ofamily learning together

The Tiny Seed and seed dispersal

Posted on October 21, 2016 by ofamily

On a recent walk to one of our favourite Natural Trust Sites (UK) the kids came across lots of chestnuts lying on the floor, some half-open, others still tightly shut, some smashed and some in perfect condition.

The kids were immediately interested and started asking a million questions. They also noticed other acorns and nuts lying on the floor and it was not long before the discussion moved onto why everything was on the floor and how is everything going to grow so close together and in the middle of all of that a strong gust of wind blew and some new ones flew off the tree and were carried in the wind. Seed dispersal in action right before our very eyes. For the rest of the walk and most of that day the discussions centered around how seeds move and why it is so important.

When we got home my daughter was quick to point her brother in the direction of one of her favourite stories – The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle (I love how my daughter has developed this habit of searching for books when a new topic is being discussed, no prompting needed she just sits in front of her book-case and finds a book to read on the new topic). And luckily my youngest loves it when big sister reads him one of her books.

After a bit more reading and more questions we had a go at the seed dispersal sorting activity from Twinkl (part of their paid for platinum pages).

And we could not resist trying a tissue art bird. We used a page from the British Bird Colouring Pages as a template (also part of the paid for platinum pages from Twinkl) and based the colours on the bird in The Tiny Seed Book. I love the way the tissue paper turned out.

The more we are continuing with our home-education the more I am appreciating how much the kids learn just by being out and exploring nature. And although at times the constant questions can get exhausting I really appreciate the fact that both my kids are so open to learning and I know that all the questions all the time is just little minds thinking and processing.

Save

Posted in Book Ideas | Tagged children's book, children's craft, Eric Carle, home education, homeschooling, seed dispersal, The Tiny Seed | 2 Comments

Timeline British History Game

Posted on October 15, 2016 by ofamily

As a home-educating mom I am always excited when a kids educational game arrives for us to test out and review. I love educational games that encourage the kids to learn in a relaxed manner while having a bit of fun. We were recently sent the Timeline British History game (part of being a Rainbow Toy tester) and I have to admit for me this game is a great History resource.

Firstly the game is packed in a lovely tin, perfect for storing the cards in when they are not been used (I don’t like games or toys which arrive in boxes that are not suitable for them to be stored in afterwards).

The cards in the box are double-sided. One side is a picture of a historical British event with a few key words and on the reverse side is the same picture and key words but with the date on. And there are lots of cards which means it covers lots of British events, including the major events you would expect to find as well as some lesser known events all the way to 2016 (voting to leave the EU).

The aim of the game is to be the first player to place all of your cards into the ‘timeline’. Each player receives four cards. The players must lie these cards out in front of them, with the date side down (so no-one sees the date). One card is placed in the center with its date facing up. Now each player takes it in turns to guess where their event (of the 4 cards they have in front of them) goes in the timeline. They do this by placing their card on the timeline in the position which they think is correct and then they turn the card over to reveal its date. If they get it correct the card becomes part of the timeline, however, if it is incorrect that card is placed in a discard pile and the player must take a new card from the pile. The first person who has no cards left is the winner.

The concept of the game is straightforward but as it relates to Historical events the age recommendation is for 8 and upwards. When my daughter and I first tried the game I reduced the pack of cards – I purposely chose a selection of cards of the more famous events and we focused on those. This worked really well as we got into the game.

However as often happens when you have a younger sibling her brother soon wanted to join in (he is almost 6).

The two of them enjoyed trying to decide where the cards should be placed on the timeline and our game became more of a family “lets build a timeline activity”. The kids loved this and we have subsequently done this a few times. In fact they asked for the box to get placed on their bookshelf so that they could use the cards to build their own timelines.

I personally think this is a great educational game. And although playing the game “correctly” according to the instructions does require some historical knowledge if you are flexible and allow your kids to build their own timelines and chat about the events the need for prior historical knowledge becomes less important. For me this game is a great way to help the kids learn about the order of events and it gets both kids talking and asking questions which normally leads to more reading.

Would I go out and buy this game for my kids ? YES. In fact after watching my kids “play with the cards” I have actually gone online and searched for other Timeline games as possible Christmas pressies.

Disclaimer – We were sent Timeline British History to review for the Rainbow Toy Awards – all words and opinions are our own.

Save

Posted in reviews | Tagged British History, educational games, home education, homeschooling, reviews, timelime british history | 3 Comments

Sh, Th, Ch sound train (free)

Posted on October 13, 2016 by ofamily

I remember doing a lot of activities around sh, th and ch with my daughter but for some reason they mostly seemed to be flower based (and that just does not have the same appeal for my son) so I have been trying to come up with something specifically for him. I was stuck and then over the weekend he got all excited about seeing a train and it hit me – a sound train. He loves trains and you can add as many carriages as you want onto the train. Perfect.

I knew about the free to download train template on Twinkl (we have used it a lot already for a number of different activities). But this time I printed it in black and white (confession – there was no colour ink left in the printer so I was forced to print it in black and white). Anyway it turned out to be a good thing as both kiddies happily sat and coloured the trains and carriages in.

And without much prompting my youngest immediately starting choosing words to write on the carriages – I did suggest he write the words in pencil first and then we trace over them with the felt-tip pens lately (mainly because he gets very frustrated with himself when he makes mistakes and if he spelt something wrong and then could not rub it out – he would have been one very sad kiddie).

This worked well for him as he did need to rub a few spelling mistakes out and retry the words.

And then we had our sound trains.

The idea is we can add more words to the sound trains as we come across them while we are reading or doing our learning activities. So I have some spare carriages printed out waiting and he can colour and write his new words as he discovers them.

Save

Posted in English Ideas | Tagged ch sh th, free printables, home education, homeschooling, ks1 english, phonics, sound train, Twinkl | 2 Comments

Funnybones activities

Posted on October 10, 2016 by ofamily

I bought this book (Funnybones by Allan Ahlberg and Andre Amstutz) a few years ago but my daughter never really got into it however her little brother thinks it is great. And since her brother enjoys it my daughter has given it a second try and this time seems to be appreciating the humour more (she often battles to understand when someone or a book is joking/ teasing – but we are working on it and she is getting better at reading the signs). She really liked the fact that the skeletons found the human baby scary – her response was they are more scared of us then we are of them (it is a NOT a scary book at all).

Anyway since my youngest has been enjoying the skeletons I thought we could include some activities. I printed off the funnybones playdough mats from Twinkl (Platinum) and the kids had a go at them both using their play dough and their white board marker pens. I loved the kids trying to copy the skeleton drawings.

We also had a go at colouring the skeleton bags from Baker Ross. (My daughter thinks they are perfect as pretend shopping bags for her toys).

And my youngest had another go at some of the Dotty sticker art pages. We have done the insect version of these pages before and my youngest really liked them in fact at the time he commented that the dots were shaped like the animal skeletons. This time we tried out the Halloween themed dotty sticker art pages.

I have mentioned before how much I like these dotty sticker art pages. My youngest really concentrates and tries very hard to get the stickers on the dots. They are a great winding down activity for him and there is no mess (which when you have just spent the afternoon baking with the kids and there is flour everywhere can be a HUGE bonus).

In case you have never heard of this book – here is a link – Funnybones: A Bone Rattling Collection

The Baker Ross items were sent to me as part of their latest blogger box

Save

Posted in Book Ideas | Tagged children's book, children's craft, home education, homeschooling, play dough mats, Twinkl | 1 Comment

Super Search Adventure Miles Kelly Books

Posted on October 8, 2016 by ofamily

We love books in our house and my kids are fans of animal books and search books so when Miles Kelly asked if we would like a copy of their Super Search Books – Where is the Bear and On the Trail of the Whale I immediately said yes.

Both books are written in the same style. The story begins with the kids being told that they need to help an animal search for their friend (Otto the Octopus is searching for his friend Hula the Whale and Suki an Arctic rabbit is searching for Ping a Panda Bear). The front covers of both books unfolds to reveal a list of animals and as the kids read the book they can tick the animals that they find on the list – my son LOVED this part). In fact I have found him paging through the books by himself searching for the animals and re-ticking them on the lists – we used white board marker pens and just wiped the ticks off afterwards so that the kids could redo the activity.

On each double page spread the search goes to a new location – on Where is the Bear it starts in Greenland goes onto Alaska then California and continues around the world until it ends up in a bamboo forest in China. So as the kids are searching for the missing animals they are also learning about the different animals that live in different areas and even where the areas are (we kept showing my youngest on a map where the area was located). The back cover also folds out and in both books it reveals a map of the world and shows the kids the path that the search took them on.

There are no scary scenes in the books and in both books the missing animal is found. Both books have lovely illustrations and should not frighten or upset a sensitive child (this is always a big deal for us as my oldest can get very frightened by stories that we read).

Also while they are reading the books little challenges pop up. Both kids enjoyed this as it made the books very interactive and they really ended up getting involved in the stories.

My eight year old did read the book with her younger brother but I do think it is more age appropriate for my youngest who is 5.5 (plus is he slightly obsessed about learning animal facts).

So in case you are wondering if I had not been given these books would I actually go out and buy them – my answer is YES. I would definitely buy these books for my son.

As I mentioned in the beginning we were sent both these books by Miles Kelly in exchange for me including them in a blog post.