Monday 21 December 2020

Season 7, Episode 13

We're getting excited for Christmas, we visit some covid-secure festive experiences (including Lapland Silverstone - you can watch our funny video of the experience here), and we finish with an acoustic rendition of Silent Night. Happy Christmas!

On Luke's  YouTube channel here is a playlist of various Christmas carols (and while you're there why not subscribe?)

We often talk about how much we use our Yoto players - if you want £10 off then follow this link (to be transparent, we do get a voucher if you buy through the link).

You can follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, alternatively you can listen directly below. Please listen in, enjoy, and if you have a moment to leave a nice review and rating of the show (wherever you listen) we would really appreciate it!

We love to hear from you - you can email us at homeedmatters@gmail.com or message/comment below or on any of our platforms.

 

Sunday 6 December 2020

Season 7, Episode 12

This episode Eden's celebrating a birthday, we're sharing some Advent traditions and getting excited for Christmas, we give a run-down of a typical learning day, and we answer some of your questions!

December's #Ambleside #hymn of the month is 'Jesus what a friend for sinners' and on Luke's  YouTube channel here are various Ambleside Hymns of the month. Here's the playlist of various Christmas carols (and while you're there why not subscribe?)

We often talk about how much we use our Yoto players - if you want £10 off then follow this link (to be transparent, we do get a voucher if you buy through the link).

Here's the post on family advent devotionals we mentioned.

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! 

You can follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.

Sunday 15 November 2020

Season 7, Episode 11

In this episode we're watching an amazing fireworks display from our back garden, talking about parallels between 19th century cholera and the current Covid outbreak, along with origami, diamond art, the Crimean War and more!

Luke's  YouTube channel is here which has the Ambleside Hymns of the month - please subscribe!

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! 

You can follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.

Saturday 31 October 2020

Season 7, Epsiode 10

In this episode we're talking about our latest artist study (Hokusai), decorating our home grown pumpkins, bringing in the apple harvest from our orchard, and discussing drama, dance and bat craft.

Luke's  YouTube channel is here which has the Ambleside Hymns of the month - please subscribe!

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! 

You can follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.

 

Saturday 10 October 2020

Season 7, Episode 9

In this episode we're sharing some sad pet news, going on a rainy walk, talking about hymns, the Victorians, Mayans and Maouris!

Luke's new YouTube channel is here - please subscribe!

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! 

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.

 

 

Monday 5 October 2020

Hymns of the month

Many of the elements of our home education approach follow a regular rhythm. We always have an artist study on the go, along with a composer study. We also have a folk song we're learning and a hymn each month too. 

For hymns, Ambleside Online have a hymn of the month rotation which we often follow, although we do occasionally substitute if there's an alternative one we're itching to do. 

Over on Luke's YouTube channel is a growing playlist of hymns, many of which are on Ambleside's list, and we'd love you to use the videos in your own routine so please like, subscribe and share with others who may benefit. 

We'd love to know hymns or praise songs you'd like to see on the channel too!

We also really like the Happy Hymnody channel, which has a strong family focus on teaching hymns to children (and who have their own great hymns of each month).

If you use hymns in your routine, we'd love to hear what your favourites are, and do also share links to the resources you find helpful too!


#hymn #hymns #hymnofthemonth #hymnody #amblesideonline #familyworship

Saturday 26 September 2020

Season 7, Episode 8

In this episode we're investigating spiders webs, picking damsons and going on a staycation down south, visiting Legoland windsor, Chessington World of Adventures and various London destinations.

Luke's new YouTube channel is here - please subscribe!

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! 

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.



 

Sunday 13 September 2020

Season 7, Episode 7

Broadcasting from our new lawn, we're talking about horse riding, a trip to Alton
Towers, narration, experiments with bananas and the industrial revolution.

Luke's new YouTube channel is here - please subscribe!

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! 

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.


 

Saturday 29 August 2020

Season 7, Episode 6

We're celebrating 'family saturday' - a fun tradition of ours, visiting Whitlenge gardens, the Sea Life Centre, Pizza Express and the Black Country Museum. 

We're also talking about making jam, haiku, amphibians in the garden and ocean layers.

Luke's new YouTube channel is here - please subscribe!

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! 

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.


Sunday 16 August 2020

Season 7, Episode 5

In this episode we're talking about the various summer holiday clubs we've been taking part in, the activities we've done for nature and fantasy week, model making and playing badminton. Also Belle's not keen to have a hair wash after the recording!

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! 

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.
 

Sunday 2 August 2020

Season 7, Episode 4

We've finally been able to get out on some trips, and we did a recording at an animal sanctuary. Plus we're sharing the activities we've been doing for our Summer Holiday passports, and the names of our two newest chickens!

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! 

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.


Sunday 19 July 2020

Season 7, Episode 3

It's our 100th episode!!! We're celebrating by taking a trip down memory lane and sharing some of our favourite clips from the last 6 seasons, since we started in 2015. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

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! 

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.

Sunday 5 July 2020

Season 7, Episode 2

It's out 99th episode! We're talking about Henri Matisse, sharing what we're listening to on Yoto, our new walkie-talkies, lots of caterpillars, experiments with rhubarb and celery... and finally the various approaches we're taking to learning Spanish!

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! 

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.


Sunday 14 June 2020

Season 7, Episode 1


New academic year!

We're excited to start a new season, having started our seventh year of home education this week! In this episode (recorded in a tent in the garden) we're talking about some of our new books and activities, as well as what we've continued. 

Books we mentioned included:
Quark Chronicles: Botany
Quark Chronicles: Zoology (and accompanying workbook)
Life of Fred: Apples, Butterflies, Cats, Edgewood
Cambridge Latin Course book 1
Great inventors
Biology for every kid
Africa is not a country
Super Silly Mad Libs Junior

We also mentioned Ounio language courses and Math Mammoth.

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! 

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.

Saturday 30 May 2020

Season 6, Episode 21

Elderflowers, fruit and biology.

Although we've finished our formal learning until we start another academic year in a few months, there's still lots going on!

In this episode we're talking about all our fruit and veg we're growing, the butterflies, tadpoles, ants and beetles we have, and the fun biology experiments we've been doing. We're also out and about picking elderflowers.

We mention Biology for Every Kid as a experiment book we're loving.

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! 

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.


Sunday 10 May 2020

Season 6, Epiosde 20

VE Day, Animals, Playmobil.


In this episode we're talking about how we marked VE Day, our 'Celebration Friday' tradition, getting to know more neighbours during lockdown, and an update on all our animals large and small!

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! 

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.


Sunday 26 April 2020

Season 6, Episode 19

It's our third episode in lockdown, but we've been keeping surprisingly busy.
We've been hard at work outside, we're approaching the end of our academic year, and Eden has been finding new ways to build community with our neighbours.

We mentioned the botany and zoology Quark chronicles books too.

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! 

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.


Wednesday 15 April 2020

Season 6, Episode 18

We're a month into lockdown, but we've got some exciting chicken news! We share how some of our different groups are still producing content, and we're talking about the books we're finishing off as we approach the end of this year's learning.

Books we mention include:
The King's Shadow
The Beggar's Bible
West Midlands Folk Tales
Quark Chronicles: Botany
Shanleya's Quest
A Bag of Moonshine
The Story of Britain: Middle Ages


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! 

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.


Sunday 29 March 2020

Season 6, Episode 17

Like the rest of the UK, we're in lockdown due to the coronavirus, but in this episode we're up one of our fruit trees and in our chicken run talking about what we've been up to during this strange time.

We share what's stayed the same and what's been different, and we talk about our five new chickens, the vegetables and herbs we've started growing, and the fox and bats we've seen.

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! 

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.

Sunday 15 March 2020

Season 6, Episode 16

In this episode we have a quick trip to the Legoland hotel to celebrate a special birthday, we're planting lots of seeds, trying not to talk *too* much about our chickens, and talking about what we've reading and doing over the last few weeks.

Books we mentioned included:
Sign of the Beaver
The Bronze Ladder
Just William series
West Midlands folk tales

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! 

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.


Sunday 1 March 2020

Season 6, Episode 15

We're very focused on chickens in this episode, recording alongside our two-week old chicks! We're also talking about Charlie Chaplin, great book deals, and what we're doing for the environment during Lent.

Books we mentioned included:
Who Was Charlie Chaplin?
How to speak chicken
A kids guide to keeping chickens
A field guide to fantastical beasts
St Clares series
Tiger Days series
Anne of Green Gables series
Famous Five series
Secret Seven series

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! 


Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.


 

Wednesday 19 February 2020

Season 6, Episode 14 - Florida Special (Part 2)

Hot on the heels of our last episode, this is the second of two special episodes sharing our recent adventures in Florida. This time we're focusing on all things Disney!

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! 


Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.



Sunday 16 February 2020

Season 6 Episode 13 - Florida Special (Part 1)

We're back from an amazing trip to Florida, and this is the first of two special episodes sharing our adventures. In this one we're at Seaworld, Fort Christmas, the Hard Rock Hotel and in Diagon Alley at Universal studios!

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! 


Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.


Tuesday 21 January 2020

A new favourite author of ours - Elizabeth George Speare

We decided on a Charlotte Mason approach to home education when we embarked on this journey, and draw heavily on the Ambleside Online curriculum. We've done years 1-5 with our eldest, and what's been an interesting by-product has been the discovery of some hitherto unknown (to us) authors.

As I've been reflecting on this, I think the simple reason is that been compiled in America and reflects cherished American children's literature - some of which is well known on this side of the Atlantic, but some of it isn't.

One author we discovered for ourselves in Year 4 was Elizabeth George Speare, who started to publish historical children's books in America from the 1950s. She won two Newbery Medals for her work and so far we've read three of her books.

Calico Captive was the book that got us hooked. It's based on the true story of an English pioneer family in 1754 who get captured by Native Americans and traded to the French in New France.

This was a historical period I was less familiar with (over 100 years before the Little House series), and as a result I was inspired to read for myself some (short) histories of Canada and America to understand the context better.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond was the next title we enjoyed, set a century earlier in a puritan Connecticut settlement in 1687. The heroine, Kit, encounters small-mindedness and prejudice in this small community and sets out to make a positive difference. Despite the title this is not a spooky book!

Our third title of hers is The Bronze Bow, based around the struggle for Jewish independence from the Romans around the time of Jesus. It's fitted in well with our Roman studies, especially the perspective of an occupied people.

Trying to sum up what it is about Elizabeth George Speare's books that really grabbed us, a few things stand out:
  • Interesting historical periods
  • Great writing and plots
  • Female lead characters (esp. in Calico Captive and the Witch of Blackbird Pond)
  • Clever comparison between cultures and belief systems
Eden (10) says:
"Elizabeth George Speare is a very good writer because she writes good stories with  strong female leads. Her stories are historically accurate and fun at the same time."
We didn't find the stories all resolved as we might have quite expected, which was a good discussion point! Either way, they have lingered with us more so than other books we've read, which is why we wanted to highlight them to you. We're looking forward to reading The Sign of the Beaver together later this year too.


We'd love to hear your experience of "discovering" new authors as you've home educated your tribe and what books have most resonated in your families. Please drop us a note in the comments below or on any of our platforms!

#charlottemason #ambleside #CalicoCaptive #BronzeBow #WitchofBlackbirdPond

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

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links for our show are all at the side.

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

Monday 20 January 2020

Season 6, Episode 12

In this episode we're on location with the chicken breeder where we plan to get our chickens from, we do some chicken impressions and then share what we're excited about for our upcoming trip to Florida.

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 mentioned include the 13 Storey Treehouse series

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.

Saturday 11 January 2020

Season 6, Episode 11

As we embark on a new decade, on a wet and windy January day we talk about the new channels we've launched and connections we've made with listeners, as well as our usual activities, read-alouds and learning since the start of the year.

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 mentioned include:
Eagle's Honour by Rosmary Sutcliffe
Our Universe - Russell Stannard
Quark Chronicles - Botany, by Ernest De Vore
13 Storey Treehouse series

Please follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Subscription links are all at the side, 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.


Saturday 4 January 2020

Our love of read-alouds

A selection of books we've studied...
Read-alouds are a big part of our Charlotte Mason approach. Each term we have a number of books we work our way through (often from the Ambleside book list, although we substitute/supplement a fair few these days to tailor to our own context - ie slightly less US history). (Can you spot any books you know in the picture?)


Especially with a range of ages in our household, the read-alouds are a really effective way our kids to connect with the stories and concepts we're looking at, and doing a chapter a day is a good pace too. Our older two narrate back their understanding of what's happened, which helps them stay engaged when they're listening and also to practice being able to articulate the flow of the story in their own words.

How we track progress each term
We also have a list of free-reads each year for our kids to read (again, mainly the older ones), and some of the more ambitious ones I (Luke) will read to them at bedtime. Although I have some flexibility in my working pattern, and get to take "home ed" days every few weeks, the vast majority of the time I miss all the learning fun in the day. As a result, bedtimes are my priority time to connect with each of our kids in turn and read to them.

There are so many benefits to reading aloud to children that I won't even attempt to cover them all here, as Jim Trelease's  Read Aloud Handbook articulates them so brilliantly. This is a must-read book in my opinion!

One book which isn't a read-aloud but is related is Alice Ozma's The Reading Promise, which tells the (true life) story of a father and daughter's relationship through the lens of the stories he reads to her every night for many many years. I especially liked this book becuase I value the relational time I spend with my daughters (and son!!) each night, but also becuase our podcast has also ended up being framed around a father-daughter conversation.

We'd love to hear your experience of read-alouds and what stories have most resonated in your families. Please drop us a note in the comments below or on any of our platforms!

#charlottemason #ambleside #readaloud #readingpromise

**********************************
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 somewhere!

Please like our Facebook page and join our community there, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

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