Project 151: Abominable!

This week's project was prompted by some resources on the Into Film web site, and the availability of Abominable on NOW TV. 

The film focuses on a Chinese girl helping a yeti get back home to the Himalayas, so we used it as an opportunity to learn about mountains, cryptozoology and a new aspect of Chinese culture. 

The children watched a video about where mountains come from, and looked at a PowerPoint about Mount Everest. 

They learned about cryptozoology, and drew their own mystical creatures:

And we also introduced the traditional Chinese game of Mah Jong:

It turned out there has been a bit of a run on yeti films in recent years, so the children also watched Missing Link, and Smallfoot.  

Next project: Autumn and Harvest

Project 150: Pirates!

Pirates! was picked for this week's project by our youngest child, Sam, as it was his first week of home education. There were quite a few pirate worksheets on Twinkl, and to try and make the week as fun as possible (and without much possibility of a big trip out) we also included a number of films and finished with a pirate tea party.

We started the week by reading the abridged Usborne Treasure Island, and bought two new pirate books for the big occasion. The big two were also expected to read the full version of Treasure Island in their own time (a book they had struggled with in Project 56: Treasure Island). 

The children designed their own flags and composed their own sea shanties (using a TES worksheet). 

They did some pirate science experiments:

And a treasure hunt and a treasure dig: 

Over the week we watched three films: Muppet Treasure Island, Hook, and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! Sam's favourite of the films was Hook:

The pirate themed tea party was also a big hit.

Next project: Abominable.

3 Years of Home Education!

Our 3rd year of home education has been very different to the first two thanks to the coronavirus, with a few more book projects and a few less trips out (2 Years of Home Education and 100 Projects!; Reflections on 1 Year of Home Education). In comparison to the traditional school system however, our education journey can be said to have emerged relatively unscathed!

Monica and Solomon's Progress

We have broadly continued with the same project-based structure we introduced in the first year, and it seems to be working. Both the children continue to do well on reading, writing, and maths; especially maths, with Solomon starting key stage 3 and Monica working her way through key stage 2. 

Their favourite projects of the last year have been Project 149: Don Quixote for Solomon, and Project 140: Presentations for Monica. Over the whole of the three years Solomon's favourite project has been Project 1: History of Computer Games and over the past two year's Monica's project has been Project 50: Bread! (mostly because it was her first project).

And then there were three!

Unsurprisingly, the coronavirus has not persuaded us to look into more traditional schooling, although as we will now be home educating all three of our children there will undoubtedly be new challenges for the year ahead. The most noticeable of which will be that we now have to come up with projects that are suitable for children from the ages of 4 to 7.  

Project 149: Don Quixote

Another week of the coronavirus pandemic and another book project, this time the all time Spanish classic: Don Quixote.

We read the abridged Usborne version, and the children loved it with plenty of laughter all around. 

They also created their own Don Quixote silhouettes:

And country fact sheets on Spain:

Next project: Pirates!