Art

We went to arts and crafts this morning and I took some colouring in things hoping Thee might do some to help build the muscles in his hand for writing. We did a picture together. J also did one. I had brought a step by step drawing book but it was not the one that J wanted (the one she wanted was a Christmas present she had been given). Anyway we had fun mingling and chatting with the other mums.

We got home near 2 pm in time for me to grab some lunch and a cuppa then we donned our coats and umbrellas and walked the dog (a pavement route round the village), it was only lightly raining and the kids enjoyed playing, it was lovely, we played and walked for an hour.

Tonight whilst I got Thee to bed and have been on the computer J diligently sat downstairs and got out her art book that I forgot to bring. She drew this beautiful picture and was rightly proud of it.

LOL just before bed she asked me who Napoleon was so we did a bit of history ;-)

Learning

I am reading this book by Frank Smith all about how we learn and how we forget. It can be a challenging book as it confronts the common held views of how education works and disputes them. But I am enjoying it and it is making a lot of sense that will no doubt help my children as they learn. He states how we need to understand something in order to learn it, not to learn something to understand it. You can take a subject like maths and the reason it can take someone years and years to do the work and still not learn it, is that they have never really understood it in the first place.

I have a friend that autonomously educated her children. This friends background is in maths. She did no formal maths with her children until they were near 14. Before that, she exposed them to maths in every day and wherever the opportunity arose. They also played lots of math based games and mental maths type things. Her children understood maths. Her daughter got an A in the GCSE with only 2 years of formal maths tuition. I hope to learn a lot from her example.

Our afternoon

This afternoon, I decided we would go on a dog walk that I had not been on since Summer. It involved going round the edge of the farm field and this was nice, the kids had fun going in the long grasses. It was great. Then to get home we either walked back or THROUGH the farm field so I chose the latter and we started. Well I have never seen so much mud. With each step our wellies got heavier and heavier as they were building up with 7 inches of mud all around. Thee had to hold onto me to walk as his wellies were too heavy, he fell over, lost his welly a few times. Then J who was further ahead fell INTO the mud, she was absolutely covered and was clearly struggling almost to the point of tears. We could have gone back at this point but it was as hard to go back as it was to go on. So I did all I could do (even though my brain was doubting if the kids could make it back, it was a long way) I laughed at the ridiculous sight of us all covered in mud and struggling, then we all started laughing and I was crying with laughter. There was so much mud!!!!! We squelched our way home but went on a detour via the ford where we washed our wellies and let Oscar wash his paws. J almost sat in the ford as she was so covered in mud. We got home, stripped off and washed, I mopped the muddy kitchen floor. I can say is Ariel is great as it managed to get the mud out of J's pale blue ski trousers. All that took us an hour and five minutes. I think we will stick to pavement walking until the ground freezes over or Summer appears.

A new book came today that I saw at my sisters and Thee asked if we could do some. So he had a look through and we chose some science experiments to do. I was impressed as they took little time to set up and do but were fun. We looked at flotation, gravity, friction and light spectrum. Sometimes I had to simplify the explanations into something Thee could understand as the book says it is for ages 8 upwards. But he even got the plumb line about gravity and proceeded to tell me how the spell on Wizards of Waverley Place was about walking up walls and it mentioned gravity be gone. So the spell made sense to him now he understood more about this force.

Thee practised some handwriting mainly on the whiteboard and then copied some of mine into his book. He read to me a phonics reader. He also played on Starfall, though I did not want him on it too long as the American pronunciation may mean he sounds less English if he copies it LOL

J played on Cool Math, a site that they played on at school and she remembered it. It was lovely to see her enjoying maths and that it was something of her own choosing to do. She also did some handwriting but I couldn't find the book she wanted, so offered her A Reason For Handwriting. I found her Getty Dubay Italics book later though!

Today was a very relaxed day, and I hope to have more of them with laughter and learning.

My Emi xxx

I had a bit of a wobble in my last blog post with regrets, and I took stock of it and erased the post choosing to focus on the now and keep on moving on.

It can be hard home educating. Nobody tells you how to do it, you have to figure it out on your own. You can read all the theories out there but you still have to apply it to your children. You can't be seen by mainstream school mums to not know what you are doing or when you have a wobbly as their solution is you should send your kids to school.

Now my Emily has done so well, she is amazing. I dropped her off today at the train station so she could get the direct train back to Manchester where she is at the university there doing Photography. I miss her when she goes, we have spent such a lot of time together being home educated and I have watched her grow. I miss her humour and our little chats, but I am proud of her for going after the things she wants and trying so hard to get there.

She played lots as a child and managed to do her GCSE's in a year which was a lot of work. She achieved this near her 17th birthday. She got into a Sixth Form in Cambridge and every day for 2 years I would drop her off at the bus stop at 7.15am for her to go the hour bus journey into school. Then pick her up from the bus stop at the end of the day. I have to admit to being glad when that all ended LOL.

Emily is amazing to me, she has offered me so much and I have learnt so much from her being in my life. It guides me in how I want to be today.

Today I want to offer lots to my younger two as learning is not this thing you shy away from. I want more open conversation with them about their needs and their interests. I want to show them why it might be important to know how to write an essay or a book report. I want to expose them to so much and because I am a planner, it is easier for me to sit down and plan some things I want to do with them, some projects they may like. I want to expose them to more maths, in the form of games and easy explanations. I just need to come up with a plan that equips my children for the future for any path they want to take!

What we have been doing recently

Thee watched Kung Fu Panda a week ago and since then has been asking about oriental food. First I showed him how to make noodle soup using rice noodles I had in, he can now do this himself and had it for lunch and dinner. Today he told me Po put green things in the soup so I put celery in (he didn't like it) but later he told me the green thing was long with some white on it and I think it is spring onion, so we will try that next. Today he asked me for dumplings so we set about making them. He shaped them himself and watched them cook. He enjoyed his dumplings and Emily (19) enjoyed one too.

Whilst I was sat going through books for ideas of things to do, Thee decided to do a Charlie and Lola puppet show for me :-)
He also did some stickers of funny faces, a book he got when we visited Santa.

Whilst I sat surrounded by books against the radiator drinking cups of tea, Thee sat with me and did a Perpetual Puzzle, he did really well on it. I enjoyed doing this on Christmas day.
Theo got a bouncy ball making kit from my Auntie and we had fun as soon as we got home making it, it only took a few minutes but both him and J gave made one, he was so excited to do it!


J asked for a magic tree for Christmas, it was something she really wanted. We enjoyed watching the crystals grow.

A New Year

It is our second year officially home educating J and Thee. Our lives have become so relaxed and peaceful.

But the new year gave me lots to think about regarding homeschooling and where I fit on the spectrum if I fit anywhere at all. I really don't know any more. What I do know is I enjoy following blogs of certain people who I find inspiring and getting ideas and inspiration from them to apply in MY life. I have been reading lots from my books and remembering a particularly inspiring homeschooler whose children are now grown and I have learnt a lot from her.

To give you clues, I have been reading Holt, Gatto, Sandra Dodd, The Unschooling Handbook and Radical Unschooling. I am sure of where I am going with my family and what we will do tomorrow. Dh is not too sure as he has seen people follow this path who have not achieved the academics but I feel the children were not academically inclined and their talents lay elsewhere and that is where their life path will take them. He wants structured homeschooling as he fears unschooling will fail the children, but I don't have doubts about that now, I am sure.

So tomorrow dh asks if we will start back homeschooling and I will tell him yes and he will ask what we have done today. But I know as long as we fill our day with fun things to do and we read and play games, it will be worth it building memories for my children that will last a lifetime