A Home Education Update

It has been a while since I wrote any kind of family update

I would like to share a home education update

I would like to share where we are up to

And where we are headed this year

Home educating four children between the ages of 2 and 9

Is an enormous undertaking

We are busy from sun up to sun down

Always doing something

It is exhausting and exhilarating

A rollercoaster ride like no other

It is an honour, a privilege

And a HUGE responsibility

Ensuring that I am meeting the emotional, social, academic, physical needs

Of all my children, every day

I would be lying if I did not say that some days feel utterly impossible

The lowest days are so low I feel like giving it all up

But the okay days and the good days and the amazing days

Far outweigh the bad

And I know that I am so lucky to have so much time with my children

Making memories

This year we are officially home educating Edie

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We’re going on a letter hunt! Today I set up an alphabet puzzle hunt for Edie as an introduction to our work this year on the alphabet. We are going to be following the #letteroftheweek curriculum. We will be doing lots of crafts and play and reading lots of books linked to a certain letter each week. We will be starting our playful learning using the letters in Edie’s name. We will learn the name of each letter and the sound it makes. We will be getting to know the shapes of the letters through puzzles and art and sensory play. We will be using lots of different resources to help us on our journey including @jollylearning and @letterland We will also be using learning resources from @learningresourcesuk @mybusybots @mylittlelearner123 and @teacherplayltd Some of the resources that we use will be gifted and I will mark them as such. I am so excited to start learning through play in a slightly more structured with Edie. She is more than ready for it and the big kids are keen to help her and teach her!! This puzzle hunt was brilliant today. She searched for the letters in a tray of Pluffle and then we said the names and sounds of the letters as she felt heir shape and matched them to the space in the tray. Today we looked at capital letters using a beautiful wooden puzzle from @ilovehape #gifted #lettersandsounds #abc #alphabet #alphabetpuzzle #puzzlehunt #puzzleplay #learningthroughplay #learningisfun #earlylearning #playfullearning #playislearning #playandlearn #invitationtoplay #invitationtolearn #toddlerfun #preschoolplay #preschoolathome

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Age two and a half she could be starting preschool now

But for the moment she will be staying at home with us

We have started our own Letter of the Week curriculum with her

We have only just started this week but she loves it so much

She keeps saying thank you and it is so so sweet

We have started with the letter E

E for Edie

We will learn all the letters in her name first

Before moving on to SATPIN

The first sounds that are taught in school

As part of structured phonics programs

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Tomorrow we start our #letteroftheweek curriculum with Edie. She is 2 years and 8 months old. She loves learning, knows some letters already and knows her numbers to 20. We are going to be learning letter names and sounds. We will also be looking at the shape of the letters and doing lots of sensory activities. We will not be doing any writing of letters unless she tries to do it herself through play. We will be learning letters and sounds through songs, rhymes, art, craft and sensory play. We will do lots of our learning outside. I am really excited about doing this and I will share our activities on here and on my blog. I am thinking about making PDF plans and resources to share too. We will be starting our letter learning with the letters in Edie’s name – so E D I and then we will move on to SATPIN when we will start to use resources from @letterland and @jollylearning As a primary school teacher English is my specialism and so doing this is the stuff I love! The big kids start their learning again tomorrow, we have a more structured timetable this term as everyone is getting older. I am very excited and think we are in for a lovely few weeks of work in the morning and afternoons full of adventure. #homeedadventures #edspireedventures

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I am a huge believer in playful learning at all ages

We are all involved in helping Edie with her ‘work’

Singing songs, reciting rhymes, completing puzzles, playing games

Today William made and organised an elephant hunt for Bea and Edie

They had to find eleven elephants (Letter E) that he had hidden round the house

It was so lovely

And with William taking the lead I was able to spend some time doing maths with Esther

One of the best things about home education is that we are all learners and teachers

All of the time

As well as letters I am also working on numbers and counting with Edie

She can recite numbers beyond 20 but her counting can be quite creative

We are working on one to one correspondence with lots of grouping and sorting of toys

And food

Edie LOVES her food

Especially pudding

Edie now attends ballet classes

She absolutely loves her class

Which is at the same dance school that the other three dance at

This year they will all be in the annual show together

I am going to be very emotional about that

Edie is picking up her letters really well

She is loving having activities planned just for her

And in planning for her

The days are running much more smoothly

Which is brilliant for everyone

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This week we have started our own version of #letteroftheweek with Edie. This week our letter is E. E for Edie and eyes!! We started with a letter hunt. I filled a tray with @lankakade animals and 16 letter Es. Edie had to use her magnifying glass to search the tray for the letters. She absolutely loved this activity and shouted out E each time she found a letter. It was great fun. We talked about E being the letter name and e being the sound E for Edie and E for Esther! She now calls capital E Big E and lower case e Little e. It is very sweet. Our next activity was to stick googly eyes on to a big and little E. E is for eyes. We then used a busy bag from @mybusybots where the activity is to count googly eyes and give the right number of eyes to monsters. Edie is really good with numbers but her counting can be a little creative so this activity combined counting and fine motor skills and all linked to our letter of the week! Perfect! Edie loves having special work planned just for her and it is helping our home ed mornings run much more smoothly. A fab start to a fun week of playful learning all about E!

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Bea, not yet five and a half

Is doing really well with her learning

She is incredibly bright and able

But also incredibly strong willed

She reads beautifully and can sound out most new words

Her maths is solid

Her writing is coming along well

Her art is amazing

And her heart lies in singing, dancing and drama

Bea dances three times a week now

She does tap, modern and musical theatre

Ballet, acro, singing, drama and more musical theatre

Bea also now does a 30 minute Spanish lesson a week

Which she loves

My main focus with Bea this year is her emotional well being

We are going to do a lot of work on what is called PSHE in school

Personal, social and health education

Learning to be a good person and play a role in society

We are going to be doing lots of RE this year

Learning about different cultures and faiths

We are also going to try to get involved in some community projects

And start to build up Bea’s experience of the wider world around us

For William this year

The focus is on making sure we have covered the KS2 curriculum

He is well ahead of where he needs to be in maths

We need to focus on extended writing

And plugging any content gaps in science, history, geography

I also want to work on growth mindset with William

And his presentation of work

Encouraging him to always give his best and not just rush to be first finished

We are also starting to think about The Kent Test

As William is thinking that he might like to go to grammar school

He has over 18 months before he has to make a decision

But we will start laying down some foundations just incase

William also has Spanish and French lessons each week

One session with Esther and one session with a friendship group

He also attends stage school and dancing

William loves science and history

He also loves being outside and adventuring with Esther and their Home Ed friends

This year William is going to start doing some online courses

In the subjects he is passionate about

History and science

I am also planning lots of theatre trips, museum days and visits to art galleries

Esther and William love going to London

Each of the children are overdue a one to one mummy day

So I am busy planning those

Esther is a hard worker

She is a brave girl

Battling dyslexia and dyscalculia

We have also started the process of exploring ADD and ASD with her

I have written a post about our Esther here

Esther is an incredibly bright girl

She is eloquent and thoughtful

She is a problem solver

A peace maker

A big thinker

She has a wonderful long term memory

But a terrible working / short term memory

I do a lot of work with Esther on her writing and spelling

Last year we focused on mental maths and times tables

This year I need to push Esther on in maths

We have started 2020 with lots of place value and number work

And it is already paying off as we start to look at calculations

I try to keep maths simple with Esther

Clean

We look at addition calculations

We look at different methods

But I try not to overload with stuff

She struggles with too much information at once

Her progress in maths is very slow

Esther is a reluctant reader

She loves stories and has a wonderful imagination

She is also very good at comprehension

But she does not read very much on her own

Esther has lovely writing

But finds spelling incredibly hard

She struggles with creative writing

As she cannot process ideas, punctuation, spelling all at the same time

It is heartbreaking to see a little girl who works so hard

Find her learning so difficult

This year with Esther I want to build up her basic skills

In maths, reading and writing

While allowing her plenty of time to follow her interests

Esther loves animals

At the moment she loves bears

She has been busy making a book all about bears

She loves dancing and singing

Esther dances three days a week

In her own classes and also helping in the little ones’ classes

She has piano and singing lessons which she loves

And attends stage school

Esther loves small world play

She loves collecting things

She loves to make little worlds

Today she made a zoo

Esther enjoys art and making things

She also loves to be outside

She is very easy going

Good natured

Huge hearted

My focus for Esther this year is to make sure she knows

That whatever she wants to do

What ever she wants to be

We will be there

We will help her get there

When we are not home or at one of the children’s many classes

We are out and about with family and friends

Adventuring

Exploring

Discovering

And having a whole lot of fun

Home education is a whole lot of juggling

Learning is constant

And in all parts of life

As well as our planned activities

It is not something I ever imagined doing

But it is something I now cannot imagine not doing

Educating my beautiful children at home

Learning together every day

Often times things we don’t realise need learning

And making lots of lovely friends along the way

I am excited to see where this new year

This new decade

Will lead us

We hope you will join us on our journey x

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