How We Homeschooled Today #66
Maths, games, and grass seed
Lots of new subscribers recently—hello!—so here’s a quick intro:
Each day Monday-Friday I share a summary of our learning and activities. My daughter is 7 and my son is 5. Until recently we were completely unschooling, but we have introduced some formal learning to each day. Every evening I write out a list for each child, and the following morning we work through them. Usually handwriting, one new spelling for my daughter, a maths activity, and a very brief session on French and Ancient Greek. Plus other topics depending on the day. We don’t always get through everything but it gives us something to aim for! For more on the daily lists, see here. Any questions feel free to ask in the comments.
How We Homeschool Pen Pal Exchange
Aiming to spread friendship and literacy one letter at a time! If your child would like a pen pal, leave a comment or e-mail me with their age and home country, and I’ll get to work. I have more US children than from anywhere else, so if you’re somewhere else, or know a family who is, I’d love it if you could help spread the word.
Here’s what we got up to today:
More ‘camping’ in the garden after breakfast and before we started work.
My daughter wrote to Father Christmas for her daily writing—the second letter to Santa in two days. As Raymond Briggs’ Father Christmas would say, they arrive earlier every bloomin’ year. Which reminds me…
Then she did one more spelling. Her brother had a microscopic cut on his hand which apparently prevented him writing, so while she did this work he read a book. But his Beowulf tracing is 5 lines this week and he knows he can finish it if he does a line a day. The thought of having to do two lines tomorrow to catch up was enough to make him work through the agony and get his line done. (If you’re new here, I’ve started writing out a line or two of Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf for my son to trace as handwriting practice. It’s much more interesting than a handwriting book and fits in nicely with this year’s Medieval theme.)
They chose a money and change game for their maths activity, taken from Maths Games for Less Able Learners. It’s aimed at 7-11 year olds so also good for younger children ready for more of a challenge. Worth adding to your collection if you can find a cheap copy. This game involves using money, giving change, adding two dice and odd/even.
Then they asked for a break to eat a snack and read their books: Daisy and the Trouble with School Trips and Illustrated Tales of King Arthur. (More info for new readers: my 5 year old is an unusually competent reader. You can read about how he learnt to read here. It didn’t seem to have much to do with me!)
After the break they chose two more maths activities (and really, I was a bit mathed-out by the end of it). We did Number Hive (free printables here), and How Close Can You Get from Family Math, where you arrange 4 playing cards to get as close as possible to a target number. Great for estimating and subtraction.
There was so much maths we ran out of time for French, and ancient Greek was reduced to revising yesterday’s new word as we walked to the bus stop.
This afternoon we went to a new home ed board games group nearby. The children had a lovely time playing with some different toys and games. Followed by a cafe visit with one of the families, where they all told each other jokes that made no sense at all but that nonetheless made them laugh uproariously.
Back home to reseed the lawn with a friend, practising casting the seed and sowing it evenly rather than dumping piles of it randomly over the ground.
Some very boisterous racing around with friends. On the newly-seeded lawn.
I’m going to share any bedtime reading on Notes so I can get this out a little earlier. If you’re not on Notes, and don’t want to be, I’ll add any favourite reads to my monthly resources post at the end of the month.
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Forgive me if this is a stupid question but is the pen pal exchange only for homeschoolers or is it open to children in “regular” school? (I know a lot more of the latter in the UK.)