This week (as well as being the first anniversary of the initial UK lockdown) marks World Osprey Week. It’s been chosen to coincide with the week ospreys start returning to the UK to breed, after over-wintering in Africa or Southern Europe. You can read more about their return here.

Ospreys are incredible birds — real specialists, who only catch and eat fish. Watching an osprey hunt a fish is one of nature’s truly impressive sights:

The osprey was wiped out in the UK in the 19th century, but slowly started returning in the mid-20th century. Organised translocation projects have helped spread their range, with populations now growing in Scotland, Wales and parts of northern England. A group of organisations dedicated to protecting and helping ospreys have got together to provide resources to help children learn more about these incredible raptors.

Osprey Week Videos

This video sets the scene:

And this tells the history of the birds in the UK:

Activity Packs

The Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust is producing daily activity packs for download. You can subscribe to daily emails to remind you, and here are yesterday and today’s to allow you to catch up:

• 3 to 6 year olds: Day 1 | Day 2

• 7 to 11 year olds: Day 1 | Day 2

Osprey Week Competition

There’s also a competition to enter where your little ones could win a rucksack. Which brand? Osprey, of course!

Apologies for the week off. Now we know that home-schooling is on to at least March 8th, I needed to take some times to get my work ducks in a row to survive financially until then. However, I should now be in a more sustainable situation, so fingers crossed I’ll be sending these out more regularly.

The 2 Minute Beach School

My friends at the 2 Minute Foundation (my daughters are I are regular #2minutebeachclean participants), have launched a weekly home school video, focusing on, well, the beach and oceans in general.

Despite the name, it will give you over 20 minutes of entertained kids:

There are worksheets, a poster competition and parent and teacher notes, too.

Crafting for the community

I have a feeling February is going to be a tricky month: we have weeks to go until there’s any hope of lockdown easing, and the main signs of spring are still a little way off. How about spending a little crafting time creating something that will lift the spirits of the local community?

This is a great idea from the RSPB’s Laura Sherwood-King to create nature-themed displays in your window, to lift the spirits of those out on their daily exercise.

Forest Bathing at Home

I don’t know about you, but something I’m really missing during lockdown is trees. For all the coastal beauty of where I live, it’s a bit sparse on the old woodland front, and the nearest forest walks are just a little too far away for me to feel comfortable heading there under the “stay local” restrictions.

And so, Forestry England Forest Bathing activity sheets are a wonderful way for the girls and I to have a mindful woodland moment at home.

Here’s today’s resources to make the most of this precious (if a touch stressful) homeschooling time…

Batty about Bats

My youngest daughter is doing a reading comprehension exercise on bats today. If there’s time later on, how about making a… bat mask? Or doing a bat quiz?

Or, if you’re feeling ambitious, how about making a bat model?

Rapping Rock Pools

Week 2 of the Surfers Against Sewage Digital Ocean School covers rock pool creativity:

And there’s worksheets and Word Maps.

Seaweed Secrets

Staying with a marine theme, today’s Wildlife Wednesday video from the Wildlife Trusts is all about seaweed.

My children love seaweed:

Well, sort of…

Wild Weather

Fancy a longer-term project?

The RSPB has a set of resources on weather monitoring and learning, that you can use help your children learn as we move through the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

I hope these were useful, and you’re managing to have some fun with you homeschooling!

National Marine Aquarium’s Live Home Learning Sessions

This is going to be great for tired parents hitting the end of the week, with not much teaching energy left in the tank. The National Marine Aquarium is streaming some events every Friday for the next few weeks. Tomorrow, for example, they have:

• 1pm — Underwater Volcanoes (KS2)

• 1.30pm — Mermaid Tales (Early Years)

The sessions will be live on their YouTube channel, and will be available to watch afterwards.

Ocean Superheroes

Planing ahead for next week? The Marine Conservation Society has a webinar at 10am, designed for 7 to 11 year olds. It’s held on Zoom, and you can register here: Ocean Superheroes

Stop The Plastic Tide

A great, informative video lecture, also from the Marine Conservation Society:

Make a Shouting Shark

Because, really, who doesn’t want a shouting shark?

A fun crafting activity from Surfers Against Sewage.

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For the Grown-Ups

Last weekend I attended the Ocean Film Festival virtually and loved it. They have some other online events coming up, that you might want to check out.

My apologies for missing the last two days. Balancing jobs and home-schooling is always tricky, and sometimes side-projects have to take a backseat. I’m a little more organised now, so hopefully, I can get back into the daily groove.

But you’re not here to hear about that, are you? You’re here for the resources!

Onwards!

Map-Making

Aquila magazine are making their subscriber resources available for free during lockdown. Here’s a fun map-making activity that helps children focus on what maps are and what they do.

Digital Ocean School

Surfers Against Sewage have a digital ocean school, divided into week-long subjects. Week one is all about the rocky shore:

There’s a fact sheet and colouring sheet to support the video, among other resources.

Life as a 10 year old farmer

My daughters absolutely loved this:

It’s unusual for them to experience other children talking to them about animals, I think, and this little fellow did a good job in connecting with them.

Learn Birdsong

There are two things I’d like to be able to do — and which would be great for my daughters to learn, too:

1. Identify trees well

2. Identify birds by their song

This new YouTube series will help with (2) at least!

Grown-ups Corner

The Wildlife Trust have a lovely wee PDF of ideas of staying connected with nature while working from home.

And here’s some information about them:

• The Wildlife Trusts’ page on Magpies.

• Some Magpie facts for kids

• 21 facts about Magpies

• The Truth about Magpies — from the BBC

• This look at Magpies in folklore, and how it compares to the reality of their lives is fun.

• And here’s young Naturalist Dara McAnulty writing about them.

A magpie building its nest:

This video is an interesting one for slightly older children:

And, if you enjoyed the recent BBC version of Worzel Gummidge (and we did!), here’s the Unthanks, who did the music for it, singing Magpie. Again, one for older kids.

Weekend activities

Nearly the weekend folks! The first week of homeschool is nearly done. I’m not sure if I’ll send anything over the weekend, so here’s a couple of fun things to be going on with:

• Here’s a quick nature wordsearch from the Creature Candy folks (older children might enjoy the blogpost about encounters with seals)

• Millican bags has a whole load of nature-centric colouring sheets to download (and some are suitable for adults to destress with in the evening, too…)

Underground nesting ducks?

They deserve a day to themselves!

• Sussex Wildlife Trust information on Shelducks

• WWT page on where different species of ducks nest

• RSPB information on Shelducks

• David Attenborough talking about Shelducks

• An Autumnwatch article on Shelducks

And here’s a couple of videos:

The Lifecycle of the Shelduck

Secrets of the Shelduck

This is a long one — good for getting some work done, or a sanity break after two days of home-schooling!

Welcome to the first issue of Wild Home School. It’s a simple idea: between three to five online resources that you can use to keep your children educated, entertained and connected with nature during this lockdown.

Here’s today’s batch. I hope you find them useful — and please do send any feedback, so I can improve future issues! (Suggestions of resources to include particularly great full received…)

Become a tree expert in three minutes

A useful little video from the Wildlife Trusts, that will give you enough time for a cuppa and a biscuit…

Winter Lockdown Activities

The Woodland Trust has been quick out of the gate (metaphorically speaking, as we’re all staying home, right?), with a new page of winter lockdown activities for children. There’s a nice mix of indoor challenges, if the weather is poor, and outdoor activities, to be completed on your daily exercise.

Storytime: Winter Worries

The RSPB has a lovely little story about a hedgehog’s concerns about winter. It’s all in aid of teaching about hibernation.

Learning About Ecosystems

BBC Bitesize has a great page and video about humans and their impact on ecosystems, that’s a really good primer for children on ecology.

Conservation Farming

An interesting video from EatFarmNow’s lockdown learning series. Great if your little ones love animals.

More information on Teleri and her farm on the site.

Good luck with the day ahead, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Many of the UK’s fabulous wildlife and nature bodies have produced great educational resources during the first lockdown and the time since. I used them back during the spring, to help keep my children connected with nature. After all, the current crisis could be just a foreshadowing of the next big one: the climate crisis. And the more connected the next generation are to the natural world, the better.

If I’m doing the work to gather resources for my daughters from the different organisations, why not share the results of that work with others?

Hence, the Wild Home School newsletter you’re now reading. 

This was an idea I had during the first lockdown, but never had the time to implement. And during the second lockdown, schools stayed open, and so it wasn’t an issue.

But now, with most of the UK in Tier 4, and restrictions only likely to grow, many parents are back to home-schooling their offspring, including me. So, I’m kicking off the newsletter with the first school week of 2021, and seeing where it goes. My daughters’ school has made the decision to close for safety reasons, so I’m going to be doing the work anyway. 

Kick-off resources

Here’s a few things to get you started:

• The RSPB is running its annual Big Garden Bird Watch at the end of January. You can sign up here and get your kit. And here’s a video that explains how you can get involved even if you don’t have a garden:

• The Wildlife Trusts’ 12 days wild Christmas challenge is winding up — but the resources are still online. 

• The Sussex Wildlife Trust still has its worksheets up from the first lockdown. This one on trees and pebbles is good value in these dark winter days. 

• Do you know what ancient woodland is — and why it’s so important? The Woodland Trust has you covered. 

If you want more resources like this, sign up now so you don’t miss the first issue.

Subscribe now

In the meantime, tell your friends!