The new academic year is now well underway

As home educators we never really stop learning

I try to ensure we do some ‘work’ every day

Especially with the older two who are now 10

I do however plan our learning

According to the school year

We have subjects that we cover everyday

Then we do projects and topic work

Our first mini topic this term

Has been to learn about Prehistory

The evolution of the human race

We have mostly been doing this by reading books together

It seemed fitting to learn about a period of history

Where nothing was written down

Through storytelling, reading together and discussing what we read

I wanted to share here a handful of the narrative non fiction books

We have been using to help us with our learning

They would all be wonderful additions to any home education bookshelves

Any school library or key stage two classroom

Here they are

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Today we begin our Prehistory topic. We have talked about what prehistory means and looked at how we know about times like the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. We have learned about the different jobs historians and archaeologists do. This book, Maisie Mammoth’s Memoirs, tells us about some of the creatures who lived in the Ice Age. This is a fun book that is filled to bursting with fascinating facts about prehistoric animals. We have learned so much reading this together. We have learned about the ancestors of orangutans and sloths. As a Game of Thrones fan I loved reading about the Dire Wolf! The storyteller in this book is Maisie the Mammoth who introduces us to her friends from the past and tells us about their appearance, their diet, their habitat, some special features and how we know about them. Facts with bright colourful illustrations and just the right dose of gentle humour makes a perfect non fiction book for families with children who cover a range of ages and abilities. William lives this book just as much as Bea. As the children read about each animals there are ooohs and aaahs and gasps and giggles as they learn all about this prehistoric menagerie. This is a wonderful book for young historians and animal lovers. Perfect for anyone looking at prehistory as we are this term x

A post shared by Jennie Bookish Play & Learning (@edspire) on Sep 9, 2020 at 12:55am PDT

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We are currently learning about prehistory. The time period from Stone Age to Iron Age. William asked if we could learn more about earth even earlier than that, starting from the Big Bang. The History of Prehistory from @otterbarrybooks sees two young time tourists travel back 4 billion years to a fiery hot volcano earth. They witness the beginning of life. The creation of the ocean, tiny bacteria and microorganisms, creatures in the deep of the sea, giant fungi, amphibians, reptiles, birds. The two children travel through the periods of the dinosaurs, learn about extinction events and the survival and evolution of mammals. This is a fast paced time travelling adventure that misses a million years here and a thousand years there but it is an easy to read, colourful journey for young children showing evolution from volcanic rock to apes in trees and upright walking Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Esther and I learnt lots from this book with William filling in lots of the gaps in time and scientific / historical data. We loved reading this together and learning the names for different periods of prehistory. It has inspired us to learn more about the Big Bang, evolution of life on earth and early mammals and man. This is what I love about books and home education being inspired and having the time to follow the children’s interests. I wonder where our reading will take us next?!

A post shared by Jennie Bookish Play & Learning (@edspire) on Sep 17, 2020 at 11:34pm PDT

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#gifted William is my history boy. He especially enjoys learning about ancient civilisations. This book, The Humans, from @littletigerbooks is amazing!! The large picture book showcases the greatest achievements of ancient civilisations, peoples and iconic figures from history. We start at the beginning with where it all began. How humans evolved over time. We learn about the homo genus and how homo sapiens became the most dominant human species and spread around the globe. The Humans tells the tale of our species by visiting different continents and sharing the history of humans. The Nubians and Egyptians in Africa, the Aboriginal Australians, the Sumerians and Babylonians in Asia, the Ancient Greeks, Romans and Vikings in Europe. This is a brilliant book for supporting and extending the KS2 history curriculum. We learn not only about the people and where they lived but also their about their homes, their diet, their sports and hobbies, their myths and legends, their religion. We learn about the tools they made, skills they developed and the knowledge and wisdom they have handed down through generations to us. We are part of the new human age, the technological revolution. Books like this are so important to show us where we all came from and remind us how much we have to thank our ancestors for. There are important lessons we can learn from the past. This book is packed with information about early man and ancient empires, tribes and civilisations. This is us and as we look to what comes next we must all remember what has gone before. Our ancestors have taught us so much and given us a rich tapestry of stories, languages, arts, medicines, rituals, music and so much more. With stunning illustrations this book is awesome and a must read for all young historians. As a family we have learned so much from these brightly coloured pages about ancient civilisations and the astonishing things they taught us. @jonny_bookmarx @charliedavisillustration #thehumans #thehumansbook #littletigerpress

A post shared by Jennie Bookish Play & Learning (@edspire) on Sep 19, 2020 at 2:43am PDT

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We are learning about prehistory this term and reading all the books we can find about the evolution of humans. Human Journey by @prof_alice_roberts is one of my favourites. It is beautifully written. The language flows like poetry, this is narrative non fiction at it’s best. The illustrations by James Weston Lewis are rich in colour and detail. The end papers are gorgeous. I think William would like them as wallpaper! This book is an incredible exploration of who we are, where we come from and what it means to be human. We begin this journey at the the dawn of humankind and follow our ancestors through the millennia and around the globe. The descriptive language helps us as readers feel that we are part of the journey experiencing the searing heat of the African grasslands, collecting shellfish from rockpools on the coast of South Africa, hunting in the lush green landscape of India, exploring the mangrove forest of Malaysia, wandering westward to meet the Neanderthals. Travelling space and time and discovering our history, the human journey. This book is such a joy to read out loud. It has given us all a greater understanding of how humans began and changed and developed and adapted over time. This is a book that addresses all our senses as we learn about homes and foods, arts and inventions, language and communication, stories and songs. This is a truly epic voyage of evolution and migration. We have loved reading this book together and we have all agreed that we would like to learn more about Professor Alice Roberts and her work. This is storytelling at it’s best and has left us hungry for more. A brilliant book covering the beginning of the human journey from the first human to the dawn of the Bronze Age. A perfect book for early key stage two history and a great readaloud for all the family to enjoy x @egmontbooksuk #humanjourney #prehistory #narrativenonfiction #illustratednonfiction #nonfictionforkids #keystagetwohistory #evolutionofhumans #migration #stoneage #bronzeage #firsthumans #historyforkids #booksforchildren #childrensbookstagram #childrensbooksofinstagram #kidsbookstagram #kidsbookreview #raisingreaders #littlereaders #edspirereads

A post shared by Jennie Bookish Play & Learning (@edspire) on Sep 20, 2020 at 4:45am PDT

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When We Became Humans starts by explaining what a human is and how humans fit into the theory of evolution. I have learned so so much from this book written by Michael Bright. Why we need to get our vitamin C from food, the importance of fruit in our evolution, how DNA helps us to learn about our ancestors, what we can learn from skeletons, how we became tool makers and users, how meat became part of our diet, the differences and similarities between humans and Neanderthals, ‘the muddle in the middle’, inventing the wheel, how farming began, the beginning of villages, towns and cities, trade routes, the Silk Road, how early writing paved our way from prehistory to history. This is an incredible book, beautifully illustrated and jam packed with interesting facts and information. It documents brilliantly the incredible evolutionary journey of our species. This is the story of our origins and it is wonderful. A must read I think for anyone who has questions about humanity. What makes us human, where did we come from, how have humans evolved? An absolutely fascinating reading that makes you think … what on Earth is coming next? @quartokids @quarto.knows #quartokids #whenwebecamehumans #prehistory #evolution #historyforkids #childrensbookstagram #childrensauthorsofinstagram #childrensnonfiction #nonfictionbooks #nonfictionreads #nonfictionforkids #narrativenonfiction #illustratednonfiction #booksforkids #booksfortopics #ks2history #keystagetwohistory #booksforteachers #littlereaders #raisingreaders #homeeducation #teachermummy #homelearning #earlyman #booksforchildren #bookstagram

A post shared by Jennie Bookish Play & Learning (@edspire) on Sep 20, 2020 at 12:05pm PDT

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We are doing a mini topic on the Stone Age at the moment leading up to a history day @kent_life_farm We have been using lots of resources I found online alongside lots of books. We are also watch the old BBC adaptation of Stig of the Dump as we have already read the book. We love learning through picture books and the ones shown here are some of our favourites to read when learning about the age of Stone. How To Wash A Woolly Mammoth is great fun and a good lead into looking at imperative verbs and writing instructions. It is also great for inspiring persuasive writing and creating adverts for Stone Age tools and other things they may have had. I love Ug! It is such a clever story and introduces anachronisms to young children. Esther and William love learning about history and language. Ug is great for thinking about design projects. How could you make a Stone Age outfit, shelter or tool? Stone Age Boy is great for comparing our modern lives with lives in the past. Cave Baby has been great for including Edie in our learning time by introducing her to the idea of painting on the walls with mud!! I am going to be writing a blog post showing where I look for ideas and resources when planning a topic and why I always try to link in stories with our learning. Do you have a favourite Stone Age book! #homeed #homeeducation #homeeducator #homeeducationuk #homeeduk #homeeducating #homeeducationlookslikethis #homeschool #homeschoolmom #history #stoneage #childrensbooks #picturebooks #kidsbooks #raisingreaders #littlebookworms #learningthroughliterature

A post shared by Jennie Bookish Play & Learning (@edspire) on Feb 29, 2020 at 5:21am PST

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We are currently reading The Story of the World and completing the activities. Today we learned about the first nomads and we completed some map work based around The Fertile Crescent. We then had a go at cave painting. Because it was too wet to go outside and paint the patio we painted on firewood instead and it worked rather well. We are loving learning our history though reading aloud. I supplement the work for Esther and William using @twinklresources @cgpbooks.uk @tesnews and @bbcbitesize I am so proud of our cave paintings! #history #thestoryoftheworld #storyoftheworld #worldhistory #britishhistory #historylovers #homeeducation #readaloudfamily #cavepainting #stoneage #firstnomads #fertilecrescent #familylearning #learningtogether #homeschoolfamily #ourhomeeducationjourney #ourhomeedadventures

A post shared by Jennie Bookish Play & Learning (@edspire) on Feb 13, 2020 at 6:20am PST

I have a few more books to add to this post

If you want to keep up with our home education journey

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