Home but not schooling

And a couple of gift ideas you might like

This morning I had no idea what day it was, until my husband quizzically asked if we weren’t doing our usual Friday routine of judo class and a home ed get together with friends.

Then, he had to correct me when I confidently told my son that it’s currently 2024.

And before we left for judo, I had to brush my teeth with strawberry toothpaste because we’d completely run out of the grown-up stuff.

It’s safe to say that things are not currently running on the smooth, well-oiled rails we were on when I wrote The Life-changing Magic of a Homeschool To-Do List back in August.

We’re taking a break from the lists. There’s been no French or Greek for some time (I can’t tell you how long, because as I mentioned I don’t know what day or year it is). The workbooks are sitting under a pile of stuff, somewhere. But we have all been quite happy and busy, so here’s what we’ve been up to while we haven’t been hard at work:

• Lots of cycling. Both children had birthdays recently, which involved new bikes, courtesy of the grandparents. They’ve been asking to go out (asking!) both morning and afternoon. Sometimes just in the garden, sometimes further afield. It turns out this is one (expensive) answer to the question of how to get children outside twice a day in winter, as per Charlotte Mason.

• Lots of games. Again, thanks to the birthdays we have a lovely fresh stock of games—favourites are currently Boggle (good for spelling) and Mind the Gap (like UNO but with London Underground stops. Great fun for London home educating families.)

• Crafty projects from the Advent calendar, like baking jam tarts, cutting out paper snowflakes, and making cinnamon playdough. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that the children still love all of these things.

• Lots of reading, most notably Ronja, The Robber’s Daughter, which my daughter devoured in two or three days. She loved it, and says—wait for it—that it’s even better than Ramona. As 2023 has definitely been The Year of Ramona, this is high praise indeed. Huge thanks to

  Sarah Miller
  of Can We Read for this excellent suggestion in her post A Book Gift Guide for Readers 10 and Under. My husband has also been reading The Hobbit aloud to them. They are absolutely rapt.

  

  It definitely helped that it came with a Ghibli cover.

• Writing Christmas lists and Christmas cards, at their own suggestion but I was pleased to see them (well, my daughter) doing some writing and spelling.

• Listening to Greeking Out (new season out now!)

• Playing loads of Prime Climb. When I decided (or more accurately, realised) that we were taking some time off the usual schedule, I finally bought this board game from Math for Love. I’m so glad I did. The children have asked to play it every day since it arrived, and usually play two rounds or more, often spending an hour on it. The game is recommended for age 10+, but don’t let that put you off. My two have just turned 6 and 8, and they love it. It’s all about addition, multiplying, subtraction and division, and of course the parent can help as much or as little as needed. It’s great for everything from adding ten, to working out things like 14 x 6. But, beware: it’s a ‘mean’ game where a player will often get bumped back to 0 or moved back on the board. Being bumped to 0 when you were on 98 and so close to winning is tough when you’re 6! But often being sent backwards is no obstacle to eventually winning, and of course it’s good to practise dealing with these difficult moments.

  

• Building a medieval catapult. (Not a full-size one!). This was a gift for my daughter’s birthday and has proved a lot of fun. It was a satisfying build, and works brilliantly. So far no breakages around the house but it’s a powerful weapon! When I have more energy myself, we will talk about the potential energy of the twisted rope transforming into the kinetic energy of the projectile, and about Newton’s Laws of Motion explaining the projectile’s flight. But for now we just enjoy whacking stuff. (Recommended age 9+ or 14+ depending on who’s advising you, but my 8 year old loves it and built it with me very happily.)

  

And that’s about it, but as there are only about 8 hours of daylight in London at the moment, it’s quite enough to fill our days. I have plans for other gentle ways to incorporate some learning into our days, but every evening I end up reading Jane Eyre on the sofa. If I manage to get off the sofa and put my plans into action, I’ll let you know.

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