Stepping Into Spring

"The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul." Victor Hugo

And so the clock 'sprang forward' here and British Summer Time begins. It has been periodically dry lately with some small signals that Spring is emerging in the garden. In between the wet weather the flowers are looking happy both inside and outside my house.

My Easter decor is away and I switched over to spring flowers. It makes me so happy. Abi was so sweet and crocheted a beautiful spring garland for me. She is SO talented. I hung it today and it made me so happy. 

  

Surrounded by all my Spring 'things', I'm ready to plan our upcoming term. As I began planning I was all too aware we are on a final countdown towards the end of our school year. Our year ends June 7th this year. The next day we are off on holiday for two weeks whilst the kitchen is renovated and chaos reigns. 

Our plans are relatively simple (ish) for the next term. Other than a few bits to finish off for Hannah, She and Lucas will work together on subjects because as Id expected, doing all those workbooks on her own, and her horse curriculum on her own, were NOT as fun as she imagined, lol. 

So this term (April 2nd-June 7) we will be working on :

Read-Aloud Revival Family Bookclubs: 

The Chanticleer and the Fox (once a week in April)

The Secret Garden (most days through April and May)

Room For Everyone (once a week in May)

Twinkl:

Vikings and Anglo-Saxons (Tuesdays)

Rocks and Fossils (Wednesdays)

Other Literature:

Wind in the Willows (most days through April and May)

The Owl and The Pussycat (memory poem)

Shakespeare (exposure not mastery)

whatever we fancy from our Spring themed picture books

13 Art Mysteries Every Child Should know (once a week)

Other Work

Morning Time

All About Spelling/All About Reading (daily)

Little Robin Science/Nature books (1-2 times a week)

ACE Math (4x a week)

ACE English (4x a week)

Workbook Set (once a week)

Bible (alternating between P.B.S. Bibletime, Cold Case Christianity, Word Wise, Bible Explorer, and Case for Christ for kids, each day)

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It looks a lot of work, but it's really not that much at all. I was going to begin Apologia Botany, but we don't want a lot of heavy work this last term. I want us to work hard on what we ARE doing, but not to be working all day slogging on lots of heavy things. After all, we have a garden to plant!! 😊😊

 

Easter Celebrations.

“Easter is the soul’s first taste of spring.” Richelle E Goodrich

It was so good to move the winter decor and bring out the spring colours. Sadly our weather didn't quite get the memo, and it has poured and poured. But all these bright colours really cheer me up. up until now there have been egg, and Easter, themed decor added but that will be shifting soon and we will move towards spring flowers. 

Our home ed plan this march has been Expectant Easter and we have really loved this curriculum. Although it is designed for 4-12 yr olds, I really do think that this is suitable for older kids - maybe because mine are working to their own levels rather than 'grade levels' so it isnt so much a matter of level, as interest. Anyway. They love it and it has all I want: Bible rooted, narration, writing skills, hands on, and liberal arts.... sounds like a win win to me! We made their cookie-dough pizza, but altered some bits, swapping some of their cookies and cakes for traditional Easter Biscuits and Simnel cake

We did make our resurrection gardens though - and they turned out great!

March was a busy time for us as expected but we had a blessed Easter, I observed lent in a way that felt meaningful to me. I found Bitter and Sweet by Tsh Oxenrider to be a wonderful companion to my Lent season, and it spoke to me in surprising ways. Or, rather, God did through it. It has been a great challenge but also a great book to read. Now to plan for our spring term....

March Musings

“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” — Margaret Atwood

It's been a more busy March than anticipated so far. I had intended to take it slowly and plod through our curriculum but it has been a disruptive and busy time.  Throughout the month we have been focusing on our garden. We managed to find a free greenhouse which was a great asset, we moved our net swing so we could put our greenhouse there. Emma planted various plants, purchased a heap of seeds and helped us tidy the garden up.....in between ALL THE FLIPPING RAIN!!!

We began the month with an invite to a birthday party with friends at a local bird of prey centre. which was a lovely treat, if a little cold.

 

The first week included our home ed co-op session continuing with History and Science, and in the same week was the organised trip to The Newt for an educational day looking at the Roman excavations and the mock-Roman villa they have built there. 

It was apparently World Book Day that day too. We don't personally celebrate it because we celebrate books every day so it feels a bit redundant. However, I watch kids heading to the local school and most are dressed as disney characters, or in a random outfit of questionable book origin, so I am not sure they understand what a 'book day' is. As for those who are dressed as actual book characters, I often wonder if the kids who dress up for world book day have even read the books they pick characters from... And, conversely,  have the parents, who are the ones more likely to have picked the outfits,  read those book either? 🤔 

So week two involved a hospital appointment that I had been waiting 50 weeks for, along with a final diagnosis on the matter. Tuesday was an appointment for me, and then clubs and groups, homeschool on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday out Art lesson.

I went with Emma for a rare night out on 15th to celebrate my, and my friends', birthday. Hers is 13th and mine is 20th so we tend to meet in the middle to celebrate.

Nathan and family came for the weekend and it was so good to see them all again. Although D is still a little timid around us, I think she is starting to get used to us, and I hope she feels at home here when they visit. Abi and family came over on the Sunday to see them and catch up and it was lush to see them too. It was a late stressful night Saturday night, and then Sunday was a bit bittersweet would have been mum and dad’s wedding anniversary. 

This last week was full again starting with our home ed coop on Monday where we finished up our science topic and got to a good stopping point with our history too. 

Tuesday was a fun time visiting with a new home ed friend and sharing tea and general information. Nathan popped back on his own to see me for my and his birthday, staying until Saturday. My sister also arrived Wednesday and went home today so it was a full house here. 

Abi and family came over again too and It was great to get us all together. On Thursday we took my sister over to The Newt for a walk and a wander.  

On Friday Emma, My sister and I went to Hay-on-Wye for a visit. We loved seeing the book town but declared we needed longer there to fully enjoy it and did NOT appreciate the 4.5 hour journey home. 

Everyone left this morning and I am SO tired now! Time to take a couple weeks' break for some relaxation apart from our Easter curriculum and a couple Twinkl live lessons we are behind on.