Life Lately

January seems to be flying by! We started the new year with a muddy climb to reach the White Nancy.

 

It was a rather grey day, but it was a blessed time together enjoying God's creation.

 

 

We celebrated my 30th Birthday

 

 

and had a family day together at the Museum of Science and Industry.

 

Tabitha lifting a mini using pulleys to help. Ties in with our current science unit on forces.

 

Granny took Nathanael for a trip into Manchester on the train where they visited The John Rylands Library on Deansgate.  They were very excited to see a second century papyrus fragment from the gospel of St John.

 

 

Manchester was decorated with lots of red lanterns to celebrate Chinese New Year.

 

 

We had a beautiful walk to the cage at Lyme Park

 

 

spring was definitely in the air

 

 

and the children even braved rolling back down the hill!

 

 

We have also been fitting in some formal schooling. Nathanael is completing a project on London to tie in with an upcoming trip, Tabitha and Abigail are having fun with a farm animal project and we are continuing with our current science, geography and history units.

 

 

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1-2



Scotland Day!

Every year on Burns Night, we have a Scotland day.

 

 

Baking Scottish Shortbread with Granny.

 

 

Our Scotland lapbook.

 

 

Both my Mum and Dad are Scottish, so we looked up their family tartan online and then the children designed their own tartan using watercolours.

 

 

We had a Burns Night Supper, with haggis, neeps and tatties and the children also got to try Irn Bru and Scottish tablet. We sewed Paddington a kilt for the occasion!

 

 

Granny read us a poem by Burns, Nathanael told us some facts he had learnt about him, we sang Scottish songs and prayed for the people of Scotland.

 

Some helpful videos-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



January Nature Study

Once a month we intend to visit our local country park, observing the wildlife and season changes.

 

 

Today we spotted lots of male and female mandarin ducks, a heron, robin and some badger setts. (Sadly my camera hasn't got a good enough zoom to capture them!)

 

 

We were also very excited to see some signs of spring.

 

A sign that spring is on the way ... catkins

 

Rubbing the catkins

 

Bulbs peeping through

 

After sharing some hot chocolate in the car, we headed home and wrote the first pages of our nature journals. We also gave thanks to God for the beauty of His creation.

 

 

 

 

 

Looking forward to seeing all the changes that occur over the year and documenting them in our journals.



Water Project - Final Part

For one of the final tasks of our science unit on water, the children made collages using leaflets and photos from our visit to the Sealife Centre in Manchester.

 

 

We also spent time discussing all the water references we could think of in the Bible.

 

 

Inspired by this post, we learned about onomatopoeias, and  

wrote down some water sounds on water droplet shapes.

 

 

 

Our next science unit is on Forces and I do hope we have as much fun as we have had on this project.

Curriculum Update

One of the great things about Home Education is that you do not have to be tied into a set curriculum, but can change and adapt to suit each individual child. With this in mind, I have dropped a few things off our proposed plan for 2013-2014 and added some extras. The additions are in red.

 

For Nathanael 6 and Tabitha 5 (years 2 and 1) 
and any of the younger children who want to join in!

Bible

Postal Bible School
Go Teach - Come and Learn
Walk thru the Bible
Morning Bible Time and related projects
Read aloud missionary books
Memory Verses and Hymn Singing
*Time Travellers Club

Maths

MEP Maths. This is new for us this year.
Schofield and Sims workbooks
Maths Games
Life of Fred
*Granny's retirement gift was an iPad, which she kindly allows us to use and it has added an interactive and engaging dimension to maths lessons. Each child has a 15 minute session a day using either IXL, Primary Maths Skill Builders ages 4-8 or Maths  3-5 and 4-6 from EuroTalk apps.

Reading

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

Spelling

All About Spelling
Andrew Brodie Spelling for Literacy
*We have also been doing look, cover, write, check method to learn the 100 key words.

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 their interest as a spring board. Past projects have included Cowboys, Houses and The Human Body.
*This term Nathanael has started a project on London and Tabitha and Abigail have started a project on farm animals. I have been getting lots of ideas from Pinterest.
Poem memorisation.
I plan to dip in and out of First Language Lesson, Writing with Ease, Comprehension Activities, Scolastic Literacy Hours, Andrew Brodie Improving Comprehension, Collins First School Dictionary Skills and numerous worksheets I have collected.

Science

Related learning and experiments tied into our current project.
*We have thoroughly enjoyed our project last term on Water and are staring a new science topic on Forces.
365 Science Experiments, Big Book of Science things to Make and Do, No Fuss Science Photocopiables, Junior Illustrated Science Dictionary.

Geography


We are going to do a project throughout the year based upon an A-Z of Britain. In retrospect, I feel that this is too abstract for the children to start with, so we have changed to studying our local area, working outwards to our town and eventually onto England and the United Kingdom.
Me on the map, Usborne Sticker Atlas of Britain and Northern Ireland, Usborne Children's Atlas of Britain.

History

Weekly lessons of History are going to continue with their Daddy focusing in September on Ancient History. Resources are Ancient World, Lost Civilizations - Time Life Books and various internet and YouTube videos.
*We picked up a second hand copy of the Story of the World, activity book one, which has been a great resource and the children are moving on this term from Ancient Egypt to Ancient Greece.
Lots of visits to museums and historical buildings.

German

Rosetta Stone
*and simple oral activities such as numbers and greetings.

Music

Usborne First Book of Music, DK A Young Person's Guide to Music, The Story of the Orchestra
Recorder lessons from Recorder from the Beginning
Piano lessons from Tunes for Ten Fingers

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 maths apps
BBC Touch Typing
Lessons in how to use Microsoft word.

PE

Hopefully 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 place every month, to document in their new nature journals the changes in season, birds spotted, flowers identified etc.


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 Year in Blog Posts!

I have really enjoyed my first full year of blogging. It is lovely to be able to look back at what the children have achieved over the year and all the different places we have visited.
Here is our year in blog posts!

 

 

We welcomed our fifth child, baby Elisabeth into our family just before Christmas last year.

 

We got out and enjoyed the snow in January and I blogged on some of our favourite things, Postal Bible School and Morning Bible Time.

In February we completed our House Project and I blogged about the children's favourite lesson of the week, history with their Daddy!
 

 

 

Nathanael turned 6 in March and we celebrated with a trip to Legoland Discovery Centre. He also had fun making a lapbook on Cowboys.

In April we worked on our Spring project

 

and in May we completed our science unit on the Human Body.

 

 

We had a lovely family day in June to the beach in North Wales and this inspired a mini project on Jellyfish.

 

 

Miriam turned two in July and we enjoyed our best day out of the year to Formby beach. Daddy and Nathanael spent some special time together on a Father and Son camping trip.
 

 

Tabitha was very excited to turn 5 in August and she competed an All About Me lapbook and Abigail made an ABC lapbook. I also posted on our Curriculum for 2013-2014.

 

In September we had a few days away at a Christian Home Educators holiday in Wales and when we returned the children started a new Ancient History unit and we had a trip to the Ancient World's Exhibition at the Manchester museum.

 

In October we had a Windy Day, completed a project on Autumn, took Paddington to see the sights of Stockport and I wrote a post on days out in and around Manchester with children.

 

In November we started our science unit on Water and I blogged about sewing with young children.

In December Elisabeth turned one and Abigail four. I attempted to write a post a day on Christmas crafts, and failed miserably!
 

 

What a year! Not every day has been blog worthy; we have had our ups and downs and challenges along the way, but God has been good and we are very blessed.
 Looking forward to 2014.





^"It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him."
Lamentation 3:22-24

 



Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas from the Young Hosannas!

(Filmed at Staircase House, Stockport.)

"Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, 

and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."

Matthew 1:23

Life Lately

Afternoons spent exploring... Staircase house

and Stockport Air Raid Shelters.

Winter walks at Tittesworth Reservoir,

Marple Roman Lakes

and Etherow Country park (where we spotted a Heron and 3 male Mandarin ducks.)

A family meal to celebrate the December birthdays.

Girls and their dolls!

The children enjoyed acting out the nativity story in our church carol service 

and we celebrated Abigail's 4th birthday.

Happy Birthday Ab, we love you so much and are so thankful to God for you.