Tag Archives: Home Education

Reading Eggs review

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Just because we don’t send Edward to school, doesn’t mean we don’t want him to miss out on some basic skills. There are many ways to get these basic skills, workbooks, posters and flash cards to name a few. There are also some quite nifty websites around that take your child through the basic word sounds, and blending to help them to read Reading Eggs is just one of those websites.

Reading Eggs focuses on making learning to read fun and engaging with a mix of games and activities which are geared towards motivating children to read. Let’s face it, reading is such an important skill, I love to read, it takes me places other things can’t. We love to read to Edward, it helps build his imagination and I find it so relaxing.
With Reading Eggs, Edward is learning to identify words, sounds and letters in such a fun environment – to him it’s a game! He doesn’t see that he’s ‘learning’ which is why I love it.
We started with the free two week trial, just to see how he’d get on with it. We were pleasantly surprised at how much he liked it and how he took to using the computer, yet another reason we love Reading Eggs, as he progresses through it encourages him to use the computer more and teaches him very basic computer skills.
At the moment he is working through the 3 – 7 year old program, there is also a program for 6 – 8 year old’s which is aimed at children who know the basics of reading but still have a little way to go. It focuses on fluency, comprehension, spelling and grammar as well as vocabulary and punctuation. Unlike a lot of things we do as a family, this is one thing that supports the national curriculum, so it would be ideal for children who do attend school also. It’s paced carefully to match your child’s ability and progress and at no point have I felt that Edward is being rushed, he’s finding his own way and enjoying it!

A 6 month subscription will set you back £29.95, where as a years subscription costs £39.95 – you can add a second child at the same time for half price too.
There are also books to compliment the website that you can purchase these start at £39.95, but there are bundle deals available and I very often see discount codes doing the rounds.
We chose just the website option to start with, just to see how we go. We also subscribed to Math Seeds at the same time which is the maths version of Reading Eggs and works in exactly the same way.

Edward loves both sites and so do we.

****Disclaimer****
Neither Reading Eggs, nor Math Seeds have asked me for this review. I have had no financial recompense for this review, it is a personal review I have chosen to share.

Parenting a weird kid

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Yesterday I had my eureka moment, a fellow home educating Mama of mine posted this delightful guest blog by Sacha Davis about her weird kid on facebook, which is where I tend to keep up with a lot of my favourite people at the moment.

I read it whilst watching Edward spin on the spot in front of the T.V while I caught up on Eastenders and do you know what happened? I said to myself, in his voice “it’s OK Mum, I’m a weird kid. I’m YOUR weird kid”,

He was right, he is weird. Last week he wouldn’t leave the house without his pirate hat because he was Captain Hook and then he decided Hook wasn’t quite right, handed me his hat and declared he was Peter Pan and he wanted me to help him catch his shadow.
I smile to myself when I hear him sing songs from Frozen, because my internal soundtrack has them on repeat and it’s nice to have someone to sing along with. I laugh when he whispers Bumcrackalacka in my ear, especially because his Dad taught him both a new word and a new way to get Mummy to crease over.
I kind of have a face palm moment when he licks the wall or door, or the side of the counter fridge in the supermarket. I’m a little shamefaced in front of the shop assistant when he looks at her pleased as punch and smiling, proud of his achievement tells her ”I licked it”

I mentally tell her,” it’s OK lady, he’s a weird kid.”

But then I look back and remember. I used to talk to myself, full blown conversations about anything that cropped up. I’d sleep on the top step of the staircase when my Mum and Dad went out, leaving us with a babysitter. I’d swing as high as I could on the swings just so I could stick my tongue out mid swing to catch the air as it went past.

I was a weird kid.

So, Mum’s and Dad’s of the tinterwebs, stand up and be proud of that weird kid. Be proud that you created a unique individual who refuses to conform and will always be a weird kid. Weird kids rock, if you don’t believe me ask Mozart.

 

Home Ed for Ed

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I’m an attachment parent, kind of.  Because I cloth nappy, I carry Edward in a carrier and I don’t smack I’m considered oddball and weird – but worst of all I want to home educate my son. This is making me somewhat of a figure of fun amongst some of my friends, I can feel their index fingers flexing, poised ready to point.

I honestly can not understand why this is such a sore point for everyone. From the day our children are born we are constantly showing them right from wrong, teaching them about life and educating them to walk, talk and understand us adults – in my opinion this is maybe harder than teaching ABC’s, 123’s and E =MC2

So in what many class as a normal world I’ll educate my son at home, in the car, at the supermarket etc until he’s 3 years old and then willingly hand him over to strangers who will do the job as well as they can within the limits of school, health and safety restrictions and an overly PC world.

I’m afraid that we are not a normal family. Sorry to break it to you.

We plan to continue with his education at home, of course he’ll start off with a few days at nursery or playgroup until he’s 5 years old and then instead of moving up to school he’ll be at home with one of us.
It goes without saying that we plan to follow ciriculum guidelines but who says we can’t do that in our garden (biology and home economics) in the bathroom (physics, maths and heathy living) in the kitchen (home economics, maths, chemistry and healthy living)  in the living room (music, english, drama and art) at the table (computer sciences) the garage (metalwork, art and design and woodwork) or on our trips to Tunisia (history, geography and languages)??

Edward is showing so much intelligence and excitement about all he is learning, I can’t bear to resrtict that.

I wouldn’t say I’m anti school, far from it. I’m just pro home ed. I’m starting to see that other peoples negativity isn’t directed at me and my choices so much but only other parents fears that they aren’t confident in their own abilities to teach their own children. Let me ask you this, who taught your son or daughter to take their first steps? Who taught them their first words? Some teacher in a classroom? No, it was YOU. Feel empowered, because you are one mighty Mummy or Daddy x

Many thanks to Claire, Stuart and Emma Fairall for there inspired wisdom and wit x much love x