New year, new term.

Well we had a great and very busy Christmas and now it's time to get back to 'school'. When we first started home schooling Oscar in Novemebr 09 my husband and I agreed we would just wing it a bit to try and get an idea of what works for Oscar and what doesn't and then come the start of 2010 we hoped we would have a better idea of how we could make this whole home ed thing work for us. Well we have done the winging it bit and are not surprised that routine is key for Oscar. He doesn't just like routine he thrives when he knows what to expect and when. So we have had a look at what we would like him to be doing over the next few months and worked out a loose timetable. Oscar really wants to be able to write stories by himself and so handwritting is important for him. He has learn't from going to taekwondo that practice really does pay off so he is keen to practice his writing. We have agreed that we will start each day with a bit of handwritting practice, I have got some white boards as in the long run this is going to save a whole lot of paper and each day he goes over the letters and numbers on the boards. I plan to take a picture of the boards about once a month so that Oscar can see how he is progressing. Oscar has also been made Chief of the Shopping List and will be writting all our shopping lists from now on and he has lots of colouring books, dot to dots and other activity books to help him improve his pencil control. Once he has done the boards and a bit of colouring (or similar) we do some reading. This is something Oscar loves. He started reading when he was 2 and still constantly amazes me with his abilities. First he reads me a couple of chapters from one of his Oxford Reading Tree books then I read him some of a book that he chooses. At the moment I am reading him the The Giraffe the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl. I introduced Oscar to Rald Dahl last year as he was one of my favourite authors when I was grwing up and I'm pleased that Oscar also loves his stories. After all this we have a little break then do some more learning before lunch. In the afternoon we do some slightly more fun activites like cooking, science experiments, board games, puzzles etc.

This week Oscar has also been back on Education City, this is brilliant as it covers the national curriculum and as we hope that Oscar will return to mainstream education at some point, we would like to keep the curriculum in mind with what we are teaching him at home. Yesterday Oscar was very pleased when he completed all the reception year games and today he started on the games for year 1. Oscar loves Education City and it seems to progress at a really good pace for him, it is also good for giving me ideas of what to teach him. Today there were questions about telling time. Oscar has understood o'clock for a while now but today I started teaching him more about time. I am really pleased how quickly he has picked it up and will be looking for ways to reinforce what he has learn't over the next few weeks. This also resulted in cutting up an apple to help understand fractions. These he grasped at lightening speed so I will be thinking about where we can go with that in the future.

As well as sitting at the table and and in front of the computer. Oscar has also been having fun in the snow.

And we have had a go with the construction kit Granny gave him for Christmas and have built a plane and a crane.

Unfortunately cooking together is off at the moment as my cooker went whizz, bang, pop, on new years eve and it's going to be a couple of weeks before my new one arrives. Well that's more than enough from me today. We are both looking forward to getting out and about again next week once the snow has (hopefully) cleared.