Smallest isn’t starting school this september. I *think* that the letter we had implied she would be due to start this time – she’s 5 in November, so would presumably be one of the oldest in her year. I think there are a lot of things about school she’d love, but overall, I think that she’ll enjoy life more out of school, and we’ve got plenty of education lined up for those moments when she wants to feel like she’s learning (as opposed to all those moments when she doesn’t realise she is 😉 )
So yesterday on our walk through town to the beach, we might have bought a couple of extra little bits for her. Starting to Write Wipe Clean Practice Book
Today we made use of all of these things. There was drawing on ordinary paper, practice with the spirograph (must try to find her a decent one of these) and practice in the wipe clean book. (Look, it’s a pen *and* a rubber.) There was some computer time, although today she tried to tell me she’d finished mathseeds. Um, no. Reading Eggs got a quick looksee, as it often does (still waiting for her to pick up her next book to read, but there’s no rush) and then we went outside with the insect pot and her camera.
She’s very good with the camera. We talked about the macro setting, and how to half depress the button to check focus. She got some good pictures of various creepy crawlies (I must find some easy resource that shows me how all of those fit into their kingdoms, I can’t remember any of it!) and we looked closely at caterpillars.
Then there were bubbles, and running and skipping and playing generally. Yesterday I signed up for Project Wild Thing and pledged to swap 30 minutes a day screen time with outdoor time. That will be more of a challenge as the weather breaks – this morning wasn’t outdoor playtime at all as far as I’m concerned, although I did manage to get my running gear on and stagger round 0.8 miles for the first time since early June. Oh, and while she played, I read the first chapter of The Secret Island to her. I was quite surprised that she seemed to like it, as it is very different to the type of thing I’ve read her before. Her books are either picture books, or Milly Molly Mandy, which is broken up in short stories complete in a chapter. This is a full length story. There are chapters, but they aren’t stories in themselves, you really need to keep going to get the whole thing.
We’ll see how that goes. I’d love it if she started to like that sort of thing – maybe I finally have a child I could educate sonlight style with read alouds? We didn’t get to our What Your Year 1 Child Needs to Know
All in all, I was very happy with our home education today. Smallest is a very different child to the older two, and she’s receptive to a different type of education. And while she’s learning, Tigerboy is generally trailing along behind and joining in – so he did drawing, bubbles, and probably heard some of the story.
I’ve got more to say on home education – particularly about secondary age children. But I think this post is quite long enough for one night. Pictures when I retrieve them from the phone.
I wish you all a very successful learning year. I’m looking forward to the structure that school brings to our lives for a while but also sad about the regimented schedule we will have to follow in order to keep on top of things and succeed. School here finishes at 2.20 4x/week, 12.45 on Tuesdays and 11.45 on Fridays so it’s almost like half days (but 6 mornings of getting up early and with homework every night, ugh!). Unfortunately, in order to work I have to put DD into the afternoon program which finishes at 4.30 every day except Fridays. I’m just rambling on I know, but just to show that I’m a bit conflicted about the whole school thing.
I’d definitely like to read more on secondary home ed. For various reasons, the local primary school is perfect for my girls at the moment. The eldest is about to start Y3 (4th year at school), and youngest Y1. Even with four years left of primary, eldest and her classmates talk about where they are going to after Y6. Some have older siblings, some will be the first. At the moment, if you ask MG what she’s doing after primary school, she says home ed. Unless her personality radically changes in the next four years, I can’t see her coping in a gigantic secondary and I’ve always been honest about school being optional (education not!) I’ve probably said all this before, but it’s something I think about a lot. I feel like I’m planning the opposite of what most home edders seem to do, but doing the opposite of ‘normal’ seems to be a theme in my life 😉
Also looking forward to reading about secondary age home ed. As of this week, I have a secondary age child at home! I’m really excited about it because she is so interested in the subjects she’s chosen to study. She’s a lot more structured now than she was when she was younger, but loving that she still has the freedom to chose how she learns things, even though she’s following the curriculum with a view to taking IGCSEs