UK Resources

 Rob and I just returned from a visit to see our son stationed at a RAF base in England and my brother, who lives in Wales.  Yes, I met home-schoolers!  Our son, Fr. Josh, is a priest chaplain for the Air Force.  There are one or two Catholic home-schoolers!  It got me thinking.  Are the educational resources different in the UK?  Read about the British Education System.  I’m still suffering PTSD from my extended quarantine during COVID. Rob and I were home-schooling Paul; his daddy has a host of medical issues, which made him high risk.  Paul’s daddy is also risk-adverse.  We were locked-down for over a year.   Anything different is good.  UK education is quite different!

1. Browse these Bloomsbury Teaching Resources.  They are eclectic: Big Bad Wolf, Fallout, The Enigma Game, The Austen Girls,  and The Story of Tutankhamen.  Bloomsbury is a noted publisher.  

2. The Science Museum Group has Learning; browse the Resources, such as Baby Weighing Scales,or the Image Bank.

3.  Yes, there are freebies: London Primary Teacher, UK Parliament Learning (Time Travel Bill Adventures), and BBC.

Want more?  Look at the National History Curriculum.  Start with the English Heritage Teaching Resources.  The Home Learning Help page is interesting.  Some tips are fine; others are odd.  How are you going to show understanding of any academic topic through expressive dance?  Review the Maths Curriculum.  Look over Numicon.  Put UK, England, Wales, Ireland, or Scotland in your search and see what comes up.

Hands-on Creation

 Have you heard of Hands-on Creation?  I saw their ad on Facebook and just had to share!  Their prices to loan materials are fair.  Take a look.  Contact them through their Facebook group.

British Literature and even more heresy!

Long, long ago…in a private school, I was assigned an English class—mainly British Literature.  Things went fairly well.  I decided I could teach Lit. From time to time I offer Brit Lit to our local Co-op.  The class is based on British Literature by Stobaugh.  Okay, it’s loosely based on Stobaugh’s textbook.  I taught this with Kolbe Academy’s syllabus, too, when I home-schooled Lacie.  I use any resource available: modern translations, outside lesson plans, and curricula: School House, Easy Peasy, and Lard Bucket.  Yes, even more heresy!  I use any number of websites for ideas.  I lard the lessons with background and history.  How can you understand Beowulf if you aren’t familiar with Anglo-Saxon history?  No, the class isn’t going to be writing essays.  This year, the class will have short assignments for each piece of literature.  

Why?  Every class, every student is different.  This fall, the two boys are not avid readers.  They struggled when we tried to read Huckleberry Finn in the vernacular.  Do you think we’re reading  Shakespeare in its original text?  Come on!  They had four books as summer reading: Hamlet, Tale of Two Cities, Robinson Crusoe, and Pride and Prejudice, all easy to read versions.  While we will write, most assignments will be short projects: timelines, concept maps, art, etc.  We’ll read more than do any literary criticism.  Sure, we’ll pick out themes, etc.  Although after three years with the boy, most of the time I give them the themes, have them write them down, and look for examples.  We aren’t tackling AP Literature.  I’m exposing the teens to Brit Lit.  Make the class fit your kiddo instead of making the kiddo fit the class.

Hungry for History!

Some  regions just have more history than others.  Winchester, VA is one of those spots.  Hungry for History begins this Friday.  We just returned from the UK, where every shire seems to be laden with history.  Be sure to explore yours!  Start with the Visitor’s Center.  Are there any battlefields?  Civil War Battlefields?       Do you have any Revolutionary War sites?  Do you have a museum?  (Winchester’s MSV and gardens are first rate!)  Does the area have an arboretum or botanical garden?  Is your area near the Appalachian Trail?  You may as well add some science and nature to your history trios and tours.  Do a deep dive and see just what your town has to offer!  Get started!

Are you set up for success this fall?

 While some home-school families teach year-round, many restart in September.  Our Co-op resumes right after Labor Day.  What can you do to set yourself up for success?

1.  Have you ordered all of your course materials?  If you are a member of an online school, such as BJU or Kolbe you should have your syllabi.  Have you shopped for the textbooks and solutions guides?  Do you have the contact information for the advisors?  

2.  Do you have enough supplies?  The back to school sales are over.  Walmart has some fabulous clearance items.  Buy lined paper, composition notebooks, binders, crayons, pencils, markers, etc—any consumable.  How do you plan to organize supplies?  I like giant yogurt cups and bins.  Just be sure your kiddos can assess and return supplies.  We use our pantry more for supplies than food.  Yes, this isn’t practical for a large family.  However, you might keep shelves in the dining room dedicated to supplies.

3.  How are you recording grades?  I use Google Classroom.  When I home-schooled Lacie and Paul, I kept a separate class for each subject.  Additionally, we kept work samples, tests, etc sorted in a slide deck to submit to Kolbe each quarter, for Paul, and each semester for Lacie.  Now, I am teaching Co-op classes.  All the kiddos are recorded into one Classroom.  How do you plan to maintain records?  I recommend posting work samples, graded tests, writing samples weekly.  You can always edit submissions.  Get your kiddo in the habit of taking and recording pix.  Make it a chore.  

4.  What is your schedule?  With Lacie we tackled every subject every day.  With Paul, things were different.  For example, he did a week’s work of Geography on Mondays.  We used Sadlier’s Vocabulary Workshop exercises twice a week.  Fridays, we did labs.  Paul did core classes, such as math, history, and science daily.  Paul’s fifth grade course from Kolbe had so many different books we attacked each one once or twice a week.  He did read after lunch every day.  Lacie bunkered in the basement and just did her work.

5. Are you planning to join a Co-op.  If so, you’ll need to adjust your weekly schedule.  Your kiddos may need to work all morning, four days a week, in order to attend Co-op, too, especially if Co-op is largely field trips and fun.  If Co-op is academic, you may not have long mornings the rest of the week.  Co-op might cover math or science.  

6.  Have you planned your daily schedule?  What time are you going to get started?  We liked to start right after breakfast and chores, at about 08:30.  We had a brief break mid-morning.  After lunch and a long walk, there was reading.  How are you going to maintain a schedule?  What about bed times?  Kiddos thrive with a little discipline.

7.  What about extras?  Will they join youth group?  Play soccer?  Run?  Shadow a veterinarian?  Join Civil Air Patrol?  Play an instrument?  Act in theatre?  Learn to debate? Take art classes?   Be sure to document extracurricular activities as electives.  Keep photos, dates, number of lessons, etc in a slide deck, as part of a digital portfolio.

Now is the time to set up your schedule, order supplies, and figure out a plan which works for your family!  Get on it!

A little more heresy!

Mainly I teach science classes for the local Co-op.  However, long, long ago I taught an English class at a private school.  It went fine. It’s one of those Co-op classes families like to delegate.  I teach a few literature or composition classes.  Now for a little heresy! When I teach a composition class, it’s not traditional.  Usually, these classes are all five paragraph essays.  Instead, I think a Comp class should be literal.  I view any form of writing as composition.  My teens write letters.  We wrote thank-you letters to the military police at the AFB in Columbus and Kadena, where my son was assigned. We sent a care package along with letters thanking them for their service.  

What else do we do? We met once a week and did enormous amount of writing.  The class wrote emails, lab reports, and stories.  I taught the kiddos how to write grants.  They created lessons for religious education.  Sure, we read books and wrote essays.  However, the essays often compared the book to the movie.  We did some grammar.  The kids edited with Editor in Chief exercises. (We spent a great deal of time editing all submissions—even letters.)  We made it a game to see who can find all of the errors.  The teens learned how to diagram sentences.  I use Picture Writing exercises and grab and go activities.  Essentially, Comp included any form of writing I could imagine. My teens wrote their own college  recommendation letters.  I explained that high-schoolers should ‘ghost’ these letters for teachers.  Teachers are busy.  Draft a recommendation letter the teacher can edit. BTW teachers seldom do.  I wrote many ‘ghost’ letters when I wrote grants.  

Do the same thing! Label anything related to writing as a separate subject, Composition. You might want to maintain a notebook marked ‘Composition’.  Read a newspaper article and review it.  Give it 0-5.  Write thank-you letters, use Picture Prompts, and create a resume. Would your family like to start a blog?  What about the Christmas letter?  Create posts.   Make the lab report for science part of Comp; it’s technical writing. Change a text message into a paragraph.  Read a book, watch the movie, and use a template to make the comparison.  Teens should have a  Warriner’s, a MLA handbook, and a thesaurus available.  Be sure, your children understand how to write a Five Paragraph Essay. Be sure to practice for a college application essay with writing prompts.  I just think any writing, editing, formatting, etc should be part of Comp. 

British Museum

 My husband and I are visiting family in England and Wales.  We ducked down to London for a few days and visited the British Museum.  Guess what?  They have a host of videos on their YouTube Channel for children and on this British Museum YouTube Channel.  The museum has virtual tours and Museum Activity Trails, or guides to use with the virtual tours.  The Natural History Museum in London has Learning Resources, Discover Natural History, Museum Stories, and News.  Victoria and Albert has a link, Young V&A, with resources.  You do have to sift!  As always so many resources are all doom and gloom, Climate Change, or some activist’s position. Booo!  Browse museums in London here for more ideas and resources.  Use the list for names of museums and then Google their website to evaluate their resources.