And that was April – This Homeschooling Life #21

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April seems to have flown by {I’m sure I say that every month}, but with two weeks of the month taken up with the Easter Holidays I felt a bit like we didn’t do anything… yet when I sat down to write this, I realised how much we did do! While we don’t stick to school holidays, with one child now at school it makes more sense to follow her breaks a little more. Plus my middle two had a few all day gym camps through the holidays, so our normal routine was totally out of the window.

That said, we’ve had a great month. We’ve ticked off all the things I wanted to do, fitted in lots of social meets, playdates, days out, crafts, baking… you name it, it seems we did it!

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We’ve been to Liverpool three times this month, once to meet friends – with whom we explored the World Museum and The Walker Art Gallery, once to visit the Ellesworth Kelly exhibit at the Tate {LOVED this} and once for a trip to the International Slavery Museum with friends. We also had a trip to a local castle {Chirk – on the premise of doing the Easter Egg hunt}.

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One big change I made this month was adding in Morning Time {I’ll post more about this separately soon}, adding a little more structure to our mornings, and bringing us all together around the breakfast table to start our day has made a huge difference. It sets our day off to a great start and means all of us know where we’re at for the day and what the plans are.

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The girls also began Life of Fred this month. We had been using 10Ticks but to be honest, it wasn’t working for us. Too many worksheets, too much repetition – it had become increasingly dull and one of those things we all dreaded. SO – Life of Fred. A couple of weeks in, and we are loving it. Written in the style of a funny novel, they tell the story of Fred Gauss, incorporating maths as he needs it along the way. The girls love listening to the stories, with just a short set of questions at the end of each chapter it doesn’t get dull and it is really making maths come alive for us. Even I am enjoying it!

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Our book club book this month was Stella by Starlight, so we’ve been doing a month long unit study on segregation/civil rights to go alongside it. We’ve watched Hidden Figures, as well as the Ruby Bridges movie, read books about people such as Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, the trip to the International Slavery Museum tied in with this, we had a Southern Style Potluck similar to the one in the book, we’ve made moonlight journals to write in like Stella, and created our own Freedom Quilts.

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The month has also been full of all the usual gymnastics, baking, creating that usually goes on around here!

7 Comments

  1. Clare aka Emmy's Mummy

    May 1, 2017 at 08:44

    Looks like you’ve had a busy and fun month.
    Love the idea of morning time

  2. Kara

    May 2, 2017 at 08:18

    Wow, you have been busy. I am not sure I would have the patience for home schooling so much admiration to you

  3. JuggleMum, Nadine Hill

    May 2, 2017 at 13:57

    What a busy month – you must have the mother of all diaries to keep yourself and the kids organised with the activities and one in school too! Phew!

  4. Cass Bailey

    May 3, 2017 at 19:31

    It sounds like you’re doing a great job with the homeschooling – I’d love to do this x

  5. Sonia

    May 5, 2017 at 09:34

    Looks like a great month of homeschooling, I wish I could do this.

  6. Nikki Thomas

    May 5, 2017 at 11:09

    IT sounds like a very busy month and so many interesting and enriching experiences and activities too. Amazing.

  7. Rebecca Smith

    May 13, 2017 at 08:47

    Lovely to read. I’m at a crossroads and am considering home schooling. Long, long story but my son has ASD, is pretty much a school refuser, the system is failing him left right and centre and he’s not really been in education since Nov last year! It’s just knowing where to start, how to start and SHOULD I start, difficult times ahead but finding inspirational blogs like yours is a GOOD place to start xxx

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