Helena is sick. Last night she had a fever, very unsual, and at one point she woke up but was still dreaming and said something to me about making boats out of clay. She has been wanting to make boats for ages… we mean to make a raft, it was on our list of goals…
Category: thoughts
How is she reading?
I read this Article which pulls apart how teachers teach learning to read. This is not just relevant to America, it even mentions Marie Clay who was an important part of what we learnt at teachers college – the horrible running records. I was taught to teach the “three cueing” method. When I was a nanny in…
A day in the life
This is what Helena did today while I spent the whole day cleaning the pantry – we have moths and I was worried we had cockroaches but it turns out they just visit the plastics cupboard on occasion. 9am – She’s just got up, is in pjs and she’s microwaving a marshmallow which was in…
Swimming again
Helena is doing the same week long swimming lesson thing again. I am once again impressed by her teacher, she does such good feedback. She really tells the kids what she is looking for, breaks down the elements of swimming freestyle into do able bits. I’ve never quite worked out why the focus is on…
More self assigned random learning…
It’s not random as she does what she sees the people around her doing… and she reveals what it is she has been listening too, and thinking about… what’s Important. The things she has chosen not to learn include the vacuuming, Sudoku, and the dishes… She has however expressed wanting to make dinner even after…
I only teach because of my parents…
I like teaching, I am a natural – if there is such a thing. I should rephrase that, I like hanging out with kids who are changing and developing in front of my eyes. Both my parents were teachers. My mother was amazing. I use to go to her classroom when the high school…
Musing on last school “holidays”…
It’s not as such a holiday for us in that Helena and I have to go and I get paid. So for 8 weeks of the year I visit full time work and Helena goes into care, unusually and importantly for her, they are the same place. I have very little to do with Helena…
the term 4 horrors…
Each new year seems to start with promise, it’s summer and the world is one’s oyster so you think up glorious plans that this year you will achieve. Term one has a cover page perhaps with a list of formidable goals that one cheerfully thinks are so totally do able in that excitable new years…
The perfect egg
I was listening to Catherine Ryan (Radio NZ) talking to a man about how to tell which kids will succeed, he was talking about testing, but it’s all about what they do when they fail, how they react to failure, what they do with the questions they get wrong. I was also discussing with a…
The school of menopause
My mother went through menopause when I was going through puberty. The only reason I know this was that she gave me some kind of sanitary product (I don’t remember if it was pads or tampons) saying “you can have these I don’t need them anymore” and that may have been our only conversation about…
homeschoolery 