New School Year

Following on from my last blog post on my thoughts on learning to read and write, I've been thinking more about the different styles of education and why there are so many, which led to these thoughts. When you decide to home educate changing your mindset on what is education and how it can be implemented can be one of the hardest things to do. Once you start looking at home education you are introduced to so many different styles and philosophies, do you do unschooling, unstructered style, or follow a structured time table, do you like the philosophies of Waldorf, Montessori, Charlotte Mason, or a more eclectic style.  Finding the right style/path that suits your child and your family's learning  style and lifestyle can be an education in itself, everyone brings different things to the table and they all affect how we live and learn, there is no rush, learning is not a race, it is something to fall in love with (well hopefully). Some will come to want structure and some will not, go with what works for you, if you and your child are happy, then you are on the right path. For us our path involves some structure and routine but not a set time table of we are doing maths at 9am, art at 10am etc but more we are doing x. y and z today and then time to see what else happens etc.

As I've said before L is happy to dip in out of phonics but is loving working through her Saxon maths book and I had been planning ahead, expecting to have more surgery so wanted something we could do together. Surgery isn't going ahead due to me developing an allergy to part of the treatment and need to wait till my appointment in January to find out what I might of reacted too. Anyway I came across Funschooling with thinking tree books and they seem to fit, what I was after, she is loving the variety and different drawing activities, without the need to write and read. Seeing her older siblings with their text books makes her want to have her own, so she is very pleased and proud of her book. They are kept in her work basket and it is up to her how much and when she does them, this week so far we have 2 pages, one on drawing anything and then she has been telling me about her picture and I have added her words to the page, at her request.

She has just started on the thinking time page and loved colouring all the pictures different ways.

A couple of times a week we get out one of our Eco Kids magazine and have a read through, today we learnt about the chimpanzee and a bit about giraffes along with a picture to colour in, we watched a short you tube video on chimpanzees. The articles raise many points of discussion, opportunities for crafts and documentary watching.

This afternoon we ended up with a walk to the park and round the woods, home to look at the different apples, some from the shop and some from the allotment, we talked about the different colours, their names and

then they drew them. Now I've always liked the idea of a nature journal but at the same time it's only sort of worked with the older two, so now trying it with L, it will be her nature/science/art journal. During the summer holidays, not that we really stop learning, L and I talked about what she wanted to learn about and one of these was about how plants grow, so as we are coming into autumn I thought we would look at trees and their seeds, starting with apples. 

We then cut them up and looked at how the varied inside and how they tasted they all had their favourites.

So for maths we are working our way through Saxon math , usually between 2 and 4 lessons a week, plus board games, its amazing how much maths can be done through games. Add in logic problems and puzzles to supplement this. Reading and writing we are using a mixture of Reading Eggs and Explode the Code books but have a feeling we will be dropping this for a while, though L wants to learn to read, it is a real struggle for her, so maybe concentrate on the speech therapy side and come back to it later, I'm not against hard work but there is hard work and frustration when it doesn't just come together and it is so important to enjoy reading. Add in what ever else we find that takes our fancy and of course lots and lots of story telling. Art and craft, goes without saying there will be plenty of this. Science/nature study we will be following the seasons and anything that grabs Ls attention, so this month we will look at apple trees and oak and horse chestnut trees and see were this leads, add in Eco Kids magazine for some interesting variety. She has also fallen in love with cosmic yoga and we are using this 2 or 3 times a week.

On an organising and sorting front, my bedroom is coming on well, we have a large wardrobe as in the cupboard that goes over the stairs, I swear this holds a room full of stuff in it, as well as clothes, there's books, crafts stuff, paperwork, shoes. So had a sort through and organise and will probably go back through everything in another week or so, it will give me a chance to read through a couple of the books and think about what craft bits to keep etc. Have in the meantime cleaned out all the drawers, behind cupboards and cleaned windows. We've also finally got round to replacing and doing up the bathroom, replacing toilet and bathroom floor is not an easy job when you only have one toilet and little ones around, we had a leak a while ago, so the floor needed to be replaced but the toilet cistern kept on leaking, not major but much to my husbands annoyance one he couldn't fix and a spur of the moment trip to Ikea meant we ended up replacing the basin with a vanity unit, its fantastic having some drawers in the bathroom, have somewhere to store the toilet rolls, cleaning cloths and spare hand towels, all in easy reach.

On a crafting front, have done a small amount of dress making and some knitting, finally finished Granny Favourite and L loves it, there is growing room in it too. Reading, have just finished reading The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, really enjoyed it, the true story of one families life and how it changed after the Taliban came to Afghanistan. The changes in their lives, going from being able to study at university, to not being able to leave the house without wearing a chadri, having a chaperone and not talking to any males that aren't family. How financially they struggled with the loss of income when the women weren't able to work and the ways they overcame this and helped the women of their neighbourhood.  The other is Sane New World by Ruby Wax a lay persons guide to neuro science, mental health and mindfulness, as well as Ruby Wax's battle with depression. Taken from the book that was written in 2013, that mental illness accounts for nearly half the people on incapacity benefit, that in economic terms mental illness costs the UK £70 billion a year, this is in lost hours of work, treatment etc. mental illness affects people early, 50% of cases before the ages of 14. US statistics 1 in 5 children will be affected by mental health only 20% of those will have treatment, some will not want treatment, others can afford it. When mental illness affects so many people, why is their such a stigma about it? Why are budgets being cut? Why are we having an educational system that heaps on the academic pressure , while reducing the creative subjects that might actually give the students a relief from their studies and a chance to think in a different way?

A thought for the month.

Joining Kat for Unraveled Wednesday  and Frontier Dreams for  Crafting On

Feeling Good

We've had a busy couple of weeks, including routine hospital trips, Thai food festival, trip to Ikea, some ruthless decluttering, decorating, crafts and home education going on. So now feeling fairly organised as lots of things on that to do list have been ticked of.

Over the last few months I have been talking to lots of people with preschool children considering home education and interestingly the main concern is how to teach reading, followed by cost. As to cost home education can be as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be, cheaply you can use lots of free online resources, you tube, with some printables and lots of books from the library, to expensive buying in a complete years curriculum including all text books, readers, worksheets etc, or use one of the online schools like interhigh. So here are some resources I've used, this  website has a very good list of home ed resources by age and subject some free and some not, anyway that should give you lots to think about and try out. Ambleside Online is based on Charlotte Mason, lots of reading ideas for each school year. All in One Homeschool which is a free curriculum covering all ages but with lots of printables for learning letters ets,  they also have art, history sections too.  There are the alphablooks videos, plus the alphablooks games, starfall, teach your monster to read. There are loads more resources but I'll start with these. So plenty of resources,  its more a case of finding out what best suits you and your child's learning style, a structured approach or a more just see what happens or unschooling, not only are their lots of different resources, there are lots of different home ed styles too, we are rather eclectic here.

I can really relate to that initial worry about learning to read as that was my main concern when I decided to home educate O, the local experienced home educators all said not to worry it would happen! But how, having at that point a very school based view on learning to read, in which they seem to make it very complicated with lots of resources, resources we didn't have at home, anyway the home educators were right it does happen. Now I am that person and want to say don't worry but that is not enough, so here are my thoughts on the subject, don't rush it,it will happen and that could be anywhere between the ages of 4 years old and 10, maybe even older, reading and sharing stories is fun and the main key to wanting to learn to read. That being a home educated non reader isn't an issue as you adapt the environment to their ability, you can read the maths question to them, watch documentaries, do lots of hands on experiences, read books to them use, use audio books,  lots of discussions, questions to be answered, so actually being a non reader isn't a hindrance as it would be in school. The main thing is they see you reading and enjoying books, sharing stories with them etc. My oldest learnt to read fairly young, would of said a fluent reader by the time he was 6, we listened to stories, read books together, O asking what words meant, using some ladybird books and Bob books for some phonics. With M it was more complicated she has ASD and at 5 her verbal dyspraxia meant most of her speech was hard to decipher let alone the thought of teaching reading! She had intensive speech therapy for many years and alongside that we used Reading Eggs and Explode the Code to support her with her speech and reading, she now speaks clearly and reads fine, both took time and practise and learning to read helped her speech. L has just turned 5 and wanted to learn to read but then decided the basic phonic books weren't that interesting she would much rather listen to a more complicated stories, so we are dipping in and out of reading, if she asks we do some, she is enjoying Reading Eggs, which she has access to when she wants and we will just see what happens, there is no rush and she has an insatiable curiosity about the world. We play listening games, go for a listening walk,  seeing what we can hear, making rhythms and rhymes up, wanting to learn to write her name gave L an interest in letters, drawing letters in the sand pit, playing I-spy helps - listening for the first sound of the word, there are so many things that we do that are all help the early reading skill but we don't actually realise it. Writing happens through early mark making, painting, colouring, play dough, playing in cornflour gloop and making patterns, all develop the skills that are needed for later writing, developing the muscles in the hand, co-ordinations etc.

On a crafting front, I've finally finished the body of L's cardi and started on the sleeve, loving the fact that the only sewing at the end will be the sewing in of the ends and buttons. Joining Kat for Unraveled Wednesday

Then couldn't resist starting another project, Sirdar 4810 making the v-neck jumper, with the ladder pattern, this is another Christmas present. Reading wise, I've just finished reading Wild Designs by Katie Fforde, an enjoyable light read which is what I needed as the rest of my reading has been biology text books and syllabuses, decision has been made, mainly by M deciding which text books she preferred, hopefully she will enjoy them. Biology was one of my favourite subjects when I was at school, so hoping this goes well, fingers are crossed, the IGCSE maths is going well but slowed down on the English at the moment.

The weather is all over the place one minute it feels like autumn and the next a hot sunny day! One very wet Monday we joined friends for a walk in the woods, children in waterproofs and wellies, adults with umbrellas and of course wellies. They had a fantastic time, exploring the stream, puddles and mud etc and yes my 14 year old has as much fun doing this as the younger ones. Then home to dry of and snuggle up under a blanket to watch a film, followed by the next day and a trip to the park with friends where we were trying find shade as it was rather hot. Not sure if my allotment knows what it is doing other than producing a lot of slugs!!! Have had some lovely rhubarb, lots of blackcurrants ripening and enjoyed a couple of windfall apples.

Last week O had his allergy appointment, no change in his allergies but he then mentioned he had had a reaction to banana the other week, so after a discussion and more tests that is now of the menu, along with a warning about the link to latex, so to be careful! L had her allergy appointment on Thursday, her tests showed she might of grown out of pea allergy, so we will be invited in for food challenge but that won't be till February next year. We've been here before with soya and she failed the challenge at the first mouthful, so while hopeful it's tinged with that result. Now if she passes her pea challenge then they might take her in for a peanut challenge as that is one food we have never given her, so only going on skin and blood tests, be nice to have a few less allergies in the house, to say the least.

The cupboard of doom, or the most unorganised, dump everything in there cupboard in the house, aka the cupboard on the landing is now decorated and sorted, lots more space, it's a deep cupboard so takes a bit of thought to what goes where but all children's craft bits are sorted and amazed at how many different containers of coloured rice I have, it's played with regularly but normally it's kept in a couple of different places! Seriously though just how many towels does one family need, even if I add in pets and towels for work. So below is the before photo top shelf is spare throw for the sofa, lace making board, more than one bag of toy stuffing, second shelf towels and behind that there are boxes of soap moulds, candle making and bath bomb ingredients. Next shelf is a mixture of den building and scene creating stuff for childminding, more toy stuffing, various toys and pile of exercise books. Bottom shelf is children' craft bits and anything that didn't fit in elsewhere!

Now a rather organised cupboard and flannels and hand towels in baskets mean they don't topple over every time you try and get one. Also meant I now have room for all the paper that I was given, all A3 size or bigger perfect for painting on etc and the white basket is empty, now that makes me feel good, everything that hasn't gone back into the cupboard has been donated to other people or charities. Next step is my bedroom but that will be next week, hopefully, mind you we need to rip up the old bathroom floor as we will be having new bathroom floor, looking forward to this rather than rather worn tiles!

This weekend was the local Thai food and craft festival, it's now in it's 3rd year locally and hope they keep going, weather was great, I love Thai food and we all enjoy the entertainment.

A selection of Thai desserts and there was an amazing lady selling cakes, I don't think I have ever tasted such delicious, light fluffy cakes as these, must try and find a recipe for Thai coconut cake

The Little Red Hen

Today I had my friends girls over for a morning of activities based on The Little Read Hen, we read the story, made some bread, talked about what yeast does and the different types of bread you can get, which ones we have tried, liked and or made.

While the bread was rising we watched Come Outside Bread, as we watched this I talked about how flour was made, a long time ago people would of used a quern to grind their bread, then later windmills or water mills would of been used before the factories that we saw in the program. I found some photos of a quern and we talked about how long it would of taken to grind flour compared to the factories today. Could of also talked about in how in some parts of the world people still grind their flour by hand. We then watched this short film that looks a bit more at the process of wheat to flour and then looked at some resources that we got from grain chain, one was little packets of wheat as it goes through the different process, which they found fascinating.

They then enjoyed creating their own farm yard and playing with their set up.

They also spent time drawing pictures based on the illustrations from the book we read.

and finally the cooked rolls, the girls have asked to come again and have another session with me, which is great, I really love doing small group sessions like these.

Just love the way one simple story could have so much potential for different idea :-

• making different types of bread
• looking at bread from different countries
• history of making flour, farming etc
• the lifecycle of wheat, for older chidlren the pros and cons of different types of farming, genetics
• how windmills and watermills work, cogs and gears

to list few, I am sure there are lots more ideas but these are just a few on what we touched on today, who knows were it could lead.

More Dinos and Home Education

I think we have nearly come to the end of our dinosaur theme, the children are noticing the change in the weather, leaves changing colour and spotting the first conkers, so think time to do some Autumn planning as over the last week they have hardly mentioned dinosaurs. Anyway back to the last bits that we have done for the dinosaurs, I think we have read every dinosaur book we own several times over, watched more than one episode of Andy's Dinosaur Adventures. I found some dinosaur skeletons, that the children cut out and then had to work out were or how they fitted together. We then named the different bones we could see, I showed them on their bodies the same bones.

 L was really interested in this, so I found out a poster we had of the human skeleton and a hare, they spent time asking what the different bones were called and trying to find the bones on their bodies, with some giggling involved. I might have to get down from the loft our skeleton for them. Wish I had thought before hand that they might be really curious about their own skeleton as I could of got it down and put together before hand but at least we had the poster.

They also painted some wooden bendy snake to go with the story of Harry and the Swamp, the only problem was they wanted to make a primordial swamp with the jelly baff for the snake. I explained that I didn't think the paint would last very long in the swamp, did they want to risk it? They didn't want to loose the paint but really wanted to do the swamp, so I am on the hunt for some plastic bendy snakes, the sort that I as a child used to get in party bags, don't want any too life like snake toys!

We are also busy learning the days of the week as the older ones are always trying to work out what day it is and who is coming today, what's happening tomorrow etc, so every morning we are putting the date on our calendar saying what day it is and then just going through the days of the weeks.

Looking at shapes and patterns, I gave L and older minded children a handful of shapes and asked them to make a pattern, which they enjoyed doing. Some just enjoyed seeing how they could fit them together others enjoyed making them into different things and telling a story with them.

A Butterfly

A flower for the butterfly to enjoy.

 A person to look after the flower for the butterfly.

One of my mindies Mum's has passed on a plastic kitchen, that also has a small washing machine, it has gone down very well, to say the least! They spent the morning it arrived washing all the dolls clothes and have repeated this activity several times since. They wanted a clothes line to peg them out on, so found out a couple of skipping ropes and hooked them around the drawers for them to use.

 Also realised that if we had been doing the normal school thing L would of started reception this month, instead I am starting the journey of home eding my 3rd child and very much looking forward to it. How did we come about home education, there was a variety of reasons, before I had children it always interested me, had read several books and watched some documentaries. The thought that a child could learn at their own pace, not feel like they are behind if they are struggling but equally if they really enjoy a subject you can follow their interests and go as into the subject as the child wants to at a pace they enjoy. You can adapt your day around the children's needs, if they need a sensory/movement break they can easily be factored in, love cooking, then we can do more cooking. When J was little though I liked the idea of home education, I didn't know anyone locally and we didn't have a computer/internet then. So he did a day a week at playgroup moving up to 2 days and then went to local nursery. Playgroup was fantastic and he enjoyed it, they always double checked and made sure food was ok with him, he had a nut and egg allergy but nursery was different and within a term we decided to remove him. Now this was partly due to discovering that a neighbour of mine was removing her 4 teenagers from school to HE and J also saying that we did more at home and he learnt more at home. I think at this stage DH thought we would just do the nursery years and then start school at 5, well J flourished at home and we didn't even think about school until secondary age. We did year 7 at home but by the end of the year most of his friends had either moved out of the area or had gone to school so he decided to try school and that worked out fine for him to, teachers were surprised that he adapted to the school day etc like he had always been in school. So M we didn't even consider school and L will be home educated too.