Home Education – Project Dragon

We have home educated now for 17 months and we are loving every minute. It was the best decision we have ever made. It took a while to find our feet and de-school but it’s safe to say we know what works now and what doesn’t.

Our home learning is usually based around a theme or two, and I plan a couple weeks in advance which really helps us. I follow a lot of teachers and home educators for inspiration, but my favourite to follow is Teacher Glitter over on Twitter. Her ideas are amazing and this is where Project Dragon came from! She inspired us immensely!

Project Dragon was so well received by my boys despite them being ten and eight! You’re never too old for a bit of magic!

We’ve learnt how to paint in watercolours, draw in pastels, we’ve modelled with clay, researched artists & places, we’ve used our imagination, we have written poetry & stories, we have invented, we have experimented and read books, and we have had fun!

Having Dragons as a theme has really given us purpose in every area of our learning.

After looking at different types of dragons and dragon eggs on the internet we discovered Andy and The Dragons of Wales. His illustrations are incredible created!

I created a paper mache dragon egg to getvis into our project…they weren’t sure what to believe, but believe they did!

Paper Mache Dragon Egg

We researched the anatomy of a chicken egg and labelled all of the parts from memory. We used our exercise books to record the 4 stages of a dragons egg with labelled drawings . We designed our own dragon eggs and started a display board.

We then discussed the myth of dragons eggs exploding if they get too hot. This led us into our experiment testing out the effects of hot and cold on playdough. Twinkl had a great printable for this we used!

Hot & Cold Science Experiment with Playdoh

I then challenged them to invent a machine that would keep a dragon egg cool so that it wouldn’t explode. They got to work straight away thinking about the materials they would need and how their machines would work.

Dragon Egg Cooling Invention

I created a little box for our dragon egg ready for him to hatch…and hatch he did!

Pet Dragon

He became our new pet for a few days to take care of. He came with a new book about dragons by the wonderful Andy Shepherd, a letter and some hot chocolate sachets. The kids couldn’t decide on a name so they wrote a few and we pulled the name out of a hat; Rhaegal! The book, The Boy Who Grew Dragons, was to read each night as a family.

We took part in a dragon drawing tutorial online and then practised our watercolour skills again.

Dragon Art with Watercolours

Dragons are often found in Wales (didn’t you know!) so we decided to explore Wales, a country we love and visit often!

We decided to explore eyes as part of Project Dragon. We researched eye anatomy and labelled diagrams. We then decided to research artists who involved eyes as an integral part of their work. We came across Margaret Keane and we wrote a short bio on her through independent research.

We drew our own dragon eyes and used watercour on them. The boys knew the anatomy of a human eye so they incorporated the parts they wanted to. Then we progressed to clay dragon eyes.

Clay Dragon Eye Sculpting

With our whole theme being magical I challenged the boys to create a magic jar. Once they had created them they used them as a story creator. Their imaginations ran wild!

Magic Jars
Magic Jar Story Writing

This theme has worked so well and the possibilities are endless! I really recommend trying out themes!

One of our next big themes is The Ocean! We cannot wait to share it with you!