A good home education day

It's been a lovely day today and I feel like we have been very productive. 

Harry went to art class this morning. The teacher allows us to make up missed classes by attending one of her other classes and this was to catch up with the session we missed while on holiday. This is a great advantage, as home educating families often use term time to go on holiday or make family visits or excursions. He started a rhinoceros picture in pastels. We also played in the park with some of the other children although it was pretty cold and rainy!

At home Harry has continued his written review of series 1 of the Sea Quest books. He started this a while ago and has picked it up again now. 

We did some French practise; we said our names and ages, watched some counting videos on YouTube and played Shopping List in French.

Some complicated Lego creations have been built.

I got some of the craft supplies out and the boys decided to make fan style wings and tails for birds, by cutting strips of paper and fastening the ends together with a split pin. Peter also snipped up some wool to make a spider web.

Harry read his current Sea Quest book aloud to me and has done a Conquer Maths lesson on shapes. Peter has used the Teach Your Monster to Read app.

Harry also had Beavers this evening and they had a presentation called Amazing Brain from researchers at Newcastle University, which involved interactive games on how the brain works and links with the senses. 

French at home, a new bathroom and IKEA

We have nearly finished our BFG themed activities this week and we spent most time this morning doing that. Harry also completed a page of his handwriting book.

After that we needed to go out as there was a lot of crashing going on upstairs due to the builders starting work on our new bathroom!! I am very excited as it desperately needed doing and I am sure it will be lovely, but for now it will be disruptive for a couple of weeks. Here is Harry in the place where the bath was yesterday! 

We went off to IKEA as I needed a couple of storage boxes and we had lunch there. The boys got some exercise in too in the sun of the play area.

At home, we did some French activities. Our structured class is not continuing this term but I am going to keep up learning at home. We played our French version of Orchard Toys Shopping List. 

I then hid some of the game tiles under scarves and asked Harry and Peter where they were. For example 'Où Est La Pomme?'. They found the tile then said the word and colour of scarf in French. Harry also did a section of Duolingo on the iPad with me relating to colour.

Games, reading and bike practise

We have stayed around home today as I have felt a bit weary the last couple of days and we didn't have the car anyway. We completed most of our beach follow up activities and did a couple of sections of half-year quiz. Last year we did a quiz at the end of the year based on the topics we had covered but I felt that a year was too long to review all at once. Harry really enjoyed the quiz and asked for another one so I reviewed my blog and we have covered maths, science and spelling today. We will be doing history, geography, English and art too this week. 

We have played several of our Orchard Toys games today: Pirate Ludo, Crazy Chefs and our newest one, Les Courses a Faire. This is a French language version of Shopping List and I really like it! Harry was trying to read the words on his list and Peter made great efforts at saying his words. 

Peter has also been out practising on Harry's old first bike! He is really fast on his balance bike but I want him to learn to pedal so he can use a proper bike next year when he is too big for the balance bike. He was really proud of himself as he made it half way down the street and back.

I have been reading The Borrowers aloud today and also most of this library book, which both boys love. They really enjoy traditional stories, which is why, I guess, such stories endure for generations! 

Harry read his first Summer Reading Challenge book, which had a serious message that the habitats of animals are being destroyed and people must care and act together to save them. He read quickly and fluently and was really pleased that he didn't need any help with the first page.

French and play

Harry and Peter were enjoying some quiet activities this morning so I left them to it and ignored my list! I love it when they find their own things to do and usually don't interfere as finding their own, appropriate activities is an important skill I would like them to have. Harry was making geometric shape pictures while wearing bunny ears and listening to Gangsta Granny by David Walliams and Peter was dressed as a knight making various weapons for Lego men to fight dragons! 

We have also done some French activities as our class wasn't on this week. We played a memory tray game, where we said the names of the objects then someone took one away and the others had to try to remember which one had been removed.

We also watched some French BBC Class Clips - one about food and a song of Old Macdonald Had a Farm and did some French sticker book. Peter chose the pictures and Harry found the matching words.

It was quite warm this afternoon and Peter played in the garden lots with his ball and with water.

Harry made some tin foil boats for him to use.

Harry has spent a lot of time building Lego this afternoon. He has been saving his money for a few months and had enough to buy the set he wanted - Museum Break In. I was really proud of him as it's the first big thing he has saved for instead of spending money the moment he has it on smaller things.

He just finished building it all in time to go to enjoy-a-ball class and played with it afterwards when Stuart got home. He also practised cello ready for his lesson tomorrow. 

Gymnastics, friends and French

It's been a very busy start to the week and we have been out of the house most of the time so I was pleased to be spending a morning at home today, building and playing with Lego! Harry also did three Conquer Maths lessons on addition and measuring after breakfast. 

Harry went to a full morning gymnastics session at his gymnastics club yesterday, which they always offer in school holidays. Peter and I went to a local park, which was really nice and came home to prepare lunch before going to collect Harry. One of Harry's friends from gymnastics came back with his little brother and mum for lunch. They all had a play with Lego, train track and we also did an hour of crafts, using flower printed paper to make collage and threading beads. It was great fun. Peter is really enjoying using scissors at the moment and he did lots of cutting and made more letter monsters. He rather likes the roll of eye stickers that came in the last craft order, as you can see from his creation!

Stuart and I had a rare night out together to the cinema with a friend babysitting last night, which was great. The boys were both asleep by 6.35pm, so I think they were feeling the effects of the busy few days!

After our relaxed morning we went out to French this afternoon. We have been listening to French songs by Maurice Chevalier at home too. At the class they looked at different coloured flowers and butterflies and sang a body song. We went to the park afterwards with our friends and the children all used up lots of energy while we mums had a chat! 

A trophy and haircuts

Harry won the trophy at his enjoy-a-ball class today. Each week, one child wins a trophy for good trying and listening. Harry was very proud. Stuart was going out after work tonight with friends so we called him using FaceTime so Harry could show him the trophy. He has gone to bed with it tonight!

Both boys also had haircuts today. Peter has needed one for a while and looks very smart now. 

Harry did his difficult spellings this morning and practised his cello before we went out. They also both helped me to tidy the house as Stuart's sister is visiting tomorrow. Harry vacuumed the hall and Peter helped me to put clean clothes away. I think that even very small children can help around the house and both of mine actually love having jobs to do. 

Harry has been reading one of the stage 9 Oxford Reading Tree books we borrowed from the library, Survival Adventure. He has done really well. There is a lot of text so we have been taking turns to read a page but he hasn't struggled with many words. 

We had French class with our home education friends yesterday, after having a FaceTime call with my sister. The children each had a Brussels sprout and we sang a song planting the little cabbage with various parts of the body and putting it on, under, in front and behind things. They also practised saying 'I am eating....' and 'I am drinking....'. It was very cold but we enjoyed the fresh air in the playground afterwards and the children all had rosy cheeks!

Numbers to 5, cello and French

Harry took himself off to listen to his new audio book - Prince Caspian, the latest instalment of the Narnia series - for 1.5 hours this morning so I did some number work with Peter. He is really keen on counting and numbers at the moment and loves having some 'work' to do alongside Harry! 

I printed these number posters from Activity Village recently and I set out the numbers 1-5. We counted them together then I asked Peter to put the correct number of Lego men onto the sheets. I also wrote the numbers on sheets of paper and asked him to match them up. He did all this with no trouble. We then sang number songs - '1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive' and '5 little men in a flying saucer', using our puppets. Peter and I then went to read books for half an hour too.

We had to go out in the very bad wind and hail as I had a dentist appointment. I gave the boys the iPad and they watched some CBeebies programmes while I was treated in the same room.

We usually have French on a Thursday afternoon but it was cancelled today due to the bad weather and driving conditions. After lunch we read Harry's latest reading book, The Lost Voice again and I wrote some of the words from the book on post it notes. We call this a word wall and he loves jumping around to take them off when he has read them!

He also did a long cello practice. We did the activities from his lesson and he made some of his own sounds. He is counting to 8 here, hence the strange expression! 

We did some jigsaws. Harry made a start on his 200 piece Christmas jigsaw and got the edge finished. He did some more with Stuart when he got home.

We also did some French of our own. We used the transport page of a French sticker book. I gathered all the vehicles shown and they each chose one from the box before finding the matching sticker (and word in Harry's case). We listened to the words on Google Translate then watched a YouTube video featuring French transport words. They also watched a couple of episodes of Peppa Pig in French and we discussed and pronounced some the words we recognised - soirée, pyjama, bonsoir, attendez and petit frere.

Shop play numeracy and a new bike!

Harry was really keen to play shops again this morning so we did that first. He is now playing at being a ticket machine - we ask for the number of tickets we need, he sends them through a hole in a box with a slip of paper showing the price. We then send the money through the hole and any change comes back out. This adds an extra numeracy task as he is writing the numbers for the price too. He has been choosing numbers up to 20 for the cost and I pay with a 10p or 20p so he can give change as he likes doing that.

I had a look through our workbooks for activities to support this last night and he did these this morning too. There was some adding and subtracting to 20 and an adding grid, showing pairs of numbers that make 20. He is keeping this with his ticket machine area as he said it will help him work out the change when I pay with 20p.

We went to our French class this afternoon - we have been doing this for over a year now so it is a nice constant in our week. We went to the playground with our friends afterwards.

Harry was very excited after getting out of the bath as I told him to put clothes back on instead of pyjamas and he went out with Stuart when he got home to collect his new bike! They had been to buy it last weekend and it was ready yesterday. We hadn't told him in advance as Stuart could easily have been too late from work and the shop closed at 7pm but they made it. He rode it up and down the street a few times and I have promised a proper ride out tomorrow morning - he needs to get the hang of using gears as he hasn't had them before. He was so happy and said he never wants to be away from it! 

French at home, reading and cello

Our French class was cancelled this afternoon as the tutor was ill, so we did some French at home instead - this is something I don't get round to enough but it was actually great fun! We got out the coloured scarves and one person closed their eyes while another took away a scarf. You could then open your eyes and say the colour that was missing in French. I also shouted out colours and the boys tried to throw the correct scarf in the air as quickly as possible.

We also watched this song on YouTube before setting out fruit on name labels. We played the 'poison game' which we play at the class. One person closes their eyes while someone else points to their choice for the 'poison fruit'. You can then open your eyes and say the names of the fruits until you get to the poison one, then your turn is over.

Harry practised his cello. They started using the bow last week so he has been practising the correct hold, which he is finding difficult, and left hand plucking. We have been fitting in three practises per week since he started his lessons, which seems to be enough in these early stages, but I am aiming to increase it to four.

Harry and Peter had great fun rolling our conkers down a large tube. They played with this for half an hour and found it hilarious!

We went into town this afternoon, which is when we would usually have been at French. As the weather is becoming colder, Harry needed a fleece and we went to get this. The boys enjoyed having a look in the toy department at John Lewis too! 

Harry and Peter did some Autumn themed colouring at home while I made tea and I read several books to them as they were both really tired. Harry also did his reading at bedtime. He has enjoyed reading our level 4 Oxford Reading Tree (Read at Home) books this week. We moved onto level 5 a few months ago but I think level 4 still provides a challenge for him and I am really happy that he got them out himself and actually wants to read them. 

Roman follow up and back to French

Yesterday we followed up our trip to Chesters Roman Fort with some reading and we completed the activities inside the education leaflet we had been given at the fort. Harry read the speech bubbles on the front and we talked about the way different people inside the fort lived. I asked Harry to write the three things he liked best in his notebook - he liked the Commanding Officer's house as it was really big and he drew this too.

We also had our first French class back after the summer yesterday afternoon. We share a tutor with four other families and there are 11 children in the class. It's nice for Harry and Peter to see the same children every week and we usually go to the playground with them too, although the weather was terrible yesterday so we didn't. I am ashamed to say we didn't do much French over the summer break, but we did remember quite a lot at the class. I need to work harder at keeping up French at home - it's not natural for me and I am learning the language at the same time, but I have got more ability now than I picked up at school!