Computing

Shark and ray project

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Somehow I never got round to posting about the shark and ray project we did back in the spring. So here it is, along with Aaron’s video that I promised to share!

You can read a little bit about how it started here. At the beginning of the project I spent some time brainstorming with Aaron (who wanted to focus on sharks) and Tabitha (who wanted to focus on rays) individually. We thought about what they wanted to find out, where they might be able to find information and how they could share their knowledge.

We learned about the unique features of sharks and rays, and practised identifying them using a classification key.

We studied different kinds of shark teeth and their functions, and then had a go at making our own shark teeth out of clay.

We joined in the “Great Eggcase Hunt” and learned all about mermaid’s purses. Since then we’ve often found some on our trips to the beach.

Aaron put together a model of a shark showing its anatomy. He really enjoyed this!

We visited the aquarium on multiple occasions, which was a brilliant opportunity for the children not just to learn more but also to see things they had already learned about in books and documentaries first hand. They had some fantastic conversations with members of staff.

We had a go at writing acrostic poems. Aaron wrote a few different ones for “shark” but Tabitha and I found that “ray” was much harder!

In addition to the things pictured here, we borrowed and read books from the library, watched lots of Youtube videos (we particularly liked the Shark Academy series), searched for answers to our questions on the internet, drew pictures of sharks and rays, composed shark-inspired music, learned about food chains, ecosystems, sustainability and much more. I’ve probably forgotten a lot as it was quite a long time ago now!

Our favourite part of the whole project was the video Aaron made about why sharks don’t sink! It was our first attempt at making a video so we learned a lot about editing.

Catch up

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May has been a rather stressful month for our family for several reasons and I haven’t been taking many photos recently, but here are just a few of the things we’ve been doing.

Aaron has been working on column addition, including renaming. I have to pay attention now when he is doing worksheets to make sure that I get to the correct answer before he does! Our Montessori materials still come in useful for explaining and demonstrating concepts.

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I spotted these reusable icecubes in Poundland and thought they would be great for the light panel. Tabitha enjoyed making repeating patterns and building with them. I also made an activity for matching upper and lower case letters.

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Aaron’s reading has really taken off lately, mostly due to computer games like Scribblenauts which require him to read and write. I recently discovered an online maths game called Prodigy which he loved at first, but after a while he got fed up of not being able to get pets and items on a free account. It’s a Canadian company and they don’t accept Paypal, so unfortunately paying for an account is not really possible. He’s also been working through some Scratch projects from Computer Coding for Kids.

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Tabitha and I had a special “girls’ day out” at the theatre to watch a dance show organised by her ballet teacher. She wasn’t in the show this year as it was organised before she joined the class, but she was thrilled that Grandpa, Uncle James and Auntie Jess all came to watch her last lesson before half term.

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My mum took us to the theatre to see local school children performing their interpretations of BBC Ten Pieces. The children especially loved “Hall of the Mountain King” and sang the tune all the way home. The next day we watched the DVD again and the children were much more interested in it than they had been before. Aaron has also started learning “Hall of the Mountain King” as a duet in his piano lesson.

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Aaron is very excited about his upcoming karate grading. He is practising counting to ten in Japanese and has spent the last few days finally learning how to tie a shoelace knot. After his karate lesson we often go to a nearby park with other home edders, which is one of the highlights of Aaron and Tabitha’s week. Tabitha has reconnected with a girl she knew as a toddler, they play together while their older siblings are doing karate and it’s lovely to see her forming a close friendship.

I’m starting to feel like a home educator again

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Yesterday we were in no hurry to get up in the morning, so the children came and snuggled me in bed. Aaron bombarded me with facts about the human body that he had learnt from a game on his Leappad. While I had a shower, the children used a measuring tape to find out their height in centimetres and inches. After breakfast Aaron and I put together a science kit he was given for his birthday, involving air pressure and electrical circuits.

In the afternoon we went to a Christian home-ed group at our church. On the way to the car we could see a circular shape shining through thick clouds. We discussed whether it was the sun or the moon and came to the conclusion that the reflected light from the moon would not be powerful enough to shine so brightly. Aaron also discussed whether planetary orbits are circular or elliptical.

At home-ed group the younger ones listened to a few chapters of Little Pilgrim’s Progress and then did art and craft activities. At the end they played a rowdy game of “stuck in the mud” with the bigger children. We called at Lidl for some shopping on the way home and the children asked for some berries. Blueberries were £1.29 and raspberries were £1.39, so Aaron worked out which was cheapest and how much more expensive the raspberries were.

Back at home, I put the oven on for dinner and Aaron begged to do some washing up. Obviously I wasn’t going to say no! He did a load of dishes for me and Tabitha washed some cutlery. After dinner Colin taught them to play dots and dashes. Tabitha went to bed first and Aaron used his extra time to build roads with Cuisenaire rods.

Today we went to Home Grown Kids. We hardly went at all last year as I was working on Wednesdays, so it was great to see lots of familiar faces and get to know some new ones. The children took an Orchard Toys rocket game and played several games with various friends. There was a handball coaching session in the sports hall which the children really enjoyed. Tabitha is often very clingy and shy in group situations, but she ran around following instructions from the coach, ate her lunch at the opposite end of the room from me and then spent the rest of the afternoon playing babies and listening to stories with a friend!

By the time we got home it was almost dinner time. I tried to setup a Stargazing Live episode for the children to watch on the tablet while I was cooking, but had to give up due to technical difficulties! Instead Aaron did some Reading Eggs lessons on my computer for the first time in months. In the evening the children went to Wednesday Club at the church, where they learnt about moths and Tabitha was awarded a Bible for good attendance.

Tomorrow will probably be a quiet day at home, apart from Aaron’s piano lesson in the afternoon and a visit to see Great-Grandma. The children will be tired after so much running around today, and I need to catch up on housework and crack on with essay writing!

Our curriculum and resources for 2013/14

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At the moment we are very autonomous and unstructured in our approach to home educating. On the days when I’m not working, we have no routine and often every day is different. The children are free to play or make use of resources such as our Montessori materials whenever they wish. I follow their interests by providing more information about a topic and suggesting ways to extend their play. Occasionally I plan and set up a specific activity but most of the time we are completely spontaneous. A lot of learning happens out and about, just living our daily lives or meeting up with friends.

I’m planning to introduce a bit more structure from September (yes, I know I’ve said that before!). The children will be at Steiner kindergarten one day a week and I will be working two full days per week, so I feel like our time together needs to be a bit more organised. Here is a summary of the curriculum and resources we are planning to use.

Bible

Aaron attends Sunday School and Wednesday Bible Club every week and a Christian Home-Ed group every fortnight. He enjoys learning memory verses and recently memorised Psalm 100 for Sunday School, so we will gradually be memorising all the verses from our ABC Bible Verse Book and hopefully finding some corresponding choruses or hymns to learn alongside.

English

Aaron will continue using Reading Eggs and working his way through the pink/blue/green Montessori language materials. He still finds reading rather frustrating at times and much prefers writing, so finding the right balance between gentle encouragement and not pushing him too soon is tricky.

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Tabitha is starting to show an interest in reading and writing. She recognises a few letters and can write the letters T and I. This week she pretended to read something, breaking the words down into individual sounds and syllables for the first time. She will be using sandpaper letters and initial sound objects to learn phonics. The sand tray and wipe-clean workbooks will help her practise letter formation.

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Maths

Aaron is loving Mathseeds at the moment and has raced through most of the levels already. He usually does some each day, so I hope they continue to add new levels often enough to keep him busy! We will carry on working through the Montessori mathematics scope and sequence as described here.

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Music

We use Stave House (see my review here) to teach notation and rhythm, which both children love. Aaron has just started taking piano lessons with my mum. I am also planning to restart violin lessons with Aaron after a long break and begin them for the first time with Tabitha.

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Science

We have started working through my KHT Montessori physical science album, aiming to cover one short topic per week or one longer topic per fortnight which should keep us busy for most of the year. I may add in some of the other five science albums over the course of the year.

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Computing

We have gone down the path of limiting screen time because Aaron can’t self-regulate and too much time on the computer has an negative impact on his behaviour and imaginative play. He usually gets 20 minutes during the day to use Reading Eggs or Mathseeds, and a further 20 minutes in the evening to play Minecraft or Scribblenauts Unlimited. There is lots of information available about the educational benefits of Minecraft, but Scribblenauts is a game I had never come across before. It is a puzzle game which uses words to create objects and encourages divergent thinking. Aaron uses a picture dictionary to help him write words independently. I originally looked into tools like Alice and Scratch, which are designed to teach children programming, but they are mostly recommended for ages 8+ and unsuitable for beginner readers.

Of course our learning will not be limited to the subjects and resources mentioned here, these are simply the things I will be focusing on as we attempt to build a gentle routine and rhythm. I must dig out my Project-Based Homeschooling book again as I’d love to include more child-directed project work. I’m also hoping to enroll Aaron in some kind of extra-curricular activity, probably gymnastics as he is spending a lot of time trying to do cartwheels and headstands at the moment!

Why my 5 year old stayed up until 9 pm playing computer games

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My husband and I have never quite seen eye-to-eye about technology and children, despite both being computer geeks, so we’ve compromised a lot over the years. I think overall our different approaches have worked fairly well for our family. I got rid of TV screens, gaming consoles and electronic toys, managing to keep screen time to a minimum until the children were 2-3 years old. He has always allowed them to watch occasional DVDs, bought them both learning consoles/tablets for their third birthdays and more recently built them a computer, which also serves as a backup for our files and photos.

Colin’s first degree was in computing and ever since Aaron was born he has been excited about building Aaron’s first computer, so I long ago accepted that it was inevitable! I’m still figuring out whether to have unrestricted or restricted computer time and how to implement that, but at least being actively engaged in games is better than passively watching TV.

This evening, Aaron was playing Minecraft (Colin has played for years but over the last couple of months I’ve noticed a lot of info popping up about the potential educational opportunities) and discovered how to create books. Then he fetched my study Bible from beside my bed, I helped him to find Genesis 1:1 and he started to laboriously type it out. He spent over an hour copying the first few verses of the Bible and I haven’t seen him so engaged or pleased with his accomplishment for a long time! When I eventually interrupted to take him to bed, he begged me to leave the Bible there so he could carry on tomorrow. I wonder if this may be the start of a new project . . .

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