Compared to School...

I wasn't going to write this post (am trying to write another), but was prodded into it by two other blog posts posted on Facebook today, by two very lovely ladies.

The first was this one from the archives of Ross Mountney, encouraging just-starting home educators (but also encouraging to anyone HE'ing and needing reassurance).  It highlighted a train of thought I had earlier today about Home Ed compared to school.  I wasn't wobbling, just thinking about all the lessons they cram in to every day compared to the little we have on the planner (for said planner see my next post, coming soon...).  I get the need for Maths & English: they are vital skills - but history?  to a six year old?  (Sorry history lovers, it's just an example based on where the train of thought went next...)  I remember a history lesson from lower primary school about Vikings.  I remember it because I copied the picture that my neighbour had drawn and was subsequently told off.  I do not however remember a single fact that I was "taught" in that lesson.  And it just reassured me that there is no point comparing what we do with schools, because so much of the 'force-fed' education in school will simply be forgotten by those who weren't interested.  As a teacher I was always trying to find new ways to engage my students, to make lessons interesting etc, but had to accept that there was no way of guaranteeing that every student would remember everything I taught. Still, I persisted, and hopefully some of it will have gone in.  Now though, I am so relieved not to have to do all that stressful planning (sorry teacher-friends if that sounds smug)... I find fun ideas, and put them in front of the boys to pick up if they're inspired - but at least equally as often, they find their own fun ideas, and if I can't help, we learn together.  My kids may seem to spend less time learning (or in structured learning at least), but they will remember more of what they learn, because they want to know it... that's the plan anyway!

This train of thought then had me thinking about the 'gaps', or subjects that we don't cover, not having a prescribed programme of study such as the National Curriculum - but before I had chance for it to develop into even a hint of a wobble, I saw this post about Homeschool gaps, shared by a good friend.  The point that the author rightly makes, is that in raising enthusiastic, self-directed learners, we are empowering them so that when they reach an area that they don't know about but need or want to, they will simply find out for themselves.  And of course, there will be gaps in any education, no matter how comprehensive the curriculum.  A history-loving HE friend (read her blog post here) was recently bemoaning the difficulty of studying subjects like the Bronze Age at home, because its exclusion from the National Curriculum means that resources on the subject are not perceived as in demand enough to be stocked in shops.  Et voila: a gap in the education of every state-schooled child.   Quite simply, no education is ever going to cover every single thing that your child is ever going to want or need to know - but home educators are privileged to be able to cater for the interests of the individual in a way that school education would never be able to do, and for that I am enormously grateful!

"My First Lapbook"

Just a quick post today, but I had to share...

Super proud Mummy here: Youngest has completed his first ever lapbook, as started in Wednesday's post, Farty Arty.  He only took two days to do it, which was a deliberate ploy on my part as he can be impatient (he has only two settings: super-fast and focused, or asleep!) so I felt it was important for his first experience of lapbooking to not take him too long.  I was especially proud as he's not really done any "proper" writing before (I tried him on a 'learning to write' workbook a while ago, but he wasn't interested)  I'm not interested in pressuring him to write asap, but thought I'd see if he was up for it for the sake of having a lap-book that he had done most of for himself... so I did dotted lines for him to 'write' over to form his letters.  His lines are wobbly, as is to be expected really, but he sat there, little tongue stuck out in concentration, and did the whole jolly lot!  Did he form all the letters correctly?  Nope - but again, I felt it was more important that his first experience of writing was an encouraging one, rather than me insiting that he do it all "properly".  He was so chuffed with himself - he can't wait to show Daddy and the rest of the family... and for Mummy to put it in her blog to show everyone else (Daddy, don't look at the photos!)

That's it for today - I hope all of you lovely Mummies out there get properly spoiled this Sunday (I personally am thinking a lie-in would be nice - but even more than that, to not do any cooking or cleaning all day, AND not have any mess to sort out on Monday.... you're still reading, right 'Daddy'? ;)  Happy weekend, everyone!

It's all Encouraging (well, mostly!)

Eldest has gone off MathsWhizz at the moment, so he asked if he could do a workbook today instead.  No problem there - the boys have a drawer each with workbooks in (that I was beginning to think would never be used), so he found the Maths one from this set, and got to work.  It was really interesting to me how exercises that I know he has done on the computer with little problem became harder when presented in a different medium, in this case on paper.  I suppose this is why it's important that they have a variety of resources available to them, to help them to consolidate what they have learned - and I'm encouraged to note that left to themselves they naturally choose to use different methods of learning after an amount of time on another...  Of couse, there's also an element of referring back to his old school workbooks that he hated - maybe the association is still too strong!  Nonetheless he said even though the workbook this morning took him longer than MathsWhizz would have done, he still preferred it today, so that's good.

Also today Eldest completed his lapbook, hooray!  He really wanted to finish it by the end of this week so we can show it to relatives at the weekend.  I was definitely more involved this time.  Every chapter was chosen by Eldest and he chose what to write, what photos and mini flapbooks to use etc;  I just encouraged him to find extra interesting facts when he came to a page and lost inspiraton - and I helped him with the layout, such as showing him how to make all the chapter titles the same size & font etc... I think it does look more 'grown-up' than his previous, first ever lap-book, which is nice, but a bit sad for me personally too, as I loved the chaotic creativity of his first one... but he's really proud of this one, and quite rightly as he put a lot of effort into it!  Both styles are effective, so it's good that he can choose which he prefers, next time.

This is the front page...  all other pages included at the end of the post, for those of you who'd like to see.it all... (Grandma and Grampie, either don't look, or when we see you tomorrow you'll have to pretend you haven't seen it yet!)

Middle is full of cold today, bless him, though we've had no colds or illnesses in the house all winter, so I can't complain!  He was still keen to learn and do stuff though - and inspired by his big brother he also rejected the online MathsWhizz, had a look in his workbook drawer instead and found his wipe-clean workbook on Telling the Time.  Thanks to the learners clock we have on the wall next to the kitchen table, he is completely used to me casually asking "what's the time today?" and being able to work it out... so his workbook was no problem at all.

I absolutely LOVE the fact that just by giving him space to gain his own confidence, he is really starting to want to try things for himself.  When he left school he was really discouraged and refused to try anything as he had so little belief in himself... it's totally lovely (not to mention a relief) to see the change in him *Happy HE Mummy dance*
He did a little more on his lapbook today as well, but ran out of steam quite quickly, so I just encouraged him to finish the flaps he was working on so we could stick them in and not lose them - it took us about two hours of distraction and re-focus (writing one word at a time before he wandered off, or so it seemed!) and then it was definitely time to just rest!

Youngest was in a funny one today - he loved watching Middle do his Telling-the-Time workbook, and was able to join in with some of it - but then he just wanted to build things with lego (which is fine) and then generally interfere with everything his brothers were doing (not so fine), which was tricky as they both seemed to need a lot of my involvement today so I wasn't able to distract Youngest from harrassing whichever brother I wasn't helping at that point.  Happily, he eventually found the wooden train track set, so that occupied him in the end.

Oh, and also encouraging to us - simply because we are really hoping that our nestbox with camera will be used this spring - was this footage caught this morning (please excuse the sound track - I haven't worked out how to turn off the built-in mic on my laptop when recording the nestbox images)...

... it's lovely to see that having found the next box and given it the 'once-over' last month, the blue tits are still popping back as if to check it's still there and still vacant... oh we do hope they will nest in it in due time - what a lovely spring project that would be!

It's been such a positive and encouraging week - and I think in part this is because after the most recent wobble & self-examination earlier this year, I have become much more confident in our approach.  Having now given myself permission to adopt a partly adult-led approach, things are flowing so much more easily.  I had become so caught up in the 'autonomous v structure' debate, when it turned out that really wasn't our issue at all!  I'm so grateful to be part of a community that can help bounce ideas around and share helpful books & blog-posts.  Anyway, we're still very child-led too: yes, I do ask the boys to do a bit of English or Maths every day, four days out of five (whether online, in workbooks or otherwise), and I usually have a game, some baking or an art project up my sleeve in case the boys seem uninspired - but they have the power of veto in all of that if they can't face it - and the rest of the time is theirs: they lead the way when it comes to choosing projects that they want to do, or the subjects that they would like to do lapbooks on etc - and I make sure they have lots of time available for free-play, imaginative games, educational TV etc.  It just feels like the perfect balance for us for now - and when it stops being so we will tweak as necessary!

Anyway, now for the weekend, and time with Daddy after a very busy week, hooray!  So I'll leave you with the rest of Eldest's most fantabulous 'Desert Animals' lapbook...