One word? When seven would do…

Hold the front page folks, it can’t be true, it surely is… I am about to put something on my under the banner of Home Education but very rarely talks about anything to do with education blog!!

While I have been totally ignoring anything even remotely educational, failing miserably to plan, direct or coerce educational value from anything it would appear the kids have been thriving on all that autonomous, learning from life stuff you read about but secretly don’t buy into!

Just wanted to do a little round up really – I’m not sure how long it is since I seriously decided I was going to HE but I know I was around this time last year as we did MP cards – although I think June and Alison were the only people I actually felt I *knew*. This year I really feel like we have become Home Educators, partially because in moving home and catching up with family and friends and being asked about schools etc we have now told everybody that we are doing it, I never have doubts these days about whether they should go to school or not and when I hear about and see other children’s schooling I really do feel nothing but relief that we won’t be doing that. Also since we have been home which is now 6 months I have for the first time ever had total responsibility for child care – prior to that I had always worked and had some element of childcare – a nursery when it was just Davies and Lynda when Scarlett was born. Although they drive me mad and insane and I have many many days where all I seem to do is shout it struck me this week that I really wouldn’t want it any other way – and that is quite a big deal for me.

It has also seemed that the last few weeks have been quite good for the children. We have done loads of stuff which has had real educational value but it has all been either spontaneous, Christmas related or otherwise ‘natural’. So what I wanted to do was a quick summary of both of them and where they are at.

Davies – his writing is really coming along actually. He still has a very peculiar grip on the pencil which I remain convinced really hinders him from forming his letters but we have been doing a fair bit of copying with various Christmas cards and Tarly’s birthday cards and he can do very clear (if rather large) letters with help and guidance. The biggest breakthrough is that he ‘gets’ that these letters are forming words – which has got to be the basis for reading and writing hasn’t it? He is also suddenly starting to pick up on the sounds at the beginnings of words – I am fighting all my natural instincts to drag all the workbooks out and go totally overboard on this but I really do think letting him do it in his own time is the right way forward.
He has also started to want to learn to read. Some of his favourite bedtime story books which he knows off by heart he asks to ‘read’ and as I go under each word with my finger he says them – okay he is not reading them but he is relating that word to the one written down, which again is a good start.
His questions have been constant this last few weeks and much more thought out and considered than the previous constant ‘why?’ type where he didn’t actually listen to what the answer was. We have covered all sorts of stuff including volcanos, more dinosaurs, reproduction and menstruation, weather, all sorts of Christmas and religion related stuff and much more. He has also started asking what certain words mean – none earth shattering, more ones he hears people use or on TV but I notice he is then starting to use them and play with them too – all excellent for increasing his vocabulary and a love and fascination with language. He has also realised that we use some words for different meanings (scene & seen, hear & here or even some spelt the same like mean (nasty) mean (as it know what I) ) and his skill at remembering song lyrics is amazing. He has been pretending to be Jack ever since we went to the panto which involves him using his Peter Pan outfit hat and boots and taking his trousers off to have bare legs, running round slaying giants and climbing imaginary beanstalks – says loads for his resourcefulness in creating an outfit and his imagination too. He has overcome his issues with needing me to be by his side everywhere particularly when faced with other unknown children like at the soft play area – I put this down to having been there for him all this time without leaving him alone until he got over his issues with it. He is also getting better at making friends and playing with other children – he was running around and talking to other kids at the softplay, which would also have been unheard of 6 months ago.

Scarlett
She is amazing with her level of speech and articulation, My parents always said you could hold a full scale conversation with me when I was two years old and I always thought they were lying – but it’s true, Scarlett can hold a full conversation. She talks in sentences, learns new words daily and uses them and has started asking ‘why?’ this week. I thought it was simply having heard Davies say it and get a reaction but she is clearly asking it as a question and listens to the answer she gets, which sometimes leads to another ‘why?’ She is clever enough to strike deals with (if you go in your pushchair you can have your dummy) and be bribed which is handy 🙂 and her jigsaw puzzle skills are very impressive. She has moved on from the 2+ ones and today completed a 3+ one with ease. She is also a total minx and spent today unwrapping presents which have been under the tree for a week and gone ignored – when I asked her why she simply replied ‘Dora’ which is a reference to the fact that for her birthday last week she opened all her presents and got Dora gifts so she clearly imagines that anything wrapped up in shiny paper will be a Dora related prize!

One of the great plusses for me of the children not going to school is that I have never really been able to compare them to other children, which IMHO is normally a good thing. But we do mix more with same aged children and I am always reassured that they are both every bit where they should be and more. Scarlett has her 2 year development check on Thursday which will be interesting…