Lockdown is mostly done, the kids are going back to school. Now there are the inevitable conversations about the backward slide, all those gains that school makes in your kids have gone… This is wrong on so many levels: The assumption is that what they learn at school is the stuff that counts. That life…
Category: thoughts
This game again
Helena got up before me this morning and as I heard not a peep from her I lazed about for ages. When I eventually got up she was drawing a grid thing on a piece of paper and she was classifying her soft toys. Classification happens in her play all the time, rocks, buttons, toys……
one Little thing
This morning I found some of these little shop things still wrapped and hid them on Helena’s bed, which she found so much earlier than I thought she would, ie. before bed time. Delighted Helena gave some to her friend, our 5 year old neighbor who is finally and thankfully in our bubble… it would…
Non democratic meetings
Helena and I have a weekly meeting, mostly on Monday mornings. They are not much fun. They are mostly for me. I am honest with her that as a homeschooling family we have to document her learning, the government requires us to teach “as well as and as often” as a regular school. We can…
Feeding babies
Our garden is in an autumnal mood… it’s damp (even boggy), there is moss, and very few flowers. but we are kind of stuck in it, with the whole lockdown thing… Helena likes to be outside, especially apparently in Autumn…. and is now wearing t-shirts and shorts after her summer of leggings and long sleeved…
The “Don’t pop your bubble studio exhibition”
We had an exhibition of some of the stuff we’ve been doing in lockdown, mostly for a laugh (me) to eat biscuits (Helena) and to have a deadline to finish stuff. We have been spending days working at our outside art table in the sun but it was naturally becoming less compelling. Mostly we have…
Everyone is homeschooling
Except they aren’t… There is quite a difference to visiting a place than there is living in a place. Same with homeschooling. I think there are people who are enjoying, even relishing visiting homeschooling, hopefully all those people we did playcentre with are revisiting the joy of child led play, and are people with energy…
the feather lesson plan series..
It is hard to say what the starting point of this “lesson” was. I suspect it was re-finding the feathers in the draw we call the bits and bobs box. It did start as a box but had to expand as our collection of little bits of string and wire and corks and much much…
learning from a packet
Ages ago I brought Helena a mechanical toy that you assemble. I brought it in one of those “oh look it’s on special, I’m having things posted it would be silly not to” moves. I thought it might act as a spring board for making her own designs and looking at cams, cranks and that…
We live with my Dad
I am listening to the radio and someone is talking about old people being in homes and how now due to the lockdown their family and friends can’t visit them. A man was saying how his grandma had just died, they couldn’t have a funeral and his grandfather had gone back to the old folks…
homeschoolery 