Home School - Egyptian Headdress

If you have been following our home education history topic this term about Egyptians you will know that we have made our own hieroglyph scroll and made a sarcophagus poster. 

Following from making the poster the boys took an interest in the headdress that the Egyptians wore subsequently I decided that we should make our own!

Home School - Event Review - Re-creation

I have always been a fan of reading and usually prefer books over films any day. As a child I was a massive Roald Dahl fan, as I am sure many of you were, his stories always seemed to capture that pure essence of imagination.

 

One of my all time favourites of his was, of course, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The idea that there was an inventor out there who used his pure imagination to create these marvellous creations that brought enjoyment to the world captured me from the start.

 

One of my favourite quotes from the book is this:

 

“I am the maker of music, the dreamer of dreams!”  

Home School - Lifecycles - Plants Part 2

If you followed our last Home School post you will know that one of our topics this term is Lifecycles and from that we looked at seeds and plants.

Now it was pointed out in the comments about the impatience of children when growing plants; this is incredibly true so but being prepared for the woes that teaching can bring I had pre-planned a parallel activity to work with.

We chose to plants that had a quick growth life that we could monitor all of the way: 

Home School - Lifecycles - Plants

We are keen gardeners and this time of year we are usually caught outside doing something. With this in mind when it came to one of our new terms Home school topics it seemed to make sense to start with plants.

We started with a selection of plants that we could see different results with:

Strawberries

Tomatoes

Radish

Sun Flowers

We took the seeds out of the packets and examined them to see the differences: William noticed that the came in different sizes and shapes.

We read the instructions and discovered that each type of seed needed to be treated differently; some needed to be deep down and some scattered lightly over the surface with a small amount of soil.

William realised that some of these plants would grow taller than others and subsequently chose different size pots depending on what we were planting.

We briefly discussed the different stages that each seed will go through but if I am completely honest I don't think William quite grasped it so will wait for each stage to happen and explain it to him that way. He did understand though that the roots will take food from the soil and that we will need to water it.

We have a couple more projects within the lifecycle of plants to show you soon.

Both boys have always enjoyed planting different seeds although I am sure that this is more to do with getting dirty with soil. However, this is a great activity to do with small children and especially one to do around now!

Home School - Term 3 - Planning

I realise that even though I have done a few post on Home School that these were more based on the FAQ that most people have. I haven’t though posted anything about what we are doing.

(I know, I should have done but have been so busy!)

We are now on a new term and we have new Home school topics.

We are continuing following a formulated scheme within Literacy and Numeracy. (Both of which we are following Government guidelines through Collins resources)

Home School - Literacy and a Surprise

As you may have noticed from my previous posts that I enjoy combining every day life with the current Home School topics.

On Sunday the boys and I went to go visit Al over at The Dad Network; the plan was to surprise him and to meet two of us (Tommy a vlogger with Oliver Says) from The Dad Network. All was organised and we did have a lovely day!

Our current Home School Literacy topic is Captions and Storyboards I felt it a great idea to use the photos of the day to engage William.

(I also decided to multi-task and layer in I.C.T to this topic; what you see below was written by William)



Home School - Castle Part 2

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On Monday William and I was looking through our Castles book as part of our topic.

With the weather going from horrid to nice at a moment’s notice it has been difficult for me to plan a day trip out to a castle; after my last attempt I need to make sure it’s a good day at least.

Luckily within the first few pages William picked up on this particular picture and started asking questions:

Home Schooling - Our Mishap Adventure

So on Wednesday I looked out of my window and the sun was shining; Perfect weather to go on our Home School castles trip.

Our given target was one of two castles within a 10 Mile radius; How Lucky we are to have these right on our doorstep.

So lunch was made, bag was packed (Thanks to our new Harry and Jacks promotional bag) and the Boys and I were wrapped up warmly; off we went, with a skip in our step, to Upnor Castle.

We followed the signs, parked up in the free parking, and started our walk to the Castle.

This is when it all started to go wrong!

Home School - Castles

I realised that I have spent a lot of time discussing only one of our topics this term; Animal Care - Birds

I decided that I would take advantage of this and discuss another one of William’s favourites:

Castles

Home School - Cooking and Maths!

I was recently asked this question about my Home School work: "Your topics looks great fun, but how do you tackle a boring subject like Maths?"

I always think as a teacher, as well as a parent, that it is crucial to engage in your child's interests at every opportunity; it incorporates something that they will find fun with the laying across subjects.

If you've followed some of my previous posts you would know that William loves his baking and cooking.

William's Grandad, on his mother's side, is a Chef.

When he was a baby we thought it would be amusing to have a photo shoot where we had him dressed as a chef.

What we didn't know at the time was that William would show a flare in this area.

Home School - RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch part 2

As I posted last week about out latest topic birds I thought I'd share with you how we got on.

We carried on with the themed bird activities. We learnt about the different parts of birds and how they use each bit.

William and James have both enjoyed learning more about them.

As I get the boys every Sunday morning; it was difficult to assign times to join in over the weekend. However; The moment we got back Sunday the first thing we did was check our bird feeders

Home School - RSPB: Big Garden Birdwatch

If you've been following our home school journey you will know that I plan curriculum topics for William: These are usually great to entertain both boys and achieve family packed projects and activities (as well as meeting curriculum targets)

One of our topics last term was animal welfare; where we eventually ended up with a school trip to the PDSA. This was great and subsequently I felt we should continue this theme through to this term.

Every year the RSPB do a Big Garden Birdwatch. A lot of schools participate in this; this is actually how I knew of it.

Home Schooling Part 8 - The PDSA

This post is slightly mixed but definitely worth posting!!

William and I went on our first arranged Home Schooling trip to the PDSA today. It was an amazing, educational, engaging trip.

Home Schooling Part 8: Learning Through ICT

Originally written in November 2014 as 'ICT Thursday' — Updated for clarity and reflection in 2026.

Once a month on a Thursday I have the boys. I usually have them from Sunday morning to Tuesday evening, sometimes through to Wednesday morning, and the occasional Saturday. It is always nice to have an extra day with them. It does interrupt the home schooling rhythm, although we have always been semi structured. A Thursday needs a different approach, so I decided to turn Thursday mornings into ICT Thursdays. The idea is simple. Every subject links back to ICT so the boys learn through technology while still covering the core topics.

How the Number Bus Helps Children Understand Addition and Subtraction

Originally written in November 2014 as 'The Number Bus'— Updated for clarity and reflection in 2026.

William has spent the last couple of weeks learning more about addition and subtraction as part of his home schooling. Early years maths can feel overwhelming for children, especially when they move from simple number recognition to written sums. Number bonds to ten and basic addition have made sense to him, especially when he can see patterns or match pairs. This builds on what he already knows about counting to ten and counting on from any number within that range.