Giving Duplo a new lease of life with Hubelino marble run kits

I love seeing our kids grow up, but for every transition there's a little sadness. Over the years we've amassed a whole chest of Duplo which has brought much joy to our three children, however as they've got older they're more interested in Lego and the Duplo chest has seen less and less action.

That all changed recently when we discovered the Hubelino marble run attachments which has brought our Duplo hoard back into use, especially for our older two.

We've had the regular cylindrical marble runs over the years, however no two sets ever seem to be compatible, they get really wobbly when you try to build them to any height, and there never seem to be enough spacer pieces to really do anything spectacular.

That's where we've been so impressed with the Hubelino sets - we've got enough Duplo to be able to do ambitious builds, it's all far more stable, and the range of marble run pieces themselves are really versatile.

We've not come across Hubelino previously (and this isn't a sponsored post - we're just impressed with the kit) but looking them up, we like their mission statement and intention to promote spatial intelligence and understanding of physical principles through play.

All three of ours have enjoyed it, but for our 7 and 10 year olds in particular it's been challenging and engaging as they've iterated their designs and added more and more complexity and height.

If you've got a large amount of Duplo lying around then all you need is the elements kit (we got the big 128 piece one). The main construction kits come with the regular Duplo style blocks so they're worth getting if you're likely to need more blocks. We also got the twister expansion set which has added another layer of interest, and I've got my eye on the catapult expansion in future!

We're really glad we invested in some Hubelino sets, it's been a great way to extend the life of our Duplo, hopefully for a good few years to come as we feel we're only starting to scratch the surface of what's possible in terms of complexity of run designs.

What ways have you found to give toys a new lease of life? We'd love to hear them - either comment below, email us (homeedmatters@gmail.com) or message us on Twitter or Facebook.


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Thanks for reading, we hope you enjoyed our post. Some small print on our recommendations is in this post.

If you want to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes then follow this link, to listen on Stitcher go here or if you want the direct RSS feed it's here! (There's lots of platforms to listen - but if you can't find us on your usual podcast app please let us know and we'll look into it). We're also on Spotify.


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Season 6, Episode 10

As we come to the end of the year (and decade), in this bumper episode Luke and Eden reflect on their highlights of 2019, including favourite books, trips, artists, composers and crafts.

Please listen in, and if you have a moment to leave a nice review and rating of the show (wherever you listen) we would really appreciate it!

Resources we mention in this episode include:

Calico Captive
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
The Bronze Bow
Chasing Vermeer
The Ocean of Truth - The Story of Sir Isaac Newton
Abigail Adams - Witness to a Revolution
Moonfleet

As a result of reading Calico Captive, Luke also read this history of Canada and this history of America!

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If you want to subscribe on iTunes then follow this link, to listen on Stitcher go here or if you want the direct RSS feed it's here!

We're also on Spotify, alternatively you can listen directly below.


Please enjoy and we'd love to hear from you! You can email us at homeedmatters@gmail.com or message/comment below or on any of our platforms.

Keeping kids focused on the real meaning of Christmas - an Advent reading resource

We're huge fans of the Christmas season in our family, and we enjoy many of the modern Western cultural traditions that go along with it - in fact we often adjust the pace of our regular learning during December to make more space to enjoy the build-up to Christmas.

However, like any family we also battle with "hearts and minds" with our kids (and ourselves!) around becoming too focused on "getting" and the whole commercialisation of the festive season.

This year we added a reading routine which really helped us be more balanced as a family in the lead up to Christmas Day, and it's a tradition we plan to keep up in future years.

Every evening during December we read a chapter of a book called Bartholomew's Passage, by Arnold Ytreeide. It's a well crafted and engaging story that runs in parallel with the Biblical narrative, and each chapter has a short reflection on the real "reason for the season" in language that's aimed at and accessible to children.

"The best part of it was when he met Jotham" (Asher, 7)

As dad, reading to our three kids individually at bedtime is often a highlight of my day and an important time for relational connection (and we can recommend The Read Aloud Handbook for why it's so important!). For reading Bartholomew's Passage we mixed things up a bit, and I read to all three kids together, by the light of our advent candle. They loved turning all the lights off, snuggling in their pyjamas under blankets and listening to the story, and they were all engaged (from age 3 -10), although it's fair to say that older kids will get more out of it.


It did genuinely feel like we'd been on a journey together with the characters over the month, and I was impressed with the quality of the narrative and the shock-factor of some of the moments. The last chapter was particularly poignant and moving - up there with other tear-shedding moments in literature like the death of Thorin in the Hobbit and when the dog Jack dies in the Little House series.

"It's a great heartfelt story with a nice ending and it really helps find the true meaning of advent". (Eden, 10)

The good news is that the author has written a number of these Advent "journey" books, and we're definitely planning to read another next year.



If you're looking for ways to pop (or at least deflate) the selfish consumerist bubble that surrounds Christmas these days, and get closer to the heart of the story, we'd definitely recommend Bartholomew's Passage or the other books in the series. (And no, this hasn't been a sponsored post, just a genuine recommendation of a book we've enjoyed).

Do you have any reading traditions over Christmas? We'd love to hear them - either comment below, email us (homeedmatters@gmail.com) or message us on Twitter or Facebook.


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Thanks for reading, we hope you enjoyed our post. Some small print on our recommendations is in this post.

If you want to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes then follow this link, to listen on Stitcher go here or if you want the direct RSS feed it's here! (There's lots of platforms to listen - but if you can't find us on your usual podcast app please let us know and we'll look into it)

Please like our Facebook page and join our community there.

We love hearing from you and you can email us at homeedmatters@gmail.com

Book and resource recommendations

We love sharing our home education journey with you through our podcast, and if you listen in you'll know we often discuss resources we use, books we've been reading and activities we've undertaken. One of the most common questions we get from you is for more detail on these resources, so we're going to start sharing information about some of our favourite books and resources on our website in between episodes.

Just so that you know, we'll usually share links to Amazon.co.uk so you can look at more details for a given product and buy if you choose to. For complete transparency we want to let you know that we might get (literally) a few pennies if you choose to buy a particular product through an amazon link we share in our posts. There are usually lots of places to get hold of the material, and we're not especially recommending Amazon over anywhere else - it's just a convenient link, they're usually reasonably priced, and their product descriptions are usually quite good.

We've resisted sponsorship and product placement in our content (because the offers have usually been for things that aren't really related to our home education journey), so our opinions are our own - but if we are getting sponsored for sharing a recommendation we'll make that clear.

That's all the boring stuff out of the way - thanks again for supporting our show, we love recording it, and we're looking forward to sharing some of our favourite books and resources with you too.

Season 6, Episode 9

It's nearly Christmas, and we're sharing some very exciting updates about the land we've bought, plans for chickens, Christmas concerts, hidden chimps and the Black Country Living Museum.

Please listen in, and if you have a moment to leave a nice review and rating of the show we would really appreciate it.

We mentioned a couple of books we've enjoyed recently, they included:



Please like our Facebook page and join our community there!

If you want to subscribe on iTunes then follow this link, to listen on Stitcher go here or if you want the direct RSS feed it's here!

Alternatively you can listen directly below.


Please enjoy and we'd love to hear from you! You can email us at homeedmatters@gmail.com

Season 6, Episode 8

It's beginning to feel a lot like... another packed episode! We're on a steam train, decorating the tree, doing fun Christmas-themed experiments and listening to a symphony orchestra.

Please listen in, and if you have a moment to leave a nice review and rating of the show we would really appreciate it.

Please like our Facebook page and join our community there!

If you want to subscribe on iTunes then follow this link, to listen on Stitcher go here or if you want the direct RSS feed it's here!

Alternatively you can listen directly below.


Please enjoy and we'd love to hear from you! You can email us at homeedmatters@gmail.com