Home Ed Group and English Workbooks

On Wednesday Oscar and I went to our home ed group where the children wrapped up their history of Portsmouth month talking about historical buildings in Portsmouth. Oscar talked about Southsea castle and he learnt about The Kings Theatre and Portsmouth Dockyard. The children also discussed the modern architecture in the city including The Spinnaker Tower.

As a fun craft this week the children all made a kite. Oscar chose a bear.

On Thursday Oscar asked if he could do another English workbook so we started on this.

 Oscar really enjoyed it, so much so that after lunch he asked if he could do some more. He was really proud that he finished the whole thing in one day.

He enjoyed it so much that Friday morning he asked if he could do the next book, so he did and again completed the whole thing in one day.

These book are great, Oscar has learnt about antonyms, capital letters, full stops, speech marks, question marks, exclamation marks, comas, verbs, nouns, proper nouns and pronouns, adjectives, conjunctions, compound words,  contracting words, synonyms, vowels and consonants, syllables, prefixes, suffixes, verb tenses, homonyms, as well as lots of little tricks to help with spelling. Some of these are things we have talked about before and some were new concepts for Oscar but he grasped them all really quickly.

I love that Oscar loves learning and is genuinely interested in English and grammar. I hope his interest lasts.

I love charity shops.

On Saturday I walked past a charity shop that had a sign in the window saying 'All Children's book 20p each', well I couldn't ignore an invitation like that so I went inside to find out more.

This is what I found

Well I love a bargain so this lot for £3.80 made my day.

As a result of this marvelous find Oscar and I have spent the last couple of days working through these two.

We have already finished the English book and Oscar has asked if he can start on the next one later this week and he is doing really well with the maths.

With books like this I tend to act as scribe because Oscar HATES writing. Writing is just too slow and he can't get the pencil to do exactly what his brain is telling it to do so it never looks how he wants it to look, result - a very frustrated Oscar. This for us is one of the advantages of home ed. Because Oscar's writing doesn't keep pace with his brain in school I'm pretty sure this would hold him back somewhat whereas at home he has his very own scribe enabling him to do maths, English, science etc at his own pace and his writing can be practiced and honed at a separate time and separate rate, result - 1 happy boy.

Oscar has also been busy helping to water the garden.

And learning on the computer (surprise, surprise).

Yesterday afternoon Oscar and I went to visit my Grandad, Oscar had a great time investigating his huge garden, then it was off to a taekwondo lesson.

This afternoon Oscar had a swimming lesson and for the first time managed to blow bubbles in the water without breathing in and swallowing half the pool, then he went to his friends house for tea.

It's not a bad life for a 5 year old is it?

The Gruffalo and Gardening

On Tuesday Oscar and I went to see The Gruffalo Live, Oscar had a brilliant time, he really enjoys going to the theatre and loves the book so it was a perfect day out for him.

On Wednesday we went to our home ed group at the library where the children each talked about  a famous person with a connection to Portsmouth. Oscar learnt about Bobby Stokes, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and John Pounds. Oscar talked about King Henry VIII who built Southsea Castle and he watched from there when The Mary Rose sank during a battle with the French fleet in 1545. The children then made some shoes (John Pounds was a cobbler), Oscar drew round his and coloured them in.

Then it was off to the Park for a picnic and some play.

The rest of the week Oscar has been reading these books by Julia Donaldson author of The Gruffalo.

We found some activities on the website so Oscar played some games online and we printed these out so he could do them.

We also made Gruffalo Crumble using a recipe from the website but that was consumed before I had the chance to get my camera out.

As the sun has been out we have spent loads of time in the garden.

Reading, spelling and playing noughts and crosses with Auntie Sally.

Oscar has been given a water table this year and Granny gave him some money for a sand table so he's had loads of fun making a mess with those.

And we found this.

So I'm guessing there's a birds nest somewhere in this.

Oscar really enjoys being out in the garden, we have planted various veggies and have some fruit tress and Oscar loves pulling his own carrots or digging for spuds so I hope this lovely weather lasts a while.

 

Quiet day today

  Today Oscar had a pretty quiet day consisting of colouring, computer games and taekwondo because I had to spend the day doing all the houseworkey stuff that I usually do at weekends. The reason I had to do that   today is because I spent the weekend out and about with the boy.

On Saturday we went to Gruffalo day at the library, the librarian did a brilliant job of reading The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child, complete with voices and finger puppets. Then there were lots of different Gruffalo activity sheets for the children to do. Oscar loves The Gruffalo and had a great time and the librarian even agreed to let me take this pic for the blog.

On Sunday Oscar and I went out with my friend Emma and her 2 lovely boys who Oscar met whilst at nursery. The day started with the boys first ever trip to the cinema where we watched Bob the Builder and the Legend of the Golden Hammer. The boys loved it and all behaved impeccably. Oscar is now really excited about going to see Toy Story 3 when it comes out later this year.

After the cinema we had lunch then the boys had a hours play in the soft play area at Pirate Pete's.When their hour was up they ganged up on Emma and I bounced up and down asking to go to the aquarium so guess where we went next.

The boys were really pleased to see the  otters were awake and playing.

And we were all really excited to spot these shark eggs, we were able see the baby shraks wriggling around inside. They were truly amazing.

The aquarium has a great outdoor play area and the boys spent an hour running round out there, Oscar particularly liked the huge sand pit.

Then eventually it got too cold and windy and we were all getting tired and hungry so it was time to head home. We both had a lovely day but after such a busy weekend we agreed that we would take a day off today (well Oscar had a day off and I did the cleaning).

This week

This week Oscar has spent allot of time on the computer. How parents without a PC or internet access manage this whole home ed lark I have no idea but hats off to them.

Oscar did some maths in his workbook, practicing adding and subtracting money.

And we made some chocolate and vanilla mouse.

On Wednesday we went to our home ed group where the children talked about their homes and what they might have been like in the past. Toilets seemed to feature heavily in the conversation, Oscar still thinks it's really bizarre that his Grandad only had an outside toilet when he was young.

Then we all had a look at some old maps and Oscar learnt that our house didn't exist in 1896 but that his Granny's house (just round the corner from us) did.

The children also talked about coats of arms and family crests, we have a fridge magnet with our family coat of arms on that Oscar took to show his friends.

Then the children had fun designing their own coats of arms.

Oscar tried out various different designs.

He eventually decided this one was best.

After the library it was a quick dash to the park cafe to get out of the rain and have some lunch.

Once we had finished eating the rain had stopped and the sun came out so it was off to the play area where the children could let off steam.

Or in Oscars case chill out on the swing.

Today we went to Portsmouth museum where they had various displays, the children particularly liked looking at the displays of things that would have been found at the seaside in the past.

Personally I thought the laughing sailor was a bit creepy but Oscar liked it.

I was somewhat alarmed when I saw this Grand National game as I remember this being on the pier when I was (very) young. It's my Birthday next week and finding something in a museum that I remember from when I was a child has just confirmed that I am definitely getting old. 

Oscar really liked playing on it though which was nice as I remeber really enjoying it when I was his age. 

The wobbly mirror was also a source of great amusement and not just for the children.

Then we went into another area where the children were able to look at lots of different rooms set with items from the past.

This kitchen looks just like the kitchen at Oscars Great Great Aunts house.

Oscar saw how people used to cook and agreed with me that our halogen hob and fan assisted oven must be alot easier.

Finally it was off to the tea rooms for a cuppa and a chance for the children to run around/ climb things/ investigate a maze and generally enjoy being outside on a sunny day.

Then as we were leaving we discovered this crest on the wall.

        

Bee Project.

Today Oscar asked if we could do some more of his Bee project that we started a while ago so we have spent most of the day doing that. Oscar insisted on reading all the information himself and learnt all about the different types of bees and what they do, the life cycles of  bees, their habitats and how bees wax is made.

Then Oscar went to his friends house for tea and when he got home he told us all about playing Mario Kart and eating jelly and ice cream with strawberries and strawberry sauce, he clearly had a very good time and I got to get the business accounts and all the paperwork sorted and up to date (thanks Emma x).

Last week.

Last week Oscar did lots of colouring and his pencil control is slowly improving,

He did some times tables practice.

And started a French workbook where he practiced numbers and days of the week.

On Wednesday we went to our home ed group, the children talked about their homes and this week we will be looking at the history of the area they live in. Then it was off to the park for a picnic and some play time.

On Thursday there was alot of discussion about politics something that Oscar has become quite interested in and he came with us to the polling station where he enjoyed seeing democracy in action and the people working there answered all his questions and let him have a good look round.

On Friday we went to SEARCH museum in Gosport where the children learnt all about museums and what they are for. They also learnt about toys from the past and were able to play with some toys and compare them to the toys they have today.

Early lego.

Oscar was fascinated with this television set.

And he really enjoyed playing shove ha'penny and bagatelle.

The children were able to make their own cup and ball toy to take home.

Oscar also got to enjoy another trip on the ferry to get their and back.

On Saturday Oscar went to his friends Bounce Party where he had loads of fun with his friends jumping on a full size trampoline and a huge bouncy castle followed by lots of party food and party games.