The Bear Can Read

I recently, finally, signed up for The Bear Can Read for Bear, a toolkit to support reading at home. I have watched them on social media for quite a while now and have kept debating whether or not it was the right way forward for us just yet, but when they had an offer on last month, I took advantage and signed up, with the intention of seeing how it went and then deciding from there.

Having followed them for some time, I had a good idea of what they were about, and the final touch was that they are bear themed, making it perfect for us :)

I signed Bear up at the pre-reading stage as we are still working on letter recognition and phonics and we started at the Teddy Stage. 

The first package arrived speedily and I loved that it was addressed to Bear, and that the package is the beginning of the fun. He was so excited to get into it which was really lovely to see.

The package contained three books, one of which was non-fiction, and a tote bag which comes with the first order and is lovely, Bear has been quoting the "Reading is my Superpower" line from it every time we discuss reading a book. There was also the collection of literacy activites and a snack, which of course, he dug straight into while we explored the bits and bobs and decided what to do first.

Bear chose the non-fiction book during our first sit down with this, which was about the lifecycle of a butterfly. Bear had basic knowledge of this already as we have a book similar, but this one was written with the purpose of his learning. 

Inside the front cover was information for the grown-up about how to use the book, and the sounds which were included. There were only three sounds, making up two different words for Bear to read, both of which he did with some support as this was the first time we had attempted putting more than one sound together to read a word outloud. The text at the bottom of the pages was for me to read, and there was information on the life cycle and then bits to get Bear thinking.

Afterwards, we chose the worksheet that went with the lifecycles theme and Bear enjoyed practicing his cutting skills, and then ordering the discs using the knowledge from the book.

He virtually did this activity independently. I read the instructions to him, then he cut the discs out, worked out which order to put them in using the book as a reference point, and then glued them in with his magic dotty pen from Nannie.

The next time we sat down to do some work from this pack, Bear chose on of the picture books, Tisha and the Blossom by Wendy Meddour which we sat and read together. I encouraged Bear to really look at the illustrations to both back up what we were reading, and for him to see what else he noticed as he often picks things out that I don't even notice.

It is a lovely book about the beauty of slowing down and allowing yourself time to just be, instead of always having to 'hurry up' in our busy lives. Bear loved it and we have reread it a couple of times already.

We also chose another activity from the worksheet pack, and although colouring is not something Bear enjoys all that much, he loved copying mine. The instructions were to match up the butterflies and then colour them in to match. I coloured one in, and Bear used the same colours to do his butterfly the same.

We only did one set of butterflies, but I am hoping he will return to this to do the others another time.

When we completed the other worksheets, Bear wasn't interested in reading, but we did finish off everything else in the pack, including more sequencing, which also encouraged the use of the words, 'first', 'then', 'next', and 'finally', which he did perfectly.

We followed this by discussing when we used those words in real life, and he explained how I often used them when telling him what our day might include, and how he used them when deciding what to play.

We read the last book that was included more recently as a bedtime story. Into the Wild by Thomas Docherty is an absolutely stunning book about finding the wild wherever you are. It is magnificently illustrated and there is so much detail on every page that each time we have read it since, we have noticed something new. 

Overall, I can honestly say that with just this first box, I have no regrets about signing up for The Bear Can Read, and I am looking forward to seeing what the next package contains, and where it will lead Bear's learning.

If you'd like to discuss this further, please get in touch... but honestly, if you were considering it and have been on the fence - do it!

Mama Bear x

Imposter Syndrome

Okay, let's talk about Imposter Syndrome... The internalised fear of being exposed as a fraud. It may sound a little over the top when you start looking up the definitions, but the theory is still solid.

When I talk to people about home-educating my boys, I am always very quick to tag on, that what we are doing is 'unofficial' right now, as my eldest is only four. Bear would have technically started FS1, also known as nursery, in September last year, so that was when we 'officially' started our home education journey. However, when I speak to anyone about it, I'm still quick to tell anyone else on their home education journey that we are still in the very early days of ours. 

When I talk to anyone about our home ed journey, I always feel like an imposter because they are always so much further along than we are, and because Bear is so young, we really aren't doing much right now. Had Bear gone to school, I would still have done the majority of what I have done at home with him so far... We are only doing number and letter recognition mostly through games, puzzles and some wipe-clean activity books. Other than that, we do some seasonal activites which I've been doing since Bear was small, and we follow his interests and I do activities and we read books about the things that he wants to learn about.

I plan to continue along this vein for the rest of this academic year, and possibly into next year too. I have no intention of pushing Bear into learning while he is still so young, one of the many benefits of home education! I am a firm supporter of the idea of delayed formal lessons that is a theory included in the Charlotte Mason approach, as well as her idea of having nature support growth and education. We are very much an outdooorsy family, especially through the warmer side of the year, and I will prioritise that and play for both of my boys while they are still young.

One of the deciding factors in my decision to home-educate them was that I wanted them to have a childhood that they look back on and remember fondly when they grow up, not one filled with only pockets of that time squeezed in around monotonous hours in a school setting that may or may not have supported them as an individual. I have already seen so many benefits to keeping them home instead of sending Bear to nursery, and that is only in the first six or seven months of our journey. The biggest benefit so far, for me, as selfish as it can sound, is that I am getting to watch my babies grow up together. I have always dreamed of being a mother, and I didn't want to have my children, to then have someone else raise them and get the best of them, leaving me to cram in time with them in the evenings and weekends. Not that anyone who has chosen that road is at fault either. This is my journey and my desires and I am lucky enough to be in a position that allows the life that I always dreamed of.

I have yet to work out when the Imposter Syndrome will wear off, maybe once Bear would have started school this September, maybe when The Cub catches up and is also old enough to be on his educational journey too... who knows?!

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this too... How old were your children when you got past the idea of wondering whether others thought of you as an imposter? 

Mama Bear x

March Focus Title

Wild Book day by Karl Newson

An exhilarating adventure from renowned picture book author, Karl Newson, that sparks a lifelong love for books. Characters from different stories collide to celebrate our rich tapestry of children's literature. As pages wildly come to life, this ‘riotous read’ not only entertains but also shows the magic of storytelling and the importance of keeping the joy of reading alive. With every turn of the page, it's a celebration of the limitless worlds within books, encouraging young minds to become active participants in their everyday reading adventures.

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

For March, I chose a book that I'd had delivered at work and was described as perfect for World Book Day at the beginning of the month. It is genuinely a beautiful book that celebrates everything about a child's love of books and I couldn't resist!

I started the month off with a basket with a few bits in that show up in the book as the stories start escaping. 

On our first read through Bear pointed out some of the items that I'd left in the basket and just kept on pointing... There is so much happening on every page that every time we have read it we've spotted something new, which has just made it more fun to read and reread all month long.

Half way through the month I put out the house and left a few things inside and then we reread the book and Bear collected more things that appeared in the illustrations and we discussed some of the stories that we could see.

Following the theme of stories, I pulled out the story prompt dice and the cards from our most recent Adventure Gang box and Bear and I practiced telling each other stories. His imagination is fantastic and the dice give him extra ideas to prompt a storyline and he just tends to keep going! 

Using things that we have read or ideas from movies that he has seen also boosts his ideas and I can usually work out where he has plucked something from because he doesn't yet change all that much, but he does string random pieces toegther from different places which often makes for an entertaining story.

Of course, we ended the month by writing a book review and I have encouraged a "summary" this time instead of the entire retelling that he did of Wolf & Bear in February. 

Bear gave Wild Book Day five stars and after a little frustration at trying not to just retell me the story, he gave me a lovely little recap about the stories getting out of their books and he cut the cover image out and stuck it down all by himself. 

He's coming on so much each month that I'm afraid that if I blink too many times I might miss a stage!

Our April focus title could be nothing other than Waterstones' Childrens' Book Prize winner for the picture book catagory... The Search for the Great Arctic Jellyfish by Chloe Savage. Pages filled with the wonder of nature and science as a scientist quests to find the jellyfish and beautifully illustrated, it was a worthy winner!

Have you read Wild Book Day by Karl Newson? I'd love to hear your thoughts... 

Mama Bear x

March Recap

We finally saw the sun make its appearance during March and it made a huge difference to what we got up to! I am very much a summer girl and I kind of hibernate over the colder months, but now that the sun is on its way, I'm game for so much more.

We started the month off with Forest Tots where we went worm whispering, caught ourselves some worms and then built a womery. Bear loved this, but refused to touch a worm... can't say as I've ever picked a worm up before - it's strange what being a parent does for you! We went on adventures in Sherwood Pines with Nannie, made it out to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park with our new annual passes, went on a spring scavenger hunt in Sandall Park for the equinox, finally made it out to Withernsea to the caravan and then finished off the month with Little Farmers at Boston Park Farm, where I also took The Cub to Mini Farmers as Daddy was off work to come with us and entertain Bear and then a birthday adventure for Daddy out in the Peak District with some friends. Indoor adventures included World Book Day at the bookshop, a trip to Flip Out trampolining and soft play, a solo trip for The Cub to Curiouser & Curiouser playgroup at Grimm & Co (more on them soon as they reopen their doors to their Emporium of Stories, a visit to The Deep whilst at the seaside and finding a new mini soft play area in our local shopping centre.

Not quite as many adventures as I would have liked, but the weather has been so hit and miss that it's been hard to plan anything... when it's nice it's beautiful and when it's not it's horrific!

Our outside time didn't necessarily take a hit though as we finally got into the garden and got it cleaned up and the toys out. We've spent loads of time out there during March, playing games, drawing pictures, practicing our frisbee and plane skills, and of course, there were bubbles! We also got outside plenty at the seaside - walking into town and back every day, visiting the fair and hooking ducks (Bear's favourite), learning new skills when Bear got his new skateboard and obviously, on the beach! Though, there wasn't enough of that for my liking due to the weather!

We racked up another 51 hours to add to our total for 1000 hours outside challenge, meaning that we breached the 100 mark :) We got outside every day again in all weather types and I couldn't be prouder of my boys for taking everything in their stride and never complaining about the cold or the rain.

We took a break in our learning near the end of March due to having Daddy at home for over a week while we went away to the caravan, had birthday outings and then the Easter bank holiday weekend, but until then we had done several things for both letters and numbers, along with some Spring activities. 

Bear finally seems to have gotten a grip on numbers 1 - 10 and I am working hard to get them solidified with as much use of them as possible, including some dot-to-dots, the usual wipe-clean books and some dice work when we played Dungeons & Dragons - Pirate Style! Bear knows that both me and his Daddy play D&D and has wanted to get involved for a while. I decided to let him have a go, making him a character sheet and then telling him a story and letting him make decisions and roll dice to find statistics. He loved it and it was a great way to use the numbers 1 - 6, ordering them to know which was a better number and whether it was higher or lower than the one I'd given him to beat.

Letters are much of the same, we are still working on matching capitals and lower case letters, and naming them as we know their letter sounds. I got Bear this cute little magnetic whiteboard which he has used with his alphabet, giving him a different space to work on.

We also did some work on Spring, looking at what seasonal changes were happening. I had a sticker/storybook that we read and Bear went to town with the stickers, and then on the equinox we went on a scavenger hunt with some friends to look for the signs we'd spent a few weeks talking about.

Our March Focus Book was Wild Book Day by Karl Newson and we loved this one - a perfect story to read around World Book Day. More to come on this in a post of its own.

Reading this month saw some new books, including a brilliant fact book about sharks that we picked up from The Deep. Bear loves sharks, and he recalls facts so well. He has learned so much from just one read-through, I can't wait to see how much he learns when we reread it another time.

With this slow improvement in the weather, I have many plans for April - if anyone ever wants to join us, then you are always more than welcome. 

What did you get up to in March? 

Momma Bear x

British Science Week 2024

8th - 17th march 2024

At this stage of Bear's learning journey, Science is not a topic that we have really looked into much. Obviously, when something arises, I explain to Bear in the right terms, which are often scientific... for example, he has a love hate relationship with physics in the sense of what he wants certain toys to do, and what they're capable of doing, and often gets worked up over things like gravity working against him. 

We spend a lot of time in the garden, and outside in general, so weather patterns, the night sky, the moon and stars, bugs and gardening are topics we've dipped in and out of, but we've never looked at them as a topic as such.

I found out that it was British Science Week the day before it was due to start, so it wasn't something that I had a whole lot of time to prep for, but I knew that I had a few books stashed that I'd picked up over the Christmas period when everywhere was selling children's toys and resources, so I dug them out of the cupboard and had a quick flick through them for ideas.

What I decided, was that Bear was still a little young to be looking at Science as a topic, but what I could do in support of the week, was introduce the idea of it as a banner heading. So, we read one of the books I'd got, which exaplined what Science was and how it was split into Biology, Chemistry and Physics, and a little about what that meant. Check out the book here.

From there, I decided to look at general skills that included Science, so obviously, we did some cooking!

We started our baking with a quick experiment with some ice cubes to look at the idea of solids, liquids and gasses. I gave both Bear and The Cub an ice cube and we discussed what it was, and how it was water from the tap, which Bear knew. He also knew that it had to go in the freezer to get cold to become an ice cube. I showed them that by warming the ice cube back up, it became water again. It turned from a solid back into a liquid. We also ahd a quick look at the kettle boiling to see water in gas form too. 

After the ice had melted and we'd talked about it, I gave the boys a square of chocolate each, and asked Bear if he could work out what we needed to do to it to turn it from a solid, into a liquid, like we had the ice. He instantly knew that we needed to make it hot, but wasn't so quick on the how... deciding that maybe we should put it in the toaster! After convincing him that the toaster wasn't the best plan, and using the microwave, we used the melted chocolate to make rice crispie buns, which both boys loved doing, (convincing me that I should be baking with them more often). Once finished, Bear decided that we should take some buns to family members, (and later in the week to a friend at the pub) warming my heart knowing that I am raising a kind and thoughtful little boy. 

The second experiment that happened was just Bear playing, and him making an observation that I explained, as I would have without Science Week being a thing, and whiich led to another experiment later in the day.

Both boys were playing in the garden with the water and pebbles near the mud kitchen and Bear had a bowl full of water, which he slowly started to add rocks to. He was quick to realise that the rocks were pushing the water out of the bowl... I gave him the term displacement, and explained that both the water and the rocks needed space, and that by putting the rocks into the bowl, they wer taking the space of the water, thus, displacing it out of the bowl. Much like how the water level would change in the bath when he and his brother got in... the second experiment. 

When we had run the bath that evening, we used a bath crayon to draw a line on the bath where the water was, and then after they'd both got in, we drew another line and checked out the difference. Over an inch between the lines fascinated even me as I hadn't realised that it would move by so much when they only have a few inches of water in there to begin with.

He found this fascinating, and I have witnessed him in the garden multiple times since with water and rocks in different containers before shouting me to tell me about how he has displaced the water.

If any of you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my stories about the accidental grass we are growing in our window bird feeder. 

That bird seed had got thrown everywhere by The Cub when we made bird feeders back in January for the Big Garden Bird Watch, (my blog post on this) and some of it had gotten stuck in the gaps of the picnic bench, and had grown the same as the ones in the bird feeder.

When Bear pulled one from between the wood, we could clearly see the roots, the orignal seed and the little shoot that was growing, prompting more questions and a brief biology lesson on the parts of a plant. 

We also planted Bear's bean, a present from his Godparents on his birthday. He has a grow your own name bean in a can, which got put on the windowsill and forgotten about until I moved everything around looking for seeds to plant in the warm weather. 

I planted plenty of seeds that afternoon, more with The Cub's help than Bear's, but he got involved to sort his bean out, following the instructions to plant and water it and wait for it to grow with his name on... a post to follow when it gets there as I've already had so many questions about it since putting it on Instagram. 

What did you get up to for British Science Week? I'd love to hear what experiements you tried...

Momma Bear x