So we did it.

One full week of home educating our eldest daughter Jasmine.

It was fairly full on juggling work, family life and ‘actively educating’ but it was loads of fun!

For our first week we learnt about Portugal as we were ending the week on holiday there (sadly this will not happen every week).

We kicked off the week with a Portuguese lesson via Facetime with my good friend Natalia. We also did a quiz on Portugal, coloured in the Portuguese flag and learnt some Portuguese dancing off Youtube.

Jasmine continued to go to her play groups so she has spent time with other little children (feel the need to justify myself!).

The highlight of the week was of course going to Portugal and putting what we had learnt into action.

There, we stayed by the coast near Ferrogudo at a gorgeous spa hotel called Vale D’Oliveiras. Our room temptingly (for my partner Chris) looked onto a beautiful golf course.

It was a nice chilled holiday where we did sports together as a family whilst recapping on our Portuguese.

On one of our day trips, to nearby Carvoeiro, we walked to the top of the hill to see the church and look down on the famous caves which feature on a lot of famous photos of the Algarve. There was also a school at the top of the hill overlooking the beautiful landscape of sand and sea.

It truly has been an amazing start to our home education journey but like with anything, preparation is key (thinking ahead). Plus we have found that by using a folder to store all the themes and what she has achieved useful.

My partner Chris and I have shared the teaching and childcare.

And we both agree that no matter whether Jazz is homeschooled or goes to school we shall continue working with a theme each week and creating fun and useful learning activities.

#HomeEdJourney

PS/ As we got back from Portugal halfway through the week 2 of home education, we’ve used the last few days to look at Birthdays. So we’ve made cake, learnt about days and weeks and months of the year as well as learning family members birthdays. Luckily, we were also invited to a birthday party.