Mrs Bryant's Home Learning Experience - with some ideas!

Mrs Bryant’s home school experience!

Hello everyone – I am one of the Reception teachers at Trumpington Meadows and usually split my week between teaching and looking after my own children. However, for now I am in the same boat as you trying to home school my Reception age daughter at home. Freya is 5yrs old and together we have been trying out a few ideas at home that I thought might be useful to share with you. The majority of ideas have come from her and I would stress that this is a great place to start; pick up on something your child is interested in and develop it from there. The following activities are things she has really enjoyed and might be a good starting point for your child too.

Literacy:

I wrote words on sticky notes and hid them around the house for Freya to find. She loved it! She also counted as high as she could whilst she waited for me to hide them. You could then construct a sentence or invent a story out of the words found.
Playing schools - Freya has been pretending to be the teacher and teach me and this actually gives a really great insight into what children know. She wrote out tricky words and taught them to me, then did a phonics session and 'read' me a story.
Writing for a purpose - Freya has enjoyed writing lists for little jobs we are going to do that day, she folds it up and puts it in her pocket with a little pen and ticks them off when (if!) the jobs get done.
Writing to grandparents – we have already had a few birthdays and anniversaries that we couldn't be together to celebrate so the children and I have made cards and Freya has written a message inside for us to take photos of and text/email to relatives.
Milk-bottle tops - Freya kept asking me how to write certain letters/digraphs and saying that she had forgotten how to write them (she's been off school for 2 weeks) so I've written each one out on old milk bottle tops so she has them to refer to. I’ve also written them onto A4 and stuck them onto the wall for her to refer to.
Writing in response to an experience - the smallest experiences can prompt writing from a child for example; Freya wrote the tomato seeds we had just planted a note of apology after her 2 yr old sister tipped them all over the floor! She wrote a little note to her friend who she could see playing in her garden from a distance. She wrote to the dead ladybird that she found!
Making books - currently Freya loves to stick little bits of paper together to make a book (our class were really enjoying this too). She makes lots of 'lift the flap' books.
Freya made a simple little post box for her bunny (out of an old cereal packet) and one for herself – she wrote a note to her bunny and posted it and then I wrote a reply.

Maths:

Freya was asking me what certain numbers looked like as she tried to complete a number puzzle so we made a set of number cards together and stuck them along the dining room wall (it's starting to look like a classroom!) She's referred to them a few times. We put the corresponding number of dots next to each numeral so she could check what each number was by counting if she wasn’t sure.
After Freya found some ladybird friends in the garden we talked about how many spots they had and drew pictures with a certain number of spots each side and then added them together. We then wrote as number sentences such as 5 + 3 = 8
Baking/gardening/sandpit - we've come across LOADS of opportunities with these activities to count/weigh/measure.
Playing shops -Freya loved making the price tags

Communication and Language:

Growing tomatoes – Freya talks a lot about what she can see everyday as we watch them grow. Can be done on a windowsill in old yoghurt pots.
Role-play - with a few simple props and her imagination Freya has been to so many more exciting places than home! I gave them (her and her sister) swimming costumes and sunhats and they went to the beach. I gave her a back pack and a torch and she went exploring up a mountain! I gave them a few plasters and wipes and they were doctors/vets/nurses. It seems that as long as she is given something ‘real’ that is not a toy it sparks her interest and imagination.

Physical Development:

Story Yoga with Cosmic Kids on youtube. Freya loved this. So far we've done 'Going on a Bear Hunt' https://youtu.be/KAT5NiWHFIU
Skipping/obstacle course/throwing and catching
Going for a run with Mummy (only managed that once so far!)