January Recap

One month into the new year... as if we're at the end of January already!!

We have done so much this month, that I barely know where to start, but I liked the idea of recapping what we've been up to and keeping a log here, as well as sharing some of our learning in the hopes of inspiring others.

Bear's learning is still entirely based on his numbers and letters. It is very relaxed, and on the days when he isn't bothered about doing much, we simply don't... he is only three after all. Those days don't happen very often, and I am making the most of that while they last, as I'm sure at some point there will be some pushback from him.

At the moment, Bear recognises the numbers 1-4 by sight and can count to 12, being able to point to one number per count and can therefore count objects and know how many he has. This wooden jigsaw-style board was one of his Christmas presents and has been perfect for aiding his learning. The numbers match with a coloured fish, also with the number on, and then there is the appropriate number of rings to count onto the peg. He regularly does numbers 1-5 on here, then gets a little bored, but once he recognises the number 5 more confidently, I will encourage him to do number 6 too.

The wipe-clean book with numbers in it was a hit, and Bear loves tracing the numbers and rubbing the book clean again. We did some counting in an activity book and we had fun with post-it notes, where I encouraged him to tell me the numbers, and then we put them in order, still with plenty of support, but he enjoyed the activity and that's what counts right now.

As for letter recognition, before December, Bear could recognise both the capital and lowercase version of Aa-Gg, however, throughout the festive period, I laid off the letters in favour of Christmas activities, and with the knowledge being relatively new, it hasn't all stuck and this has more than frustrated Bear a little, so I backed off.

He has been practicing writing his own name, in various places (including in the sand on New Year's Day, completely unprompted) and can identify the letters of his name. 

We did some activities where he copied letters/words that I had written, and he copied the entire alphabet one letter at a time to make a sound wheel that we then took out on a walk with us to start identifying initial letter sounds in words. This activity was great for repetition as after we wrote each letter, I started again and read them through, pointing to them as we went. I was so proud of Bear for this, however, once we were out with it, he did struggle to read his own writing which made the activity harder. I think I will recreate this wheel in my handwriting for him so that we can use it and he can recognise the letters as we go.

At the beginning of the month, I decided to try and theme the play/learning that we would be doing and went with Space as one of Bear's Christmas presents was this wooden rocket and figures.

This fell wonderfully with the topic at Forest Tots at the start of the month where they looked at the planets and their order, making a book. We had our own books at home which we read facts from and used the pictures to keep looking at the planet order, and Bear loved putting them out and talking about the things he remembered about each of them. He loves the Planet Song on YouTube, something we have listened to so many times, even before this topic, and many of his facts are remembered from there. 

Although I loved this idea at the beginning of the month, it quickly became apparent that a month is too long to try and hold his attention on one idea, so in the future, I will be mixing the theme up a little more often.

Reading, as mentioned in a prior post, is not something that I have an issue with right now, and I hope that it stays that way. Reading is one of my favourite hobbies and a true passion, and both boys have inherited that. They both love reading, by themselves, looking through books, and having books read to them.

Our Book of the Month from Books Are My Bag was Waiting for Froggo by Alice Courtley which we have read multiple times this month, talked a lot about the theme of patience and I have made a point of highlighting when Bear is being (or not being, as the case may be) patient. This last week during National Storytelling Week, we also had a story basket with the characters that we used to help us tell the story, and we had read it enough times that Bear could quote parts of the story to me while we were reading.

Every month brings with it our groups and outings to see friends. Forest Tots is usually first on the list, on the first Friday of every month, and we had a blast, as usual, in the forest, learning about planets, and eating cheese toasties made on the fire. We had two birthdays this month, one of Bear's friends was just a month older than him, and we had fun at soft play, and our littlest friend turned one and we were delighted to be invited to celebrate with her! 

We made it to Rhyme Time at our local library, something we don't do regularly now, as Bear is a little old and gets bored when we do it weekly, but we were in the building at the right time for something else and The Cub is the perfect age for it now and absolutely loved it!

Then to round off the month, we headed to Little Farmers, where we got to go for a tractor and trailer ride, make cow ears, feed the cows, and then we spent the afternoon at the farm with our friends, enjoying the fresh air together.

As per last year, I am aiming to get the boys outside every day for some much-needed fresh air and to burn off some energy. We started as we meant to go on with a walk on the beach on New Year's Day having spent the night at the caravan to celebrate the new year. We have been out with friends, explored new places, done some of our favourite things, like feeding the ducks, and visited our local pump track with the boys' new bikes which they both love!

The boys have accumulated more than the hour-a-day average that I had hoped for this month, with Bear's total coming in at 34 hours :)

The other event that took place this month was the RSPB's Big Garden Bird Watch, of which I will be doing a separate post for once we have finished Bear's journal page.

Bear could already identify a few birds, but with the help of his new flashcards, his RSPB birdwatching book, and a garden I-Spy book, he can confidently identify most garden birds by their picture. 

We bought new bird feeders, made pine cone feeders, enjoyed the official Garden Birdwatch Activity Book, and had fun watching from the window for birds in the garden. Unfortunately, despite all our efforts, we had absolutely no birds show up for our watch, but we did get a pesky squirrel drop by to say hello... 

All in all, January has been a pretty epic month I think! Next month brings with it Bear's fourth birthday, which I am in planning and creating mode for, making bits and bobs for his party. We will be heading out on an adventure on the day too, a tradition we have getting out on sculpture trails. Valentine's Day, along with a few other birthdays, Children's Mental Health Week, and WWF's Big Winter Wander are also on the horizon and I am in planning mode to make the most of it all, and to increase our outside time as although we did manage to hit the target I set for us this month, I have been rather lazy about getting us out and about!

What have your January's looked like?

Momma Bear x

It's time to alter the assumption that a mother doesn't want to spend time with her children...

"I bet you wish they were in school!"

True story...

While out on Friday with the Home Ed group, we went out walking the trail in the nature reserve looking for harvest mice and their nests. We came across lots of other walkers, many of them speaking to the kids involved in our little group. Bear loves chatting to people and is always polite and tells them all about what he is up to. We were on our way back after our expedition when we came across an older gentleman who stepped out of the path to let us pass, and as we did, he said to us, "I bet you wish they were in school," with a laughing at his own joke kind of chuckle.

Now, anyone who knows me will know that I'm not the most tactful of person when faced with a situation like this, and he ruffled my feathers rather quickly bearing in mind he hadn't so much as said hello before uttering his statement. My snap response was quite a rude, "No, no I don't, not in the slightest," and I kept walking.

The other mum that I was walking with was a part of this too, and we both talked about how it's a shame that the general opinion from others is that mothers don't want to spend any time with their children. I'm not even really sure what this guy's meaning was, bearing in mind he didn't say anything else. It was bitterly cold, so maybe he was talking about us being outside, but that was my choice to take them out... Maybe it was because there were so many of us, in which case, how did he know that we weren't a school group? Or maybe it was because my boys, and the other two children at the front of the group with us, were too young for school, and he was making the very incorrect assumption that we were counting down the days till we could send them away.

Well, it's about time the world stopped making that assumption. I had my children because I wanted them, and I am incredibly lucky to be in a position where I only have to work part-time so that I don't have to leave them with a childminder or at a nursery. That's my choice. I made the decision to home-educate for many reasons, but one of them was very selfish in that I didn't want to have to give them up for six hours every day and only get them back for the last few hours a day when they were tired. Having to fit all the adventures I wanted to have with them into weekends and school holidays. Again, I am lucky that the life I have allows for this, and I have the support of my partner and my family around me. My choices.

I hate seeing parents posting to social media about how they are counting down the days of the holidays until they can send the kids back to school. Complaining about having them in the house and all the things that they can't get done because they're parenting. How about enjoying every precious moment that you do get with them? They'll be grown before you know it and off living their own lives. 

I hate how much society makes it seem like parents should be happy to send their kids off to school every day. They break up for a holiday and the world around them is already counting them back, by ways of what shops are selling, adverts on TV about Back to School, and schools themselves that send enough work home to keep children busy rather than allowing them the space and freedom to enjoy some time with their families.

The whole world seems insistent on the idea that a mother shouldn't want to spend any time with her children and it is wrong. I had my boys because I wanted to be a mother and I wanted to raise them and spend time with them. And I can guarantee that the majority of other parents out there feel the same way. So why are there so many people who believe we just want to get rid of them all the time? Why does society make us feel like we should be counting down the days till school starts again? Why do people put posts on social media to the likes of this? 

It's time to change the opinion!

I love spending time with my boys, and although we have our bad days, not once have I regretted my choice not to send Bear to nursery. Not once have I considered that I have made a mistake choosing to home-educate, and not once have I wished that I could send them somewhere other than where I am... I love my boys and I want to be with them... Is that really too hard to understand?

I am aware that this post will ruffle a few feathers, so why not drop your comments below, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Mama Bear x

Reading Resolutions

Not that my boys need any encouragement to read, they both love books almost as much as their Mama does, but I have decided to jump on board with Waterstones Reading Resolutions for Children this year as, how could I not? Waterstones are encouraging reading for pleasure in children, including reading aloud to younger children, which is the category that my boys fall into. 

Both boys have access to books, in multiple areas of the house, and it is not unusual for either of them to appear with one wanting to be read to. They both enjoy being read to and both enjoy looking through them by themselves. 

They are used to seeing me read, and I have books in pretty much every room of the house, and they know that I work in the bookshop, which we visit regularly. It was always safe to say that they would both be book dragons like me :)

Using Books Are My Bag's Book of the Month, I am going to buy/borrow the book for Bear, we are going to read it, and then use it to shape some activities based on the themes of the book.

January's book is Waiting for Froggo by Alice Courtley which I bought for Bear, and we cuddled up together and read. A lovely, simplistic story about patience. Which, I now plan to create some activities around to tie in. 

I plan to do this each month, plus the numerous other books that we read together, and we are doing book reviews for some of the longer picture books, or for the ones that we are using for more, like these books of the month. I am trying to encourage Bear to recall what he has read in his own words, rather than two or three reads in when he just starts parroting it back to me. His memory and recall are amazing, paired with the pictures he can usually retell a story after a few reads but I'm attempting to encourage a summary rather than a retelling.

I am never going to complain though, while ever they have a natural love for reading, and if at any point, I find that pushing him is hurting that passion, I will be backing off. 

I will put up a post each month with the book of the month and the activities that we find ourselves getting up to, until then, I'd love to hear your reading resolutions, for both you and your little readers!

Book Dragon :)