Well, it’s getting towards the end of the school year so I thought I would have a think about what G has learnt. Yes, home ed doesn’t need to have the same year, but if this summer is anything like last summer G will be playing out from 9am-6pm or later.
So, as I’ve not taken notes (which I actually might start doing in anticipation of any changes in legislation) I will wrack my brains to have a think about what’s been learnt and I really will not be able to remember it all!
English
Letter sounds
Some punctuation
Huge increase in vocabulary
Verbal reasoning skills improved
Comprehension
Chronological retelling of stories
Maths
Introduction to times tables
Addition in columns
Basic subtraction
Recognition of basic mathematical symbols and vocabulary
Count up to at least 1000
Hundreds, tens and units
Weights and measurements
Money
Sciences (Obviously covered at a level appropriate to my 5 year old)
Functions of the heart, lungs, arteries and veins, brain
Senses
Digestive system
Nutrition
Planets and stars
Clouds
Atmosphere
Gravity
Water cycle
Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide
Pollination
Germination
Recycling
Magnetism
Volcanoes
Erosion
Chemical reactions
Life cycles of plants
Reproduction
Food chain
Indigenous and introduced plants and animals
History
Romans
Some Victorians
Architecture of different periods
WW2
Geography
Countries of the UK
Cities of England
Various facts and figures about other countries
Other Subjects
Cooking
Some arts and crafts, it’s currently not a big interest of his
German and Spanish
PE – guided games at the YMCA, lots of walking, weekly swimming will commence this week
Gardening
How films, and especially special effects, are made
RE – New Testament stories and introduction to Islam
Ethics
Visits to museums, castles, cathedrals, nature parks
There might be more, but I’m done thinking! Quite decent really, especially when I know how well he understands certain subjects. Of course it’s all done by reading, talking and/or experiencing, there’s been no writing down of anything.
And I was just thinking yesterday about how science appears to be his favourite thing to learn and this has shown me this is the case! Recently, he’s been expressing more and more a desire to do maths, and he picks it up really quickly. It’s really fascinating following his lead and seeing where his interests lie.
Vikings?!?!?!
wow! Definitely an interest in the sciences! Very cool. I was talking to another mom of a 4 year old here, whose son is also starting kindergarten in the fall. I was saying how ready to learn B was – that she loves to do these “games” that G invented once on the train to keep her occupied. They are all little math guessing games (tell me a number bigger than x, tell me a number smaller than y, tell me a number between a and c, etc.) and the mom was shocked! Now B asks for these guessing games – she loves to do them. If you follow their lead, as you do so well, and always give them full *informational* answers to their questions, they can learn so much without ever setting foot in a classroom.
Well done to all of you!
A JOB WELL DONE
Yeah that’s really cool, it’s amazing how much you cover without having to have a planned syllabus and all that jazz. I don’t generally plan much in advance but I do keep a diary of what my two do, just so I’ve got something to document what we’re doing in case we get asked.