Homeschoolingmama

Children are curious about the world around them, and very curious about the body and its workings. I've always felt that it is important to feed this curiosity with as much information the child can understand as possible. That is where this absolutely fantastic book 'So you want to build a human?' comes to play.  First impressions A lot of books you'll find are generally A4 size. It's a great workable size, however, an A4 size book with lots of contents is always daunting, and I find it hard to encourage little person to at least try and read some of the information. The books appear overwhelming, and I've already lost part of the battle. The great thing about 'So you want to build a human?' is the size. Larger than A4 (but we're not talking huge A3 size), the size makes a huge difference to the presentation. The lager area means everything feels neatly spaced out, doesn't feel like an overload of writing and means kids love...

I believe all children are fascinated by the wold of science, and even more so when it comes to biology and our bodies. We've been using workbook style resources and have found them to be good, but when I came across An Usborne Flap book - 'See Inside your Body'  I knew it was going to be a great buy.  This book offers a more exciting walk through the body, with delightfully colourful illustrations and over 50 flaps to lift. It sounds like a younger children's book, with the flaps, however the detail shows otherwise.  Topics covered The book contains the following chapters: Your amazing body Eating and exercising  Breathing air  Pumping air Bones and Muscles Brain Power The Senses  Drinking and Weeing Body Works How much detail Just looking at some of the topics, and you will be amazed with how much detail this book has, and how in depth the topics are covered (for children). F...

Dekko comics  I wanted to share another  superb  resource  we've been using more recently - Dekko comics.  As a family that are structured during some months, semi structured during others and completely autonomous for some, Dekko comics have been a brilliant resource to have and use.  I saw these fab comics, and decided to order all 12 back issues, I knew they would be invaluable (so why waste time buying one at a time?!) What makes them so good? Each issue covers a variety of subjects, with  in-depth  explanations to  foreign   language  scripts. The layout is fun and exciting, a colourful comic, but full of facts. These comics  work so well,  because  children  enjoy  the idea of 'relaxing and reading a comic for fun', but at  the  same pick up information - without being bored and tied down to a desk! Little person has enjoyed reading ...

We recently purchased FReNeTiC game after some deliberation.  As a guidance the game is aimed at those 8+ (but this depends entirely on child and ability-you may find your 6 year old enjoying the game). How does it work? Initially I was in two minds about purchasing another words game. We've thoroughly enjoyed our Bananagram game (see blog post here ), and therefore didn't want another game that was very similar. However, even though word building is involved, this game is has a completely different structure and style.  The game board is the periodic table (symbols and atomic numbers), and alongside the board you use the tiles. There are 96 tiles with symbols and atomic numbers.  The rules of the game are simple, you can play in teams or solo, and using the timer it is all about word building.  At that start of play, the first player removes 8 tiles fr...

We received a copy of the Anorak magazine to review. Upon opening the magazine, I couldn't help but giggle at the following in the editorial: ' They are mysterious, mythical beings that have filled our imaginations for millennia. Sometimes they are heroes. Other times they are mean and terrifying. What are these fearsome creatures? Politicians? No, DRAGONS of course?' - you thought politicians too right?! The first piece in the magazine is all about having fun. Some good old fun, the kind of fun people had before iPads, phones and PS4s. The piece is full of excellent ideas, such as sailing the world (use the sofa in your lounge as a boat), a game of spot - choose a letter and write down everything you spot with that letter in the house. It's great to see two pages dedicated to get those imaginations jogging - from jumping to flying.  'Nature is Fun' has been an absolute eye opener for me! Little person was surprised to find that I was not aware clow...

After enjoying reviewing 'First Wonder Box, Rainforests' we subscribed to 'First Wonder' subscription boxes. You can read our first review here. The next box we received was all about bugs! With the warmer weather it was the perfect box. What's included? This fab box comes jam packed with A bugs activity book Bee sewing craft kit Ladybird racer toy (pull back racer) Bee pencil with honey bee eraser Small Magnifying glass Two collectable cards Stickers Dice Activity book We love the activity books that are included in each 'First wonder' boxes. The activity book includes word searches, colouring, dot to dot, mazes, lots of facts, design your own bug and much much more. It's also great to see the mini challenge at the end of each booklet. Once completed the children fill in the certificate at the back and can happily cut that out to stick on the wall/fridge.  Toys Each box comes with a toy. The toy is relevant to the...

I mentioned in my 'Cloud in a jar' post, how I'd recently made a list of exciting experiments to do, that required few items. After our successful 'cloud in a jar' we tried our very own lava lamp! This is such a simple experiment, I can imagine we have many lava lamps to come....so it's not quite a lamp but more like lava in a glass.  What you'll need Glass, we used a drinking glass (clear glass) Salt (approx 1tsp) Vegetable oil (to fill 1/4 of the glass) water (to fill approx 3/4 glass) Food dye (any colour - we used red) What to do Add 3/4 water to the glass, and add 4/5 drops of food dye (not too much as don't want a deep colour). Add the vegetable oil, which you will notice will float to the top (oil and water don't mix). Once all the oil as settled at the top, add about a teaspoon of salt.  You'll notice some of the oil clumping with the salt and sinking to the bottom of the glass. This oil will then rise...

Little person loves carrying out science experiments at home. The issue is, sometimes the list of apparatus is long and extensive, meaning we need to go out and buy more than half the things....this also means we end up delaying the experiment and at times forgetting. Thus, I took time out and wrote a list of experiments we can carry out at home with very few items, or items we already have.  Today was all about making a cloud in a jar. This experiment will certainly entertain little ones, and they'll express their amazement a fair few (hundred) times!  Before the experiment I like the idea of helping little person get into the habit of how experiments are written and carried out. Once he's a little older, he'll need to ensure he can clearly and happily write out experiments. At the beginning of a write up there is an introduction. An introduction will include an explanation and hyp...

Little person recently received his fab ‘First Wonder Box’, and as we loved it so much, I had to write a review! Both kids (3 year old loves to join in when and where she can)  were overwhelmed with the contents, and there were definitely lots of shrieks of happiness!  The theme of the box we have received is rainforests, which is perfect as little person has recently been focusing on rainforests as part of his research on endangered animals.  ‘First wonder box’ - ‘ the perfect mix of learning and fun, First wonder boxes are a great way to introduce 4-8 year old children to the world around them ’. These well thought out and excellently  designed boxes are created by the clever team behind First news , so undoubtedly  I knew it would be a great box!  What’s inside?  The kids enjoyed opening up the box, and eagerly awaited to get started. We had a look through the huge list of activities, and...

Gear, gears, gears, lights and action Even though we've owned our huge bucket of  Learning resources, gears, gears, gears, lights and action  for four years, I felt that a review was in order, as we have enjoyed this 'bucket of fun' for so long and continue to do so.  So the basics, the set is a huge 121 piece set, it comes with interlocking Gears, lights, connectors, springs, glow in the dark stickers and a easy to use motor. This superb toy is easy to handle and assemble by all (including 3 year old).  I love the storage bucket, for me the bucket has been a huge hit (lego has done a lot of damage to ones feet!), its also meant the kids have quickly and easily tidied up. The children design their structures on the flat 'plates', use the motor (or not), plus the lights. They have come up with endless designs and structures and continue to do so!  What's so good about it? I came across  gears, ge...

Willow and Wild box Recently we received our first Willow and Wild box. We were eagerly awaiting our box arrival after having seen so many amazing post about the fun packed contents. The box, contents and our first impressions The kids were extremely excited to open up the box, even if it meant delaying bedtime! The tag line on the box reads ' Nature Inspired fun and learning' and I can see why. The box is full of activities around nature. The box we received has a lovely focus on bees. In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about bees and decreasing numbers, which is concerning for all, so I was elated to find a lot of bee related activities. My 7 year old has definitely welcomed the contents (he's expressed his concern about decreasing bees- especially after our Knowsley Safari park visit, where we were told life would last approx 4 years if bees became extinct!) First impressions, very happy to see so much i...