What 'subjects' have your home ed DC's done today?

[discoverlife]

I thought this would help those thinking of Home Educating their children to show the spread and depth of subjects that can and are covered by their DC's.

Each childs needs are different so what is commonplace or regular for one will be totally different for another.

So today I did with DS 10yo with SEN.

20 minutes on the trampoline and playing catch to get his neurons warmed up for mental activities.

20 minutes on his gardening project where we have sunflowers seedlings, analysing why one set have not sprouted yet (probable answer 'not warm enough') writing down in his book a few sentances about todays readings eg. height of seedlings.

30 minutes Oragami, (maths) angles etc.

Then as long as he likes on an online game called 'Eve' where to get on you have to mine asteroids and sell the metals then buy new equipment or training etc. (economics and socialising in one).

I will also go, this thread has lost what meaning it had at the beginning.

dippydeedoo

The book is 'One-to-one: A Practical Guide To Learning At Home Age 0-11' By Gareth Lewis.

Another good book is 'Free Range Education: How Home Education Works' By Terri Dowty.

Discoverlife calm down. You are doing the right thing for your children. You have had a lovely day and so have your children rather than the nightmare you have all been experiencing with the school system. Enjoy and don't let this get to you.
On another note, a lot of home-ed people know and have experienced the school system and so make an informed choice.
Very few people within the school system have experienced home-ed and so have nothing to compare the school system with apart from pre-conceived ideas which for the most part turn out to be wrong under closer inspection.

DL, I'm really happy that you are happy with the choices you've made for you kids.

Juule, I have to disagree with you a bit saying that schoolers ( for want of a better word) don't know about HE. Don't we all start off as our childrens' first teachers? don't they all start off as HE? Serious question here, not point scoring? and don't the majority of parents do some form of HE, even if the kids go to school?

I would probably have said yes to that MB before I started HE-ing some of my own children and it is very different to when I had them in school.

Interested in the differences.

Is it 'just' a case of scale/ level of intellectual 'demand' of the tasks pursued?

We really do many of the things listed on this thread. We do lots of projects, research, all that jazz.

The helium thing that cropped up on another thread, happened to us at a party. We also used it as a 'learning' opportunity.

thankyou bubble 99 ill be having a look at those....

I'm not entirely sure. (not very helpful, I know).
We do seem to talk a lot more than we did and have a better understanding of each other.
For me there is a lot more involvement in their lives, a lot more arranging things, places to go, things to do,(with or without me). More work for me but it's brought us together more.
My secondary age child doesn't seem to have developed peer allegiance in the same way that my older children did, even though she does have school friends.

This all sounds quite airy fairy but it is different to when they were in school.
It will be interesting to see what happens to another of my dd when she moves up to secondary in Sept.

MB. I think it's also the time available to HE children that must make a difference.

juuule. I've read good things about improvements in sibling relationships for children who HE after leaving school.

I am looking forward to experiencing this in The Bubble Boys' household.

For us, I think the reason why we prefer HE as opposed to School, is not that school is bad. Can't say that as my dds have schooled friends who are perfectly happy, and also as we have never gone down the school route, I can't make fair comparisons.

Really, it is the fact that we can get so much more done, in less time and have more time to spare for pursuing hobbies, meeting with friends, and just playing.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I imagine that if my dds went to school, they would have to be in bed by about 8:30. So their after-school time would consist of choices. They couldn't go to whatever club is on that evening (gym, dancing, Rainbows, Music club) AND have friends to dinner, AND play imaginative games (and have time to really get into them) AND have stories and bonding time with me. There is limited time, and so has to be a choice of these things.

I know that life is full of choices, and no we can't do everything. My dds are learning that as well.

But for me, as there is a legitimate way of the children being well educated AND well socialised, AND have time to themselves in abundance...why not go for it?

I am not saying that school kids don't have time for these things ever (that's what holidays are for), but we love our lives and can't imagine dealing with the restraints that would come with school.

But you need to have the right personality for HE. I derive so much enjoyment from spending a lot of time with the dds, and watching them grow and develop independance at their own pace.

Please don't read this as anti-school.
Just that personally, I don't think we'd have time in the day to fit it in :-)

I agree with the time aspect. We can get so much more done in 1 or 2 hours of directed learning, 1:1 than 6 hours at school. Also the aspect of all the schooling being 1:1 or even 2:1 if both parents join in. It leaves so much more time for independent learning, off the wall learning or just plain questions and answers. The whole day runs smoother (and for some SEN children this is more of a boon than anything else) and a child can finish a project or chase down a chain of thought whilst it is still in their head instead of having the thought de-railed because they have moved class and changed subject.
We are always giving up a planned set of study (in fact every day) because DS wants to stay with something or follow it through in a different direction or an oportunity comes up that we drop everything for. Recently that included messing around with Dry Ice that DS1 had bought and watching some piglets be born.
For us personally it is being able to give our DS (who is SEN) the time to learn something thoughorly before being pushed to the next level or the next subject, to be able to finish models and craft projects, to not be rushed in his writing etc.
Yep for us it is definatly the time aspect.

flippin eck' spelling is letting me down again.

Back to the OP:

Science - Smelling jar of sugar because I said sugar didn't smell, DS2 said it did, so we found out that he was right...Tried salt, flour, brown sugar, chilli and chocolate flakes!! I love it when my knowledge turns out to be faulty. I learn something new.

Languages - Looked at the word gourmet. DS2 asked me how to spell it and I said I can only do it by writing it out. Then I pointed out that it is really a French word and we altered it to imaginary word dourmet because he suggested it.

Nature Study - Examined the cat's home education by sitting on the step and watching what he was doing. It turned out he is not naturally into the internet or writing about cars, but smelling the plants and the air for clues about what has been walking through the garden recently. He likes to work on that each day!

Sport - I was invited to bounce on DS2's bed. That was the most fun I have had for a while, what with all the pressurising and oh my god comments from relatives.

A structured morning this morning. We sat out in the sun, him cuddled under a blanket and me slurping my cuppa and DS read 2 of his favourite books (short ones), then we did some writing practice going back to basics with the handwriting paper. Then he made a list of all the animals he could think of and listed them alphabetically whilst using the handwriting paper.

Last night we went to a car auction and talked to Ds about MOT's, Insurance write-off's, compared petrol and deisel cars. Prices and de-preciation of cars. Engine size to weight ratio and how it affects the economy of fuel consumption. How bidding at auction works. Basic tests you can do at the auction, what to look for under the bonnet, exhaust emissions, the difference between smoke and condensation.
We tried to figure out how many lanuages were spoken at the auctions (about 6 we think), where different ethnic groups came from in the world (he was to tired to follow up with the atlas when he got home). Maths, because the auctioneer was saying 22 hundred instead of 2 thousand 2 hundred, and he was jumping up in 100's or 50's, 20' or 10's.
Still didn't buy a car as the prices were a bit silly.

I am not totally sure what my child has done today because it is her business not mine

I was shown a story she had written at one point, she had done a synopsis of the plot first, splitting it into chapters and then had written the first couple of chapters.

(If anyone would like to vote, she currently has a story entered into a competition here www.thegreenstory.co.uk/cread.asp?e=33 called Deep Underground)

I seem to remember her sitting at the table working through the work the Japanese tutor left her with when she went to America for 2 months - she is back tomorrow for the next session, and I think that the whole 2 months work was getting done at one fell swoop.

I overheard her arranging with some friends to go swimming tomorrow, and helped arrange a sleepover for next week.....

We had a 14 day trial for Learn Premium and I asked her to have a look at that, so I am sure she will have done.

The difference for Dances is that our children are able to choose to do the things that they want to do, and in my experience given a free choice they want to learn, I think it is hard wired into them. When someone else is making the decisions for you about what to learn, that part of your brain switches off and forgets how to initiate learning on its own. When children come from school into home ed, they often take months to realise that they have an input into their own education, they sit around and say they are bored - something rarely heard from kids who have been freed from the start. When they realise that they can follow up on things that interest them, they are astounded, and do so with glee, learning so much more because it is their own free choice to learn what interests them.
Dances - your children will probably remember far more of the discussions you have outside of school than they have ever taken in of the formal learning. Our children have just cut out the waste of time and cut straight to the good stuff

No real work today as such, but Ds did ask me to teach him to sew. So I have today bought for him a magazine with a free little cross stitch kit on it and some velcro to stitch to his trousers instead of buttons (he has trouble with buttons because of Dyspraxia so I'm changing all his trousers to velcro). He also wants to bake some little cakes, so I bought some iceing sugar.
If we have time tomorrow we will be putting the varnish on his volcano to make it 'waterproof' for the vinegar bi-carb experiment. Also going to have a look under DH's car to find where the blown exhaust is.

I think I have a master chef in the making. Enormous Pride emoticons. DS2 made the lightest fluffiest fairy cakes I have ever had yesterday. (better than my last attempts, and I'm qualified!! .
All I helped with was a bit of creaming as his arms got tired. He even doubled up the recipe size so we could give some to a friend.

Spelling - hydraulics

DS2 is using a wider vocabulary, or I'm more aware and am looking for signs of this.

I took my first proper book about Dyspraxia out of the library. God do I wish I had been more pro-active when he was younger, I could have been helping him so much more.
Nope I won't say negative thoughts about his care here.

Today he went swimming, thats all, which is an achievment considering his co-ordination problems, and DD says his style is improving as well.