ofamily learning together

Animated clip of a Roman Soldier by Twinkl

Posted on March 7, 2017 by ofamily

Both kids really enjoyed learning about the Romans so when I heard that Twinkl had made a short animated clip about a Roman Legionary I immediately downloaded and showed the kids. They thought it was great (the clip is about 2.5 minutes) and asked to watch the clip again and then asked if there were more clips. They really wanted to see more clips of soldiers in different time periods. Unfortunately this is currently the only animated clip from Twinkl (they are busy working on more – we can’t wait to see what else they come up with). Here is a link – Roman Soldier Activity Pack and Animation.

The clip is about a legionary named Antonius who talks about his life in the Roman army. Antonius shows you around his accommodation and opens his cupboard to show you the clothing that they wore (the first time we watched the clip my youngest found his arm movements a bit strange but after the second viewing he did not seem to notice the movement that much). My youngest was struck by how hard their life was and thought it was not fair that they had to do so much and still go fight and possibly get killed.

Twinkl have also made some worksheets to go with the animated clip. (What I especially like about the worksheets it they have different versions which is perfect for kids working at different levels or different aged siblings who are learning the same topic – very big plus in our house.)

Take the Label the Soldier page as an example. My youngest attempted a cut and paste version while his sister tried a written version, slightly harder but the images were the same so the kids felt like they were working together.

They also have a More Recruits needed activity and a Day in the Life of a Legionary activity (again each activity comes with different versions).

The pages they have created are perfect for the clip but if you do watch the clip I would highly recommend searching through the other Roman resources on the website as they have a bunch. And although the other pages have not been designed especially for the clip and can easily be used as a way of extending the topic after watching the clip.

We are definitely fans of Twinkl’s new animated clip and are looking forward to seeing what else they come up with.

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Posted in History | Tagged animated clip, History, home ed, home education, homeschooling, Romand soldier, Romans, Twinkl | 1 Comment

London Landmark Art activity

Posted on March 5, 2017 by ofamily

Over the weekend we were in a local shop (suppose to be there so I could get a much-needed cup of coffee) and the kids spotted some stunning pictures of London. My daughter loved the bright backgrounds and wanted to try to make something similar. She was more interested in getting the background to “Pop” and did not want to spend ages trying to draw the pictures so we opted to use some colouring pages with the landmarks already printed. We found a really nice set on Twinkl (part of their Platinum deal) – London Colouring Pages.

It was actually a lot of fun playing around with different colours trying to see which colours made the pictures “Pop” and which colours worked well together. Very easy but I do love the end results (yes yes totally biased mom I know).

The Houses of Parliament. The Bright red and blue worked really well together my son especially liked this one.

And the British Museum

We also thought it would be fun if the colours where not just block colours but more of a combination of colours. So for the Big Ben picture we tried blending yellow, orange and red as the background. I really liked the effect.

And then we took the blending colours a bit further and this time the kids decided to see what it would look like if they painting the building in (I think I prefer it when they leave the buildings just black and white but it is good to experiment).

Really simple painting idea but I like the fact that the kids are finding art styles that they like and realising that sometimes something simple like a bright red background can be just as effective as a very detailed picture. And I am taking this as a sign that I need to get myself more cups of coffee because you never know when they might spot something else that inspires them.

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Posted in Art and Craft Ideas | Tagged children's art, home ed, home education, homeschooling, London art for kids, Twinkl | 1 Comment

Cute spider 8 times table

Posted on March 3, 2017 by ofamily

I like finding patterns in maths and relating the patterns back to normal life. I think it helps the kids understand concepts better. So counting in 2’s or 2 times table you can use pairs of socks / counting in 5’s or five times tables we used hands / 4 times table with wings of a butterfly and 8 times table was spiders legs. Both my kids are actually fascinated by spiders so it is a topic we often end up reading about. But for maths I choose to stick with a cute spider (I used the Incy Wincy Spider cut-outs from Twinkl page 3 only).

I cut out 12 spiders (and yes it took a little bit of time but they really are super cute).

I decided to stick ours onto craft sticks to make them a bit more kid friendly (plus once they have been used for maths I know my kids will add the spiders to their stick puppet collection which they love playing with).

The idea was very simple. Each spider has 8 legs so 1×8 = one spiders legs, 2×8 = 2 spiders legs, 3×8 = 3 spiders legs etc. Both kids thought this was a lot of fun. And it re-enforces the understanding of multiplication.

Really straight forward but it does make a times table session a lot more fun and fun normally means my kiddies tend to remember it better.

We also used the stick puppets to go over division. So if you have 24 legs how many spiders would that be ? (My daughter giggled her way through these questions).

And in case you want something like this for 6 times table – insect legs eg ladybirds work really well. The only thing I could think of for 7 times or 9 times were flowers – draw a flower with 7 or 9 petals and then plant them in a garden. If you had 5 flowers in your garden how many petals would there be in total ? I do find it a lot easier to think of objects to use when it is an even number.

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Posted in maths ideas | Tagged division, home ed, home education, homeschooling, ks1 maths, maths ideas, Times table, Twinkl | Leave a comment

Microscope Fun with the MicroPro

Posted on March 1, 2017 by ofamily

My daughter has been asking for her own microscope for over a year now but I always seem to have a long list of home-education goodies that I need so I kept saying maybe next month. Eventually she asked if it could be her birthday present this year (her birthday is still in a few months time but she started asking early). I agreed, then Learning Resources heard about her wanting a Microscope for her birthday and very generously sent her one. She was thrilled, she loves it and so does the rest of the family. It turns out having a microscope in the house is actually a lot of fun and looking at slides together on a rainy day is actually a brilliant family activity.

We received the microscope a little over a month ago and we have been using it a fair bit. So far everything is lasting really well (kids aged 6 and 8). The Microscope (MicroPro) came in a 48-piece set which included 3 prepared slides and 8 blank slides as well as all the extra goodies you would need to make your own slides. I did order a few extra prepared slides online to use with the set.

The first time we used it my husband did set it all up and show the kids how it worked (we do still have to help my youngest with the focusing when he uses it but my 8-year-old seems to manage this okay most of the time).

We have also tried to make our own slides, although this is still a bit of trial and error on our side but we are really enjoying the process. The biggest tip is to make sure that the sample you include on the slide is small (both kids battle with this and have a tendency to want to include much larger bits). So this is where we have found having adult supervision comes in very handy. At the moment we have stuck to very simple slide content like bits of fabric but I am sure with time we will try more (apparently my daughter wants to grow some spores).

My son is also totally fascinated by how the microscope works. He wants to know what the light does and how the lenses amplify everything.

As a home-educating parent I love this set. It has only been a month and already I can see the advantages of having a microscope in the house, just the questions and the curiosity that it encourages has been amazing. The only down-side is you have to be prepared to say – “I don’t know the answer to that but let’s try to find out” – which to be honest actually leads to very excited kids who get to help mom find the answers.

I do think the MicroPro Microscope is going to be something that we will be using with both kids for a very long time.

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Posted in Home education resources | Tagged home ed, home education, Home education resources, homeschooling, microscope, science for kids | 1 Comment

Pompeii – Usborne Young Reading Series

Posted on February 26, 2017 by ofamily

Last year when I was looking for some new reading books for my daughter I bought her a copy of Pompeii (Young Reading (Series 3)) (Young Reading Series Three).

The day the book arrived she sat down and read it cover to cover. And the whole of that week she kept reading the book over and over again. She was fascinated. The book actually prompted a new interest in learning about the Ancient Romans, a topic which she had never been interested in before. One little book (think I paid just over £5 for it) ended up being an excellent reader (had some new challenging words for her), a fascinating story book for both kids, a historical account of what it would have been like, a starting point for learning about Ancient Romans and volcanos. So I thought it was time I wrote a proper review about this book – This is my own opinion, I have not been asked to write this.

The Book starts in February AD79 when an earthquake caused some damage in Pompeii and makes it clear that no-one took much notice of the first signs of life in Vesuvius. It goes on to set the scene of what life would have been like in Pompeii before the eruption occurred.

Through the book it focuses on a few key figures – like the old man in the square, Pliny the elder and Actius the gladiator. This gives the kids glimpses into the different lifestyles in Ancient Roman times.

The book is also filled with stunning illustrations which depict the general Ancient Roman lifestyle (like the town square) as well as the actual volcano, its eruption and the result of the eruption on the town below it.

When it comes the actual volcano erupting the book explains how it would have happened gradually starting with rumbles. It also explains how difficult it would have been for people to leave. The pictures do show people dying and the text explains that most people would have actually choked to death but it was never gets too graphic. My daughter is highly sensitive and she did not have nightmares or get scared after reading the book.

After describing what happened when the volcano erupted the book goes onto to talk about how the city of Pompeii was later rediscovered and how work progressed on the site including an interesting explanation about how they created a new way to dig out cavities (both my kids who have long been fascinated with fossils and archaeology enjoyed this extra bit of information).

At the end of the book they include some photos of what Pompeii looks like today as well as a plan of the existing ruins and a Pompeii timeline.

As far as reading materials that I have bought for my daughter this has to be one of the best books that I have bought for her and I know that both she and my son are not finished reading it yet.

(All children developing reading abilities at different rates but to give an idea my daughter was 7 when she first read this book).

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