It’s packed full of activities, which cover the full Primary National Curriculum.
Of course, most of the activities involve items from the Frogotter Box, but you may well be able to adapt them to use items that you already have at home. If you need to, you can get individual items from our shop.
All the activities are designed to be used by a carer working alongside the child. There are a few thoughts here, which might explain why we reccomend doing the activities with your child.
And they are all designed to be repeatable as many times as you need, or want to play them. We have had loads of fun playing these activities either one-to-one, or with several children at once.
Our style of education is all about enjoying time together, playing and taking turns. Though we do believe that the Frogotter Box is a great resource, the most important resource a child can have is an involved and interested adult to play with.
I really hope that you’ll enjoy reading, and have fun trying out these activities with your child.
In case you’re wondering why I use the National Curriculum as a framework for my home education, I wrote a short piece about exactly that! Read it here.
A few years ago, I wrote a post about my favourite resources for primary education. It included: Scales, Maps, Chronology Sheet, Anatomy Model, Ray Box, Coins, Fabric Pens, Balloons, Two Colour Abacus, and Air-Drying Clay.
Obviously, what you need for a primary education was a key question when we were putting the Frogotter Box together. I wanted to gather the absolute minimum required to provide a complete primary education.
Scales, Maps, Chronology Sheet
Some items, like the scales, and a big map, are so brilliant, that they made it into the box pretty much unchanged. These are key resources for maths, science, and geography. I can’t imagine trying to educate without them!
The Chronology Sheet, took a bit more thought. There are loads available, and I spent some time considering all their benefits (I spotted that Jarfullofmoonbeams uses one from What On Earth Wall Books). In the end, though, I designed my own: the Time Snail. It’s simple enough for children to learn, and I am very pleased with the spiral effect, which I think really helps with the way that we compress the most distant past.
Big Time Snail Sheet
Coins, and Consumable Resources
Coins aren’t included in the Frogotter Box – though I still think that they are an important resource. It’s a really good idea to practise maths with coins, because it helps children learn the denominations. But, the box does include counters, which can be used for lots of counting and sorting games. The big 100 numbergrid is a brilliant addition to coins and really helps with seeing the patterns of numbers. My children have actually found it easier to use than the two colour abacus, so that’s been pushed off my list.
Fabric pens, air-drying clay and balloons are all consumable resources. I always have plenty of them in my house! They are so helpful for making learning hands-on. You can buy them pretty much anywhere, and I don’t have a favourite type. I stand buy these as vital supplies for science, art, history, geography and just having fun!
Big Anatomy Sheet (with alphabet in lower and upper case)
Anatomy Model, Ray Box
I would have loved to include an anatomy model in the Frogotter Box; they really are a wonderful resource for primary education. But, they’re just too expensive, and I think they would have nearly doubled the cost of the box! We’ve tried some small ones with the children, but young children find them too fiddly, and older children don’t find them detailed enough. So, I comprimised and drew my own simple anatomy sheet. It covers the skeletal system, the digestive system and the respiratory system. It comes without labels so that it can be used to remember the names of the main organs. Also, parents can choose how much detail to use at different ages.
The only thing left on my original list is the ray box. We do still use that quite a bit, and I still think it’s an excellent resource. It didn’t make it into the Frogotter Box, because it isn’t required for the National Curriculum at Primary level. So the Frogotter Box includes a mini electronics set instead. I bought my ray box from Better Equipped, who are great value for science lab supplies. Though you do also need a 12v power supply to connect it to.
Additional Resources
Some resources that I would add to my original list now would be a globe, and a set of geometric solids. Though maps are easier to examine, a globe is really important for helping children to picture a more realistic shape of the world. And geometric solids that can be picked up and moved around are vital for helping children with counting sides and corners!
My opinion of which resources are vital for primary education hasn’t changed much over the last few years. Which is a relief, as it means that my younger chlidren are getting a similar standard of education to my older ones!
I haven’t included any books, because there are too many, so I thought it deserved a seperate post. I’ll put that one up next week!
