Starts later than I’d planned after I switched off my own alarm, thinking that Tigerboy would wake me up around 8 anyway, and instead he slept in until 9.30. Ah well. I figure we probably both needed it, though it does mean I’m not going to fit my run in. (This is probably a silver lining 😉 )
Wonderful pack of things in the post (that I’m not sure whether I’m supposed to mention yet, so I’ll be a bit discreet) including a great book that gets read twice through straight away, and went on to provoke discussion on and off through the day. I do like picture books that have something in for the whole family, and such glorious pictures at that. You know they’re good when you look up from reading to the little children to find the 10 yo leaning over your shoulder 😉
Morning continues with breakfast in shifts as children wander through, and basic bits of education in turns. Small does area of parallelograms twice on Mathletics, once to do it, and the second time when he opens it to show me and gets drawn in to the questions and does them all again. So that’s his first gold bar for the week, and only 25 left of Year 8 to go. When he moves off the computer to do Science (creating keys) and History (the Romans) Smallest moves on to do some Mathseeds (counting backwards and forwards on number lines) and alphablocks. I assume that’s where she’s learning to sound out words, as although I read with her, I’m not doing any overt phonics as such other than the occasional bob book. Although in typing that I’ve just realised I can look to see if the Bob Books app is available on the iPad mini. It’s a bit american, but she did love it.
While she’s computing, Tigerboy spends some time watching her, and some time colouring. He loves to draw, and the Stabilo woody crayon is absolutely perfect for him. I must write up the full review of the early writing products we were sent, but I’ve been waiting for them to get back to me about the broken link on their website. Hohum.
She does some drawing later as well, and for the first time writes out her word, leading to me tweeting:
https://twitter.com/liveotherwise/status/397359653010812928
Ooh, and I forgot that we found the magnets for the long gone Bob the Builder magnetic drawing board, which were used extensively as they print Bird and Pilchard shapes. (Meow. the only ‘word’ Tigerboy has at the moment is Meow. Which means all animals as far as I can tell.)
Small’s history goes on (and on) into the afternoon as he tries every distraction technique in the book, but eventually we reach a state of acceptance and he completes it quickly, moving eventually on to his current favourite activity, minecraft. Tigerboy has a late nap, and the rest of us watch Atlantis together as SHIELD didn’t show. Thery are our current two shows that we watch as a family (minus Tim who tends not to watch during the week, but does always join in film night.)
Small goes off to cub halloween party, he’d been considering not going but when I point out that in that case it’s his turn to cook, he decides that a party isn’t so bad after all. Tim and Big set off for her out of town swimming session, but there’s a massive traffic jam and they have to turn back. Once Small is picked up from cubs we sit down for a family meal together. We do this every evening that we can, though Big is sometimes missing as she has several awkwardly timed swimming sessions. We often sit around for a while afterwards, chatting about books, or films, or the world in general – Tim, Big and I share a reading list a lot of the time, and Small has an interest in some of the same films.
The evening goes on much later than it should, not least because I’m blogging (oops) and Tigerboy had that late nap. Tomorrow I’m setting the alarm, and we’re getting back to a proper starting time for the day. Hope it’s dry and then we can walk to the swimming lesson 🙂
So that’s what home education looked like today in this house. In between educating I changed nappies, fed people, cooked, washed up, tweeted, facebooked, failed to really answer emails or do anything much towards paid work, and pondered on other people’s attitudes to home education. Why do people think the state should check my educational provision? Schools are only checked on behalf of parents, it’s still and always the parents’ responsibility (think who ends up in prison if children truant). Is the education I’m offering my children broad, balanced, suitable to age, ability and aptitude? I think so. Obviously.
And another day I’ll do this in pictures.
We need a carnival topic for this month. Anyone any suggestions?
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