Monday 16 January 2017

Learning with Friends

So, today has been a GOOD day :-)

We started out putting our Geography Project on Italy together -


ready for our Geography Club next week.  We've done the actual country Italy, Pompeii, Roman soldiers, Venice, the Italian language, food, indigenous carnivorous plants and the Italian Gardens of Verona!  Oh, and of course the Italian flag!

The rest of the day we have spent learning together with other Home Educated friends at our home.

For the first time today we starting out with a Book Group - the three of us and DD's best friend (a fellow 9 yr old girl), her Mum and her brother (aged 7).  It was the girls idea. They were both lucky enough to go to a great Home Ed Book Group at a local library last year, which they both really enjoyed, but both are a little shy and intimidated in big groups so they asked if they could try doing a little something by themselves.  We talked about Harry Potter (namely the illustrated version of The Philosophers Stone), Percy Jackson - DD's bf had written a play version of one section.  DS popped in to join us (yippee!!) and decided he would talk about The Beano - he even read us a couple of stories aloud.  My fellow Mum was astounded at how much his reading had improved since she last heard him read and how he was using tone and emphasis in his reading aloud.  It was SUCH a joy to hear.

I talked about one of my favourite books from when I was a child - A Necklace of Raindrops by Joan Aiken.  (Get it here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Necklace-Raindrops-Joan-Aiken/ )
It's a really lovely book of short stories that I discovered when I was about DDs age and remains one of my all time favourites, to this day.  I've read them with my own children countless times but it was a treat to share this with others too.

We then took a short wiggle break before my fellow Mum gave DD a recorder lesson, while the other three happily played Lego together.

Another break for DD after her recorder lesson, and then she had a maths lesson, also with fellow Mum - while I played Sleeping Queens with the others.  Absolutely great little game by Gameright.  Colourful, visual, a few plot twists and lots of lovely stealth maths :-)   (Get it here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gamewright-Sleeping-Queens-Card-Game)

We took a break and all had lunch, and DS even consented to giving a maths lesson a try.  He was hugely reluctant, and even managed to verbalise that he was afraid it would 'feel like school' but he managed 15 minutes before he asked to stop.  His request was respected and he was allowed to go and play.  I am just thrilled he was willing to give it a go.  I'm learning not to force the issue now. Like with his reading, he has shown he will get there on his own when he is ready.

Then in the afternoon it was time for our Learning Group.  We host this monthly at our house, with 3 other Mums and 4 other children (sometimes 5).  The ages of the children range from 5 - 10 and the Mums take it in turns to lead a session.  So far we have done Rainforests, Tessellation Art and Christmas.  This month we were doing Birds -


This included talking about our favourite birds, native birds. Looking at the all different types of birds and aspects of birds life - what they eat, camouflage, birds that are named after their song.  We also put out some food and did out own bird spotting.   The group then tried to make an A -Z of birds (we've started using the A - Z activity regularly for topics - it's a great way to draw together all the learning and groups of children can participate together).  We (almost) managed every letter!


After this the kids all had half an hours play together before home time.  It was beautiful to see them - a 10 year old helping a 2 year old do Lego, a 7 year old chatting to a parent about his inventions, an 8 year old explaining to a 5 year old (with diagrams) how to build things in Minecraft and two 9 year old girls playing Harry Potter trivia together.   And 4 Mums enjoying a hot cup of tea and a peaceful chat :-) 

I am SO pleased we took a chance on setting up this group and that we have such an awesome group of hands on Mums, and children, really bonding and learning together. They all contribute to the lesson with their ideas and encourage each other in their endeavors. It's such a positive, patient little group, it's really lifted my spirits today to see how much they achieved together and how pleased they were to all be together again after the Christmas break and how much they're all looking forward to the next session already. 



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