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.

Dirty hands

Five agar plates. One she didn’t touch, one she touched, then she went out and played in the dirt and touched one, the next she washed her hands then touched, the last she scrubbed her hands then touched. (The agar was made with cabbage water – I wanted to see if the growth would change…

Planting trees… and ideas

We went planting trees with some other homeschoolers and some students who were on a course learning how to be rangers. I called the students “teenagers” but I suspect they were older. Helena worked with a lovely young woman called Claire. I heard Helena talking, talking, talking. Helena said Claire thought she was a plant…

This weeks little bits of random…

Why does she have to do this at night… (well apart from her mother and grandmothers being night owls) “I JUST want to see if different countries have different weights of coins”. Or this one… Possibly she’s just delaying bed time by wanting to learn to tell the time- worried I’m sending her to bed…

The princess problem…

So I read something online called How Disney Pincesses influence girls around the world. So I thought I’d check out Helena’s ideas. For some context, the only Disney Princess she knows, has seen on TV, is Pocahontas (but according to Helena she isn’t a princess due to her Dad not being called a king). I…

Home baking

Or is it kitchen chemistry? I did baking at school as a teacher – it’s a common learning tool, process cooking is the lingo at playcentre. All that measuring, lots of language, kids like it, and that following of the instructions thing, with all those steps and the essential instructional language. Well Helena can follow…

Cr#p my kid makes…

I have been having something of an existential crisis, again. I went to an art school years ago and have a zillion ideas. Recently I went to a gallery and it had an exhibition of the finalists in The Wallace award. I am arrogant enough (confident in my ideas and of my ability to execute…

Watching Tv

We are soooo tried, I’ve hardly slept! I’m so tired, we NEED to watch TV (accompanied by some over the top acting ) Mummy? Of course I say “er NO” leading to foot stamping and complaining. How there isn’t anything else to do, really there isn’t. So her friend and I start a game of…

When a holiday programme is school

I really like the holiday programme I’m involved in. It’s how I think school should work… we have but three rules. Respect yourself and others. Respect our environment and equipment Respect play Aka the playcentre ‘rules’ which cover everything from going to the loo, keeping warm, staying inside the cones (boundary), saws, games, not being…