ofamily learning together

Knock Knock Joke Book for the family

Posted on August 25, 2018 by ofamily

My daughter has always struggled with humour, she does not always understand it and as a result can get very frustrated. So we wanted to try to help her a bit by introducing her to some jokes at home, explaining them to her and even possibly teaching her a few so that when she is in a social situation it is not as intimidating when everyone starts sharing jokes.

I spotted that Highlights had a Knock Knock Children’s joke book so I thought it might be a good starting point. Knock Knock jokes are standard and well-known so I thought they would be a good introduction.

The book is filled with lots of different themed Knock Knock jokes (I belive there are over 1000 different jokes in this book). They have split the jokes up into different sections like – Animal antics, household humour, laugh around the world etc. I liked this is as we could jump to a section and read out a bunch of similar themed jokes.

Now as I mentioned there are over a thousand jokes in this book, so we have not read every single one but so far none have been unsuitable. And yes some are funnier than others, but we liked this because we used it to discuss why some jokes seemed to work better than others.

Both my kids have enjoyed reading this book together and with their dad (he really loved the idea of reading joke books with the kids).

And we have also used it in car trips – it was really a great way of keeping two kids busy while we were going on a longish drive to the beach. (And I promise I was not the driving and taking photos at the same time)

We have really enjoyed this book and I think it has been a great way of helping my daughter better understand some basic jokes and word play. We are hoping to build on this and try some other joke books with her in the future.

I received this joke book together with a few others for review purposes. I honestly think it is a fun joke book worth the £8.99 that it is retailing for Knock Knock!: The BIGGEST, Best Joke Book EVER (Highlights Laugh Attack! Joke Books)

I have included Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and love.

Posted in Homeschooling | Tagged children's book, home ed, home education, homeschooling, Joke Books, Knock Knock Book, parenting | 1 Comment

Planning Again

Posted on August 23, 2018 by ofamily

I say I am planning but really I think my form of planning and what most people think I do is vastly different. I never do detailed plans – we need to do pages x on this day – because it does not work for us and I know that would end up stressing me out. I like to spend as long as the kids want on a topic and I also like to have the flexibility of following new interests as they arise so being tied down to a detailed plan just does not work.

I need to plan our basic week so it works for us – what regular weekly activities are the kids doing, do we have space in the week to fit in our trips and workshops? It sounds straightforward but I need to build in some down time. In the next few months my daughter is going to have a crazy busy Wednesday (by her choice) but I know that means I can not schedule a busy Thursday morning, it is going to be better to keep Thursdays free and that way we can stay home or we can go out with friends if we want to. I am already thinking Thursdays will probably be a good art day for us.

I also like to have a visual Monthly calendar where I can see which extra workshops / outings we are planning on doing – again it is a good way of trying to space out our activities (I like spreading out our trips into London as they tend to be very full days for the kids) and as I start filling in dates I always start seeing “learning themes” coming through. (I also like to slot in my work deadlines on the Monthly Calender). The calendar in the picture is from Activity Village – 2018 Calendar.

My daughter wants to do a Roman Walk in September and a possible Roman workshop. Plus there is a Fictional story based in Roman times that she has on her list of books she wants to read – so already I am guessing we are going to be going back and revisiting the Ancient Romans again, although this time it will be more about the Romans in Britain.

So when I have an idea of a possible topic I do a quick brainstorm – what resources do I think we would like to use – are there books I can reserve at our library, are there fictional stories we can read and what activities can we include. It is very rough but it helps me think about the topic and also decide if I would like to buy extra resources for the house. (The photo below is the one I am busy doing for Romans in Britain – As I find books that I think might be good I add them to my list)

Pinterest is also great for this – I love creating visual boards filled with topic ideas.

For Science I know we are going to spend some time on electric circuits (A request from both kids) so I am already searching, reading reviews looking for a good kit to buy.

Maths we are more structured (I tend to use workbooks and then we add extra practice as we think needed) but having said that I still like to let the kids spend as much time as they need on a Maths Topic. So we tend to work on a topic like Geometry or Fractions for a few months before we move on.

For English we are going to have an emphasis on writing. My daughter’s reading has really taken off the last few months and as a result she has started writing book summaries. So we want to work on that. Expand her writing – improve her summarizing skills and work on creative writing. My youngest we need to work on improving his hand writing and just having fun with writing (I am think of doing more Calligrams and creative lettering with him).

So really my planning is more accurately – GOAL SETTING and resource brainstorming.

It helps me as I feel like we have a broad outline and I can think of activities and resources ahead of time which prevents late night searching and late night buying which is often not clever buying.

I also have a good idea of what the kids are interested in (although they do always surprise me with new topics) but I know my daughter wants to learn a lot more about History and my son wants to learn DETAIL about Reptiles and Amphibians. So I know that if I do buy books on History topics or Reptiles they will be used, they might not get read in the exact week I buy them, they might sit on out shelf for a month or two but I know that at some stage over the next few months the kids will dig them out and read them, discuss what the books says and if it is a good book go back to it again and again.

My way of planning is one that works for us (both me and the kids) but like all things in home education it is never going to be the exact same for other families.

Posted in Homeschooling | Tagged activity village, home ed, home educating mom, home education, Home education planning, homeschooling | 1 Comment

Mental Maths Gym pages from Activity Village

Posted on August 18, 2018 by ofamily

I always say I am a big believer in maths practice. But I also like finding different ways for the kids to do the practice so it does not become predictable. This past week we started using the Mental Maths Gym pages from Activity Village. At the moment there are 6 different sets (each 5 pages long) and each with their own set of answers.

I started off by just printing out the first three sets with the idea of placing the pages into our Write and Wipe pockets so that the kids could use the pages more than once.

And it worked perfectly in the Write and Wipe pockets.

But my youngest has an excellent memory and after just doing the pages once he was remembering the order of the answers (so without looking at the sums he would know that on this page the answers were 5, 3 10 etc).

So we improvised a bit. I cut the sums out into strips and I started mixing up the sums.

I also realised that if you cut the sums up into strips and you have younger kids, you could always fold some of the strips so that the sums are not as long (see up above). Just an idea that might work with younger kids.

The strips actually worked well with both my kids. As they completed the sum they wrote the answer onto a piece of paper and then piled the strips of paper upside down for me. That way when it was time for me to do a quick check all the sums where still in the correct order.

I like this idea for maths practice. This week we are going to try some of the sums from set D which include multiplication and division. And I may even try my folding idea as a way of using some of the harder sums with my youngest.

As I mentioned there are 6 different sets – labelled A, B, C, D, E and F – they start off easy with each set getting progressively hard – the first 3 sets are different combinations of addition and subtraction then the next 2 sets bring in multiplication and division and the last set includes fractions and percentages.

If you have an Activity Village membership (currently £15 for 12 months) and want some extra Maths practice have a look and see if these are suitable, we are definitely finding them useful.

The Write and Wipe pockets that we use are these one (we have been using the same set for over 3 years and they are still going strong) – Learning Resources Wipe Clean Pockets This is NOT a review. It is just one of the resources that we use as part of our home learning.

I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and love.

Posted in Homeschooling | Tagged activity village, educational resources, home ed, home education, homeschooling, learning resources, maths, maths activity | 1 Comment

Tin foil Viking Longship Art

Posted on August 16, 2018 by ofamily

The kids have been so deep in Viking literature that it is not surprising that it has spilled over into other areas as well. They wanted to make another Viking Longship picture but they also wanted to make more of their tin foil necklaces so I suggested we combine the two and create Viking Longships on the tin foil (bit of trial and error as we go with this one).

We started by creating a simple Viking Longship picture. We kept it simple for our first go but I think next time we might try to add more details

Then we used some blue tack (prestik) and stuck it onto our tin foil (make sure you have something underneath the tin foil like some card). And the kids drew over the picture.

When you draw over the picture it naturally leaves an indentation on the tin foil – so you get our outline of the longship – just make sure no-one moves the picture while they are busy tracing as it is impossible to get it back in the exact same position again (that is why we used the blue tack).

Once we had our outline the kids coloured in with their sharpies.

Really a quick and easy Viking art activity but both kids enjoyed the fact that it was on the tin foil. (My son wants to try more tin foil art – according to him colouring-in on tin foil is much cooler than colouring-in on boring, normal paper)

If you are worried about creating our own Viking Longship template you could look here at this set of drawing instructions – Draw a Viking Ship

or you could use this colouring page from Twinkl Resources (it is part of a paid for subscription).

We love our Sharpies and use them a lot in our different art and craft projects so I tend to always buy the kids a larger set with a wide range of colours like this – Sharpie Fine Permanent Marker – Assorted Colours (Pack of 24).

Oh and the tin foil that we used was just normal tin foil from the kitchen.

Posted in Art and Craft Ideas | Tagged children's art, easy art for kids, History, home ed, home education, homeschooling, Vikings | 3 Comments

Riddle of the Runes Review

Posted on August 15, 2018 by ofamily

We have been reading a lot of Viking books lately (fictional and factual) but my daughter did point out a few weeks ago that the women Vikings are never the main characters. Which was true until now. Oxford University Press kindly sent her a copy of the Riddle of the Runes book and the main character is Alva, a feisty Viking girl of “12 winters” (ie 12 years old – needless to say my kids are now telling everyone they are 10 winters or 7 winters old).

We loves this character. She is a strong-willed, determined, clever girl in a normally male-dominated Viking village. My daughter could relate to the way Alva’s relationship with her Uncle and Mother has been written. Her Uncle and her absent father have always encouraged her more adventurous side while her mother worries about her and often that worry spills over into disagreements. (I really thought the sections about her different relationships within her family were really well written). Oh and the fact that Alva has a pet wolf who would do anything to protect her was just the perfect final touch for my daughter (complete envy over the pet wolf).

The Story is set in and around Kilsgard, the Viking village where Alva lives. Her father is away on a Viking journey and Alva is at home with her Uncle, Mother and baby brother. A series of events unfold in the village which cause concern around the safety of the villagers and Alva and her Uncle set out to find the answers as to why everything has happened.

My daughter (who is 10) read the book herself. In the beginning she did initially struggle with the unusual character names and she was getting them a bit mixed up, so we created a quick visual map showing who the different characters were and then she was set and really got involved with the different characters. In fact when I was reading the book with my seven-year old and he asked a couple of questions about who everyone was she answered all his queries without hesitation.

What I really liked about this book (aside from the fact that it is a well-written fictional story that captivated both my kids), were all the factual references. And they were accurate factual references (no dragons or magical coats included here).

The way the village is described, the description of their house, the main hall, the village people – it all created a realistic image of Viking life. The author does not try to cover up the fact that part of Viking life included some blood and guts. In the story they mention that the Viking raids involved people getting murdered. It is not gruesomely depicted but at the same time it is not hidden. I liked this. There is also quite a bit about the Viking beliefs. They talk about how Vikings believed in many Gods but that Christians believe in one. They do mention a few of the Viking Gods throughout the story and there is a section where the town seer (my daughter thought she was a bit intimidating) demands the town has an animal sacrifice – the sacrifice never happens but it still was a great talking point for my kids. Oh and the fact that they are always making reference to a Viking raid in Lindisfarne thrilled my kids as there really were raids there (my kids had just read about this in a factual Viking book before we started this story).

I really thought this was a good book for both my kids. The mystery side of finding out what has happened was fun but more than that the way the author managed to intertwine so many facts about Viking life was brilliant. I think it is a well-written fact-based fictional story for kids.

And yes we were given this copy of the book and in case you are wondering I will be buying my daughter the next Alva adventure so she can continue reading about this feisty character.