How we’ve homeschooled this week

Keeping busy, but not too busy

A Christmas puzzle

GCHQ (the UK intelligence, security, and cyber agency) has released their Christmas challenge. Aimed at children over 11 but I will certainly be having a go myself and it could be an ideal family activity for a dark winter’s day.

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Our December slow-down continues. But when I put my mind to it (which becomes increasingly difficult as I make my way through more and more mince pies), we’ve been keeping pleasantly busy:

• My daughter and I went to a big band concert to hear Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite, and she loved it. If you need some festive music that isn’t what they play on repeat in the supermarket, I recommend it.

• I read them the story of The Nutcracker, and then I was going to show them a couple of short highlights from the ballet, but they were so enthralled we ended up watching the whole thing.

  

• I’ve started reading The Wolves of Willoughby Chase to my daughter (8) once her brother is in bed. I read the whole series myself earlier this year and am so excited to be able to share it with her. It’s slightly beyond her reading level, and I’m enjoying having the opportunity to read to her again—now she’s a competent reader she is usually keen just to read to herself.

• The multiplication jars continue to be a success. As well as the ‘usual’ times tables, I included some that require some mental working out, which gives all our brains a good workout. We’ve also been playing lots more Prime Climb.

• My daughter was given a National Geographic Science Kit for her birthday recently, so yesterday we tested all sorts of household substances with pH paper, looked at the pH scale, and talked about acids and alkalis. Indicator paper is very cheap online and provides lots of fun!

• We watched Father Christmas, which the children seem to think is a documentary.

  

• I told the children that we’re coming up to the shortest day, and we used an almanac to find how many hours of daylight we’ll have on the 21st, and compared it to the number for June 21st. I told them that for people living further north than us, the number is even smaller, and that two valleys (one in Norway and one in Italy) receive no direct sunlight for six months of the year. We found the Arctic Circle on the world map and I showed them the lines of latitude—the Arctic Circle is above approx. 66 degrees North—and we found which countries are above this line.

• Twice this week I have put sentences from books the children are enjoying (The Hobbit and The Wolves of Willoughby Chase) on the blackboard, and my daughter has underlined words that are common nouns, proper nouns, pronouns, or adjectives. She doesn’t love this, but it’s a pretty painless way to do it. The current sentence is ‘He then seized one of the shattered pieces of glass lying on the floor and stabbed the imprisoned beast through the cloak. It fell dead.’ We talked about the satisfying contrast between the two sentences, and about syllables.

• We’ve been for more bike rides, we’ve baked gingerbread men, and now we take the gingerbread men on the bike rides—anything to encourage us all out of the house in those meagre daylight hours.

• My daughter and I talked about whether the best bit of Christmas is the looking forward to it. I said I like the anticipation, and she asked what that meant, so we talked about ante- meaning before, and I told her AM means ante meridian, but said I’d have to look up what the -cipation means. It turns out it comes from Latin capere meaning to take, seize, grasp. It’s the period before all the grasping and seizing!

• All four of us have played ‘Guess what animal’ and, at my husband’s suggestion, ‘Guess which monarch’ (“Were you beheaded?” “Did you die in battle?” “Were you murdered in childhood?”. History is gruesome.)

Every morning the children tell me how many days left until Christmas Eve, and every morning I think ‘help! What am I going to get them for Christmas?!’. Yes, with 9 days to go I still haven’t decided. If you have children of similar ages (6 and 8), please share what you’re giving them and help me out!

Gingerbread recipe

As requested, here is my recipe for gingerbread. It comes from Gill Holcombe’s How to feed your whole family a healthy, balanced diet with very little money… It’s a very forgiving, child-friendly recipe. We use slightly less ginger to cater for sensitive palates and don’t bother with the currants.

“Measurements don’t need to be exact—but don’t be tempted to overdo the golden syrup or the dough will become too soft and unworkable. (Store in a tin with a tight-fitting lid to stop the gingerbread men jumping out and running away.)

Makes about 12 large gingerbread men:

6 tbsp (6oz/175g) plain flour (all-purpose flour in the US)

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda in the US)

2 tsp ginger

Pinch of salt

2 tbsp (2oz/50g) butter

3 tbsp (3oz/85g) soft brown sugar (we used a mix of caster and demerara)

1 egg

1 tbsp golden syrup

Currants

Method

1. Grease 2 baking trays and pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 4/5, 180/190 C

2. Wash a big handful of currants in a sieve and leave them to drain on a tea towel

3. Sift the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl: flour, bicarb, salt, ginger

4. Rub in the butter with your fingertips to make rough breadcrumbs

5. Mix in the sugar and make a well in the centre

6. Put the egg and golden syrup into the well and use a fork to stir everything together to make a soft, pliable dough

7. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, knead for a minute until it feels ready, then roll out to about 1/8” or 3mm thickness

8. Cut out as many gingerbread men/shapes as you can and place them on the baking trays, re-rolling the remaining dough until you’ve run out

9. Press currants firmly into the gingerbread men for eyes, mouths, buttons

10. Bake in the centre/top of the oven for 10-15 minutes until crisp and golden. Cool on wire racks

Enjoy your weekends. I am looking forward to ours being filled with paperchain making, and at least one more Christmas movie/documentary.

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