It has been nearly 6 months since my last post!!! Life just
seems to fly by these days with very little time to sit and write.
We still absolutely love home education. As time has gone on
we have found our own routine and style. We still attend many of the same
groups with a few additions like piano lessons and a wonderful structured group
run my our local organic farm. We tend to do less of our structured Sonlight stuff
and more child led/Charlotte Mason type learning. This was mainly after I was
finding that the things I had taught him because “that’s what we’re doing today”
were being forgotten and the things they had initiated were staying in. It’s a
lot harder for me doing it this way because I have to constantly be facilitating
their questions and interests (Pinterest is a good friend of mine!) but so much
more rewarding. We spend a lot of
time outside exploring nature. I believe nature study is massively important. I
am blessed with two boys who love nothing more than to be out digging for worms
and searching for badger sets/rabbit warrens etc.
I intend for us all (myself included) to
keep nature journals. Michael is probably ready to start this soon, but it will
be a while until Steven is ready. Nature Journals are a brilliant way of
teaching children to really observe their surroundings in detail and feed the
joy of nature and discovery. It is also
a brilliant way to keep them practicing their skills in recording, drawing/painting. We now spend a lot more time practicing drawing and painting. I want the boys to explore different media and really learn to love expressing themselves through art. Michael’s fine motor skills have been really improving since doing this more regularly and his painting skills (particularly in water colour) have seriously come on. This is a painting he did yesterday when observing the butterfly that emerged from its chrysalis after spending the whole winter in our observation net. It was feeding on the sweet juice of an orange.
We still read all the time and although
we might not be following Sonlight so rigidly, we use their books a lot. They
are generally really good "twaddle-free" books! Most days start with poetry. We have
found it’s a truely lovely way to start the day and gets us all in the right
frame of mind. I love ‘The Llama Who Had No Pajama’. Michael’s favourite poets
are Michael Rosen and Spike Milligan at the moment. I don’t expect Charlotte
Mason would entirely approve of that choice but I’m sure she’d be pleased this
6 year old has “a favourite poet”. At least once in the day we will sit down to
read a short story or two. I particularly enjoy reading them a story from James
Herriot’s ‘Treasury for Children’ as both boys find them captivating and the
pictures are simply wonderful. While I read, the boys will do a quiet activity
like Lego, threading, or plasticine (the current favourite). I have found that
they will sit and listen for longer this way.
In the evenings I will read our
chapter book to Michael (Steven is still too young to join in on this yet). Our
current book is the unabridged version of Peter Pan.
Every Friday we have a “tea party Friday”. We bake something
earlier in the day together and then all sit down with our best china (we
bought specially for this and only get out on Fridays) and drink “chocolate tea”
(which is what Steven calls hot chocolate!). There is something really special
about the boys being allowed to use nice cups and saucers and pour *tea* out of
a teapot themselves. During our tea party I read to them a book that we all
agree on earlier in the day. Usually it’s a Beatrix Potter story or an Eye-View
Library book (I completely recommend this series of books, they are
brilliant!). We love our tea party Fridays, they are so special!
We are still following Singapore Maths. It’s a method that
works well for both Michael and me. It’s
a really clear way of explaining how numbers work together and forms a really
good foundation to build on. We also play a lot of games together. ‘Shut the
box’ and ‘Your Number’s Up’ are still top favourites. We recently stayed with
my parents and my Dad (a retired head teacher) did some basic algebra with
Michael using our attributes pieces. We have continued this at home and I’ve
been really pleased by how quickly Michael has picked up the concept.
I could jabber on for ages about what we’re up to, so rather
than continue this now ridiculously long essay, I will save it in the hope I
will write again soon!
