Planning for September

Although we didn't officially break for summer, as I didn't want Bear to forget everything that he had learned over the last few months, we are resetting a little for September with some changes to our subscriptions, a new rhythm to try and ensure that our weeks don't get too hectic, and some new inclusions now that The Cub is a little older and getting involved a little.

Firstly, I picked up this amazing workbook which is intended for school-educated children to work through over the summer between year groups, and I thought it was perfect for us to use in the first few weeks to gauge what kind of information we have already covered and where I may have missed anything with Bear's learning so far, as I have not used a curriculum of any sorts, we have just gone withe the flow of life and covered anything that came up as him needing. So, for example, we started with basic maths, and we have concentrated on time and money as these are concepts he needs to grasp in real life. To aid these learning curves, we have done some addition and subtraction, some basic times tables, doubling and halving, and Bear has a pretty solid grasp of most of what we have covered. 

This book has a little of everything in it and some great activities to look at each of the skills they would have covered in Reception, making it great as a starting peg for us.

We never stopped reading, any of us. I read aloud to the boys regularly, both picture book stories and chapter books, which we do one at a time, and read a couple of chapters at a time, maybe once or twice a week. Sometimes I try to create activities linked to these books, but so far they have been very simple word or punctuation hunts on a photocopy of a page. The boys are forever choosing books to have read to them, and we read at least two stories together at bedtime every night before they get into their own beds.

We usually sit together for Bear to read to us when we are using his phonics level-appropriate books from the library, and now that Bear can read, I regularly find him sitting with a book, either reading to himself or sometimes, reading aloud to his brother, which I will never tire of seeing! Bear also likes non-fiction and I will often find him with his nose deep in facts about sharks, vehicles, or whatever else we have on shelf. Their book collection rivals mine already!

This academic year, I plan to introduce some science into our weeks, and hope to be able to do this in a fashion that means both Bear and The Cub can be involved and learn alongside each other. Bear is very interested in how his body works at the moment, especially where food is concerned, looking at whether food is good for you and what it does for your body, so I plan to start with the human body as a topic and work through just a little a week. I have an amazing book which includes little experiments to help show how our body works, and I have a box kit that I have had for a while now, waiting for the right time to use with some hands-on activities in.

As for our subscriptions, I have cancelled our Adventure Gang box as we have been receiving them for a couple of years now, and I found that the boys just weren't as excited about them this last few times. Instead, I have the first of the revamped Whimsy and Bug boxes ready to go, and if they enjoy that and can both access it in a way that I feel is worth the price, then I plan to subscribe to this and have that as part of our monthly routine.

As always, getting out of the house for outdoor adventures is often my priority, and I have tried to find a way to ensure that we spread our activities out across the month so that we have groups, meet-ups, trips out and walks spread out each week. We visit the same places regularly, which I want to try and pin to a date or specific time of the month, and then the groups that we attend actually space out quite nicely at the moment. There is nothing that we are signed up for weekly, as I didn't want that kind of rigidity in our schedule yet. It also wouldn't work well with my job right now as I don't work set days.

We get out regularly though, and I plan to fit in lots of seaside trips again this year as it is by far all of our favourtie place to be!

And lastly, linked to our outdoor plans, we will be on the hunt for a new tree, hopefully a fruit tree, and a new pond for our nature studies this year. I hope to have them chosen by the end of September so that we can do our Autumn studies quite early and get them finished up before the Birthday and Halloween fun of October.

What does your home education rhythm look like this year? I'd love to hear how it works for you and your family. 

Mama Bear x