Caravan times

We realised an added bonus of Home Education this week when we took off for the caravan for four days between my work days... something that we wouldn't have been able to do if we had followed a traditional route into education and Bear was in nursery. 

It wasn't something that I had factored into my decision when we decided to home-educate Bear, nor had it been something I'd even thought about until the evening after we got there and I was setting up the bits I'd taken with me ready for Bear the following morning.

With some forward planning, despite being away from home, we still got in some intentional learning every day, looking at letter and number recognition, plus we had a lovely walk on the beach that included lots of discussion points and a planned trip to The Deep, the aquarium in Hull. 

We did some number recognition with a number line I've made for Bear so he can keep track of the numbers and a foam counting set I'd picked up in Poundstretcher which he matched to the number line. Bear can recognise numbers 1, 2 and 3 now, but struggles with the rest when out of order, hence the number line.

We also had a capital letters foam board jigsaw that he worked through and can identify a good half of the letters, though we know the sounds, not their names at the moment. 

We played a new game, something that I recreated from Pinterest, where Bear had to build the Lego stacks to match the numbers, again, recognising the written numbers and then counting the Lego bricks to make the towers :) He loved this and we will be using this regularly.

Our planned trip to The Deep in Hull was amazing, as always. We have a ticket that allows unlimited visits for a year, and we make use of it when we're up at the caravan, and we planned it so that we spent the rainy day there. Bear loved it again, checking out all the tanks and showing us the fish that he remembered from the last time. The Cub is now on his feet and toddled around most of the aquarium checking out all the fish. He loved watching them swimming around in the tanks and was fascinated by the jellyfish, which are Mummy's favourite too. I could watch them forever!

Bear picked a golf club and golf ball as the prize from Hook a Duck at the fair over the summer, so we checked out the mini crazy golf course on the caravan site and practiced a new skill. He was pretty good at it, to be honest. I showed him how to hold the golf club and to hit the ball gently, and although he's a bit heavy-handed and prefers to use one hand, he was happy to chase the ball around the golf course, so I was happy watching :)

No trip to the caravan is complete without a walk on the beach, and five minutes after we made it onto the sand, they were both covered in it - just the way a child should be :) I love how much my boys love the beach! It is my happy place and is quickly becoming theirs too. Bear had his shoes off the moment he hit the sand and was jumping in tide pools and squidging sand between his toes and The Cub was straight in, digging in it and heading for the water. 

We went for a walk in the opposite direction than normal in search of sea glass, but we had a bit of bad luck and couldn't find much. Bear walked so far but needed a carry part of the way back, which meant Mummy needed to she-hulk and carry both boys for a while. Damn, they're getting heavy now!

And, one of Bear's favourite things to do at the caravan is play games, his choice this time happened to be a great shape and spatial awareness lesson! He could name the shapes as he spun them, and worked hard at fitting them all together and not leaving any gaps. 

He was so proud when he made it to the end and had squeezed everything in that he could.

All in all, despite the upheaval of a different setting, we did as much learning as we would at home, just differently, as Bear had no interest in his busy book, which I did take with us. 

It didn't matter what he did, the fact that he is starting to recognise his letters and numbers is proof that what we are doing is working for us right now. 

We're back home now and I will be setting up next week's learning tomorrow, and after seeing how he responded to different things each morning, have decided I might switch things up at home a bit too, as up until now, I have been putting the same things out daily in a routine. I loved seeing his face at what might be there each morning, rather than expecting the same things... so I will be changing things up a little to keep his excitement alive!

Until then, 

Momma Bear x