I’m Amy, a stay at home mum and ex-primary school teacher from the York area. During the last year, I’ve created, written, illustrated and launched a learning magazine for children of Primary School age.
Going into Lockdown in March 2020, my husband & I decided to defer our daughter’s first year at school and homeschool her instead. We made the decision as a way of shielding her younger brother, who had been left with a bad chest following a recent illness and to regain some control of a really uncertain situation. Being a Primary teacher, I knew I’d find the planning and teaching side easier (although navigating this around a growing toddler has been challenging at times).
I found that coming up with new, fun ideas, gave me a real purpose and focus away from what was going on in the news. We focused our learning on different topics and so far have covered Plants and Flowers, Minibeasts, Under-the-Sea and Space. Friends of mine encouraged me to get online and share my ideas on social media so I did. I set up under the name of Lizzie Loves Learning (named after my daughter) on both Instagram & Facebook and discovered people, like me, sharing ideas, parents looking for help and a new community to interact with.
For fun, I started drawing and painting the things that we were learning about and rediscovered a love of art that I hadn’t thought of since my teenage years. I started to think about how I could use what I was doing as a business idea, which I could grow alongside looking after my young family and something that others might enjoy or find useful. After bouncing several ideas around friends and trying out various prototypes, I came up with the idea of a learning magazine.
Lizzie Loves Learning Magazine is a 16-page printed magazine, illustrated in hand-painted watercolours. It is also written by myself and packed full of facts, craft, science, games, colouring and more. It is aimed at children of primary age with the thought that younger children will enjoy reading and doing the activities with an adult or older sibling, whilst older children will be able to access it more independently. The first issue is all about life under the sea and is on sale now at www.lizzieloveslearning.com.