So for Helena’s birthday I gave her swimming lessons. They were for 20 mins a day for two weeks. I was nervous as I didn’t feel she was the ‘good beginner’ that I signed her up for – the head under the water thing was still somewhat daunting for her. The first lesson she cried……
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.
Tea anyone?
and what do children think one should talk about at tea parties? Well they are apparently quite formal and you have to offer a “spot more of tea” a lot and you discuss the weather and what you have done during the day and for the length of the afternoon tea you all remain sitting,…
Look at that…
We brought some clear tubing today and it fitted perfectly on some glass bottles that I put food colouring in -initially just to pour down the tube but when the hose fitted so sungly into the bottles the game changed…. so there is 2 meters of tube with a bottle at each end with a…
Geometry by choice..
We ordered a geometry pack with the homeschool toy library. There weren’t enough squares, can you spot the one she made? They are quilts for a Silvanian family. Helena wanted to turn them into real quilts of course but that’s a LOT of cutting and sewing as well as a lot of space for error….
Holidays are over..
Better start learning something, something official like… First – the title page… and goal setting? It suxed. Maybe I used to like that whole title page thing because the rest of the topic was so prescribed but perhaps for Helena, who gets to choose what to do, doing a title page suddenly seems as dumb…
Revisiting old things
One of the joys of homeschooling is that everything is there to be revisited, the topic isn’t “finished” we aren’t doing just space this term we’re still doing whatever, the art stuff isn’t in the store room, and time is flexible. Today Helena was making thank you cards, a task she willingly does and feels…
Report writing
It’s the end of the year….. Me “so Helena what have you learned this year?” Helena “nothing” “Oh”… so I go find evidence, our journal, our folder, things she’s written and she (with the odd prod) comes up with: Writing ★ I’ve learnt some words off by heart ★ I am thinking about blends ★…
letting go of product…
Paper making – heres how it would go in a product atmosphere. Make the pulp, showing kids how to rip the paper into small pieces, having first removed anything unsuitable – sellotape, stables etc. Use boiling water to speed up process, probably even a blender to make pieces small.. Make the paper (the real activity?)…
Pigs in Nature
By Helena (so nearly 7) A pig lay under some plants on some dry dirt. All of it’s life it had longed to have a friend, it was very lonely. When one day two more pigs came. At first they were shy then they started to play together. They enjoyed playing on trampolines, they played…
the “holiday reading slump”
I was reading in the paper about how over the holidays children slip back a reading level and what we (parents I guess or do they mean teachers) could do about it. I guess this implies that kids don’t read in the holidays. Just so we have this totally clear these are the summer holidays,…
homeschoolery 