Homeschool: Lifecycle of a Frog

Given the current state of affairs with the school system and politics I'd really love to homeschool Kit (I'll save my rant for another day when I have more time). I've been testing it out, and it's incredibly appealing, the idea that I could educate him while I enjoyed a coffee at my new favourite cafe (if you are ever in Beckenham with a small child it's Deli Nene and the play area is as big as the seating area). I'm only really supporting Kit's learning from pre-school, he does actually miss out a little bit on the activities that they do at pre-school because he only goes for three days, although I'm sure it makes no difference. The fact that his pre-school teacher says that his favourite activity is running up and down the corridor might be more of an issue in whether he actually gets involved in the topics they cover. I know that he does though, and at his age I really don't think it matters that much, but it is nice to take advantage of the sponge-like state of his brain at the moment so when he shows an interest in something I jump on it.

This term they are planning on covering 'lifecycles' although the plan is that they will just watch a caterpiller transform into a butterfly, and as Kit started pre-school early he actually did that with them last year. We had 'rescued' some frogspawn from the path at a local park and Kit had paid an interest into what it was, so to support his learning about 'lifecycles' we've been looking at the frog lifecyle. I bought him a set of frog lifestyle figures, and some for the butterfly and ladybird too, and he has been enjoying figuring out the order and understanding the transformation. We've looked in the pond where we rescued the frogspawn to, looking to see if the tadpoles have grown and will hopefully find a frog there one day. We are rummaging in the charity shop book sections for frog books (most people would probably use the library for this, but until I manage to refigure my brain to remember to take Kit's library card with me, or to actually return the books on time if I take them out on my card it's cheaper for us to buy 50p secondhand books than to borrow them and incur the inevitable fine). Our favourite find has been The Teeny Weeny Tadpole, which I like because I think it also echoes the stage Kit is in at the moment developmentally where he is struggling with wanting to be able to do everything but not quite being capable of it all yet.

I'm literally just following Kit's lead, the materials are out there, and I'm going to do some sensory play with him later (I will share) and make some nonclamature cards for both lifecycles. When he has questions or wants to talk I just answer them.