A little homeschooling update

It feels like forever since I’ve written a homeschooling post on here, in fact, searching back, the last time I wrote an actual update was back in January – yikes! LIfe has been pretty full on for the first half of this year, as busy as you’d imagine with four kids at home 24/7 plus me being self-employed AND a single parent. You know what they say – no rest for the wicked haha.

Anyway, I thought I’d pop in for a quick update – though I’m not sure I can remember every single thing we have done for the last five months. Mornings are usually our home ed time – it’s good to get it done first thing in the morning, then we can either go out or the kiddos have free time whilst I work. We don’t have specific times, or set days, we’re pretty much go with the flow kind folk.

The girls have been working their way around the world {virtually} using the books they have been reading for book club as the basis for a little country unit study each month. They’ve enjoyed learning a little about the geography and culture of other countries, and have been filling in a scrapbook with what we’ve been learning. That said, they’ve done the book club for the past two years, but I’m not sure how much they are getting out of it. We love reading a book altogether each month, and using it as a basis for a unit study, but the actual book club doesn’t seem to be of much use to them. Whether or not they decide to carry on, we’ll certainly keep reading a book together every month, as it’s something that we all really love.

We’ve also {just about} managed to keep up with the Phenology Wheels we’ve been creating for this year, I’m loving how they are turning out now a few months are filled in! We’ve tried to keep in lots of art time too, I love an excuse to sit down and join in with them!

The girls decided that they wanted a break from Life of Fred, they weren’t finding it very challenging, right now Baya and Kiki have both opted to go back to using All in One Homeschool. I used it a few years ago when the girls were little, and it is really suiting us again. They do the Maths, Reading and Writing on there, and they both opted to work through the Zoology module as well. They’re really enjoying it, and it’s great as they can log on and get on with their work each day without too much input from me.

Beastie has just started working through the ‘Getting Ready‘ programme on there, I did it with Baya when she was a similar age and she loved it. So far, Beastie is really enjoying it – it’s fun, introducing one letter at a time via games, crafts and stories.

Lola has been writing lots, studying a few languages and courses – hoping to get her some courses sorted for September, her anxiety depending. She is desperate to go to college, and I think it would really suit her, it’s just a case of whether  I can get her onto any courses here a year early or not. It’s so hard seeing her so eager to learn, but not being able to give her the resources to do so. We may try again doing some from home, but I don’t think it will suit her.

There have probably been a million and one other things we have done – so much learning happens organically when they are home all day every day, that often I don’t even register it as ‘learning’. The constant questions every day, the documentaries, the home ed groups, the playing, the observing and participating in everyday life – all of this gives them an education.

Now it’s summer, we’re making the most of the good weather and spending as much time out and about as we can. ‘Work’ still happens here and there, but not as much as in the winter.