There are many ways to home educate. There are families who never do a formal lesson or piece of work in their entire journey; there are people who use workbooks and text books, there are people who follow the National Curriculum and people who follow their child, resourcing it from whatever is available along the way. There are people who combine it with their parenting philosophy, people who think the whole of life is simply an adventure for the family to grow with and through. There are people who follow religious curricula and home educate for religious reasons and people who dip in and out of curricula and autonomy and all sorts of other ways to be. There are people who home ed as a last resort and others who do it as a life choice. There are people who do exams as they would in school and people who get to 18 without having ever sat a formal exam because they felt they ought to.
I think we??re a bit of all of these Eclectic is most certainly the word.
My children don??t do well without structure; they don??t become immersed in their own ends at all much as I wish it were so. They bicker and drift and grumble. I??ve tried, I really have, but it doesn??t suit us here. What works for us is to combine a bit of structure and a lot of child led exploration, with a huge amount of reading, music, relaxation and play and a large portion of art and craft, normally themed to the moment. We don??t stick out something painful, but we aim to give most things a good go. We don??t drag children through anything they hate or find too impossibly hard or tiresome, but we aim to try and stretch ourselves and we aim to plug gaps and needs with appropriate resources or work.
So I have no shame in saying that on one of our 2 days a week we are consistently at home, it often looks like this in the mornings.
Josie plays a word game while the others shop in our local town with Max (and fail to take a photo of being there!)
There is a couple of Grade 1??s and a Grade 3 in the air, so practising is gearing up again after a slightly too long fallow period.
Fran was desperate to complete the story she started in November for NaNoWriMo ? and she did, finishing it on our photo day, just shy of 24,000 words. Some achievement for a 12 year old.
I??m making Amelie work a bit harder these days; when she doesn??t procrastinate, she really enjoys KS2 word and number puzzle books.
But on this particular day, she really was not well at all and so retired to the sofa with a book.
Before falling asleep and actually spending most of the rest of the day asleep.
Maddy likes comprehensions in these books at the moment, Galore Park having caused her anxieties; I think in these S&S books she likes having lines to reassure her she has written enough.
I picked up a recommendation for Reading Eggs on Twitter; Josie adored it and sat on my knee and then on her own, playing it for about 2 hours.
We spent a long time discussing the strawberries that came home from the market and how different market bought fruit is in terms of shape, colour and taste to supermarket.
Maddy finished off her Galore Park science work, just half a chapter to go.
She does English in handwriting but the rest of her work is typed. We find it is a happy medium between practise and pain
And then we had lunch.
After lunch, Fran wanted to paint the Olmec head she made the other day; naturally, being a muppet, she painted the features before the skin *head* *desk*
People left evidence of learning on the floor.
Maddy decided she wanted to do an animation so drew a background for it.
She took over 100 pictures, all to illustrate the poem, ??You are old, Father William?? and I think they are gorgeous.
The last bit even has a slamming door. Next we??re going to try and string it together into a film with the poem read over the top.
We finished off by all helping to make bits of a plan of our allotment in Fimo, a record for next year of how we planted it all out. Everyone contributed. It isn??t quite finished, but it looks great
So that is how this particular day looked. Everyone was busy all day and even the poorly person did some work, we all had a nice time and there was masses of creativity. A small novel got finished and a film got made and a collaborative bit of art work, someone learned to read some more words.
Being a home educating family is great
This is written for the ??A Typical Home Ed Day in Photos?? Carnival, being hosted on this blog over the remains of May. Why not join in and leave a link to your post in the comments. I??ll left them all into this post as they appear. There are further details ? and some early entries –here.
More to Read and Explore
A Path Less Trodden ? from Carol.
Learning Right From the Start ? from Debbie.
Educational Escapades ? from Kara.
Home Educate Me ? from Alison.
A Free Range Family ? from Joxy.
Your Onions ? from Liz.
Wondering Wanderers ? from the ever succinct Nic, currently on tour in the South West
English Weather ? from Helen.
Radical Mama??s Monday ? from Clare.
Le Ciel Rouge ? from Zoe.
Petits Haricots ? from Helen.
Frog Academy ? from Caroline.
We Are Here ? from KellyI.
Life is a Highway ? from Kirsty.
Keep them coming! (And shout if I miss you off; head like a sieve.)
(This post was recreated from a back up following a server crash. As such, it is missing comments and hits and would love to get some back!)
