October has felt productive, and I find it’s always a good month both in terms of feeling like we have achieved something and for my own sense of well being. We have packed a lot into October; and doing so is all the more impressive as we took a week off education stuff as Damian was off work for a week and we had Daniel’s 8th birthday.
There are also a lot of festivals and the such to mark during this quarter, the start of autumn, Halloween and of course, we move into November and there’s bonfire night, remembrance and Diwali and the ever-closer creeping of Christmas. I’ve certainly made the most of all these different events to give something different to our home education.
Core Subjects
We haven’t done a huge amount on core subjects during October. No real reason other than we have just been ticking along through various workbooks and the such and I haven’t felt that this was a particular need. We will, however, be picking back up on Maths in the coming weeks.
Project Work
This has been a key area for us this last month. The children are really enjoying working through the PawPrint badges and we have spent time working on the Autumn challenge badge as well as looking at Halloween in more detail than we would usually. I had intended to do a fair bit on Day of the Dead with them, but with the second lockdown announced around this time I opted to make to most of the outdoors instead. We will focus on that one more next year and probably do a longer unit study on Mexico in the process.
As well as the seasonal projects, we did a short project about Rhino’s and conservation to tie in with a book we shared together. All three children enjoyed this and it was fun to use the book to spark some quite complex conversations with the children about conservation and zoos.
We have had a wide number of zoom meet ups with friends and have covered a wide range of projects. We have looked at Huichol yarn art, played themed bingo games and had themed poetry meet ups. We made Halloween costumes for soft toys and shared with friends on zoom.
We also had our regular speaking and listening group (theme of scientific endeavours) and as ever, it was really interesting to see and hear the different approaches that the children took to this. My own three looked at Jane Goodall, Harry Coover and Sue Hendrickson and they really learnt a fair bit. We have one more speaking and listening group planned in then a short break until after new year.
Regular Groups
Spanish still continues on and I am thankful that the Beaver group has been able to continue running. D moved to cubs and had a weekend virtual camp which saw him camping in the living room (it was a very wet weekend!) and he had a whole lot of fun with that.
We did manage to meet with friends on a couple of occasions to work through some of the Exploring Nature with Children curriculum and that was a nice welcome change for us all!
Days Out
We managed a fair few days out in October. We went to a few local spots which were lovely and have enjoyed seeing the changing season. We also went a little further afield to Carsington Water whilst Damian was off work (it waa a beautful place to visit but an incredibly wet day!) We also did a spooky trail at Wythenshawe Park which the children loved.
We have also been to Dunham Massey a few times, one of my favourite National Trust places as well as taking a wander down Haughton Dale. We also managed to get an evening trip to drive through the Blackpool Illuminations before the lockdown was announced, much to the children’s delight.
Other Bits and Pieces
We have undertaken lots of ad-hoc things too during October. We have planted spring bulbs in anticipation of the spring and we hope to have some beautiful daffodils in due course. We have looked at Black History and undertaken any numer of crafts, including a fun and impressive looking God’s Eye weaving craft which Em, in particular, enjoyed.
November promises to be equally as busy and as much fun as October and we have a few mini projects to work through and then a longer one on Diwali and India for the second half of the month, after which point it will be lots of festive themed fun!
good job you made it to the lights when you did
Indeed! We nearly postponed it as the weather wasn’t great