Gardening Project (Science KS1) Progress

Well, we're a couple of months in to our project and what have we accomplished?

We 'planted' our sunflower seeds, or rather we put them between bits of cottonwool so we could watch their progress.

Little Miss was intrigued about what was inside the seeds, so she crushed one to have a look. She also ate a few to prove they are not just edible but quite yummy too.  Then she shredded up bits of coloured paper and put them around the seeds because she said they needed decorations :)

They germinated pretty quickly in their sunny spot on the window sill, and Little Miss learned that they need/ed water, light, and warmth to start growing.  She also noticed that 4 of the 6 seeds grew pretty rapidly, 1 was a late developer, and 1 didn't germinate at all.

The seedlings were progressing very nicely before we went away for the weekend at the end of March. When we got back they had shrivelled up and died from neglect.  A valuable lesson there.....

The plants we bought as seedlings on the other hand are coming along very nicely.  Here's our tomatoes, strawberries, lettuce and rhubarb on the 15th of April:

A week later the strawberries had started budding, the tomatoes had developed buds and the potatoes (which were from a pocket we had not eaten quickly enough and started sprouting in the cupboard - another great learning opportunity!) were just peeking through the top of the soil:

By the 3rd of May the strawberry plant was littered in buds, and the tomato plant covered in lovely yellow flowers. The potatoes seem to have shot up overnight!

We've put straw under the strawberry plants (how appropriate) to lift the fruits off the soil to prevent them rotting while they grow.  As soon as they turn pink we'll need to protect them from the birds too.

It seems that the more we eat from the lettuce plants, the more they grow. They are doing really well and Little Miss and Little Man thoroughly enjoy eating the fruits of their labours.

The potatoes are now growing like weeds too, so I'm hopeful for a good crop.  The photos below were taken today:

Every time we go outside or come home Little Man has to go check on his "boo barb" and both kidlets are very keen for the strawberries to hurry up and grow so they can be eaten.

Do you have a gardening project on the go? Please feel free to share your links in the comments below.

Home Education and the Law (UK)

Home education and the law (UK): 

(1) You CAN teach your child at home

(2) You DO NOT have to teach the National Curriculum

(3) Home education is a key aspect of parental choice and is EQUAL, in law, to education provided in school

(4) You DO NOT need formal qualifications, nor do you have to employ a qualified teacher to educate your child

(5) If your child has NEVER been registered at a school, there is NO NEED to inform the council or education authorities of your decision to home educate

(6) Home educated children CAN go on to higher education as long as they meet the entry criteria.

Our Gardening Project Commences (Science, KS1)

We've just commenced our Key Stage 1 Science project: SC1 Scientific Enquiry, with our focus on "Life Processes and Living Things - Green Plants".

To start us off, M & I discussed what kinds of fruit & veg she likes the most, then did some research on which of those are suitable to grow in the UK climate and what is appropriate for planting at this time of year, and what will give us the quickest crops. Then we headed off to the local garden centre:

We stocked up on all the necessary supplies, as well as various seeds and seedlings so we can watch the progress from various different points in the growth cycle.

We've got strawberry plants, tomato plants, rhubarb and lettuce.

We also got the following seeds:

• Nasturtiums - to companion plant with the tomatoes as a natural pest repellant. They also happen to be colourful, pretty, and edible, and are supposed to attract bees and butterflies.
• Summer Squash (Patty Pans).
• Sunflowers - they're fantastic. So easy to grow, look stunning, attract bees and butterflies, and then when they're dead and dried out in the autumn the birds can feed from the dead heads.

We also got a couple of potato growing bags for all the potatoes that have started growing in the cupboard!

This will obviously be an ongoing Science project with many lessons to learn and many opportunities to cross-reference to Mathematics, English, Biology, Art & Design and so forth.  For example:

• Writing lists; recording observations; writing captions
• Budgeting; prices; and money 
• Sequencing 
• How plants grow
• Taking photos 
• Draw / paint / sculpt 
• Pest control vs attracting wildlife
• Crop rotation
• ...... and more

Earlier today I also stumbled across this very useful free printable notebook / observation record for the plant lifecycle. That is going to come in very handy indeed!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Early Learning Activities

This week we've been concentrating on lessons we can draw from The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

We got a copy of the book and DVD from the local library which we've read through and watched a few times.  It covers a number of learning areas including:

• Learning the days of the week
• Counting
• Memory skills
• Prediction
• The lifecycle of a caterpillar

I also downloaded a fantastic maths workbook from TES (here's a direct link) and Little Moo has completed the first exercise - matching up each circle of fruit to a numeral.

Then it was time for some arty-crafty fun. Little moo traced circles onto some green tissue paper, using a cup as a template, then practised using the scissors to cut them out.  After which she 'painted' some watered down glue onto a sheet of card and stuck the circles on making her very own hungry caterpillar. (One of the circles was cut from red tissue paper to make the head).

When I opened the craft cupboard to get some googly eyes Little Moo spotted the glitter and decided to pimp up her hungry caterpillar!!

Once it's completely dry she can use a marking pen to add legs and antennae.

Next week (and for however long it takes to complete) we'll carry on with some more maths activities in the workbook, which include counting the segments (circles) in a few different caterpillars; drawing a caterpillar using a specified number of circles; doing some fruit sums; and identifying and copying patterns.

I also have some ideas for doing more arts and crafts continuing in the theme of The Very Hungry Caterpillar but I'll put those in a separate post.

We'll also make a fruit salad using the same fruit that the caterpillar ate (I'll probably incorporate doing a shopping list, choosing the best fruit, paying for them etc into the whole learning experience).

Once we've completed all of the above then I think I trip to Butterfly World in Swindon would be a lovely way to end this theme.

What do you think?

Pre-School Reading & Writing Practice

One of our focus areas at the moment is Literacy so we're spending a lot of time reading together (nothing unusual here, we've done that since birth!), singing alphabet songs (also not something we've only just started), and learning how to write letters.

I've made flash cards of frequently used words, laminated them and stuck them in various places around the house. Things like 'fridge', 'bath', and some others have been liberated by other little hands (aka Little Moo's curious brother). Now I've taken to sticking a few up on the ceiling above Little Moo's bunk bed so she can practise reading them at bed time:

I'll make a point of swapping them with other words in due course.

On our literacy shelf in the school room we also have tubs of magnet letters. Little Moo has enjoyed making words and putting them up on the whiteboard as well as the fridge. It's great practise for sounding out the letters and putting them with others to see what words can be sounded out.

We also have a set of Disney 'read-along' books with a CD for her to use, but it's a little premature for that just yet.

There's also a lovely wipe clean book for practising letter writing:

And I also printed some alphabet tracing printables  laminated those, put some tracing paper ontop and got Little Moo using those.

  Funny how she was more keen doing that, than tracing a princess picture from her colouring book :-)

Lessons From Disney Princesses

Puzzles are fun to do, and great for developing fine motor skills and solving problems, but here's an idea for how we expanded the learning while doing Little Moo's Disney Princess puzzle earlier this afternoon:

We counted how many puzzle pieces there are. (20)
Counted how many birds there are (7), how many are pink (1) and how many are blue (6). And did simple subtraction: "If we take the one pink bird away, how many are left?"
We discussed what differences we could spot in the princesses appearances: Different coloured dresses, hair and eyes. Then discussed who we know that has brown hair, blonde hair, red hair. We discussed what colour eyes daddy has, and nanna, grandad, granny, grandpa etc.

You really can find educational opportunities in every day activities!

Our Home-Ed School Room

Our journey into the world of home educating is about to begin!  Friday March 1 is when we'll 'officially' be starting Reception Year with Little Moo.

Daddy D and I converted our dining room into a playroom moons ago, but now we've made some small re-configurations to make it a more of a learning space.  Here's how it looks today:

Obviously as our journey gets going we'll tweak and improve things along the way. I'm already thinking about putting up some 'washing line' so we can hang artworks etc.

What do you think? And what does your school room, or learning space, or whatever you choose to call it, look like?  Feel free to post a link in the comments - I might get some good ideas!

A Bit About Us

Hi,

I'm Vanessa (aka Hants Home Ed Mom) and this is my daughter Little Moo. No that's not really her name, it just happens to be the nickname I gave her when I started blogging as HousewivesInc back in 2009.  And lets be honest, I don't feel comfortable sharing her real name on the internet!

Anyway, she'll be four in June, and should we have chosen to go the 'typical' route she would be due to start school this September (2013).

However, long before we had children, my husband & I had discussed and decided that we would home-educate. I believe here in the UK they don't like to use the phrase 'home school'... anyway, I'll probably be calling it both. A rose by any other name, and all that....

There are so many reasons behind our decision not to send her (and our son when he is old enough) to mainstream school.  We are not hippies, and we are not anti-establishment - for some reason that's the reputation a lot of parents have for home-schooling their kids.

In an ideal world where money isn't an issue, we believe that private education is the way to go. Small classes, more individual attention, better discipline, better quality teaching, better exam results. Well, we just don't have the £1000+ per month that would entail.  Sure, I could choose to go back to work to pay for it, but then I'd be back in a stressful job (I used to be a Bank Manager), and wouldn't get to spend much time with my family. This choice is also about a quality of life that is important to us.

If I teach my kids at home they will have the ultimate private education, and from an educator that really loves them and has their best (and personal) interests at heart.

I hope you'll enjoy following our journey,

Vanessa x