World school: Term starts for Rafe and Odessa

September saw the start of the autumn term at Rafe and Odessa’s school at home in Chobham, which signalled the right time to get started on world schooling for the kids. Prior to leaving we had been in touch with teachers to scope out the curriculum for their classes – year 2 for Odessa and year 5 for Rafe. Now we’re on the road, both kids have been exchanging emails with their friends. Within the confines of what is possible, we are attempting to shadow or where possible enhance the topics and subjects which will be covered back home, so that they are able to integrate back in to school next year.

Of course, in addition to the school work we will be covering as they travel, the children will also be learning a huge amount of new things just from experiencing the world. Rafe has been in charge of finding the right route across Paris on the metro and converting local currencies back to GBP to check how much things cost. Odessa learnt the Arabic numerals to make sure we got to the platform and boarded the right train in Egypt. We researched what the muezzin is saying in the ubiquitous call to prayer throughout the Islamic world and both kids have been fascinated by the amount of nature- including bugs, birds and fish which they have encountered everywhere they go. There will be plenty more of these ad hoc learning opportunities as we travel onwards.

Journals

The kids were very kindly gifted a personalised journal each from their school before they left which they have been using to make a personal record of their adventures. Helping to keep up with their writing and English skills, the journals contain some fascinating entries, such as the one where Dessa chronicled the loss of her first tooth- named Toothy as the most interesting thing that happened in Paris.

Ancient Egypt

By coincidence, Year five started the year by studying ancient Egypt while we were in Egypt ourselves, presenting a golden opportunity to cover the material first hand. The kids learnt all about the details of the afterlife in the mummification museum in Luxor and how to write their names in hieroglyphics as well as learning about some of the pharaohs, what they had built and the gods they worshipped. After visiting the Luxor museum, Odessa made herself some jewellery inspired by the Egyptian designs.

Reading and writing: The Eye of the Wolf and The Last Wolf

Our road trip in the Omani desert was the perfect opportunity to unplug and concentrate on some reading. The first books covered by the children’s classes back at home were both wolf themed. Both kids were captivated by the tale of the connection between a wolf and a boy who have both seen and lost a lot in their lives. Meanwhile, year 2 have been studying The Last Wolf, a reimagined version of Little Red Riding Hood with an environmental twist for the current age. After reading the books, they worked on comprehension assignments and related tasks.

Mathematics

We have been downloading maths worksheets in line with their respective curriculums that the kids can complete along the way, as well as using logins to the same school maths games on their tablets that their classmates use. Rafe has been helping Odessa to learn her 2, 5 & 10 times tables and number bonds, while Rafe has been doing prime number investigations, long additions and subtractions, roman numerals and fraction sums.