No school today then boys?
Home educating the children is a learning process for all of
us. As an adult education teacher I have had to adjust to teaching primary age
children and the children have had to learn in a different environment with
their Mum and Dad as the teachers!
We have chosen to use a topic based structure and are basing
the majority of work on the requirements of the national curriculum but without
statutory testing, the need to fit in with school times and dates and with the
freedom to change topic, change direction or generally do whatever we want.
Our first topic was dinosaurs. This was chosen as it did not
relate to a specific part of the world, all of them were enthusiastic about it
and there was a wealth of resources available many of them aimed at the foundation
level, ideal as the youngest was just 4 and due to start in reception at the
start of our adventure.
With dinosaurs we did pictures, paintings, made fossils
using wax and overbrushing with paint. We created a big wall display including
odd facts, pictures and even some fern rubbings. We made up dinosaurs and the
older two gave us a mini presentation of the dinosaurs time line. The finale
for the topic was the construction of a papier mache volcano which we then
erupted with bicarb, vinegar and food colouring – spectacular!
We then did some mini topics based on things which cropped
up – a chance visit by the Shackleton exploration group, fireworks, Portland geology and
history. The final topic for the Autumn term was Christmas. We made cards,
decorations and they wrote their own Nativity play using puppets which they
made themselves. The whole thing was filmed and put together on the computer
and shared with Grandparents when they came to visit – lovely.
After discussion the boys have decided that they like the
idea of sticking to regular terms (although with lots of flexibility if we
fancy an extra week off or if moving half term would fit in better). Spring
term started this week and surprisingly perhaps they were quite keen to get
their teeth into the new topic. We are working on ‘all about me’ this term. So
far they have written about likes and dislikes, done an experiment on what
tastes and smells they do/don’t like (some great faces when they did a blind
test involving olives, chocolate buttons and slices of lime) and will be
looking at what makes them unique.
We are also using work books for literacy (reading/writing)
and numeracy (maths) (thanks Tisch for the recommendations) and the fantastic
‘maths for mums and dads’ (thanks HH Toddlers!). As for PE, you can’t beat tree
swings, running on the beach and walking the dog to explore somewhere new.
Well, that’s what we’re doing now but it’s sure to change as
time goes on, after all you never stop learning, us and them!
Visit The Monkey's Fist to find other posts on this topic:
http://themonkeysfist.blogspot.com/2013/09/boatschooling-101.html
http://themonkeysfist.blogspot.com/2013/09/boatschooling-101.html
Edit 16/11/14
For a hind sight blog about home schooling and to find out what happened when we returned to Britain follow the link here
For more boat school blog posts use the tag cloud on the right – if you want to find out more about how we use used the British primary school curriculum whilst travelling, want to chat about home education on the move or about anything we have tried in boat school please feel free to contact me via the comments.
I shall be watching your topics and may take a few ideas for my class!!
ReplyDeletesounds like you're having a wonderful time and my nan keeps telling me all the tails she's hearing from Uncle Colin.
Stacey