Finally, an update!

My blog has been neglected for a few weeks as lots has been going on in our life so I'll just post a quick update then hopefully will be back to regular posts.

Peter had his fourth birthday! No longer a toddler and he had a nice visit to soft play and build-a-bear.

Harry has continued to create great pictures at art class and has been playing cello very nicely.

Harry has been reading Beast Quest books and has read the first two Artemis Fowl stories borrowed from the library as well as King of the Cloud Forests by Michael Morpurgo. Peter has started blending sounds to read simple words in the stage 1 Oxford Reading Tree books. He is also using the Teach Your Monster Read app.

Harry has started working from the Galore Park English textbook which is the perfect level of challenge for him at the moment. We are doing some of this each week. He has also been working lots on the basic maths functions using techniques for larger numbers, in Conquer Maths and the Mr Thorne Maths Universe app.

We have been using the BBC Schools Let's Move podcasts based on Ten Pieces classical music programme, so we have been following the podcast through dance and movement then watching some of the Ten Pieces too.

I recently received a set of free challenge cards from Dyson, which contain small science and engineering challenges. We have started following these last week, by using coke to clean a penny, which teaches about chemical compounds.

Harry has been to a family stargazing event at Kielder Observatory with Stuart, which he really enjoyed.

Harry and I have just started following a futurelearn online course about moons. He has always been interested in space and I think we will enjoy this.

We have been working on the Stone Age for a few weeks. We have read several books, looked up details about Germany (where the first bones were found) and visited the Hancock Museum in Newcastle using their downloadable object sheets to discover items in the Stone Age gallery. The boys played a great imaginative game for a long time involving hunting and being Cave Men. Harry also wrote a report back to the future from the Stone Age. 

We talked about Cave art and why it existed and also generally about art and how it can transport us to imaginative places or make us feel emotion. We looked at the posters and pictures in our house and said how they made us feel. 

New Year home education

Happy New Year! We had a lovely two week Christmas holiday and saw all of our close family. It feels like a long time since I updated here!

Stuart went back to work on Monday but before that we went swimming, visited the Centre for Life and Gibside together. We have also played many, many games of Uno, read lots of new books and built Lego Christmas presents.

We are slowly getting back into routine this week. Harry and Peter have both done some reading and writing practise, Harry had Beavers and his swimming lesson and we have started reading about The Stone Age, which we will be working on for a couple of weeks.

Harry has also been playing cello and we have watched some videos by The Piano Guys. We especially love this Batman themed piece. Peter and I listened to a BBC Playtime podcast called 'Robin'. 

We've been on the bus to City Library too, to return our Christmas books. Harry has borrowed a couple of Michael Morpurgo titles to read along with his beloved Beast and Sea Quests!

I won't be changing much about our routine this term. I think we are doing the right amount of external classes - both boys are doing enjoy-a-ball and music and Harry also does art class, swimming lessons and Beavers. Peter isn't school age until September so we may start him with an extra activity then if he wants to do one.

Last year Harry's main aim was to read independently and he has exceeded my expectations in that respect; he reads so quickly and fluently now and I expect he will start to read longer books this year. He will be working more on written English and we will be starting the Galore Park Junior English textbook. He will continue to use Conquer Maths online.

Peter is enjoying Reading Eggs online so he will continue to use that and he is now able to read three letter words by sounding the letters. He loves practising writing letters too! We will start using the early stage Oxford Reading Tree books as well. He will be using workbooks for learning to write numbers and practising early maths skills.

Making Christmas cards

We've been making Christmas cards this morning! Peter is getting quite good at writing his name and was determined he would write it in each card! 

It's good writing practise for Harry too and he doesn't complain about this as much as other styles of writing! 

We made some by using double sided tape to create a vague Christmas tree shape, then peeling off the top strip and adding glitter.

I also printed small copies of Harry's snowman picture from art class and we added these to some of the cards.

Harry has been working on the chance section of Conquer Maths and Peter has been doing Reading Eggs. Harry also had his swimming lesson this afternoon and we left in the icy rain, which I think might give us an indication of the weather for the rest of this week! 

Playdough, park and art

We made play dough on Thursday and the boys played with it all morning! They made sweets, monsters and vehicles for Lego men.

We went to the park with friends in the afternoon which was very wintery, so we had nice rosy cheeks! I even joined in playing football to keep warm!

Harry finished his Winter themed picture at art yesterday using watercolours and then the boys both had haircuts.

Harry also had his enjoy a ball class, where they practised basketball skills. 

In between these activities he has been playing minecraft. He bought himself the handbook and has been reading it constantly to learn how to do new things!

We've also been talking about maths a lot. I am trying to establish if we need to do any more year 2 in the Conquer Maths programme so I am asking him questions to check he has remembered the more complex points, such as angles, fractions, shape and measurement. Harry has also been using the Mr Thorne maths universe app to practise adding, subtracting and dividing.

The Nutcracker and library

We read the story of The Nutcracker this morning from this lovely book we borrowed from the library. 

We also watched the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy on YouTube and Harry wanted to see Darcey Bussell as he knows her from Strictly, so we found some of her dances to watch too.

Harry played cello and we all played some board games before going on the bus to the city library. I love that Harry has to take a book everywhere with him now to read on the way! 

We are going to be reading Peter Pan aloud next and Harry borrowed a Jeremy Strong Christmas themed book to read himself. Harry also bought the minecraft beginner handbook as he has just started playing it. He has been reading it all evening and filling me in on all the things he is going to try next! 

They have both been using the Lego movie maker app to create Lego videos this afternoon. This was one of the scenes, showing new creative machines that will appear in Harry's version of The Lego Movie 2.

Advent activities

It's December! Not sure how that crept up on me but we like December and we will enjoy it. We do a lot of relaxed Christmas themed activities during Advent and I will try to get them on here.

We have had more cuddles with baby cousin Jacob.

We've been to see the Alice in Wonderland themed Fenwick Christmas window and our first Christmas theatre show with friends 'The Christmas Grump', which was a reworked version of A Christmas Carol.

Harry made a Lego snow globe following the instructions in a Lego magazine.

We have finished decorating our hall, hurray! We love it and can't wait to get it decorated for Christmas at the weekend.

We have played at the (otherwise empty) park with friends and had friends round to play at our house.

I have printed some Christmas themed activity sheets from Activity Village. Peter told a story about Santa on Christmas Eve and Harry has been colouring and completing times table sheets. 

Harry has been playing lots of cello in preparation for his Christmas concert. He is doing really well at the moment and enjoying playing.

He has also been a reading machine! He can now read a Beast Quest book in one day and has done so several times. Peter is also storming through Reading Eggs and can read simple three letter words with phonic sounds. He really wants to read like Harry! I am going to work on numbers 11-20 with Peter as he gets to them in his advent calendar, which he is very fond of!

We preserved some leaves in glycerine. This is for Harry's collector badge at Beavers and his collection will be leaves preserved in different ways. He collected Autumn leaves and has rubbed some and pressed some already. He has also recently gained his faith badge.

Our busy week

Wow another week has whizzed by! We have been really busy in the evening finishing the painting in our hall, so I haven't had time for anything else. Hopefully it will be fully finished next week. My dad visited again to fit a new front door and the boys were pleased to see him!

Our best day this week was meeting our very new nephew and cousin in Harrogate, Jacob. He is my sister's first baby and the boys loved him. I am sure they will all have some great times in the future.

We have been to sit with Monty the Penguin at John Lewis and Stuart took the boys to Gibside on Sunday for some outdoor adventures.

Harry and Peter baked some cookies using the BBC's Cookie Monster recipe in aid of children in need. They sold them to friends and family and Stuart sold some at work to raise £8. 

We went to a pizza express school workshop with friends, where the boys made their own pizza. We had a bit of a travel adventure too as we went on the train. Harry bought the tickets from the machine and used a map to find the way from the train station. 

Harry completed his latest art class picture, using watercolour for the first time.

We have played at the park with friends.

Harry has been working on his faith badge at Beavers, reading and listening to the Spy Dog series of books from the library and playing cello. Peter has had his enjoy a ball class and has been playing Shut the Box lots. He has also been using magnet letters to (almost) spell his name and practise some letter sounds.

Harry also had enjoy a ball class and won the weekly trophy. He has a friend to sleep over tonight and they are currently working their way through Harry's collection of Sea Quest books: it's a very nice sight!

WWI and the rest of the week

After visiting the war memorial in Newcastle we watched this CBeebies animation several times yesterday; Harry and Peter really liked it. It was still available on iPlayer today: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04p4zsl/poppies

Peter also traced the word 'poppy' and Harry copied words from 'From The Fallen'.

We have been round to a friend's house this week and Harry has had his swimming lesson. 

Harry has been working through a lot of Conquer Maths lessons this week as he is enjoying it at the moment. I think we will be on track to finish year 2 by Christmas so I can start using the Galore Park textbook alongside the year 3 lessons.

Peter has done two Reading Eggs lessons and has been playing Teach Your Monster to Read.

We also had a trip out to an activity centre in Durham with the Group Scout Leader from our Scout group, in order to book the venue for a family camp next year. Harry and Peter had a good run around in the trees! 

In decorating news, the colour is starting to go on the walls in the hall and I have started the task of painting the wood on the staircase; I hope this is the only time in my life I will do this!! 

Speech therapy, war memorial and library

Harry had his speech therapy group this morning. His 'ch' sound has really improved and he will probably only go to one more group, to work on his 'j' sound.

As we were in town, we went to see the war memorial in Newcastle. Smaller poppy crosses had been planted around the area too. We talked about the WWI anniversary and the poppies and read the poem 'In Flanders Fields' at home.

We also visited City Library and Harry chose a few longer books to try in between Sea Quests. He also liked the look of some audio books from the Spy Dog series so we will be listening to those in the car.

Peter has been very under the weather today, probably caught from me, so he didn't go to his enjoy-a-ball class. Instead, the boys watched a feature length Bob The Builder DVD they had borrowed from the library. We read several of the new library books too.

We're Going on a Bear Hunt activities

We had a week of bear themed activities last week, starting from the basis of Michael Rosen's book We're Going on a Bear Hunt. We have used several other bear books alongside it.

English

We talked about onomatopoeia and watched these YouTube videos explaining it - here and here. Harry identified the examples of onomatopoeia as we read the book.

We also made lots of buzzing onomatopoeia sounds while reading this bear counting book.

We looked at the description of the bear in the book and came up with our own descriptions of other animals.

Science

We talked about what bears eat and looked it up in our animal encyclopaedia. The boys thought they only eat meat and were surprised to learn that they eat berries and plants too. They liked the picture of the salmon fishing bears. We also read a book about hibernation, featuring bears as well as other hibernating animals such as wasps, toads and mice.

Harry explained very well to Peter what habitat means and included the concept of adaptation with an example - I was really impressed! He said that the habitat is a home where the animal gets the things it needs to live, such as food and shelter. Lots of animals are adapted with special features to live in certain habitats, such as very warm fur in cold places.

We played a habitat lotto game I printed from here http://www.marwell.org.uk/downloads/KS1HabitatsGamecolour.pdf. 

We talked about the different kinds of bear as we played and how they have different habitats in different parts of the world. Our wall map shows bears in Europe, North America and The Arctic too. 

We read these polar bear books and Harry answered some questions.

Numeracy

I asked Harry lots of mental maths questions this week with a bear theme. For example; If there are five caves and a bear family of four lives in each one, how many bears are there in total?

We used this game with Peter. One person hides the bear under a numbered cave and the other person tries to find it, saying the numbers as they turn over cards. Peter also put the cards in the right order - he did 1-10 on his own and 11-20 with help.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears 

I also had some Goldilocks and the Three Bears activities printed for Peter so we read our copy of the book and he ordered some objects by size and age. He also sequenced the story using picture cards and Harry told us the story based on the pictures in his own words.

We found this book at the library which we also read. It features a grown up baby bear meeting a grown up Goldilocks and we really liked it!