Home Ed Matters Podcast

As we're approaching the end of our academic year, Mirabelle's been doing an in-depth geography and art study of the Pacific Islands - including some tasty recipes! Meanwhile Eden's reflecting on the taster day she recently attended for her next steps starting A-Levels in the autumn.

It's a big moment as Eden reflects on finishing her GCSEs, marking a time of transition in the family. Mirabelle's discussing her Pacific Islands study and a fun trip to Southport, and Asher's discussing a fantastic trip to the UK Games Expo.

This time round Mirabelle's been enjoying Horrible histories and trips to Blists Hill and Birmingham Thinktank. Plus she's been observing the house sparrows and making ice cream for the dogs during the heatwave! Eden's midway through her GCSEs and sharing how the hunt is going for a summer job. Asher's discussing his new swimming routine, and we're all reflecting on the Mandalorian movie!

In this episode Mirabelle's talking about experiments about friction, planting seeds, her summer reading challenge and her trip to Slimbridge wetlands centre. Meanwhile Asher's talking about his new swimming club, Lego and Minecraft. And Eden's giving last minute tips as she's about to start sitting her final batch of GCSEs.

In this episode Mirabelle is reflecting on her recent role in a performance of Alice in Wonderland, as well as her new science club, experiments exploring friction, and her latest cold war topic.  Meanwhile Asher's building a new chicken run, cooking fajitas and sharing about a couple of junior parkrun milestones he's reached!

This time round we're sharing the various activities we've been up to over the Easter holidays including a visit to the Staffordshire Regiment Museum, Cadbury World, cloud-watching at Birmingham Botanical Gardens, seeing the Magic Faraway Tree at the cinema, an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet and making Warhammer's miniature of the month. Plus Eden and Mirabelle give the lowdown on their dress rehear...

In this episode we are discussing our cute new chicks along with the various breeds of chickens we've had over the years. Mirabelle's sharing about the Oceans film she went to see as part of her ecology study, and the books she's reading on her WW2 topic. Meanwhile Asher's sharing about what he's learnt on Minecraft recently, and Eden is talking about how best to peak with her revision before GCSE...

This time round Mirabelle is enthusing about her visit to Crufts, studying tadpoles and spotting some interesting birds in the garden, as well as sharing some of the books she's studying. Asher and Luke have a fun trip to London. Eden's making progress with revision, reaching a volunteering milestone at parkrun and getting creative painting Warhammer miniatures.

It's a theatrical episode this time, with Mirabelle sharing about her trip to see Percy Jackson at the Hippodrome, and Eden talking about a play about the musical battle between Blur and Oasis. Plus Mirabelle's discussing the book and film of War Horse, her new ecology topic around biomes, and what we did to celebrate Pokemon Day! Finally Asher and Eden are (tiredly) discussing a busy weekend away...

This time round Eden's giving the lowdown on her recent mocks, Asher's talking about finishing his PSHE course and shares some big news about his next steps. Mirabelle's talking about some recent books she's finished. Plus we're talking about seeing the Hunger Games show, Eden and Asher are talking about their time in the production team for an event, we're enthusing about a trip to our local game...

In this episode Mirabelle is talking more about her space topic, including making an asteroid belt, doing a tasty experiment about moon phases and learning about crater formation. Asher's discussing a recent mental health module he's just completed for a PSHE course, and Eden's talking about her latest role as assistant run director at junior parkrun.

This episode Mirabelle is talking all about the planets, including experiments she's been doing about their spacing, orbit and rotation. We've found some really interesting animal prints in the snow in our garden, Asher's talking about his new art group, and we're making some recommendations for excellent games, books and shows!

Happy New Year! In this episode we're sharing our best moments and presents from Christmas and New Year including our annual board games marathon on New Year's Eve. Plus we're looking back over 2025 and looking forward to 2026.

We're feeling very Christmassy this episode! We're featuring our #gifted trip to Silverstone's Lap of Lights, talking about some of our Christmas traditions (and how we're including our dogs and chickens this year), deciding on our favourite Christmas films, talking about books (as usual) and more..!

It's December! This time we're enthusing about our trip to MCM ComicCon in Birmingham, Mirabelle's talking about her universe topic and the lifecycles of stars. Asher's discussing his recent exercise module and how it's impacted his times at Junior Parkrun, and Eden's discussing mock exams and past papers. Plus we're thinking ahead to what we're looking forward to over the Christmas period. Links...

This time round Asher is talking about his latest PHSE course module, and helping change a car battery. Mirabelle is talking about the gases in the air around us and the story of flight. Eden's excited about her next steps for A-levels, and we're all talking about Stir Up Sunday, a film festival, and our latest family read aloud. Plus we're reviewing two games from Button Shy Games : Tussie Mussie...

It's our 200th episode! To celebrate we've got a bumper edition with highlights from our recent cruise around northern Europe and visits to Hamburg, Rotterdam, Brugge and Honfleur. Plus we're reviewing two fantastic games we were given by the nice team at Gamely games after they answered our questions for our boardgames focused last episode: Clues in Twos and The Pretender. In case you want to lis...

Boardgames special! Like many home ed families we're huge boardgames fans and as we start to think about skills and subjects for future success we reached out to a number of boardgames designers and producers with some questions on the topic. In this episode we're discussing the thoughtful and insightful answers we got from a range of fab companies - questions around the skills that make a good ga...

This time round Asher is discussing natural disasters from his Environmental Management course and Mirabelle is discussing cholera and famine in the Victorian era. More positively Mirabelle is doing tasty experiments studying genes and dna, and Eden is auditioning for roles in a forthcoming play. Plus the kids are enthusing about a climbing trip and making recommendations of books, games, films an...

In this episode we're discussing book adaptations, visiting Birmingham Botanical Gardens and the Back to Backs. Plus Asher is talking about the board game design course he's doing, Mirabelle's talking about some books she's working through in her Victorians topic, and Eden's reflecting on two weeks back at college and various groups. Plus the kids are making recommendations again at the end of the...

We're back with a new season as we start our 12th year of Home Education! As Eden goes into Year 11, Asher into Year 9 and Mirabelle into Year 5 we share some of the topics and approaches we're using this year. We're also sharing about what we're looking forward to this term, plus recommendations from the kids on things they are enjoying at the moment!

In this episode we're camping in the Lake District and attending the 150th Keswick Convention, plus making a quick trip to Scotland! Plus we're excited about our three new chickens, and staying busy over the summer.

We're enjoying our summer holidays, but Eden and Asher are pushing on with some of their GCSE studies regardless. Mirabelle's sharing about the paw print badge projects we're doing, we share about a fun trip to Southport and Blackpool, and we look ahead to a trip to the Lake District.

We've finished another academic year! Eden's discussing how her last GCSE exam (this year) went and what she's studying over the summer. Mirabelle gives an update on her summer reading challenge, and we head for a wonderful break in Devon including a (windy) recording on the amazing Lundy Island!

As we're approaching the end of our academic year, Mirabelle and Asher are sharing some of the year-long book studies they've recently finished. Plus we're visiting a farm for Open Farm day to tie into our Environmental Management studies, and looking ahead to an exciting holiday to north Devon.