ofamily learning together

One Year of Costco UK Shopping

Posted on February 10, 2018 by ofamily

Last year I went on a cost reduction drive. Why ? Well the main reason – home education. Our decision to follow this route has meant I can not earn the second income that we had always thought I would (I am an Accountant), but we know it is a good sacrifice so we are trying as hard as we can to reduce our costs. I knew about Costco and I had been inside one about 10 years ago when I visited a friend in the US (in fact the fleece that I bought on that trip is still hanging in my cupboard) so I had an idea of what to expect but I kept thinking that paying for the membership and then driving out to a warehouse would offset any savings I made. So I kept putting it off. Then last year we decided to go and see, walk the aisles look at what we would buy and work out the savings right there and then. (Costco do allow you to visit the store but you can not buy anything unless you go and get your membership card).

Within minutes I had worked out that I would save. So we went and sorted out our membership card and started buying. And one year later we have just renewed our membership and I have just been back to stock up.

I don’t have a big fridge/ freezer so I can not comment on that side of things but I do have some cupboard space. So what do I buy ? All my household items – cleaning goods, toiletries, tinned items, coffee, tea, snacks, baking (basically anything that does not need to be in the fridge).

They also have kids toys (we bought my son a huge hot wheels set for his birthday which was a good price), clothes (I have bought my husband a shirt ), shoes, furniture, electrical goods, stationary, books. Oh the books. As a home educator I love their table of books. It is not a big selection but they always have stunning books at amazing prices – I have bought some books for the kids that were half the price I would have paid in other stores (the photo below was taken last year so please don’t rush into Costco UK tomorrow expecting to see the exact same books).

I only go every 6 weeks/ 2 months and then I tend to stock up on the items I need but after a year of doing this I can honestly say I have saved.

Do I have any issues with Costco shopping ? Well two.

The membership card should come with a warning that you might be tempted to go and buy a bigger car. Luckily my kids are good sports and happily share their backseat with all the items that do not fit into our boot.

And secondly beware of the Costco coupons that arrive. You will think you have figured out all the cool things you can buy until your book of coupons arrive. Suddenly you will notice some really good deals for items that you never spotted. And the coupon booklet also highlights some excellent online deals – case in point their climbing frame (see my comment below about buying online).

In the UK you can also buy from Costco online – I have not spent much time looking at this. I logged on once and I bought the kids a climbing fame for Christmas, I knew what I wanted and what the price was (thanks to their booklet) so I did not spend any time looking around. The item arrived very quickly and the driver was helpful getting the boxes into the house (it was very heavy). Based on this experience I will happily buy from them online again.

Oh and the climbing frame is honestly the best. The kids love it.

In case you are wondering – this is just me writing about Costco, it is not linked to the company in any way or form I have just found shopping there to be a good way of reducing our costs.

Posted in Homeschooling | Tagged cost saving, Costco, family life, home educating mom, home education, homeschooling | 1 Comment

Geometry Set Art

Posted on February 7, 2018 by ofamily

Most people don’t think Maths and Art go together. But I actually think combining the two can be a lot of fun. Who says Maths can’t be made into Art ?

So when my daughter got a geometry set this we spent some time just playing around with the different items included in the set and she realized that you can actually make some stunning Geometry Art.

My daughter loved using the compass (or the circle drawing tool as my son calls it).

She loved the idea of drawing circles around circles, playing with the angle of the compass to see how it affected her circles. But it was not just the compass in the set that she used (although it is fair to say the compass was used the MOST), she used the other shapes as well.

Once she had her drawings she then started adding colour – one of the pictures she painted with her watercolours and the other she just opted to use her sharpies (I also think oil pastels would work well with this).

With the watercolours if you are painting the circles in a pattern like my daughter did be aware of allowing some drying time so that all the colours do not run together. She painted the red circles, had some lunch and then came back to do the orange circles.

It was a fun activity and my youngest even joined in creating some of his own masterpieces (he has not finished his so I am not allowed to photograph them yet).

And honestly even if she had just created the pictures that would have been enough for me. But as it often happens, as she was sitting and working we chatted and she asked questions, questions about the shapes, how they fitted together, angles and we even did a quick diagram of a circle and what some key words are.

If you haven’t already tried combining some Maths and Art, we highly recommend that you give it a go. It is a fun way of making maths come alive (Quote from my daughter).

Posted in maths ideas | Tagged Geometry, hands on maths, home education, homeschooling, maths activity, Maths and art | 1 Comment

High Frequency Word Bookmark game

Posted on February 4, 2018 by ofamily

My son recently reminded me about a little game we used to play when he was just starting to recognise words, I never thought that much of it as it developed by accident but the fact that he still talks about it made me think I should mention it. I had printed out some High Frequency Word Bookmarks for his sister (they are from Activity Village) and they were just lying on the bookshelf (she already knew the words) so one day when I was reading to him he asked if we could use the bookmarks for his book.

So we did. And while I was reading the story I noticed he was looking at the bookmark and then back at the text in the story and then he commented – “look mom those two words are the same” – he pointed to a word on the bookmark and a word in the text of the book I was reading to him. And he was correct. So I asked if there were any other words he could spot. He slowly worked through the text and bit by bit he started matching the words back to the bookmark.

After he had finished he asked for another story and as I read it to him he started looking for the words. The bookmarks were laminated so I suggested we take it a step further and as soon as he spots the word he could circle or underline the word on his bookmark. He loved this.

Our little bookmark activity continued for months. He loved hunting for the words in the text of the stories and I do think it helped with his sight words and his reading confidence.

Extra comment – for those of you wondering we have followed a combined phonics and sight word approach with both kids. I do think knowing the sounds helps with reading and spelling but I also think practicing basic sight words builds reading confidence.

Posted in Homeschooling | Tagged activity village, home education, homeschooling, Learning to read, Monkey Puzzle, sight words, word games | 2 Comments

The Rock Factory

Posted on February 2, 2018 by ofamily

We seem to be on a bit of a Geology theme as the moment so I thought I would share from resources that we have been using on our Rock madness. I actually bought the Rock Factory book last year hoping it would spark some interest but at the time the kids were busy with other topics so it was left alone. After working through some of the Geology lab for Kids activities one of my kids remembered the book and we dug it out and had a good read. I must say it explains everything very nicely.

The book starts off with a bit about the different layers of the earth and compares it to a soft-boiled egg (my kids loved this) and talks about how our stone would have gradually worked its way up through the mantle. It talks about how our rock is made from minerals and compares the mixture of the minerals to baking a cake and as the minerals cool they form chrystals. It details what happens in a volcano and how our piece of stone would be affected by the magma and how it could be pushed through a crack in the earth’s surface and come out when a volcano errupts. And what would have happened to the rock after the volcano errupted. Then it goes onto a little boy finding our stone and discovering that it was a diamond. After that it talks about the different types of rock and sets out an experiment for the kids to do – Grow your own Crystals. The kids have found the book informative and easy to understand and it has helped explain a few facts to them (and to me).

Some examples of what the inside pages look like

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And to go with the book and our interest in Rocks we found a few worksheets from Education.com and Twinkl and created our own sorting activity (see below).

From the Education.com site (we have a free account which allows you a limited number of downloads each month).

What is the Rock Cycle

and a page describing the different Types of Rocks

And if you have a Twinkl membership they also have a rock cycle page and they have a rock and soil fact page pack which we found interesting

We also did our own very simple home-made page. We set up three mini pockets, one for each rock type and then we wrote out the different rock names that we are familar with and discussed which rock type they would fit under. Really simple and easy to set up at home but it was a great way of discussing the different rock types.

We bought our Rock Factory book from Amazon

The Rock Factory: A Story About Rocks and Stones (Science Works)

I have included an Affiliate link. 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 educational books, geology, home education, homeschooling, rocks, science for kids, Twinkl | 2 Comments

Good-enough Home-educator

Posted on January 31, 2018 by ofamily

One of the phrases I have been thinking about a lot lately is – “Everyone can home-educate but not everyone should” – meaning it is perfectly legal in the UK to home educate and you don’t need to do a course in order to do it but not everyone has the right personality to do it. hmmmmmm. Here is the thing after 5.5 years of home educating I am beginning to think that maybe I fall into that shouldn’t group.

In all honesty there are just times when I am exhausted and grumpy mom seems to be ever-present and fun-mom disappears, my patience is not the best, I don’t always have the energy for all the activities and sometimes my blanket on my couch is far more inviting than the train into London and another museum trip. My house never seems to be in order (serious what does that look like ?) there are always half-finished art works or half-finished projects scattered all over and we never seem to get through our reading list, it just keeps growing and growing (like the pile of washing).

I have been known to put a documentary on the TV so I can have a quick break – but really this does not work because I always watch the documentary with the kids and then they have questions and we normally look for extra reading about what they have seen, possibly a few more books, maybe some follow-up documentaries and an outing to expand on all that and really how is putting a documentary on the TV a break ?

I don’t have all the answers I am far from the perfect mom so why should I be home educating my kids ?

But here is the thing as far as my kids are concerned I am their mom and that is all there is too that, they don’t care about perfection, they care about their mom. They really don’t need me to be anything other than their mom. So maybe just maybe I can apply the same logic to the home-education ? Maybe they don’t need a perfect home-educating mom, maybe they don’t mind that I don’t have everything figured out, that I am learning along the way and that sometimes we try a new book or activity only to realize it is not the right one for us. Watching all those documentaries are expanding on my son’s engineering interest and a science experiment that does not work can also teach them as much as one that works. The ever-growing book list is probably going to be there forever because as soon as we finish one book we normally find two more we want to read. Maybe they just need their own home-educating mom, imperfections and all, the mom who knows them and loves them and tries her best.

And hey if every once in a while the couch beats the train trip into London, well I guess that just means we might get to cross a book for our reading list.

On the way into London to visit a musuem