February has been a month mostly characterised by Damian’s foot injury, immense levels of rain and our middle one turning six!
It’s been a good month, I think, and despite its challenges, it’s been enjoyable. Here is what home education looked like for us in February 2020 (children in Year 2, Year 1 and nursery age).
Core Subjects
We have continued on with our Maths No Problem books, and I am really enjoying the structure and route through maths that this brings us. It’s really helped me feel like the children are getting a solid grounding in their maths work, and I can see ever more confidence in the older two and their mathematical knowledge.
I’m looking for some sort of English programme to work on with the children. I’m wary of getting too formal as I don’t want to stymie their love of reading, but equally, I want to equip them with the skills to write creatively and effectively. Given that I make a living from writing you’d think I’d be better at this than I feel I am at the moment! There’s some work for me to do on this.
We have continued with our Science in the Shed sessions run by our lovely friend. We have looked at the circulatory system and breathing this month – H, in particular, enjoyed making the lung in a bottle for this and continues to show anyone who comes to the house.
Targets for March are to get H confidently counting to 20, D through his current maths book and onto the next stage, and Em more secure in her times tables knowledge. We have a World Book Day event coming up, more science sessions and I want to do something around the World Poetry Day.
Project Work
Project work has been a bit sparse this month; we finished the USA project for our speaking and listening group, although I expect more postcards will arrive for our postcard project, so we will no doubt continue exploring those. We finished our history class on The Anglo-Saxons. The children have really enjoyed this and we move onto Vikings soon. I’ve really enjoyed exploring this area of history as it’s not something I recall from my own schooling. I’ve treated myself to a couple of books recently in order to brush up my own knowledge and for when we re-visit these topics next year when H is a little older and the other two can delve in deeper.
Projects that we will be looking at in March include one for the STEM fair (we will be looking at computers and coding) and festivals and celebrations for our speaking and listening group in early April. We are also looking at the period of Lent in the run up to Easter so will do some bits on that.
Regular Groups
Regular groups have continued, so PE, Football, Spanish and History. The older two are now in a music school which they are thoroughly enjoying and of course Beavers which has been a brilliant thing for them to get involved in.
We had our speaking and listening group at the end of the month as well as a STEM challenge earlier in the month with some friends.
Days Out
Days out have been severely lacking this month! The weather has been terrible. But, that said we have managed a trip to Dunham Massy with friends. We went to an Alice in Wonderland themed event at a local church which was fantastic and we ended the month with a trip to the Cheshire Ice Cream Farm which was a generous gift from a friend for Emma’s birthday. We had a lovely time and of course enjoyed an ice cream before we left!
We visited the open day at Clayton Hall and the older two helped out at a coffee morning to raise funds for their Beaver Group. We tried out a local Coder DoJo which D loved and has inspired our STEM fair project, and we hope to get along to the next one in March.
We have been for lunch with my auntie to celebrate her birthday and, of course, had a wonderful party for Emma’s sixth birthday; a day when I was truly thankful for the many friends we have made. The generous gifts that suited E down to a T to the hands-on approach and help at the party.
February has felt long at times, Damian’s foot injury meant he was pretty much useless around the house for a good while, and him being at home, as well as the half-term break meaning some of our groups were off, has made the month feel disjointed in places. That said, I think we are in a good place now to move in the run-up to Easter to really concentrate on getting some big areas of work done, before we enter the summer term and, hopefully, the better weather.
