Our #Notbacktoschool Start

So as you all know , I started home educating back in January of this year and I have to say , I wish I had done it sooner. 
We have thoroughly enjoyed our tome so far and although it can be very busy and stressfull at times, the rewards can clearly be seen if stuck at and just like other children , we take our holidays when they do so we have just got back into our routines.

At the beginning of the year, I thought it would be a good idea to test the children and see where they were in their ability levels or strengths and weaknesses and so when it came to each end of term or the beginning of another I could retest them and see if they had improved or retrogressed and so on their first day back , I gave them no time to revise or practice the work they had previously been working on and tested them , no fuss , no pre warning, just simply heads down and try their best and I was very proud and happy to see that our hard work had payed of.
Not only did we see improvement , but we also found that they were taking everything in easier and did not feel any unsettlement or upset which was our main gain.

We have two children who really were struggling in school, they could not deal with the stress and pressure of everyday routines and targets that schools these days give. These two children struggled to keep up with other children their age at the speed the schools were asking but were unable to get the help they needed and were unfortunately not given the time to help them improve  on those ares that were needed and so now I have the time to sit them down and give them the one to one attention , we can clearly see an improvement in their work .
I was very impressed with our youngest son , being the youngest , I really thought he would just want to sit and watch Youtube all day and not want to learn or do any work, at first he tried to push the fact that he was at home and did not want to complete any tasks given to him but after a few weeks he wanted to pick up a book, he wanted to do work I was setting him each day and when I tested him , his score was 1 short of perfect , so proud.

One of the main events for us this year is the children's Christening which we have planned for October and so taking advantage , I asked the local Church if there was a window where my children were able to be taught about why they were being Christened and I was over the moon when they agreed to have us there once a week for a couple of hours for 4 weeks on the lead up to their big day.

They have their own files with their very own books and each week they are given work revolving around being accepted and joining the church and they absolutely love their weekly visit. Not only do they go to their lessons once a week but they also join the other ladies and gents on a morning for biscuits and hot Vimto as well as Messy church which we set us just a couple of months ago, it is important for them to socialise . The church has become a regular thing for us now and its something we really do enjoy .

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Even little Joshua joins in on all the fun and activities.

Since starting back , we have done so many fun and exciting things . 
We learned all about Deserts on our first week, how they are made , where you find them and how rain fall happens. We pretended we were stuck on a desert Island and so made a list of things we would need and wrote letters in a bottle to post in the sea for people to find. We made Spinosaurus Dino sculptures too. Do you know Spinosaurus were discovered in the Egyptian Desert in 1912? It feels not so long away.

I spent the whole of our wedding anniversary weekend really poorly and in bed and so because we missed such an important event , my husband decided to take us to York for a lovely day out a week later to see the Minster and the Viking Gardens.  I can not remember the last time I went but I do remember it was many years ago , when I was only a small child myself with my Aunt , I must have only been around 9-10 year old and I remember it being so big.

I am sure it got bigger while I had been away , it was just as amazing and spectacular as I remembered it and we had a lovely day out.

We ventured over to the Viking Museum Gardens and it was so pretty . Filled with some fascinating ruins and we even saw an owl exhibition which was being shown there as well as the many squirrels roaming the gardens freely . 

I was so excited to go , I love  places with alleyways filled with quirky shops and  really interesting historic facts.
There was one place I really did have on my bucket list of to do's and that was to visit the Harry Potter Shop in the Shambles Alley or  should I say ''The shop that must not be named''.
It took us a whole hour to queue to get into the shop , the shop is nothing but a gift shop but having so many fun Harry Potter goodies in there , makes it a tourist attraction and a must see , my husband bought me a beautiful Hogwarts Journal as an anniversary gift.

The Shambles was filled with tourists like myself interested to find out about the history and many were groups doing guided walks being shown where the buildings and interesting places made history .
There was a herbal tea shop , little clear glass teapots with different flavours freely available to test and try . We obviously gave them all a try while waiting in the queue but the children and myself were not fans of the herbal teas offered , made us giggle though and we tried something new .

We had so much to do but one of our highlights was our Planet order lesson and to teach them the order of the planets from the Sun , we made a little game up and learned the ryhme 'My Very Educated Mother Just Served us Natchos'.

Can you figure the planets out from that saying?

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The children worked so hard , we made all sorts of crafts and games and by the end of the week the children knew their planets.
When I was little we used to add Pluto to our list but it was interesting to find out that it is no longer classed as a planet but in fact a Dwarf Planet , it is that small and It has not yet cleared the neighborhood of its orbit in space. Because it does not follow this rule,  Pluto is no longer considered a planet.
They even learned how to make Pom Poms and now I have two huge bags of wool they go to to make little Pom Pom animals with when ever they're feeling a little crafty .

Twinkl has been our savior since starting our home educating journey and I honestly feel they've made my life a whole lot simpler . Every single piece of work or information I need , it is always right there for them . They give clear and full instructions when sharing craft and activity work and if ever I have needed any thing to be added to the site or unable to find anything they have instantly helped me with their wonderful customer services .
We literally let the children decide what they want to learn about and they have videos and full lesson plans there already for them to complete .
I really am settled and appreciate the very hard work they put into the site and would not go any where else , I would highly recommend it to anyone with children.

Last week we learned about plants and the life cycle in which they start from a very tiny seed and grow into flowers or  trees and they grew their own plants where Little man was really impressed with how big his grew in such a short time .

With their Christening just around the corner the children are also taking a very keen interest in religion and so are finding new things to learn about regarding their faith.
They had great fun at Messy Church building the Holy Temple made from nothing but warm milk and maltesers and they also made a made their ow family paper chain .

We used to find that we were not able to visit the local library as much as we would like as it was in the next village and not safe to walk to but recently discovered after a very long walk to a nearby village that we have a library in walking distance , well in the winter we will be unable to go as it is through some woods but its closer than the one we originally were visiting so makes things easier.

Not only did we discover a library but we also found a family center which we were able to attend a cookery class . The children absolutely loved it , they had so much fun and made themselves Toad in the Hole ,or if you have no idea what that is , sausages in Yorkshire puddings as well as trifles which were absolutely yummy.

Being in such a small village has led me to understand we need a little bit more to consider , especially now that the children are home educated. I feel that it has opened my eyes more to looking for somewhere with more places to visit and more resources that can available for us. Like I said, we are in a small village, we do have a lovely nature reserve not far from us , but it really is just a few fields with a few animals and there is only so many times you can visit before you've seen it all ,when the weather is OK, we can walk through the woods to get to the library and the children's center but once the weather creeps up with the cold and rain and even snow , it will be merely impossible for me to get out unless I depend on my husband to take us somewhere which he is unable to do until the weekend when he is not working .  So we are now looking into moving which should be an adventure being that it is in the next district , a whole new place altogether.

We have had a wonderful start tot he new term and the children are doing so well. They have already done so much in such a short time but they are enjoying it and they're taking it all in like sponges at the moment so I am taking advantage while they're willing to learn .
#Notbacktoschool has been full of busy and we are only into our first month .I can not wait to see what we're learning about next month .