Where to start?!

Bear would be due to start nursery in September, which is Foundation Stage 1 (FS1) where he would begin his educational learning journey, so, although I don't plan to do much with him this young, I am going to make a start on phonics as he has a decent grip on his alphabet, or most of it anyway... he is only three, and everything he knows so far he has picked up purely through play. Amongst his toys are several resources that are number and letter based, including jigsaws, blocks, wooden letters, magnetic letters and cars with numbers on, which he has access to at all times.

Many of his toys go through rotation, and to a certain extent, so do his letters and numbers, as I change what is out on the play surface weekly, but unlike his other toys which are put away in the spare room when out of rotation, his letters and numbers are kept in a draw in the play space, so if he ever wants anything different out to play with, he can swap them out by himself. Any knowledge he has so far is all through playing with these and remembering what they are from me naming them during play.

Come September, I plan to make a more concentrated effort to actually have Bear learn his alphabet, then move on to phonics sounds before moving into reading.

Obviously, the first place I have started is with a planner... anyone who knows me knows that I always loved a good planner, though these days, I keep my own plans in the calendar on my phone. I decided, although I know that it is not a necessity, that I would like to keep a record of what I do with Bear, and eventually with The Cub too, for my own peace of mind, if not for anyone else. I looked into 'teacher' planners, but they are far too in-depth for what I wanted, as were 'student' planners. I also had a nosey at some 'home education' style planners, but again, for now, they were far too detailed... so, I went with what I know.

I have used Personal Planners on and off for years, and love the flexibility that they provide to create them exactly the way you want them to be. The personal organiser is a reasonably new line for them, and I decided that I'd like the ring binder so that I can just purchase the new insert each year. This year I went for one of their astrology covers, and the front cover has Bear's educational details on it so that I will be able to store them and find relevant information from them when necessary.

Also, this is Ned! He will feature in our home education journey quite often, though maybe not in every photo as he has done in this post... I like to leave him out with play invitations, and he comes on adventures with us. The Cub has one with his name on too which is already one of his favourite toys <3

I think that's probably quite enough for a post all about a planner - though I may do another one further down the line once I start using it to make plans, and to record our journey... Any questions, please comment below!

Mama Bear x