. On the left are some mini books Nathanael made on Noah's Ark and the Titanic. On the right is a poem he wrote, inspired by J. M. W Turner's painting the Fighting Temeraire.

 

 

The Ship's Death

by Nathanael

 

Bang! Blistering cannons

Bite holes in ships

In Trafalgar's battle.

Brave Temeraire.

 

Now the saddest day of all

It's being led away

To its death today.

Poor fighting Temeraire.

 



Inside the lapbook a labelled drawing of a Galleon, some sentences about Viking Ships and drawings of the front covers of Christopher Columbus and Treasure Island books he read.



 

 

Ship art work with question and answer flaps.

 

 Together we read a lot of books on this subject, so I have included the links to the books I got from Amazon, in case it is useful to anyone.

 

Usborne book of Ships

Christopher Columbus

Titanic Sticker Book

Nelson

Pirates

Katie and the British Artists (for information on Turner's paintings)

 

Summer School - Part 1

The UK has been enjoying glorious sunshine for the last few weeks and one of the benefits of Home Education is that you can make the most of it.

 Formal schooling still continues however with
 

handwriting,
 

copy work from Ephesians 4:32 "Be ye kind..."
 

 

poetry,

 

 

maths and

 

 

artist studies.  The children have had fun in the garden creating art work in the style of Jackson Pollock (making a lot of mess!)

 

 

Vincent Van Gogh.

 

 

 One of the highlights of the week for the children was Stockport Carnival. They happily helped out with a church stall giving away free refreshments and gospel tracts.

 

 

There was time also to enjoy an ice-cream and a ride on the fairground.

 

 

 

 

 



Gateway Poetry Recital

 

Once a fortnight we attend Gateway, a Christian Home Education group. One of the recent activities was to learn a poem. Although the whole video is well worth watching, our children are on at 4:48.