September marked the start of our 2nd official year of homeschooling as Cherry would have been going into year one, we had actually made the decision to home educate about six months before she was due to start school though so we are about 18 months in and as much as I loved it from the start I am think I love it even more now. It just works so well for our family and is something I am so happy we made the decision to do.
After having a holiday month in August, September saw us returning to all our old groups as well as starting a few new ones, in fact I would say it’s been our busiest month so far. I actually like to have the odd day at home but we’ve had things on almost every day for the last month and have only had the odd day at home, which is funny really as I know a lot of people imagine us sat around our kitchen table all day!
We have started a farm club on Mondays, it’s not a working farm, just somewhere with animals where we can go and feed / care for them. Mr C actually took Cherry to the last one and I just picked her up so this will be our first week of all doing it together. Then Tuesdays is still gymnastics day. Everything other Wednesday we have Fun Science which really is ‘fun’, I learn as much as Cherry!
Then Thursdays we have a cooking group, we’ve been going with Beth, we’ve been following each other on Instagram (This Mindful Mama) for ages and when I moved we found out we were pretty close to each other so decided to do this group. She brings her little girl who is the same age as Cherry and they get on so well which is really lovely. I’ve met so many wonderful friends through social media and the internet.
Then Friday is our free day but we usually meet up with friends, so life is busy!
When we are at home there is still lots of crafting going on, Cherry is literally ALWAYS making something. She sets up little craft lessons where she teaches Tiger how to make things, he was actually crying here because he wanted her to teach him how to make a marble run but she was making a pop up book, they resolved it eventually!
Mr C has built the work benches in the shed so we can now do lots of messy crafting out there, the kids love it. Cherry especially spends so long out there painting.
Painting sea glass is a favourite activity of hers right now, we have so much of it so it keeps her entertained for hours!
And while the weather has still been warm we’ve been enjoying lots of trips to the beach.
We realised this month that Tiger recognises all the numbers from 1-10, it took us completely by surprise as we had no idea he could. I usually always think of Cherry when I write these posts but I guess he would be starting school next September so he’s not actually the baby I still think of him as!
Oh and a big one for Cherry is the sudden interest in learning to read, I don’t usually mention the academic side of things in these posts because it just hasn’t been there until recently. She knows all her letters but will only write them or ask for help if it’s part of something she’s making but up until recently learning to read just wasn’t something on her radar but one day she started sounding out all the letters in words and took out a book and asked for help so we’ve bought a learning to read library and she is really enjoying practicing. I’ve always believed that children will just learn things without much help when they are ready but it’s still an amazing thing to watch when it happens. I say it all the time but I’m really not the kids teacher, they are their own teacher, I am just there to facilitate their learning.
I made these wooden letters for a game last year and they’ve been really useful now as we make up little words with them.
If you blog about homeschooling then do come and link up with us!
This Homeschooling Life is a linky for you to share either a week, a day or just a moment from your life as a homeschooling family. We are hoping it will be a really nice way to discover new blogs and learn how we all do things differently.
2. Link up a post from your month, no more than 3.
