ofamily learning together

New KS3 Maths pages from Twinkl

Posted on April 15, 2020 by ofamily

As a full time home educator (we are not doing this because of the lockdown) I have been a bit overwhelmed by all of the educational resources that are suddenly available. And as we already know what works for our home education set-up we have largely stuck to that – I will admit I have downloaded some of the extra freebies that are suddenly available. But we know what works for our two, so I don’t want to mess with that.

For my daughter’s Maths (she would be Year 7 if she attended UK schools) we have been using Twinkl’s Secondary site a lot. I like using Maths resources where I can print out multiple copies if I want. I have always been a big believer in Maths practice so I like to reprint a page and give it to her a few months later to make sure she understands it. I also like the fact that I can use the website for both her Maths and her younger brother’s maths (he would be Year 4 at school) and I like that I don’t need to stick to a set Years activities like I would if we used workbooks. I often dip back for an extra printout and go forward in areas she is enjoying (we actually started using some of the Secondary Maths pages while she would have still technically been in Year 6). This flexibility that the site gives us is one of the main reasons that we keep coming back to use it again and again.

I will admit I took me some time to get comfortable with the secondary menus and where I can find everything but now that I understand the set-up I move around very quickly. However I still get surprises when I stumble onto new resources. A few days ago I was doing a quick search for 4 quadrant pages for my daughter and I spotted this “different” looking page it was called – Coordinates in 4 quadrants Home learning – now the home learning tag was not something I was used to seeing under KS3 Maths resources so I immediately downloaded it to have a proper look. And I really liked this new format. It had a quick explanation and then 2 exercises plus a challenge afterwards. I really like that it was wrapped up nicely in one document. (And yes there are answers).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I love this style – the explanation, followed by exercises. It means the kids can remind themselves of key facts and then try the activity themselves – if it something that we have already covered it means they can work through it independently. Love this.

And yes I will admit there are not a lot of exercises attached. But I don’t mind this. Once the kids work through the pages you can always do a quick search and find some extra activities – my daughter quickly worked through the 4 quadrant pages and then she had a go at some of the emoji 4 quadrant pages.

So I looked around some more and found the menu where they are storing these “home learning Ks3 Maths pages” here it is –Maths Home Learning /KS3

And it looks like they are adding more quite quickly. At the moment I could find a number for Geometry and Algebra. (I really liked the Algebra ones because we are moving onto that next).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I emailed Twinkl to ask what the plans are for these Maths pages and they have informed me that are going to stay on the site and that they are creating more – with the explanation and then the exercises in 1 document. Fingers crossed they keep this format going even after the schools go back.

Posted in Homeschooling | Tagged educational resources, home education, homeschooling, KS3, maths, secondary resources, Twinkl | 1 Comment

Easter Maths from Twinkl Resources

Posted on April 5, 2020 by ofamily

Since it will be the Easter weekend soon I thought it would be nice to find some fun, Easter themed, where possible puzzly type maths pages for the kids. In past years when the kids where younger I found a number of great Easter Maths activities on Twinkl (they have a lot for Key Stage 1 ages – that cheeky Easter bunny ) so I thought I would start there and see what I can find for slightly older years.

When I started searching, I immediately went to their Maths Mystery sets to see if they had any interesting looking Easter ones (we are huge fans of the Maths Mystery series). I found a few and checked to see if any were revising the Maths activities that I specifically had in mind – and I found two that ticked the right boxes for us.

The Mystery of the Easter Bunny Costume – looked like it would be good for general lower key stage 2 practice.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

And the Mystery of the Contaminated Chocolate included simple solving for x and some coordinates which where two things I was wanting to practice if possible.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I also remembered I had once printed off a code breaking page to do with simplifying factions and we have recently covered that with my youngest so I searched for Easter simplifying fractions and found it – Easter Code Breaking Simplifying fractions (both of mine always enjoy working out some wort of coded message)

$Code Breaker by simplifying fractions$

If your kids also like the idea of code breaking pages I did also spot some Easter ones for – multiplication, sequences and 24 hour clock which might be interesting.

I also found a colour by simplifying fractions page, which they took me on a quick colour by worksheet search and I spotted some colour by division pages and a colour by sum Easter egg page in their Secondary section – which had negative numbers included.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We have also recently revised coordinates so I thought some Easter coordinate pages would be good. I found a bunch – Egg in one quadrant, Easter pictures in four quadrants that all looked interested but I really wanted something that includes translations and I found this one – Easter Coordinates with translations.

And finally I know this is not a Maths page but while I was searching the Secondary section I spotted this Easter Egg Hunt page where the kids need to name the countries and I am 100% slipping this page in so here is the link – Atlas Easter Egg Hunt

Posted in Homeschooling | Tagged Easter, easter maths, educational resources, home education, homeschooling, Twinkl | Leave a comment

Medieval Topic Packs

Posted on April 3, 2020 by ofamily

This past week I have still been out of it with the virus and as such we kept the home education routine to our scaled back version but the kids actually surprised us and ended up doing quite a bit of History by themselves.

Before we came down with the virus we were working through the Middle Ages, very slowly, watching lots of documentaries, reading a number of sources and doing a few little projects. The kids and I had already worked through the Black Death Topic Pack together but we still had the Peasant’s Revolt and the Becket and Henry II Topic Packs that I was planning on going through with them. And then the virus struck and all plans went out the window.

But this past week the kids unpacked the two unused Medieval Topic packs and worked through them by themselves. And I know they did a good job because when I came downstairs to check on them my daughter used the character cards from the Peasants’ Revolt to explain the order of events to me.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

And my hubbie told me they did the same with the Thomas Becket pack – apparently over lunch he was given a detailed lesson all about Becket and Henry II.

I have always enjoyed using these Topic Packs as part of our home education but the fact that both the kids (aged 9 and 11) were so confident with the topic packs that they continued using them and worked through 2 packs while I was unwell was not something I was expecting. And for me this once again proves that this Oaka style of a Topic pack – using key sentences with graphics, followed by a learning map and character cards and then a write your own booklet does work for kids. It is accessible learning and my youngest even told me he enjoys reading the topic booklets so much that he wishes we had more. (I will add only my 11 year old worked through the Write Your Own notes. My nine-year old just read the booklet with his sister and worked with the learning map and character cards – which I am totally happy with).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I am thrilled with how these topic packs have worked this past week. I have been exhausted, with a continuous headache and a strange mind fog where I just was not thinking straight and definately not on the best form for education. But both kids still managed to continue learning and based on the explanations that they gave both their father and myself they definately understand the events and what unfolded in both cases. I definately agree with my son and think we are going to need more of these topic packs.

A few extra photos to show what these topic packs look like inside.

Becket and Henry II

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Peasants’ Revolt and Life in Medieval Towns

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I should also probably explain the way we store items in our house. The Oaka Book Topic Packs are stored on the kids’ bookshelf, next to other reference books that we have. And that includes the topic packs that we have already worked through and new “unused” topic packs. I have always had a policy that if there is anything in the house that is educational the kids have free access to it, I don’t hold back resources for when I want to do a topic.

For those who may be interested other History Topic Packs that we have used in the past are the Battle of Hastings and The Spanish Armada.

Admin Note – You can buy the Oaka Book Topic Packs directly from their website and you can also buy some of them on Amazon.

Oaka Books know that my kids enjoy their topic packs and have read some of my other posts so they have kindly sent us more packs to use. If and how we use them is entirely up to us. We are NOT paid for these posts.

Posted in Homeschooling | Tagged British History, educational resources, home education, homeschooling, KS3, Oaka Books, secondary resources | 1 Comment

Please Don’t Compare

Posted on March 31, 2020 by ofamily

One of the most important lessons I have learnt while home educating is this. Every Family is different, what works for one is not going to be the blueprint for another so when it comes to home education every family is going to do it in their own way.

I really mean this. I have met LOTS of home educating families over the last 8 years (well 8 years in August) and none of us ever do everything excatly the same. Yes there are similarities, we often borrow ideas from each other and listen to resource suggestions, but the end result is always unique to that individual family. And this is the Main reason that a lot of us feel so strongly about home education – because you can adapt it to suit the family structure and your kids learning style.

But part of realizing this is accepting that comparing is never good. There is a fine line between sharing ideas, concepts, resources and comparing your home education to what one family is doing and then feeling anxious because you don’t feel like you are measuring up.

This is never a good thing.

It is amazing to borrow ideas from each other. I have learnt so much by following what other home educators do and seeing what worked for them. But you need to keep reminding yourself that everyone is different. And just because your kids might be taking longer on a concept than some other family it’s Okay. If you only get around to 1 thing whereas that family did 3 – It’s okay. The worst thing we can do is to beat ourselves up that we are not getting enough done. Or worry that other kids seems to be so further ahead in maths then yours. We need to remember everyone is different. Every kid is unique and yes sometimes your kid is going to take longer to grasp a concept but lets no rush them because we are comparing ourselves to that other family.

It might be a case that your gut is telling you, now is the time to take a few steps back and revisit some basics that your kids is still unsure about. Do that. Listen to what your kid needs and not what other families are doing.

When we first started down this path I kept comparing where we were to the local schools. And in the begining we took a lot longer learning basic sounds and getting going with our reading. And I fell into that trap of comparing and getting anxious. And then one day my oldest just got it and she started flying. Her reading took off and she now loves reading. She normally has about 5 or 6 different books that she is reading at one time and constantly amazes me with what she reads. I am now so glad that we took it slow and did not keep up with the local school pace. It was a lesson that I learnt and always remind myself to this day.

So please if you are a home educator or if you are a school parent who is now supervising distance learning I now it is hard but please try NOT to compare and get worried. Try to borrow ideas where you think they may work, adapt them if you need to and when you know something is just not suited to your situation just bin the idea. Really it is okay if you don’t do the current art craze or read the book that everyone is so determined is the one book you need to read. Borrow what suits you and your family, borrow and adapt but please please don’t start comparing what each kid is getting done in a day. And please, please remember home educators are going to do things a bit differently to distance learning families just like home educators do things a bit differently to schools.

Posted in Homeschooling | Tagged home ed, home educating mom, home education, homeschooling | 1 Comment

When the Home Educator is sick

Posted on March 29, 2020 by ofamily

This week has been a tough one, we are sure we have all caught the virus, yip, all of us, luckily the kids have managed really well but the 2 adults in the family have been struggling. So what have we done with the home education?

Well, we did not Stop 100% (in all honesty home education never stops even when scheduled learning activities do not happen – my kids have been reading, writing, helping with housework this week all without me asking) but we did scale back. Over the years (this is our 8th year of home education) we have realized that our kids do not do well if their routine is abruptly stopped but at the same time I suck at explaining anything when I feel sick. So we did our normal sick day routine.

The kids still did Maths and English in the morning but it was practice / revision. Nothing new. I have tried this before and trying to introduce a new concept when the person explaining / facilitating is sick – DOES NOT WORK !!!! So whenever I have sick days it is practice / revision activities. And I am really glad we did this. My daughter worked through some Maths pages I already had printed in her Maths file and for English she worked part way through a KS2 English Grammar book. Now my daughter is actually Year 7 but I had total brain fog, I could not think of any suggestions for English for her and I had zero energy so I grabbed an English Grammar book and asked her to work through it. Yes it was for a younger year and yes most of it was a breeze but it did highlight a section that we need to go back to. So it was not a waste. Revision is never a waste.

Now I had already planned that we were going to continue working on our History, Geography and Biology topics this past week (we have on going topics that we are working on) but I there was no ways that was going to happen. So I asked the kids that each morning they select and watch 1 documentary. I have a number of documentaries that I have taped and lined up for projects and normally we try and watch the documentaries that tie in with what we are working on. And normally I watch the documentaries with the kids and we pause and chat about different things as we are watching them. But this hit me hard and I needed a lot of sleep this past week so the kids choose whichever documentaries they wanted. And for those you may be curious they choose some fascinating ones – two documentraies about how areas like the Alps and Yellowstone were created, one about a River in the UK, one about the Moon and some Vet programmes where they watched some operations (my kids are not queasy about that type of thing). And yes they did also sneak in some other TV – they watched the Sound of Music for I think the 5th time.

The other activity I asked them to do was to select an audio book to listen to. And I asked that they select a Michael Morpurgo story (just because I think his stories are amazing). They choose The War Horse and listened to it over a few afternoons – it is quiet long. I am a HUGE fan of audio books and I often turn to them whenever one of us is sick (they are also brilliant when kids are sick). I like audio books for a few reasons, the kids hear a story read with emotion and they get pronunciations of tricky words (especially good when the kids listened to Viking stories which had strange names). But I also like audio books because the kids are not presented with a visual representation of the story so they still end up using their imagination to think about how a character looks or how an event unfolded. I find with audio books there is still a good level of interpretation. And after finishing the War Horse my son came and told me he thought there where lots of similarities between the War Horse and Black Beaty and he started explaining which characters or events he thoughts were similar and how they differed and why they differed. So yes audio books can be powerful. Also I need to mention listening to an audio book has never stopped my kids from reading the book themselves, in fact it often prompts them to read the book.

So that is what I asked the kids to do this week – some Maths and English revision, documentaries and an audio book. They still read, wrote, built their K’Nex, cooked and baked without my asking.

For us keeping a bit of a routine is important, it helps our sensory kids deal with uncertainty especially when they are worried about me being sick. And I must stress because we home educate and have done so for years I already had Maths and English resources that I could quickly turn to and I had a documentary and audio book selection already lined up.

I was very much out of it this past week so I don’t have lots of photos from the week, but this is my daughter making me a yummy breakfast.