Well, I wasn’t going to write a December post, as it was a truly horrible month for us and very little happened in the way of learning, but I figure it’s good to show when things don’t quite go as planned….
December should have been a month of celebrations here, for the first time in many years I was looking forward to my birthday, the World Cup was in full swing, and of course Christmas brings with it fun and celebrations. However, December rapidly went downhill for us with a close family member being very poorly and Damian spending time at the hospital. I was also unwell at the same time, I thought initially it was covid but LFTs produced a negative result. Sadly we had a death on my birthday, then Damian and Em got covid which saw them both feeling pretty rough.. Then the boys both got Strep A and D had tonsillitis!
Whatever the bug was that I had left me feeling pretty wiped out and I barely ate for 2/3 weeks and just didn’t have much energy for anything. But it is what it is and rather than adding pressure to do activities and the such as just sort of let the days pass by and did things we had the energy to do so.
At the time of writing, D is 10, E is 8, and H 6, so Year 5, Year 4, and Year 2 respectively.
Core Subjects
We started the month well and cracked on with maths etc and we did a lovely Christmas Carol study from Plazoom which was a great way to get the children looking at the characters and how language is used. I really enjoyed doing this and we, of course, followed it up with a reading of the story (I sued the adaptation in A World Full of Dickens Stories) and we watched a TV adaptation too.
Projects
I had ideas for a couple of projects but, it didn’t quite work out. We did do a project for Christmas Jumper Day that the children really enjoyed but that was about it. Energy levels were running a bit low at this stage and I had planned to get them to make a Christmas t-shirt of sorts but again this didn’t quite go to plan.
Regular Groups
The children still got to their Spanish and scouting groups, although Em did miss her Christmas celebration as it coincided with her being quite unwell with Covid. We did also help out at the Cubs Christmas Fair which was good fun.
A lot of the groups seemed to finish quite early which was good in some ways, as it meant we could just relax and take rest as we needed to.
Other Bits & Pieces
We did get to a fab Christmas party that a friend organized for the Home Ed community which the children all really enjoyed. It was very much needed. We also went to a local pantomine at the end of the year and had a lovely NYE party at a friend’s house.
So, all in all, December was very lacking BUT, it is what it is and one of the benefits of home education is taking down time when it’s needed. We all really needed to just rest and almost hibernate for a few weeks and we have hit the ground running now we are into January.
… it wasnt quite the best of Decembers was it