Out of the Ashes – a story about foot and mouth disease

Posted on April 27, 2022 by ofamily

There are so many brilliant Michael Morpurgo books out there that it is very hard to choose which ones to read but this one, even though it is shorter, should be on your must read list. It is not a true story, the characters are fictional but the events are true, foot and mouth disease did rear its ugly head in England 2001, farms where literally destroyed and farmers and their families were devastated, so in many regards it is a true story about what many people lived through.

The story is written though the eyes of Becky, she is the only child of farmer and her dad happened to give her a diary for Christmas of 2000 so the events of 2001 are written as her diary entries. We (my daughter and I) loved this format, it being written as a diary. We felt like the author included some lovely details that made you feel like you were actually dipping into a private diary and reading how these events affected Becky and her family. We loved the details like the way she talks about her best friend, how she talks about the differences between farmers and townies and even how she admits that she struggles with her mom. We enjoyed reading about her cousin Josh and how she named the lamb who she was hand rearing Little Josh. It really is a masterclass example of writing, of bringing the reader in, giving them enough personal detail about the characters that the reader starts to really care and relate to the characters so when foot and mouth arrives you feel like it is you that is living through it.

It is a very moving story, sad in places, truly sad when the animals are killed and then all burnt and when Becky’s father can’t cope and is hospitalised. It is sad, there is no getting around that but it also rings true, what these farmers and their families must have gone through, having there homes invaded and their farms totally destroyed I do think it could have mentally destroyed quite a few families. And then even though you feel like everything is lost Michael Morpurgo keeps you around a bit longer to show you that there is hope, hope when they bring Becky’s dad home from hospital and when they start bringing back animals to the farm. He beautifully completes the circle (masterclass right there how he does not leave the reader in despair but shows them there is hope if you just keep on going).

Yes it is a short story and that has been one of the criticisms that I have read but in all honesty it is nice to mix up shorter stories with the longer stories and even though it is shorter it is expertly crafted and the reader is taken on a journey, a journey into real events that happened.

Because it is an emotional read I would recommend it for kids aged 10 and older, and even if your kiddo is in Year 10 or 11 I still think it is worth a read because it does explain something which is apart of recent British History.

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Refugee Boy By Benjamin Zephaniah

Posted on April 22, 2022 by ofamily

I must confess I had never heard of this book until I started downloading almost every secondary reading list I could find (I am trying to create my own reading list for my daughter) and I then started searching online for book reviews to see which books might be interesting and also not too graphic. This one popped up and I read some interesting comments so it went onto my pre-reading list and then a few days later I spotted it at our local library so I quickly borrowed it and read it.

Now I must admit I was a bit nervous about this book, it is a story about a refugee from Ethiopia and Eritrea and that immediately made me worried that there might be some graphic scenes about torture, rape or murder. Thankfully there wasn’t but just so everyone is aware in this story there are scenes where the family are threatened and then the boy’s mother is murdered (hacked to death) and later his father is also murdered, but none of these are too graphic. What does stand out when you read this story is that although the characters are fictional the actual story rings true and as you read you nod your head and go – yeah, that is what would have happened. The events, the way they unfold, parents trying everything to protect their kids, adapting to a new country, to foster care then the court case it all reads as if it were a true story and you just know that this author researched his topic really carefully and understood what he was writing about.

Okay so the story centers around a young boy – Alem whose father is Ethiopian and his mother is Eritrean which means that when the countries are at war he is not safe in either country (because the Ethiopians consider him Eritrean and the Eritreans consider him an Ethiopian, so both sides want to kill him). This leads to the family getting threatened and eventually the father brings Alem to England on a holiday but the father then disappears leaving Alem as a refugee in England (this was his fathers plan). The story follows Alem as he struggles to fit in to life in England, and as he adapts to a foster family.

It is a moving story which is beautifully written. You start to understand the struggle of this young boy, he wants to be with his family, he misses them and worries about their safety, he also wants to study hard in England and is desperate to learn yet no where appears to be safe for him, even England has problems for him. I don’t want to give too much away but it is a story about people, not just Alem and his parents but you also get to see a foster family and how the foster sister struggles with the decisions her parents make, you get a glimpse of other families living in a shelter and even a glimpse of the people working to help Alem, their own struggle.

I am adding this book to my daughter’s recommended reading list and I am marking it as an important one to read because I think it covers a wide range of topics that we do need to expose our kids to and discuss with them and for us reading a story is often that starting point for those discussions.

I really do Highly Recommend this for older kids – I would say ages 12 and over

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Macbeth Revision Guide from Twinkl

Posted on April 20, 2022 by ofamily

We had a lovely break over the last two weeks but now I am getting back into our home education and setting us up for our new topics that we are going to cover over the next 12 weeks (I like to work in 6 week blocks it is just a manageable time frame and works well for us). One of our big new topics, one that we are very excited about because my daughter enjoys Shakespeare, is going to be Macbeth. We are going to work through it slowly and we are going to do lots of questions (GCSE/IGCSE type question) and work on writing longer answers and how to structure the answers. It is going to be a big topic for us.

I have already gathered the resources that I want to use and we are mostly set up (there is some printing that I still need to do). But the one resource that I have already printed out in full, read it cover to cover, read it carefully, made notes on and was very impressed with is the Macbeth Revision Guide from the Twinkl Resources website. And yes I know it is a Revision guide and we are only just starting Macbeth but I often read Revision guides first when I am setting myself up on a topic.

So this post is just going to be on the Twinkl Macbeth Revision guide and I will write about our other Macbeth resources in different posts.

Okay it is quite a big resource to print out – 59 pages. But if you are working through Macbeth it is 59 pages that really are worth reading. It starts off with a bit about how they suggest you use the revision guide and about the exam (this guide is aimed at student writing GCSE English Literature but you can use it with anyone studying Macbeth). Then it goes onto Context (background which I think is vital), a Who’s Who page (We loved this quick summary of the main characters, I think it is really useful to show the kids this summary before they start so they understand how the characters fit together) and then a really good summary of the main events of the play. Again I thought this summary was excellent and great to read for any parent who is wanting to discuss Macbeth with their kids.

After the brilliant “main point pages” they go onto dealing with the 5 main themes in quite of bit of detail. For each theme they include a page talking about the theme, putting it into context, giving you key quotes (really loved this), then three mini-exam questions followed by a long exam question after which they show you two examples of model answers – a good example and a great example. Along the side of the model answers they also make notes explaining some points about the model answer.

So yes it is 59 pages, which may seem like a lot but it is 59 really worthwhile pages. And this is written as revision guide (and I think it will be an excellent revision guide) but it is also really handy to read before hand if you are the home educator or a parent who is going to be working through Macbeth with your kids.

I was so impressed with this Macbeth Revision guide (it was the first English Literature revision guide that I spotted on the Twinkl website) that I actually searched for others and found they have created quite a few GCSE English Literature Revision guides including ones for Romeo and Juliet and An Inspector Calls (they were two that we were interested in) but you can find the other guides here – GCSE English Literature Revision Guides.

Admin – This post is not linked to Twinkl in any way. I spotted the Revision guide, read it and was impressed with it.

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Rollercoasters – KS3 Reading books with free activities

Posted on April 12, 2022 by ofamily

I have written a few individual posts about some of the English books that we have read as part of our KS3 English, books that we read together, discuss and then do linked English activities. My kids really enjoy that, they enjoy linking in their Grammar or Writing activities to a good story that we are reading and discussing. And it just so happens that most of those KS3 English books that we have used over the past few years have been part of a range of books called Rollercoasters. So I thought I would share a bit about these books and why they have worked so well for us (and and just to clarify this does not mean I am stopping using them I am already planning on using some of them with my son in his next academic year).

Firstly we have found that the stories are GOOD stories, they are engaging stories, stories that involve the kids and always have something of value in them (something that the kids learn without even really realising they are learning – like in Sky Hawk there was a lot about friendship, how you treat a person, how not to judge a person just because of finances, but it was all very subtle and part of a brilliant story).

The stories are also great examples of the type of writing that you want the kids to try and create themselves. Writing that involves using all senses to describe, using a mixture of sentence lengths, cliff hangers, effective figurative language, developing full characters, characters that have flaws but are still lovable – I could go on and on). And in all the stories we have read there is NO content which I think is inappropriate or not age-correct (something which I have found in other resources).

There is also a mix of the type of stories they include – there are some historical context stories (like Lightning Strike, Edgar and Adolf and Out of the Rubble), there are some that are more contemporary and that deal with relationships (Sky hawk and White Dolphin) and there are some that are just funny and will make even a reluctant reader want to continue turning the pages (Bug Muldoon), they also have classics (Treasure Island and The Jungle book spring to mind) and lots more. It really is worth just scrolling down the list of books that they have included in this series. That is honestly what I do on a regular basis – when I am trying to think of a new book I go to this list and scroll down and I always get inspiration (the only issue I have is I often end up wanting to use more that one and then have to chose – I would love to have a MASSIVE collection of books).

Okay and then there are the Lesson Plans and Activity worksheets. These packs are FREE to download and each one is slightly different but you tend to always get a summary of the story and a summary of how the lessons fit into the story. Then there are individual lesson plans and worksheets/ activities for each lesson plan. We don’t always use these linked activities but I do always read through it as it gives me an excellent starting point for all of the books. With some stories I just pick out a few individual activities and then with other stories we work though almost every lesson and every activity (Sky Hawk and Bug Muldoon we did most of the activities). For a home educator these free to download packs are gold, you can pick and choice what you want and it saves you a lot of time.

  • Sky Hawk Book and lesson printouts
  • Edgar and Adolf Free to download resource pack
  • Free to download teacher's pack to go with the book White Dolphin

So that is generally why we rave about this series so much but for those who are wondering where to start I thought it might also be helpful to highlight our own Top 3 from this list.

Sky Hawk – Still one of our all time favourite reads EVER. The writing style just gripped us from the very beginning and we were riding the wave of friendships and people trying to save a precious creature. We were moved close to tears at time and then we rejoiced. It really is a beautiful story and although there are sad moments it was a uplifting story on how people can come together and help each other, how people may start out not being the kindest but can learn and change. This story lead us to discover a whole range of stunning books by the author Gill Lewis (we now love her books). And it is the first book that I always recommend to anyone looking for a story for Year 7’s or Year 8’s.

Bug Muldoon – what a character, really such a beautifully sculptured character we loved this adorable bug, who does also have some attitude because if you are a beetle battling bees and ants you will need some gumption. But again a brilliant writing style and so completely different to Sky Hawk. This is more upbeat, and we were often chuckling along at the phrases coming out of the lead character. I feel like this would be great for reluctant readers or kids needing some inspiration on how they could create their own unique piece of writing.

Lightning Strike. This is set in Victorian England and it does deal with how hard life was back then (if you were a factory worker) but the story is not just Victorian England was hard. It actually takes the kids back in time, you feel like you are living there in Victorian England, like you are part of this group of factory workers trying to create something, anything with your life. If you buy one book on Victorian England, for me this is the one to buy.

That is quite a long post, but I really wanted to try and explain a little bit of why we have become such big fans of these Rollercoasters books.

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GCSE / IGCSE Prep Work

Posted on March 29, 2022 by ofamily

I have mentioned a few times recently that I am already doing what I call prep work for my daughter’s GCSE / IGCSE’s and I know some people have wondered about that. So let me explain

My daughter is in Year 9 and she is aiming to go to University so we know Exams are in her future. We already have a good idea on the subjects she is going to do (there are 2 that we are still deciding on) and we have had discussions on how she wants to do her Year 10 and Year 11. She wants to stick with our current model of home education where I am the main facilitator, she is not keen on online schools or using lots of external tutors (there is one possible exception for one subject which we are still discussing). I am happy to continue in this way, I am confident that my husband and I can manage the subjects she is taking but I am aware that some subjects I am naturally stronger in than others, I know helping her with Accounting will be easy for me as I am a Chartered Accountant, likewise I am actually not too worried about History because we both LOVE history (my daughter and myself) and both of us tend to do a lot of research and reading on History just because we enjoy it. And I knew that we were doing History as one of her subjects about 3 years ago so we have already been working on how you structure History answers and this past year we have even covered GCSE History content.

But there are some subjects where I feel like I need to do some prep work. Biology is one of those. My daughter wants to do an IGCSE in Biology, she really enjoys Biology but it is not one of my subjects like History is (before anyone panics and worries, my husband is my backup for Biology – it is one of his subjects, I always preferred Physics and Chemistry). But that being said I am still confident I can do Biology with her. I do need to go through the course work, look at past papers and make sure that any questions I am unsure of I can figure out. It just means I need to (want to) do the work now so that come September we are all set. So for me that meant finding a good quality text book, one that covers all the course work for IGCSE Biology, one that is logical and has everything set out. This past year we have been using a lot of Hodder Education resources for Maths and Science so they were one of my first choices as I knew from past experience I liked their text books and I found this one – IGCSE Biology Book from Hodder Education.

Now I got this book early so I could pre-read it before September but as often happens with good intentions, things change. We had actually finished our KS3 Biology work and my daughter being the kind of student she is, wanted to do more so we started looking at the Body lessons from Theater of Science and then after doing the Heart lesson we dipped into our IGCSE and read the heart pages. It was not planned, I had no intention of using it early but when one of my kids wants to learn I don’t refuse. But I can now say we liked the explanations. Yes, there are longer paragraphs than KS3 text books but that is to be expected because it covers more detail. After reading our heart pages my daughter actually sat and paged through the whole book, looking at what sections it covered and she said she is excited to start using it (that is a good sign). And bonus all answers for all the questions in the book are free to download and they even have a suggested SOW for schools – which I am thinking may be useful but I have not looked at that properly yet.

The other subject I am spending quite a bit of time doing prep work on is English Language. My daughter enjoys the fiction side, especially creative writing activities but non-fiction not as much and unseen poetry well that was a big No. I knew we had to up the poetry side of things, so after Christmas I actually changed our planned English activities and we have spent the last few months working on poetry activities and I have to admit we have made some good progress and she is no longer intimidated by the thought of unseen poetry questions. But I did still feel like I need to up my game some more so I have been reading anything on GCSE/IGCSE poetry that I can get. And yes my daughter is doing an IGCSE English Language exam and I am using GCSE resources as well as IGCSE resources for English language. I know they are different exams but there is a lot of overlap in the type of questions and the content used, so in terms of giving ourselves a good foundation we are using resources for both GCSE and IGCSE English. And I have to say I have found the GCSE English resources from the Twinkl website great for this. I have been able to download and read through so many sample questions and pages on tips and suggestions on how to answer the questions. I also have to admit I am loving these AQA Revision cards that I was given. It is so easy to slot one card in during your day – just one question that we discuss together and over time all those single questions will adds up.

So yes English Language is one where I am still doing lots of reading and collecting resources but I am starting to feel like it actually might be fun.

English Literature is the next one in my list. My daughter has actually selected Macbeth as one of her Year 9 set works and we are starting it after Easter. So as part of that we are actually going to work through this GCSE workbook. I am really looking forward to starting it because she finds Shakespeare interesting and I like the way this workbook is set out (I will write a proper review on the workbook once we have used it).

I am not too worried about her English Literature because we have already slipped in some GCSE content when we read Romeo and Juliet and Pride and Prejudice and both times she managed really well. So I think it really is about selecting the books, and then getting good quality linked resources. And just like I am doing with English Language resources when it comes to using resources that are marked as GCSE I am not being put off. The one play we know we are doing is An Inspector Calls and there are lots of great resources linked to this play that happened to be marked as GCSE, but we are still using them, because they discuss the play, the characters and give us practice questions. I am not going to avoid a good resource just because it is missing an I before the GCSE.

I found this really good GCSE Revision guide for An Inspector Calls from the Twinkl website which is perfect for our use and I also downloaded Twinkl’s lessons on An Inspector Calls.

So yes I am slowly prepping myself for my daughter’s Year 10 and Year 11, and I still have some way to go but I am giving myself time and starting early so I can do it properly and feel confident when we start in September.

Admin – the IGCSE Biology book and the English language cards were both review items given to us.

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