The Opportune Moment...

When The Cub was a baby, Bear and I fell into a really good routine where we would do our official, sit-down learning during nap time, when The Cub slept for at least an hour before lunch. I found that Bear was receptive, and was happy to sit for twenty to thirty minutes doing short activities that centered around letters and numbers, often with some topic-style work thrown in, usually related to the seasons. He was patient, enjoyed the activities and was happy to follow my lead.

Now, at just over two years old, The Cub has dropped his nap, completely, meaning he is now around, and at first, we tried to keep to that same time slot and sat down with The Cub in tow, to do our learning. Bear was still receptive, and The Cub was happy to either sit and colour beside us, do a small activity, or play with some of the resources that we were using, I think, making him feel involved. He is quickly picking up some of the things we discuss, like counting, and some shapes, and he loves listening to stories, so when Bear and I do his The Bear Can Read pack, The Cub always gets involved to listen to the stories that are included. 

However, it quickly became apparent, that The Cub was getting hungry on the run up to lunch time, and therefore getting unsettled quicker, and then just causing havoc, upsetting Bear and making 'learning' virtually impossible. So, we ditched the pre-lunch time slot, and started doing it in an afternoon. This has proved to have it's own set of issues, as where as The Cub is happier, Bear has clearly passed his opportune moment, as he gets frustrated much more easily, and has very little patience. He gets upset the moment he doesn't understand something, or gets something wrong, and then we get a meltdown that often leads to us packing away as I don't want to push him. Learning shouldn't be stressful, especially not at four years old.

So, I am now looking at shifting the pattern again, and am wondering whether we can fit it in first thing in the morning, straight after breakfast, unless we are going out for the day, in which case, we usually have a pretty quick turn around in a morning.

I am interested to know, if you do 'official, sit down learning' of any kind, what time you do it, and how receptive your children are to the activities you present them... Have you found a pattern depending on their hunger/tiredness levels? Do you have younger siblings around, and how do you manage them?

All advice is more than welcome right now, as I'd really like to get this right for Bear!

Mama Bear x

Finding a Balance...

As Bear is still not Compulsory School Age yet despite the fact that he would have started school in September just gone, I've still kept 'official learning' to a minimum and very much chosen to value experiences, outdoor time and playing together over sitting down to learn.

We have started the SATPIN phonics program together, and have stayed on track with three sounds a week and have started using them to sound out two and three letter words. Bear has picked this up amazingly well, but gets frustrated very quickly when he doesn't know one, and that shows me that he's still too young to be doing full sit-down 'lessons'.

One of our recent weeks, as an example, we have done very little sit-down learning as we have barely spent any time at all at the house. That's not to say we haven't learned anything, or practiced our phonics or numbers 1-20 - but I think we only did one official sit down first thing on Monday morning before heading out to run some chores. 

However, we had been to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park, where we read some of the boards and learned something new about both the lions and the giant otters, and Bear wanted to know where each of the animals was from this time. We had a family bonfire night on Tuesday which was lovely to have everyone together and having fun, socialising with adults and children of different ages. We attended Boston Park Farm's Home Education Day where we learned all about birds, the food chain and what they do to help the spread of seeds. We also got to see some real birds' nests that had been vacated long ago, and have a go at building one ourselves which the boys both enjoyed. And lastly, we joined our local home ed crew on Friday at Wentworth Family Farm where we attended an Exotic Animal Encounter where the boys learned a little bit about some small animals including rabbits, tortoises and snakes, and got to handle them, as well as spending the day on the farm, doing farm things like feeding the animals and playing in their giant sand pit with friends, again socialising with other children of all ages and their parents.

The boys have spent time with lots of different people this week, including family, friends we see regularly, those we don't see as often and new friends we've made, and all the adults that have been involved in the days out, including parents of the other children. They both have no issues communicating with others and enjoy being around lots of people, and aren't afraid to ask questions in order to learn more about people or places. Bear will happily approach people who work places, for example the Wildlife Park, and ask questions if it's something I don't know the answer to and we can't find on the boards. He's learned so much this way!

And in and around all of that excitement, the boys have had plenty of time at home for free play, which has included lots of time with each other. They are slowly getting better at playing together and there are some beautiful moments between them, including Bear "reading" to his brother, either quoting ones he already knows or making them up from the illustrations and The Cub happily sits with him to listen as they both love stories so much - I have no idea where they get it from lol.

I'd love to hear how others balance their outdoor adventures and general outside time with their sit-down learning, it's something I feel like I'm struggling with until I sit down to write it all down like this and I realise that this is one of the reasons that I chose to keep Bear out of the education system, because I wanted to be able to have all these experiences with him and for him to have his childhood with me and his little brother rather than behind a desk.

He is learning, maybe not at the same rate as children his age that are attending school, but it isn't important to me for him to be 'keeping up' - he'll learn when he's ready and right now he is exactly where he's meant to be, enjoying his childhood right alongside his little brother!

Mama Bear x

Autumn Pond Study

We picked a sunny day, a true autumn day, roped in some friends and headed out for the day. There was plenty of playing, a scavenger hunt for autumnal signs, a picnic in the sunshine and then a trip to the pond to check out what it looked like for autumn.

Bear and The Cub had packed their investigational kit, including all the necessities - binoculars, magnifying glasses, big jars, a fishing net and so much more. It all came out of the bags, and all the kids had an ace time checking out the pond and its inhabitants.

I was tasked with catching another bug - which since last time, we discovered was actually a water boatman and not a pond skater like we thought it was! 

Two adults, four kids and one net - it took us for longer than I care to admit to catch one of the little buggers, but it was worth it to see them excited to check it out once it was in the jar and under the magnifying glass.

They were all really mindful of the critter and were quick to want to throw it back after they'd all had a look, and then they went back to their other investigations, spent some time discussing the water, checking out the lily pads and fishing out the few bits of litter to make it clean.

As with our tree trudy, this was done back at the start of Autumn, and we have just gotten around to completing our research and journal page. We looked up the water boatman and the pond skater in Bear's minibeasts book to check out the difference, as I always thought that pond skater was the nickname for a water boatman, but it turns out that they are two very different creatures.

The water boatman is a small insect that looks like a little row boat but can swim under the water as well as on the surface and the pond skater is a thinner little thing that literally skates on the surface of the pond.

Bear drew the water boatman as part of his journal page.

Again, as with the tree study, we will be heading back to the pond in Winter, probably early to mid January, and hopefully when there is a chance it has frozen over so that the boys can see the effects of the cold weather and what it does to both the water and the insects that we witnessed there during Autumn. 

Mama Bear x

Autumn Tree Study

Last year we did a tree study on the huge Sycamore Tree that stands at the bottom of our road. This year, we swapped that tree for a horse chestnut tree at the top of the estate. 

At the start of autumn, we went for a walk up to the tree to check out what it looks like, noticing the autumnal signs that we already knew, including brown leaves and falling conkers.

We took a bag to collect conkers, which Nannie and Pops helped with, picked some leaves to do some rubbings with back at home and played in the leaves.

Then when we went to do our pond study a few weeks later, we went to check out the huge conker tree in the park there and did a little more investigation. We did more rubbings, found loads more conkers and did a drawing of an autumn tree.

It took us far too long to get around to putting our journal page together with all the excitement of The Cub's birthday and then Halloween, but we got around to it eventually. 

We did the actual study right back at the beginning of Autumn, and the page just now at the beginning of November, so it was a nice recap what we found out back then.

Bear did some of the writing himself, and always chooses his pictures and placement etc. We used the leaf rubbing of the horse chestnut leaves and we also cut out his drawing of the autumn tree with its bare branches on the other page.

He is already excited to go back for the winter study which we will do in January after all the Christmas hype has died down. I did Winter twice last year, as I really wanted Bear to see the tree in the snow, but also to understand that it being Winter doesn't always mean that it will be snowy or frosty. So I will probably aim for similar this time around too.

Do you do a tree study? If so, what type of tree are you looking at?

Mama Bear x

Happy Halloween!

I have always loved Halloween, and luckily for me, both boys seem to have inherited the same passion for it. They've been on the spooky train all month, watching movies, reading books and playing all the games that I dug out.

The tradition that I started with Bear, and have obviously continued with The Cub, is to go Booing on Halloween. Booing is basically a reverse Trick or Treat. Instead of going knocking on doors to receive treats, my boys deliver them!

We spent the week making their Boo Packs to hand out, which have included some Halloween crafts, which I made sure to include some different skills in rather than all painting/colouring. They made cotton wool ghosts, painted pumpkins and then cut out and stuck on their faces, and made mummies by rolling conkers in paint over the cut-outs to make their bandages. They had a blast, as both of them love arts and crafts but I never seem to get organised enough to do it regularly. 

It's times like this that encourage me to do it more, because they genuinely do love getting messy and creating stuff.

We also did some baking, making cookies together and decorating them with Jack Skellington faces to add to their bags. I cheated and bought cookie mix in a bag, but they still enjoyed making them, and loved getting to decorate them, proving that it doesn't need to be anything fancy, they just really like being in the kitchen and getting involved.

The boys decided who they'd like to Boo, and we went out this evening with a plan in mind, heading to family members' houses to knock and shout Boo when they answered their doors, giving them their Boo pack which the boys had chosen which crafts to include as well as cookies for them to enjoy.

Bear and The Cub had the Boo packs in their Halloween buckets and took turns being the one to hand out the treat. Several of the doors we knocked on had treats waiting in return for the boys, which they have loved, and been so grateful for. And the ones that didn't have something for them, that was okay too, because that wasn't the purpose for us going out. 

It was a beautiful lesson in kindness, and being grateful when someone had thought of them in return.

They chose their own costumes this year, Bear wanted to be a bat, and The Cub wanted to be a ghostie, so that is what I made happen, and they have loved it. They've gotten more than one wear out of their costumes with a couple of other events on the run-up to tonight, making them well worth it, and I have no doubt that they will get played with when I throw them into their fancy dress box after they've been through the wash.

What do you do for Halloween? Do you have traditions, and are they similar to what you did when you were a kid?

Mama Bear x

Starting Phonics

As Bear would have started FS2 this September, I decided to go in with his official phonics learning. He already knows his alphabet by sounds, and most of their names, so we've gone in with this as a way of learning how to form them properly for writing as well as using them to start blending and making words.

I bought the Learn with Ladybird First Phonics book from work to use as a base, and then intend on creating activities around the sounds from Pinterest and Twinkl etc. The book follows the SATPIN method and I decided to go with three sounds a week, and then a recap after every couple of weeks. So we started with SAT in our first week, read the book and talked through the activities. Used some flash cards that show the correct way to form the letters, and played with magnetic letters and cards to match the sounds to words beginning with the letters.

I also bought a snazzy ink roller that puts the lines on paper to practice writing, and Bear had a go at forming the letters properly, and at a smaller size than he normally writes. He did amazingly well!

We played some games, had a go at writing and did several different activities over the course of the week and then at the end of the week, we revisited the book and filled in the pages, so that I have a physical record of his progress and he practiced writing them again.

The second week, we followed a similar routine for PIN and then in the third week, we covered all six sounds and started using them to form CVC words and blended the sounds to read them. Bear was absolutely fantastic at this and so proud of himself! 

Three weeks in and he is confidently sounding and blending CVC words using the sounds SATPIN to read them. I am so proud of him, never mind him being proud of himself :)

We've done all this with The Cub in tow as he has started to drop his nap, which was when we used to do our intentional learning. He has loved getting involved. Sometimes he's happy to sit and colour, other days he wants to know what we're doing, and has done some matching with the magnetic letters and tracing letters with his fingers.

We will continue to follow this routine while ever it works, and I have no doubts that Bear will be reading in no time :) 

What phonics program have you and your littles used, if you've used one at all...

Mama Bear x

Autumn Equinox 2024

Sunday 22nd September 2024

Our equinox started with a lovely lazy Sunday morning. The Cub was first up, and was happy to bring some books to bed and laid "reading" beside me for ages. Once Bear was up too, they took to playing on the floor next to my bed, so Daddy and I got a little lie-in! 

After checking and rechecking the weather forecast in the hopes of the rain clearing up, and chatting with our partners in crime, we decided to just go with it, and head out on our planned adventure anyway... so, all of a sudden, we had somewhere to be and not a whole lot of time to get ourselves ready. I did it though... picnic packed and everything!

We opened our Autumn box from the Adventure Gang while sorting everything out so that Bear could wear his new t-shirt, and although it was a little big, we let The Cub wear the t-shirt from last year's autumn box. 

They looked adorable in them :)

We met our besties at Wentworth Woodhouse and got the kids all togged up in their suits and wellies ready to go... there was exploring to be done. As per usual, we couldn't keep up with them at first, checking out everything there was to see, picking up sticks and acorns, looking at the statues and flower gardens... until we came across a little picnic area. 

Before the picnic commenced, we had a go at Scavenger Hunt Bingo, (not the same one, but similar, as ours is an old Aldi purchase) though there were no bingo rules as such, just an opportunity for the kids to explore with purpose - looking for leaves, rocks, feathers and more. Then we settled down for some lunch, and having had almost an hour of dry weather, we were treat to the rain starting!

And it never stopped again!

We followed the trail through the Forest of Bewilderment, spending a long time playing in their sound forest. The kids loved the instruments, and even the Daddies had a go. Bear's Daddy is very musical anyway, so he was in his element, and incredibly frustrated that nothing was actually tuned up, but even A's Daddy got involved - they're all big kids really!

There was a small building area, a willow walk, some willow statues, a mud kitchen, lots of puddles to jump in, and nestled amongst them, a chill-out cabin that we took advantage of during the heaviest of rainfall and settled in to read Hello Autumn. A beautiful book from the Little Seasons series and one of my favourites - the whole series that is.

After a walk around past the tower and to check out the magnificent view, we headed back through the woods with a scavenger hunt, looking for autumnal things such as colourful leaves, conkers, acorns and other bits and bobs. Their sheets were soaked by the time we finished, but I think we found most things on the list, and enjoyed the search.

Our adventure ended with some silliness on the lawn behind the house in the rain, no one really caring that we were all drenched and probably not going to dry out any time soon. Not one of the four kids had, at any point, complained about the fact that it was raining. Little P, the tiniest of us was on the hunt for the perfect puddle, The Cub was happy splashing in puddles and checking out all the sights, A barely even kept her coat on the whole time despite the rain, and Bear never even batted an eye other than to keep putting his hood up and down. True outdoorsy kids through and through!

Despite the rain trying to put a dampener on our adventures, pun totally intended, we had an amazing day, and don't for a minute regret going out and braving the weather. Thanks for coming out with us guys, it wouldn't have been the same without you!

We finished off our day with stew back home and the smell of pumpkin spice throughout the whole house after putting the little fox wax melt on from their subscription box.

What did you do with the equinox? Did you brave the weather to get outdoors?

Mama Bear x

Pond Study

As well as our tree study, which I posted about previously, I decided to add a pond study this year too as Bear has shown an interest in frogs and tadpoles recently.

So, as another study and set of journal pages, we are going to do a seasonal pond study.

We headed out in the last week of August to a couple of different places to check out potential ponds, one being more of a lake, one being a fishing pond so not very accessible and finally, the one we've chosen, being perfect. Only small, and no guarantee of frogs, but accessible and perfect for the boys to investigate all year round.

We took some bits with us when checking it out and Bear had me catch a pond skater for him to look at, and then promptly decide it was too icky and not want to be anywhere near the bug jar. It wasn't an easy bug to catch I can tell you, but as soon as I'd thrown the little bugger back did The Cub decide he wanted a closer look so I had to do it all over again!

He was much happier to look, and two little boys passing by were more than excited to take a look too! My hard work was appreciated, even if Bear didn't want to get close enough to take a proper look.

They had the other bits and bobs out of their explorer's bags, taking a look at the water, using Bear's handheld mini microscope to look at the leaves that were falling from the trees, and their magnifying glasses to look closely at some sticks that had fallen in, and a lily pad that I'd noticed was floating near the edge instead of rooted in the middle with the others.

We had a chat about how we weren't going to harm the pond and the things living in it, but because this one was already detached, I would catch it in his net for him to have a closer look at.

With our decision made, we will be heading back there at some point mid Autumn to see what it looks like and what's living in it and then record our findings in his nature journal, a great way to encourage Bear's creativity and get some writing practice in.

Till next time,

Mama Bear

Harvest Moon - September 2024

Bear is just a little in love with the moon, so, I've added it to our nature journal plans this year! Over winter last year, we paid attention to the full moons and Bear could name you several of them from our learning, but as soon as the days got longer and he wasn't seeing the dark, or the moon, we kind of stopped learning about them... This year, we are going to do a moon page in our journals each month.

Although the Harvest Moon was last night, it didn't work for us, so I let Bear stay up late tonight, and after his brother had gone to bed, we got all bundled up in our dressing gowns and went outside to look for the moon that I'd been tracking on my app all night so that we knew where to look... Was it there... of course it wasn't!

There was some disappointment at first, but then he saw a bright star in the same direction and told me that he thought it was a planet... honestly, I'm pretty sure it was probably just a star, but, it was sitting in the right place according to the sky map, to have been Saturn, so he was happy to have seen a planet!

We sat under a blanket and talked about the name of the moon and where it comes from, and he drank his milk and ate his biscuit while I drank my hot chocolate, and then, on good authority from Daddy and Nannie, who could see the moon from where they were, we waited it out, and were rewarded with it peeking out from above the trees exactly where we'd expected it to be - the excitement was real.

There was a very annoyingly placed streetlight almost directly at the side of it, which made the view a little less amazing, but Bear didn't care in the slightest and has gone to bed a very happy little boy, all excited about doing his journal page over the next few days... So, I have some photos to print, and we will do some writing, and put some stickers in when we next have a free afternoon, which I think is early next week as we have a busy few days coming up.

Did you see the Supermoon or Eclipse last night? I'd have loved to but was totally sleeping by the time they would have been visible.

Mama Bear x

July Focus Title

The Boy and the Octopus by Caryl Lewis

A magical tale of finding your voice and becoming yourself.

Stanley loves his octopus toy, and dreams of the magical way its skin changes colour; how it hides itself when something scary comes along. In fact, sometimes Stanley wants to be like his octopus and disappear.

But Stanley learns how to share his feelings in more than words, and to face difficulties through the power of self-expression and creativity.

A lyrical and emotional story about overcoming bullies and being proud to be seen.

*Description and image taken from waterstones.com - no copyright intended*

The Boy and the Octopus was Books are My Bag's indie children's book of the month for July, and one that had already caught my eye in the bookshop, so it was a no-brainer for me... 

I left it in the story basket with our two Jellycat Octopuses Inky and Storm, and the boys were straight in the following day, asking if we could read it!

We read the story together, and the boys played with the octopuses, which ended in lots of fun and giggles when I showed them that they could hold on to their arms with their tentacles. It sparked numerous questions and conversations about octopuses, which moved onto other sea creatures, mainly sharks! 

We also discussed the topic of feelings, fear, being yourself, confiding in others, particularly grown ups, and the many ways in which you can express yourself or make your feelings known - all topics that are covered in the beautiful story and even more stunning illustrations.

This book was definitely much more of a hit than June's book, and has been picked up multiple times to read, by Bear alone, as well as The Cub occasionally too. 

One of the highlights was coming into the living room to find Bear on the sofa looking through the book. He told me all about his favourite part where the octopus can change colour to hide.

We didn't get around to the book review for this before we went away for our summer holiday in August, and then we've done very little in the form of sit down learning over the rest of summer so it's only just got done.

Bear and I reread the story and talked about it and then he gave me his three star rating because "it was good but not one of his favourites"... his words. I loved it! He struggled a little with the summary and I prompted with several questions, but he was quick to tell me his favourite part!

I am going to go about our focus title a little differently this year, still choosing a different picture book each month, but using it differently.  I want to use it to support other topics of interest, and Bear's phonics and literacy skills. More on that to come...

This month's book is Leaves by Stephen Hogtun which fits perfectly with the autumnal changes going on around us.

Stick with me for more on our plans,

Mama Bear x

A Tree Study: Sycamore

At the beginning of the last academic year, Bear and I chose a tree near our house to do a nature study on over the course of the seasons to see how it changed throughout the year. The choice was easy as this big sycamore tree that we have to walk past pretty much anywhere we go is Bear's favourite!

During Autumn, we went to check it out and talked about what the tree looked like, using as many descriptive words as we could. We collected some leaves and enjoyed crunching through them and playing in them and throwing the helicopter seeds up in the air with The Cub while on our way home one day.

Once back home we did some leaf rubbings and put our findings into Bear's new nature journal. Writing the words he had used to describe the tree and some autumnal stickers that we'd bought a few days before.

As the months went on we watched the tree change and lose all of it's leaves for Winter and then stopped again one day to talk about it one day when we'd had snow. Going through the same questions and looking at the way the tree had changed. I'd purposely waited for snow and frost before we went to do our observations as I wanted his descriptive words to include the typical wintry words.

Again, we completed a nature journal page and Bear even did some drawings to go with it as we'd had some snow and been making snowmen in the back garden.

You get the gist now, we did the same thing in Spring and then again in the Summer and it was lovely to see Bear noticing the changes as the year went on instead of being prompted on them. He was so excited to see the new helicopter seeds begin to grow and still hunts for fallen sticks from the branches every time we walk by. The Cub walks by too now instead of being in his pram so has joined in the hunt for the best stick!

This year I decided that we should change tree so that Bear can see how different trees go through different changes, so we went out for a walk around the neighbourhood in the week before the start of September to find something new and settled on one of the big horse chestnut trees. We will be doing the same study this year, and comparing it to the sycamore tree too for comparisons.

I can't wait to see how Bear's thoughts have developed since last year and look forward to our journal pages!

I will keep you updated throughout the year on our findings.

Mama Bear x

First day of Foundation Stage 2

Straight in on a Monday morning, I do like a good reset and September is a great time for it. Being able to jump right in on Monday morning was epic too - it felt like a perfect fresh start, and we had an ace day!

I set up a morning basket for Bear with some new goodies in ready for when he woke up, and he was so excited when I directed him there. I'd picked up this wipe clean learn to draw book in Aldi several weeks ago, initially, to put away as a Christmas/Birthday present, but it was perfect for this too. It has kept him occupied both yesterday and today at multiple times during the day. He loves to draw vehicles, so this was a great way to broaden his talent in a practical way.

There was also a new picture book, and a new chapter book with a new bookmark, and a new fidget style toy. All of which went down well!

He loved my choice of new chapter book, Kitty and the Moonlight Rescue, and after insisting that we read the first chapter after breakfast, wanted to dress up as Kitty for the day.

Last year, I set up going on a rainbow hunt for our first day as Bear absolutely loves anything rainbow related. When we discussed our first day last week, I mentioned doing something similar, but he was only interested in doing the same again, so, a tradition was born!

I set up a rainbow invitation to play for them both, including some stories, which we read a couple of during the morning while still in our pyjamas, then we played some colour games, searching for things to match all the different colours, and then playing hide and seek with the rainbow peg dolls.

While The Cub napped, we completed our Not Back to School questionnaire and made paper plate versions of ourselves, similar to how we made wooden spoons last year.  Bear loves crafting, and when I got the paper and scissors out to make our hair he was in his element - I really need to do more simple activities for him to practice his skills!

We set up a mirror to look in so that Bear could copy his features, and I made one along side him so that I could model the places for everything, but he was left to his own design as I am very much for his crafts/art being his own and not overly led/corrected.

When he was finished he propped it up in front of the mirror so that he was sat looking at it and exclaimed that he didn't need a mirror anymore as he could see himself fine now.

After lunch, we headed out on our Rainbow Hunt - taking Bear's camera so that he could take photos for his nature journal page, and we took The Cub's little wooden camera which he used to copy his brother and take photos too!

They went out with their cat ears and giraffe ears headbands on, because, why not?! We picked up Nannie, and headed for the park, checking the blackberry bushes for wild snacks along the way as there is still tons of fruit left on them.

It was a miserable kind of afternoon with a lot of drizzle, which meant we had the park to ourselves, and two little wet bums from going down the slide and on the other playground equipment by the time we were finished.

We headed home for a snuggly afternoon on the sofa, watching a movie together, then after we'd had some tea, headed out into the garden as the weather was much nicer, and spent half an hour trying to learn how to skip! Bear showed a lot of patience with trying, something he generally doesn't have a lot of at the moment, and The Cub was just adorable jumping up and down and waving his arms around with the skipping rope clutched in his hands!

 

After a bath and clean jammies, we headed to bed to read some more of his new chapter book and then both boys were fast asleep before 8pm, which is pretty unheard of, Bear is normally awake until closer to 9pm, but a busy and exciting day had him all worn out... and he slept till almost 9am this morning too!!

How was your first day of Home Ed this year?

Mama Bear x