I decided this year to utilise some of the many books we have and use famous – or should-be-famous – women from history as our educational starting points. A friend gave me a guidebook for a mothers and daughters circle called The Heroine’s Club a few years ago, and I’ve decided to use that as …
We’ve been super busy the last few weeks with lots of activities and things keeping us on the go, so we haven’t had much time for anything educational or even all that much crafty. The last book we read together was a short little one, Peter Rabbit, which I’ve been surprised to realise contained a …
Download a Valentine's day lapbook to learn about the origins, meanings and symbols of the day of love.
Free printable resources for Roald Dahl's Matilda
A collection of activities for learning about Frida Kahlo, including craft, food, and educational ideas.
It’s National Storytelling week soon, and I’ve been looking at ways to engage the children interactively in the art of storytelling. We did story sticks last year, which was a big hit, but I want to try something else this year. Here are some exciting ideas to look at and try for National Story Telling …
Free printable resources for Roald Dahl's Matilda
We are halfway through Fairtrade Fortnight in the UK – with World Fairtrade Day being in May – and the kids and I have been talking about Fairtrade and what it’s purpose and value is. There’s a wealth of information around Fairtrade online, so I’ve worked through it and pulled out the bits that my …
We took a bit of a break from our Women Who Did series over the last year, because, life… but we are back and at it this month with our new heroine: Anne Frank – fitting for people who’ve just been where her story unfolds and extra special because this year, on the 12th of …
It's National Storytelling week soon, and I've been looking at ways to engage the children…
We are halfway through Fairtrade Fortnight in the UK – with World Fairtrade Day being in May – and the kids and I have been talking about Fairtrade and what it’s purpose and value is. There’s a wealth of information around Fairtrade online, so I’ve worked through it and pulled out the bits that my …
Books about Siblings, Relationships and Parental Love
We took a bit of a break from our Women Who Did series over the…
One of the abundances of the autumn or fall season is horse chestnuts – the non-edible chestnut relative. If it’s not edible, what use can it possibly have, right? Well, horse chestnuts have an amazing superpower – they are incredibly rich in saponins, which makes them a fantastic soap. How does it work? Horse chestnut …
Experiment exploring xylem tubes and phloem in plants, along with transpiration. Matches Year 3 Science curriculum
Free printable resources for Roald Dahl's Matilda
It’s National Storytelling week soon, and I’ve been looking at ways to engage the children interactively in the art of storytelling. We did story sticks last year, which was a big hit, but I want to try something else this year. Here are some exciting ideas to look at and try for National Story Telling …
It’s been many years since I last picked up knitting needles, but after Aviya’s birth I used reusable pads for the first time ever, and I am sold on them. I’m in no hurry for that part of my life to return, but when the day does come, I will be a full on reusable …
Thursday is World Book Day, and aside from Ameli’s preschool getting the kids to come it in pyjamas and with teddy bears, I thought that would make a great theme for this week, following on nicely from last week’s Dr.Seuss theme, and incorporating some of it for the week ahead. We’ve chosen our favourite stories …
It feels like a lifetime has passed since we spent a month in The Netherlands, but in truth we’ve not even been back six weeks yet. It’s taken us a while to get back into the swing of things, but we’re back on track, and we’ve finally had a chance to finish our Netherlands Lapbook. …
I decided this year to utilise some of the many books we have and use famous – or should-be-famous – women from history as our educational starting points. A friend gave me a guidebook for a mothers and daughters circle called The Heroine’s Club a few years ago, and I’ve decided to use that as …
It’s been many years since I last picked up knitting needles, but after Aviya’s birth I used reusable pads for the first time ever, and I am sold on them. I’m in no hurry for that part of my life to return, but when the day does come, I will be a full on reusable …
It’s Roald Dahl day on Friday 13 September, (being his birthday) and while I’ve left it a little late to read all of the books to Ameli – and to be honest she’s still a little young for them – she does love The Fantastic Mr Fox movie, and also Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. …
I strongly dislike ‘introducing’ a new series, as life inevitably happens, and we have to stop, or change direction. Just as I’m getting into the swing of a new theme, the kids decide they don’t love it, and we have to do something different – and since we’re all about being child-led in our home education, …
A few weeks ago we had ‘Growing‘ as our PlayLearning theme, during which we planted three types of beans and some onions. Over the last three weeks I have taken photos of their progress, and here they are below. Ironically, the dwarf bean sprouted roots and shoots much sooner than the broad bean or barlotti …
We’re still enjoying learning about the forest, and while I do wonder why we didn’t think to do this back in the summer when the days were dry and somewhat warmer, we’ve still been enjoying learning about the forest habitat and all the magic of life in the forest. One of the things we’ve been learning …
(Q6 on my birth plan - positions for labour) (Q9 I would like to be in…
Our local ice rink has an amazing offer for home educating families, who can use the facilities one day a week, on days when other children are still in school. The rink was recently taken over, so the new owners are now also offering classes for home educated children at less than the price of …
Manny Heffley is the younger brother of Rodrick and Greg who is constantly pampered and spoiled by his parents. As the youngest child of the Heffley family, Manny plays a major role in Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, having appeared in all the main series books to date. However, he has never been a protagonist in the series. In fact, Manny is the favourite child of Frank and Susan. Manny is played by identical twins Connor and Owen Fielding in the first three Diary of a Wimpy Kid film adaptations,
Over the last few weeks we’ve been working on The Incredible Journey – by working on, I mean ‘reading’! We’ve also done a few other activities – a board game and an animal categorising ‘game’. I’ve also made some of our usual printable activities to share with you. I remember reading The Incredible Journey as …
After more than ten days of being sick – and sick and tired of being sick – and thoroughly cooped up, I saw the sunshine today as an excuse to layer up and head outdoors. We went to the local Garlic Farm, and after warming up on some hot chocolate, the girls went for a run around …
One of the lines I really loved from Roald Dahl’s Matilda movie was “So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.“ I didn’t realise …
Supporting our Frida Kahlo learning, we’ve been looking at Mexican folk art. A simple Google of the term brings up pages and pages or examples, so we identified a few things that were clear to us when looking at Mexican art: It is bright and colourful There’s incredible attention to details They use a lot …
It’s been many years since I last picked up knitting needles, but after Aviya’s birth I used reusable pads for the first time ever, and I am sold on them. I’m in no hurry for that part of my life to return, but when the day does come, I will be a full on reusable …
This crossed my inbox from ao.com earlier this week and I thought it’s an excellent idea to share, so I hope it works for you! I have printed countless ‘spring cleaning’ or decluttering projects in my time, and I rarely get past day four or five, largely because my life doesn’t really fit to other people’s …
It feels like a lifetime has passed since we spent a month in The Netherlands, but in truth we’ve not even been back six weeks yet. It’s taken us a while to get back into the swing of things, but we’re back on track, and we’ve finally had a chance to finish our Netherlands Lapbook. …
It feels like a lifetime has passed since we spent a month in The Netherlands, but in truth we’ve not even been back six weeks yet. It’s taken us a while to get back into the swing of things, but we’re back on track, and we’ve finally had a chance to finish our Netherlands Lapbook. …
Over the last few weeks we’ve been working on The Incredible Journey – by working on, I mean ‘reading’! We’ve also done a few other activities – a board game and an animal categorising ‘game’. I’ve also made some of our usual printable activities to share with you. I remember reading The Incredible Journey as …
Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know that it's a big year for…
Once you have a room beautifully decorated and you have food all good to go, you need to have a few games to keep your young adventurers occupied for an hour and a half (or two hours, or whatever). We always have parties somewhere with lots of room to run around, or in the woods …
A few months ago I discovered an online resource for Early Years, KS1, KS2, and SEN teachers, classes and home educators called Twinkl. I emailed them to find out about a rate for Home Educators, and eventually got the full membership, so that I can give it a try. Twinkl is essentially a compilation of …