The Boy began a preparation year for his US High School Diploma after we eventually decided the GCSE route would give him neither a good education nor the freedom to be flexible enough with his dyslexia. While I was in the US I visited the special services department of the online school his three older sisters attended. With their assistance, we have decided to pursue this route for him instead. It will be slim-lined but he will graduate with the ability to think critically within the framework of a classical curriculum, just like his sisters.
So he's been busy with his new curriculum. He still attends Taekwondo, trains with and plays for his local rugby team twice a week, attends Cadets twice a week, swims twice a week, goes to youth club once a fortnight, and plays the guitar in his spare time.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died in September. We took time to commemorate her life and honour her death.
Long live the King.
Now that two older sisters have left home, Sunbaby has a kitten to fill the hole in her heart and as a little study buddy. She is much loved and much cuddled.
Sunbaby has started her first curriculum too with The Good and Beautiful. This has eased the pressure on the need for me to spend my evenings doing homeschool planning now I have re-started my degree.
She does maths, literacy and nature study.
And we fill the time around it with our customary thematic units.
It seemed apt to do a mini project on pets while Sunbaby learned the ins and outs of caring for her kitten.
Then we moved on to a thematic unit on Autumn: something we do every year, with new tangents and angles.
We picked some apples and pears from our community orchard.
Leaf rubbing the leaves from the orchard
Laminated and made into autumn place mats
Working through her workbooks
Reading
Decorating our nature finds
Learning about coniferous tress
Autumn walks
Somebody made a surprise visit from university
Making her own autumn tree
Pumpkins, bats, spiders and acorns
A long autumn walk...
...with a stop for lunch
These two
Pumpkin lifecycles
Chocolate cake and custard
Watching the leaves change colour
Learning about bees in her nature study book
Flowers in oil pastels
Autumn collage
Ready for a morning of hard work
Hibernating
Sunbaby planted her pumpkin seeds last year and after they grew into saplings this spring she asked her cousins to finish growing them in their vegetable garden. She was utterly thrilled to pick them when they'd grown.
Important scooping
Pumpkin soup!
More workbooks
More baking
Busy tractors
Autumn play
Sequin bat
Autumn worksheets
Time with cousins
Ginger cupcakes for Autumn
Exploring the hedgerows
Firework art
