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Category: Home Learning

  1. Making Maths Fun

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    Making Maths Fun


    Written by Sheila O’Reilly
    Www.instagram.com/rascals_and_rainbows

    I’m sure we are all pros at this homeschooling business at this stage right?!😅 Well I thought it might be helpful to share some ways to make Maths more fun, whether you are following home learning set out by school or making additional resources and activities to reinforce Maths concepts at home. 

    As we all know, young children learn best when they are playing and we need to make our maths activities practical and fun too. Children grasp concepts much more easily when they are meaningful and hands-on. Maths is all around us every day, when we check the time on our watch, pay for groceries, weigh fruit and veg etc. Therefore, we can introduce maths concepts to children at a young age. Real life experiences are by far the most meaningful for children and they, in turn, can imitate these situations in their play.

  2. Keeping fit and healthy in 2021-Part 2: Children’s physical health.

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    Keeping fit and healthy in 2021-Part 2: Children’s physical health.

    Written by Sheila O’Reilly
    Www.instagram.com/rascals_and_rainbows

    In my previous blog, I explored a variety of ways to look after our children’s mental health. Of course their physical health also needs our attention, particularly at the moment during lockdown. Even prior to this lockdown, my little girl hadn’t returned to swimming, tennis or dance lessons as most activities weren’t happening or I was too anxious to send her. So I’ve been trying to ‘think outside the box’ to be more creative in getting my girls moving every day.

    We get outdoors for a spell every day unless it’s really pouring down! We all need the fresh air for our mental health, as well as our physical health. To make walks more entertaining, I will usually have a focus for their attention such as a scavenger hunt, looking for nature clues, a colour hunt, bird spotting etc. They are much more enthusiastic when there’s a challenge involved (and will walk a lot further too!!)

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  3. Keeping fit and healthy in 2021 - Part 1: Children’s Mental Health

    Posted on

    Keeping fit and healthy in 2021-
    Part 1: Children’s mental health.


    Written by Sheila O’Reilly
    Www.instagram.com/rascals_and_rainbows


    Well it may be a new year but here we are back in another lockdown! Working from home, juggling parenting and homeschooling our children is quite a tall order for us all and no doubt the pandemic is taking its toll on our stress levels and mental health. We must remember too that this time is so challenging for our little people. They are missing their usual school routines, extra-curricular activities, mixing with their friends and getting out and about as a family. My own girls have accepted the changes in routine surprisingly well, but there have been tears and frustrations at times too when birthday celebrations have been cancelled, trips to the play park aren’t possible and swimming lessons or trips to the cinema are missed.

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  5. Phonics at Home

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    Supporting children at home with phonics
     
    By Sheila O'Reilly
    @Rascals_and_rainbows on Instagram
     
    Phonics is based on the fact that man spoke before he wrote! Phonological skills refers to hearing sounds in words. When we are teaching phonics to children, we teach them to 'Segment' - The ability to access the individual sounds in words; and 'Blend' - The ability to push sounds together in words; and 'Phoneme Manipulation' - Changing sounds in words. For example, say 'Stop' without the 's'. Say 'ten'. Say it again and change the 't' to 'p'.
     
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