Blackbeard’s Treaure

Posted on January 10, 2023 by ofamily

I have to start this post by stating that I am not normally a fan of pirate stories, but I am a massive fan of the Bloomsbury’s flashback series – we have read a number of the stories in this series and they always manage to combine a fun fictional story with interesting historical facts, so I decided this would be one pirate story that I would read and review – Blackbeard’s Treasure by Iszi Lawrence.

The story starts with a young girl (Abigail) who lives a life of luxury on a plantation. But even though her life is easy she is jealous of a slave boy named Boubacar, because Abigails father gives Boubacar all of his attention. From the start of the book you realize that Abigail is quite a tom-boy and is very head-strong (she is actually a lovely character for younger girls to discover because she does not accept that girls must act a certain way and is prepared to fight for what she wants). Through a series of events (I don’t want to give too much away), both Abigail and Boubacar end up on pirate ship, Abigail wants to fight Blackbeard and kill him (she blames him for her father’s death until she realizes that her father was not a good man) and Boubacar wants to earn some money so he can buy his families freedom.

There are a few twists and turns, but through it all Abigail and Boubacar realize that they are brother and sister (back then it was not uncommon for plantation owners to have kids with their slaves – this is an interesting concept for kids to deal with as Boubacar and Abigail were always treated differently because of who their mother’s were and the colour of their skin) But through the different trials and events the brother and sister form a team, they protect each other and show that attitudes of adults do not always influence the younger generation.

My son, happened to spot the book at home and read it himself, he enjoyed the story, he said it was fun and enjoyed the humor that was included in certain parts as well as the whole pirating angle. He already knew about the slave trade and how they were treated so this was not a new topic for him and he just enjoyed the story as an adventure story. If he had read this a few years ago (before we learnt about the slave trade) I do think he would have had quite a few questions about the conditions of the slaves and how they were treated.

I think dealing with the slave trade and what happened to these people can be a difficult topic for some kids, (some sensitive kids are going to struggle with this). But I do also think it is an important topic. We don’t shy away from what happened during the World Wars or from what happened in other parts of our history so I think we also need to deal with this. Our kids need to understand how cruel it was and introducing them to stories like this, where the slave trade is dealt with but there is still an adventure angle with the brother and sister is a great way to get them thinking about what really happened to the slaves without making it too overwhleming.

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Our sensory Christmas break

Posted on January 8, 2023 by ofamily

Over the years I have learnt a few tough lessons, throw out all those parenting books they are poison for parents with neurodiverse kiddos and don’t follow what every else does – you will drive yourself crazy trying to fit your neurodiverse kiddo into a neurotypical persons expectations, even if that means things like Christmas and Birthdays look a bit different. You are afterall a parent to YOUR kids, not everyone else’s kids, so do what is best for YOURS.

And yes for us that means Christmas in our house looks very different to most people’s, we do want suits a household of 3 sensory people. Typical Christmas activities tend to be very overwhelming for sensory people, they are loud, full of crowds, there are often lights and honestly it can be like every part of your body is overwhelmed all at once. So we naturally tend to have quieter more low-keyed Christmases, my kids love them so there are no complaints (oh and that includes Christmas food, I don’t see the point in forcing my kids to eat tradition Christmas food if they do not enjoy it).

Christmas also tends to be that time of the year when all the cumulative sensory stuff built up over the year just becomes a bit much and we often seem to hit a wall. This past year it was me who hit that wall, I needed to switch off for 2 weeks, so I did. I stayed away from my computer and social media, I spent time just completely switching off. It was great, it was what I needed. And I actually feel more relaxed than I have felt in ages.

But here is the thing, in the past when I hit my sensory wall, I have often tried it ignore it, I tried to do what was expected and then I would normally end up physically sick. It is hard to explain to people that over the festive season what you actually need is to just hibernate and switch off for 2 weeks. Most people don’t understand that. But as much as I have learnt that I need to parent my kids to suit their needs I have also learnt that to be the parent that they need I also need to cope with my sensory needs however it suits ME.

So it does mean that sometimes over Christmas I disappear. It does also mean that in the evenings when my kids do Latin lessons with their dad I take that hour to vanish upstairs, close the door and just listen to music or read my book. It means that I am never going to be a social media queen, but just like we do Christmas that suits our family so we do life that suits our family.

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What is the other kid doing while you do GCSE work with your oldest?

Posted on December 7, 2022 by ofamily

At the start of this academic year my daughter starting working on some of her GCSE (well we are actually doing the International GCSE’s) subjects. Now a lot of people had assumed that when we got to Secondary school (year 7 here is the UK) I would put the kids into school and then when that did not happened a whole lot assumed that when it came to writing GCSE’s we would put her into school, but again that did not happen so the latest assumption has been, if we are doing GCSE work with my oldest surely we must have put my youngest in school (he just started his year 7). Sorry to disappoint yet again, but we did not do that. Just to clarify we are still home educating both kids, my oldest would be in her year 10, if she attended school, so we have started working on some of her IGCSE subjects and my youngest would be in Year 7.

The biggest question that everyone has is – how am I managing to home educate both a kid in year 10 and year 7? Honestly not that much has changed.

The kids have always done their Maths separately. They normally do Maths at the same time every morning but the Maths that they do is for their level. They actually sit at the same table and work on their Maths and when one of them needs some help that one comes to me and we go over a concept together. And yes sometimes both kids want my help at the same time, but hey, that is life, sometimes you just need to wait a few minutes until someone can help you.

In the past we always did Science, History and Geography together. We could cover the same topics but the activities that I would get them to do would be slightly different because well they are 3 years apart. This year that has changed a bit. When my daughter is working on her Phsyics, Biology or History she is doing it with just me. But her brother is still in the room. He will be working on some his own academic work or he may just be reading or creating one of his picture. I never ask him to leave. He stays around and yes he listens to what we are discussing and normally watches any documentary or YouTube videos that we watch. I have always had the attitude that I am not going to prevent one of the kids from learning something just because some curriculum says that it should only be learnt in a certain year at a certain age. If he is interested and wants to listen, great, let him, he can join in, but I don’t expect him to do the written work that she does.

What that does mean is even though my son is not working on IGCSE History he now has a good understanding of the Russian Revolution, because he is just always around when his sister and I are working on her history. And the upside is he is able to discuss the events with us. I have also noticed his Physics understanding has improved (again he listens to the sessions).

And likewise there are some learning activities that my youngest does that his older sister joins in with. We recently chose Animal Farm as one of my son’s English Literature books and even though it was not part of my daughter’s required IGCSE work she has joined in and read it with us. It is a fascinating book and it tied in beautifully with her History so it just made sense.

The step up to working on some GCSE subjects with my oldest has been a challenge in some ways, I felt like I needed to refresh my knowledge in a few areas so I have done some extra reading but it does not mean that we needed to change everything about our home education. We do still do most of our work in the same room, there is still some overlap with the kids joining each other because they think what the other one is doing is interesting or one kid may stop what they are working on to watch a documentary. I am fine with that. I have always been okay with the idea that that we don’t need to stick to a school concept of how we learn. We learn in a way that suits us. And yes that may mean that my youngest often listens in to his sister’s sessions and it may mean that she reads a book that he is reading or that she joins in with his Science but for me the main thing is they are learning, even if that learning is not going to be marked in some Exam.

So I guess what I am trying to say is please don’t think because one kiddo is starting to work towards their IGCSE subjects you suddenly need to separate them and change everything about the rhythm of your home learning. Do what suits you and your kids. If they enjoy learning together then there is no reason to completely stop that, possibly make a few tweeks to the way your week looks, but this is your home ed journey, so it is what suits your family. And the beauty of home ed is if we want to change the way we structure our days/ weeks we can.

This picture below is my oldest joining her brother for one of his Science lesson (from Theater of Science) because it was on a interesting topic.

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Maths Practice questions at IGCSE level (International GCSE)

Posted on November 30, 2022 by ofamily

We are still new at the whole GCSE/IGCSE thing. We have only been working on our course work for 3 months now and as we continue I am sure we will change a few things but one thing I already know is TIME has become even more precious. As a home educator who is not using distance learning providers but trying to do this myself I am spending a lot of time reading up and getting myself ready for the subjects that she is doing. I want to make sure I have good background knowledge for her History and make sure I can answer and help her solve problems when it comes to her Maths and Science. And while doing all of that I also have another kiddo who is now working at KS3 level. So time is very precious for me. I need resources that are going to help and I am not interested in resources where I spend ages trying to figure out what goes where, and how does resource x link to resource y. It needs to be logical and time saving.

So with that in mind I made sure that for all her subjects we had good student books (text books) but even if you have a good student book at this level you are going to want extra resources that link in. In History we do extra reading and watch documentaries linked to our topic, in Biology we have found some great YouTube channels and in Maths we needed an extra source of questions. But the questions needed to be set out in a logical manner, and easy to find – in other words if I want questions on HCF I should just be able to look for HCF in the contents, find it, turn to the page and they should be there. And importantly I wanted the answers. At this level my daughter does the questions, marks them herself and then if she has problems or concerns comes to me. But I leave her to mark her own work, I think it is important as it shows her where she has gone wrong. So I wanted answers and I don’t mind if the answers are in a document that I download and print out, if they are in the back of a book or if they are in a separate book but I wanted answers. Wait, let me qualify that statement, I don’t mind if they are in a separate book as long as that book does not cost me £100 to buy. I am getting very irritated that lots of student books cost me £24 to buy and then they expect me to buy the answers for £100, I think that is just mean and it turns me off resources and publishers when I see that.

So considering all of that I found this. CGP’s Edexcel International GCSE Mathematics Workbook and Answer book. (The workbook costs £6.95 and the answer book is £2.00). Note – I noticed that you can get the similar Maths workbooks for the different exam boards.

It covers everything that I know we need to cover in our IGCSE Maths. And they have even marked the more challenging questions (just by highlighting the question number).

How do we use it? We tend to work through our Student Book first – our student book has the explanations, worked examples and questions. Then if we feel like we need extra practice we look up the corresponding pages in this workbook (always very easy to locate) and we do the questions in here. This is a Workbook – so it is practice questions for your kiddo to work through. There are NO explanations and no worked examples, I want to stress this – these are practice questions. But I also want to stress how useful this book has been. Maths is about understanding a concept and then being able to apply that knowledge to a question. So working through practice questions are vital. You can not do Maths without practicing it and the more you practice the easier it does become.

I am finding this workbook a great addition to our IGCSE resource collection, it is without a doubt saving me time (searching for extra Maths worksheets with answers on the internet can be very time consuming) and helping provide my daughter with the extra Maths practice that she were wanting.

You can get the workbook and answer book directly from CGP – Edexcel IGCSE Maths workbook and the Answer Book, I have spotted these at a number of bookstores (well I spotted the workbooks but not the answer books) and you can buy them from Amazon – CGP Edexcel International GCSE Maths Workbook and the CGP Edexcel IGCSE Maths Answer Book.

Admin – I approached CGP and asked if we could review some of their IGCSE resources, this Maths workbook was one of the resources that I was keen to review. I then bought the answer book myself.

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 recommend.

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Literature in English – an IGCSE Student Book

Posted on November 23, 2022 by ofamily

We love English Literature, love it, but I must confess the the idea of tackling English Literature questions is not something we look forward too. I would rather deal with Science or Maths problem than a English literature question so I was very intrigued when Collins sent us a copy of their Literature in English Student Book for IGCSE.

And I have to say my first impression on opening this book was that it was exactly what we needed. I immediately liked the way everything was broken down into small steps that build up. Honestly just working through the first chapter I was filled with a sense of – this is NOT really that challenging if we start with these small ideas and then build them up. And really at this stage that is exactly the kind of book that I need. I want something that takes a challenging topic breaks it down into smaller ideas that make sense and then build them up so you understand what is required and how to tackle a question.

Okay so what does it cover. Think of the first 2 chapters as building your skills and then the next 3 chapters are implementing those skills. Chapter 3 focuses on applying the key skills to Prose, Chapter 4 applies the key skills to Poetry and chapter 5 applies the key skills to Drama (There is also a chapter 6 which helps with anyone doing coursework – which we are not).

We are still at the early stages of using this book (building our skills) but I must admit I am really looking forward to getting to the “applying the skills” stages. I LOVE that they have broken it down into Prose, Poetry and Drama and look at each one individually. And yes I will admit I have always preffered working through Prose than Poetry and Drama but even I will admit that the chapters on Poetry and Drama just seem to take away the “scary” factor and make you think – “this it totally manageable”.

Even though we have just started with this book I already like the way it is structured and I appreciate that they have used such a wide range of texts in the activities. I also fell like they have put a lot of thought into breaking it down into small steps and then building those steps up.

There is a Teacher’s Guide that comes with this Student Book but I don’t have a copy of the Teacher’s Guide so I cannot comment on that. I have been informed that it includes some extra ideas for all the “lessons” ie the sub-sections but what those are and how useful they are I really cannot say.

Our Literature in English Student book came directly from Collins – Literature in English IGCSE, but you can also get it from Amazon here – IGCSE Literature in English and I have actually spotted it in a big Waterstones store.

Admin – As I mentioned above we were given a review copy of our book. The review that I have written and the opinions expressed are mine and mine alone. This is NOT a paid for post.

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 recommend.

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