first ever blog post

It was such a beautiful day today that we ditched usual activities like maths and hoovering in favour of a day at the beach. It is fascinating to note how much learning actually takes place on a day like this. On the way there we listened to the soundtrack from the film Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy which raised discussion on what the word ‘impaired’ means and it’s uses. Also discussed was the commentary on voter gullabilty and less than intelligent presidents (not terribly fictional really!). The beach we visited has many rockpools and lots of creatures were spotted, some easily identifiable, others to be looked up on the internet and in books later. Sand martins were nesting on the cliffs. Much running about climbing on rocks and paddling was done – the kids quickly worked out that they could use long sticks to test the depth of the water before stepping into pools. I noticed how much more confident Daniel is now in situations like this. His co-ordination and strength seem to have really come on – we have been doing lots of yoga, trampolining and walking but I can’t help wondering if the fact he is not sat at a desk for huge parts of the day may be the main factor here.
We discussed the rock formations and whether they were volcanic or sedimentary and also noted lots of the wild plants growing there. Questions were raised about sea salt and we talked about how it is gathered/prepared for use in food. Also discussed were negative and positive ions and the effect these have on us. We did take books and some reading was done between other things. The trip finished up with the children gathering beach materials to make works of art, some of which had to be taken home and recreated in a more permanent state in the garden! Almost as soon as we got home the doorbell rang as usual and some of the children’s friends from the village came in to play.

also wrote a catch up for May:

It’s now been almost three months since the children left school and things are going better than I ever could have imagined. We started off being very organised , doing maths and English everyday at the kitchen table and we still do this but not quite so devotedly! We have done projects on dinosaurs, vikings and dragons incorporating all sorts of art, baking (dinosaur shaped cookies…yum) and trips into these. Trips there have been amany including Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, the RSPB osprey centre (good web cams for bird projects on this site) – both these were with groups of home educators so we got the school type package with extra activities. Weve also visited castles, gardens, beaches etc.

Some internet resources weve been using quite a bit at this time:
Maths Dictionary for Kids
National Trust for Scotland Education website
The Toymaker
Magic Schoolbus

Both kids are enjoying this set of books which puts maths into real life situations – aimed at 8-12 year olds they are quite good at making kids think round problems and use skills like percentages etc. We got a complete set from The Book People – a great place to pick up bargains. Their stock changes all the time – the books can be bought singly at Amazon.
 Buy UK