September is the start of a new academic year, and it feels like a good time of year to plan and reflect on the things that have been done and the things that you want to do.
This September we saw Daniel move into year 2, Emma into year 1 and H would have been joining nursery. We had a slow start to the new school year as Damian was off work and we wanted to make the most of him being around. That said we did manage to do a few bits that first week and we are definitely back into the usual rhythm as we enter October.
So, during September we started a new history group. This is being run by a friend and it’s a real hands-on approach to history. It’s on a Friday morning and the children have all really been enjoying the first subject, the Celts and Picts, and have all been learning so much. It’s the last of the first six-week block this week and we then have a short break before we move onto the Romans.
The older two completed their cities and buildings projects for the speaking and listening group and have almost finished their next project ahead of the next group on Monday.
October was also the Geography fair and Daniel and Em did their project on the Oceans. They were all a little out of sorts on the day of the fair, but we enjoyed it. I think in hindsight we had started the project a little too early and had run out of steam a bit by the time of the fair! A lesson learnt for next time.
We have continued working on maths and Em has now completed the level one books of Maths no Problem. I plan to order the next set of books this weekend for her when I get a chance. Both her and Daniel are doing well, but I want to consolidate some fo the basics a little more before the end of October.
English work is coming along well, Emma is getting much more fluid and confident with her reading and Daniel is starting to do some work on grammar and making sure we have that sorted. His reading and spelling (on the whole) are pretty good and certainly where they should be for his age so it’s not an area I need to do too much with. We are also doing some work on handwriting. Our English work is often taking the form of exploring poetry and things like Aesops Fables. They enjoyed putting on a puppet show of the Hare and the Tortoise recently and Daniel wrote a Haiku poem about the coral reef recently.
We have done some baking, restarted Spanish classes and completed a lapbook about Boudicca. There’s been a session with friends about plants as well as another to celebrate Roald Dahl day. We have also started and Earth Sciences curriculum once a fortnight with a friend, so we will see how that goes. I’m hoping during the cooler winter months we can really push on with some project work.
October is shaping up to be insanely busy; most of our weekends are taken up with various commitments for Beavers and I must admit I am looking forward to the half-term break which will see a little respite in terms of the organised groups we go to.!
