It’s a Tuesday so we have Helena’s friend over. They hadn’t seen each other for a while and the day before Helena had been so excited as had he but when they met they did the whole pretending they weren’t pleased thing. Where do they learn that? But it wasn’t long before they were revisiting…
Author: annebieleski
I am an ex primary teacher... ex because of regulations saying that you have be fully registered within 5 years of graduating and I only ever worked part-time due to art school, a science job... life. (Now temporarily not an ex teacher as I have re-done my qualifications but still haven't gone back to a classroom).
I was never going to be a conventional teacher, I wanted to be like my Mum who was a most awesome teacher and had the freedom to teach how she wanted.
I am intellectually interested in education.
I have spent 20 something years working in early childhood... part time of course! I had nearly 6 years learning alongside Helena at Playcentre.
My daughter has refused to go to school so I am fortunate enough to spend time watching her do her stuff and trying some experiments on her.
I think learning is easy and happens all the time for every one which is what I want to show on this blog. And it turns out Homeschooling is just fun.
Everything is a character.
And I mean everything…. from the truly weird These paint samples came with names but they are all different ages and have a lot of inner dialogue. Helena’s translation goes like this: Me: “What are you doing now?” Helena: “Sorting into pairs. Yippee and Narrow Sea are ooo ee (noises) ah there’s another pair. So…
We aren’t doing nothing, honest..
This week, as most weeks, it is hard to tell when we are doing ‘Something’, something noteworthy… educational like. Helena has weird interests, it’s all about complicated characters in her head (some of her toys) their back stories, interests, relationships etc, she lives in her head…. Sometimes other stuff comes out…. I didn’t take photos…
That article
The NZ herald had an article titled “Child-centred-teaching-blamed-for-NZs-educational-decline” it was followed by another on The Spinoff with some rebuttal by a principal. I thought I should read the actual paper the article was quoting, I’m on page 35 of 156…. It is an interesting exercise. The writer, Briar Lipson, is a recent arrival to NZ…
THE fear
I get this thing I call ‘THE fear’. It’s not a specific fear, it’s just brought on by my imagination and it seems to happen spontaneously, it’s the kind of fear that hits your stomach. At the holiday programme I work at we allow kids to use ropes, climb trees, make swings, zip lines, use…
When left to their own devices.
Helena and her friend totally took the option of having a kids table and eating dinner outside. The adults were similarly keen…. weird that. So they set up their own table which included their babies and the associated paraphernalia of bowls, cutlery etc. Those babies were well looked after. It did not look like our…
Little things..
Helena is interested in little things, and she certainly isn’t the first. There were those Cottingly children who were made famous by photographing fairies at the bottom of their garden, there are those Irish little people… trolls… Tom thumb, Minpins, the Borrowers, the Slimtails (mice that live and talk like people)…etc. I am sure that…
All on her own
I hate baking. I hate that given any opportunity Helena would eat lollies, though she can make one lolly last 30mins (we had a long bus trip and counted time by lolly). Helena likes baking, actually she likes the decorating. Fortunately her fairy Godmother also loves baking and has the skills I lack (attention to…
Gardening group
We go to a Community Gardens Group around the corner from our house. It was, I think, Helena’s idea. She had an interest in gardening a way back, she built her own garden and was doing secret (well unobserved) gardening and I saw a sign at the community gardens so we gave it a go….
Bases
Helena plays bases, and this is one of the common games I see kids play. Bases appear at the holiday programme every session, when we go to our homeschool group, when we relieve at forest school, campground hosting… whenever there other children and even when she’s alone. They often have a place to sleep, a…
homeschoolery 