November was definitely the month of two halves. We had a fabulous start to the month in Malaga, Spain and then we returned to the miserable UK for a wetter second half of the month!
After an intense fortnight of using our Spanish skills, it was good to return home and work on all the other subjects we usually do.
What we’ve been up to
Subjects/Activities done jointly
RE – after completing the six-week course on Buddhism run by Humanatees, we read further about Buddhism using the Explore RE KS3 textbook. We then took our studying on the road and paid a visit to the Manchester Buddhist Centre. You can read more about our visit below.
Forest School – we had two visits into the woods this month and did the usual campfire cooking and den-building; all made more challenging by the dreadful weather.
Youth Club – the girls have continued to attend this weekly group and are forming some lovely friendships with the other regulars.
Project Fair – the theme for this half-term’s home ed project fair was “celebrations”, and the girls did a joint display on the festivals celebrated in Spanish speaking countries. This is a topic in Spanish GCSE so it was great to approach the learning in a different way. The girls each wrote about two festivals and did their presentation board in both English and Spanish.
Spanish GCSE June 2024 – on our return from two weeks of practising Spanish in Malaga, we cracked on with learning more new grammar. It’s not that fun but it’s got to be done!
GCSE subjects done separately
Latin June 2025 – We’ve abandoned Latin for now. We’re struggling to fit every subject in and Aggie understandably wants to concentrate on the subjects she’s doing in June 2024. So, the books are back in the cupboard but, I’m hoping they’ll come out again very soon….
Classical Civilisation June 2024 – Peggy has pretty much completed the paper 1 material on the Humanatees course and we’ve started to look at the style of questions that will appear in the exam. We’ll be starting paper 2 material in the new year and so we’ll spend December consolidating what we’ve learned on paper 1. We’ve chosen to do Roman City Life for paper 2 rather than Homeric World which is what Humanatees does. I’ve therefore got a busy few weeks ahead of me getting everything ready for going it alone in January.
Psychology June 2024 – Aggie has completed units 2 and 3 of her pre-recorded course by Survive Succeed Achieve and has done really well in her mini-assessments. She continues to work on this subject very independently with very little assistance from us. We’re super proud of her attitude towards this GCSE.
Other subjects done separately
Maths – both girls are reluctantly plodding through the year 8 and 9 textbooks but great progress is being made. I do believe there were even glimpses of enjoyment on some pages now things are getting a bit more challenging.
English – The girls are continuing to work through the Hodder KS3 English anthology series doing one extract a week.
German – Peggy is continuing to fly through the CGP KS3 book and is also using Duolingo. She’s decided she wants to do the GCSE in June 2025 so she’s trying to do some element of German every day.
Coding – Peggy is continuing her Python 100 day course and has been working on some small games. A few of the days were particularly difficult so Dom had to step in to help; some hard bits were definitely a joint effort!
Criminology – Aggie completed another four-week course on criminology run by Kate Law Tutoring and again LOVED it. She even got out of the pool in Malaga to attend the live lesson.
Music
The girls’ brass band had an important role in our local Remembrance Day service this month and they also did their first Christmas event at a local church fair.
The girls have been working super hard on their Addams Family Musical production ready for show day on 2 December. Costumes are ready, lines have been learned and the month ended with several dress rehearsals at the theatre where the show will take place. We can’t wait to see the final production!
Sports
Aggie’s had her usual swimming and gymnastics training and both girls have each played a competitive hockey tournament this month.
Day Trips and One-off activities
We’ve had many trips out this month. I think I booked a lot in knowing we’d feel meh after returning from sunny Spain!
National Videogame Museum – we attended an excellent workshop at this museum and thoroughly enjoyed a trip down memory lane playing with videogames from our youth. You can read about our visit here.
Manchester Buddhist Centre – we rounded off our Buddhism studies with a visit to this centre. It wasn’t at all what we were expecting (poor research on my part!) but it was a fantastic visit never the less which made us, especially the adults, evaluate our lives.
We went to the cinema to see The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds. Both girls love this series of books and films and so they were keen to watch the final instalment. It did not disappoint.
Leeds Armouries – we attended a WW1 workshop at this museum which we’d never been to before. The workshop was brilliant and the museum was really interesting. We’d definitely like to return. We’ll write up our visit very soon.
So that was November!
A super busy month with lovely sun and warmth at the start in Spain and lots of indoor activities back in the rainy UK.
