Season 12 - Episode 22

It's our last episode of this season, and an exciting moment as Eden shares her GCSE results and reflects on her 12 year home ed journey before she starts Sixth Form. We're all sharing some summer highlights and things we're looking forward to in the autumn.We also share some tough health news and what that means for the podcast going forward.

Season 12 - Episode 21

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.

Season 12 - Episode 20

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.

Season 12 - Episode 19

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!

Season 12 - Episode 18

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.

Season 12 - Episode 17

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!

Season 12 - Episode 16

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 rehearsals for their upcoming shows, and Asher's doing an audit.

Season 12 - Episode 15

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 GCSEs. Plus we're all sharing recommendations and what we're looking forward to over Easter.

Season 12 - Episode 14

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.

Season 12 - Episode 13

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 with their youth group. 

Season 12 - Episode 12

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 games cafe, and we've got some book and game recommendations to share!

Season 12 - Episode 11

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.

Season 12 - Episode 10

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!

Season 12 - Episode 9

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.

Season 12 - Episode 8

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..!

Season 12 - Episode 7

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 we mention include Everstromn hobbies, Dice and Destiny, Shelby on Safari and the Mad Hatter.

Season 12 - Episode 6

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 and Dionysia.

Season 12 - Episode 5

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 listen to any of our 199 previous episodes from the last decade they are all available to listen to directly on our website www.homeedmatters.co.uk

 

Season 12 - Episode 4

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 games designer, the kinds of subjects they studied, what games inspired them, what games they're proud of and why are game boards often square or rectangular!

Huge thanks to the contributions we received from Gamely, Dranda Games, Professor Puzzle, Helvetiq, Catch Up Games, Button Shy and Off the Page Games. We'll be featuring some of the games from these companies in future episodes and on our website, so watch this space!

Season 12 - Episode 3

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 and shows they're currently enjoying!