And in the blink of an eye, we are at the end of November! It’s been a peculiar month within a very peculiar year. A second national lockdown, which didn’t really feel like a lockdown as the changes didn’t really affect me. We have been incredibly busy this month, and when I whizzed through my diary I was surprised at just how much we have covered this month!
Core Subjects
We have continued with Maths and English work and, rather excitingly, H has declared that he would like to learn to read. I wasn’t sure at first that he was in the right place for learning to read, but he can get some basic CVC words and we are building up his skill at the moment. He gets frustrated quickly, which is fine, so we very much take it at his pace. We have been enjoying the phonics mini books over on twinkl and some of their initial sounds sheets. He is really good at recognising the initial sounds, but less good at saying them so we are working on that a lot. The beauty of home education is that we can tackle some of his speech issues alongside his reading, and I hope that this helps him to make the connections that he needs.
Project Work
We have done LOTS of project work this month; far more than I had planned to do! We finished off the Halloween themed work at the start of the month as well as the last bits on Autumn. We did a short project on the Gunpowder Plot and did this alongside a Parliament online Home Educators session which was really good and the children seemed to really enjoy.
We have completed projects on Diwali as well as building that into a much bigger project on India which we did for the online Geography fair. This was a great project and it was good to see just how much all three children have developed since we first started doing these projects. They’re now able to direct their own learning much better and able to agree the work they’ll do, rather than for me to steer the project. I can have conversations and we can share ideas. They really enjoyed designing a snakes and ladders game and conducting some small research projects using the internet.
Regular Groups
Spanish continues on and I am thankful that the Beaver group has been able to continue running. D has also continued with Cubs and I need to spend some time this week pulling together the evidence for some of the badges he has been working on. Em has a badge day which she thoroughly enjoyed and at the start of December, she has a Christmas themed camp.
We had our regular speaking and listening group in November, with a theme of Oceania. Em did about Sydney, H about the Kakapo and D about Polynesian Myths. It was eclectic, to say the least! We are taking a short break from this group and it will restart at the end of January time. I think it will run online still until at least Easter time, but we will see I suppose. I think it’s best to plan for it to be online and anything else is a bonus.
We have had a lot of zoom sessions this month with a regular group of people. I have hosted sessions on:
- Hibernation
- MIgration
- Thanksgiving
- St Andrew’s Day
and we have also joined in with a poetry sharing zoom and the geography fair mentioned above. Zoom isn’t perfect but it does allow the children to have some sort of contact with their friends and it gives a bit of structure and thought to the days and weeks. It’s a bit too easy to get very insular with Home Ed at the moment and I don’t think that’s healthy for us.
Days Out
When the second lockdown became clear I made sure to book us a trip to Dunham Massey; I had promised the children we would get decorations for the tree from there and I was keen to ensure that we did. We had a lovely walk on a beautiful autumnal day and they each were happy to choose a decoration each. We also had walks in the woodland at Alderley Edge as well as visiting Fletcher Miss, Debdale Park and going for a Bonfire Night walk to see the displays.
Other Bits and Pieces
D and E have been very busy writing stories this month, and it’s been lovely to watch them develop their stories; some of the languages they’re using is wonderful and I look forward to seeing the finished result.
We have been enjoying a few books that we have read aloud together and we all enjoyed watching Against the Tides which is a documentary about Beth French, someone Em learnt about a few months back. It was great for Em to see Beth swimming and to see the reality of what she had learnt about and spoken with Beth about.
November has felt super productive but in amongst all the work, there has been a lot of reading and playing, drawing and origami making. There has been LOTS of Christmas excitement and Christmas planning and I can’t wait for the coming weeks.
Christmas 2020 is going to be strange, but with it comes the focus to make it special in other ways, and I have a few things planned already.
All good work