NotSheep

Blogging at 9.20 a.m. because I never seem to get the time later on!

(edit: well, I started at 9.20!)

Yesterday found us hard at work again. Barney and George have started using a creative writing book and they’re enjoying using that to plan horror stories - we’ll see how it goes later today when they actually have to write stories based on their plans They are both still enjoying learning Latin, and we’ve started (another) project on the Romans, since we have so many resources we never got to using last time Other current projects include one on weather (and what makes it happen), based on The Weatherbirds (which is a lovely book - highly recommend it), one on maps - how they’re made, technology for, history of, etc., and another on the solar system (which, to be honest, is probably going to last all of five minutes, because Barney and George already know about six times as much as me about it, and I’ve done the OU course! LOL)

Barney’s maths skills are very good - he’s working about three years ahead of where he’d be in school. This is the right level for him - he can do the stuff, but he has to think about it; in other words it challenges him but he doesn’t struggle with it. What he struggles with is his concentration - it’s “write down a number, inspect my pencil, write down the next number, ask a question about something completely irrelevant, write down a number…” etc. Thus the maths takes much longer than it should - which is frustrating for both of us It’s not that he doesn’t like the maths - it’s just that there are far too many other things competing for his attention! I think he’s ready to look at a lot of subjects in more depth now, so if anyone has any wonderful KS3 resources, let me know!

George has a flair for languages; he picks them up very easily, so he’s enjoying French and Latin, though to be honest I can’t think of a subject he doesn’t enjoy. He’s finding his literacy and maths stuff easy at the minute, so I’ve sped up the rate at which we’re doing that.

Freddy has requested that I teach him Latin too - the Minimus books are just too appealing to be left to older brothers So we’ve made a start on that. This time last year, his reading skills weren’t really good enough to use a lot of the materials we have, but now - well, he can read anything he wants, so the world is his oyster He’s joining in with several of the projects that Barney and George are doing too.

Jack is quite determined to be in the middle of it all - and if I’m not careful, in the middle of everything else too! I’m struggling to find things to keep him occupied, to be honest. If I give him a sheet to practice counting or colour in or write on or whatever, he’s done a minute later, and if I don’t have enough for him to do, he creates havoc in the rest of the house while I’m busy with the others. Scratchy has agreed to do a bit with him on the weekends, as he really wants to read, and I think he’s capable of learning, but it’s really difficult for me to give him one-on-one time right now.

Toby is simply learning about what five-month-old babies are supposed to learn about - his family and the world

All that sounds desperately school-at-home-y, doesn’t it? It’s not really! I mean, we do use workbooks and I do set out stuff I want them to do, but we also try to follow stuff they’re interested in as much as we can (hence the number of current projects!) and the formal part of our learning doesn’t take anywhere near as long as it would in a school setting. In fact, when I see just how much they get through in a couple of hours, I wonder just what they do with kids in school all day! I suppose if I made them all line up and wait for the bell to ring, etc, it might fill another hour or two…

I love the idea of autonomous education, but we need the structure here. I know that some autonomous educators think it’s the only reasonable method (and I’ve even read one blog where it was claimed that those who didn’t practice autonomous ed simply didn’t understand it, that if you understood it you couldn’t possibly choose any other way), but for us, with the personalities involved (individually and in combination), it doesn’t work. I don’t mean they don’t learn - they most certainly do! - I mean that our family functions better when there’s structure and something of a routine. And I think that a functional family is more important than the educational style. So I suppose I use the home-education bit as a way to implement that structure - I could, I suppose, do it in another way - but why? This is working for us, our home runs more smoothly this way, the kids are learning and enthusiastic about learning - so we must be doing something right!

Later (now just after noon)… and moving back to practicalities rather than philosophy ;-)…

Last night was Beavers for Freddy, and St John Cadets for Barney. George wanted to go to St. John Badgers a while ago, but it’s on at the same time as the Community Circus thingy, so he couldn’t. It was a mad rush to get everybody to all the right places on a Tuesday night, so I suggested that they might want to give Community Circus a miss for a few months, and they agreed. This saves us driving about 25 miles each way, and means all the activities are fairly close to each other, so last night was much more calm than pre-Christmas Tuesdays. Circus doesn’t start back until the end of January anyway, so if George decides he’d rather do that, we can look at it again - but I have to admit, I’m hoping he decides Badgers is just as good

The boys have almost finished everything I asked them to do today - Barney has his horror story to write but that’s all. I told George he could write his tomorrow, but he’s begged to do it after lunch instead, so what could I do Jack spent a good hour this morning on Boohbah.com, which someone posted to the Early Years list (oops, almost called it MP ;-)) yesterday - much appreciated in light of what I’ve said above, thank you! I think it might be connected to a tv show, but Jack was enjoying it regardless of never having seen any of it before. The older four are all now having cheesy scrambled eggs for lunch, and I’m lying on the bed and nursing Toby to sleep (and typing in an awkward position, which isn’t very comfortable, particularly since my chest has become quite painful again - I guess that rib’s not quite healed then :-/)

We’re going to head into town this afternoon - the weather’s reasonably good today, i.e. it’s not raining. It’s even quite sunny, though there’s a definite breeze going, so I’ll be sure to take something to cover my ears (why is it that ears hurt when there’s a cold wind?) We haven’t been to the library in ages, so we’ll go there, and I’ve banking and another errand or two to run; I might even manage to replenish the freezer while I’m there. Scratchy will meet us after work, and then tonight it’s Cubs and Scouts for the older two.

You know, it’s lucky I don’t get time to think, because when I start to think about all that, it sounds exhausting!