a few teething issues

[puddinmama]

hi everyone

I changed my name was bridget before, just felt a bit boring, so now am puddinmama

anyway we are now in out 5th week of home education, and although things are going ok , i dropped down the letter to the school on mon and they were really nice and we have now got ample supplies of craft material and educational games and posters and lots and lots i have to stop myself now as i bought more than i thought i would.

Thing is am having a few teething problems for which i would love some wisdom on

1. i cant seem to get up early every day, today i got outta my bed just before ten, yesterday was ok got up at 8
2. ds2 who is 2 &1/2 is a nightmare for his brother he just wont let him enjoy his activities and every morning there is fighting and tears, i include him in everything we do but he always wants the thing that is in ds1 hands no matter what even if he has the same lol
3. yesterday we didnt do work book work we did some spellinhg puzzles and he wrote the word down that he made, and then we went to the craft shop and then came home and painted all afternoon lol you should have seen the kitchen and we only got reading half a story and then ds1 had karate in the evening, does that sound liek much to u guys

i know i promised myself that i wouldnt let myself worry like this i guess am just feeling the responsibilty a bit, as sometimes i think when we arent doin much "oh he would be in school behind his desk learning right now instead of farting around" lol i know what am i like

anyway please ladies some wisdom would be nice

hugz
bridget

One word - "relax" ! It doesn't matter what time you get up, or whether you have a set routine from one day to the next, so if long lies work for you (and lucky you getting them with a 2 1/2 yo in the house ) then go with it. Spelling puzzles and art and karate sounds fine for a day's activities - you'll find there are days when you get through loads of things you think are "educational" and ones where you never seem to get started. Look over a month at a time and you'll see what you've done in a much fairer light.

Sorry I can't give you any real advice about juggling the two of them though, I've got an only so I've no experience. But maybe if you got the younger one some special things which are "his" he won't want to grab as much? Wishful thinking maybe - I'm sure others with younger ones will be able to make better suggestions!

1. one of the glories of home education is that you can escape from the got-to-go-to-bed-because-we-have-to-get-up-at-a-fixed-time mindset. You get a lie in until 10? Wayhey!!!! Just one word of warning - my family is now so accustomed to sleeping when tired and waking when ready that on the very very rare occasions when I need to set an alarm to do something early, just the act of setting it can be enough to induce insomnia in me

1. It's going to take a little while for ds2 to get used to ds2 being around so much more. Enlist ds1, because he's old enough to help with this one. Tell him it'll take a week, probably, but that the two of you are going to make it into a game. Whenever the little brother wants to grab what he's using, then he gives it to the little brother and picks up another set which you have poised. Which the little brother grabs. So you pass him yet another set. Until everyone is in a complete hooting laughing pile of paper and crayons and the idea of ownership is really moot. If it is a more beloved toy or something, then the two of you play the same game, including really silly things to be passing around (a sieve? a rattle? a telephone?) until finally, again, everyone is surrounded by cool objects and ds1 can quietly get on with playing with whatever he wants to. Get you and ds1 working as a team on it, and it'll be lots of fun!

1. work books are totally an optional extra in your lives. Sounds like you did loads and loads in your day - but you don't have to have a filled in workbook to prove what he's learning. I think work books can be really fun - just have them around the place as one of the play options and they will get played with as and when a child is interested You must have had a blast painting! (and how is painting less educational than filling in a work book, hmmm? hmmm?)

Hi Bridget,

It sounds like you are doing just fine. Even when I first took my 12 year old out of school, it took her younger sister a while to settle down to the new routine (she'd been out of school for a year on her own and wasn't at all impressed with DD1 being around full time) but a term into having them both at home and it has settled beautifully. It will settle for you too, and you will find a way that works for both your children, but it won't be instant. Onward's ideas sound fun!

Today my eldest got out of bed at 11am. I'd assumed she was sleeping, but she was actually reading when I finally went into her bedroom. My youngest watched a fair bit of TV, wrote a little thank you letter for a piano pupil of mine who had given her a Christmas present, drew lots and lots of pictures, played on the piano a bit, and crawled around the house for a while with a friend of hers playing dogs or something. I would have said eldest has done nothing, but she's been in with my Mum for much of the day who told me DD1 was (fairly subconsciously) working on her ballet in the kitchen while she chatted to her.

Some days are much more structured than this, and some days are like today where I couldn't quantify much of educational value. Except that if I wrote down all the conversations, art activities and learning experiences that had happened in the day, I bet there would be loads.

It sounds like much, much more is happening in your house than you are giving yourself credit for. It's very early days yet, and you will get into a rhythm that suits you. Sometimes it just takes a bit of time to feel confident about it.

I'd also suggest you have a look at Alan Thomas and Harriet Patterson's book where they researched How Children Learn at Home
As Onward put it on another thread 'it's a real "oh, I see how it could work" book'

"yesterday we didnt do work book work we did some spellinhg puzzles and he wrote the word down that he made, and then we went to the craft shop and then came home and painted all afternoon lol you should have seen the kitchen and we only got reading half a story and then ds1 had karate in the evening "

Sounds good to me-in fact that sounds much like the life we have led 'for the last eight years! We haven't done any work books unless the children asked for them-and that happened once in a blue moon!
We haven't made the children get up at any time. We have all enjoyed living lives more naturally, getting up when we wanted to or when we needed to and facilitating whatever interests the children had. Like musicposy describes our days we filled with 'conversations, art activities and learning experiences' and the children got educated in this way until they did A levels/OU courses, in which they gained very good results.

Joyfully Rejoycing is a website that talks more about autonomous education or 'unschooling' as it is known in the States. I found this website really useful when our home based education was just starting, and I have returned to it often during the last eight years.
On this page the author writes about the days of an unschoolers life
"To put it in a nutshell, unschooling days are like great days of summer vacation. They can be anywhere from filled to the brim with activities or they can be laid back leisurely days of watching clouds (or playing video games "

Hi puddinmama,
I sort of know how you feel as we have now been HEing for 2 months. The guilt of not doing enough can be quite overwhelming. It certainly doesn't help members of family trusting me to have the abilitiy to teach but still expecting me to do it prison school style. As ds(7yo) had a really tough time at school-sorry I don't know your story- I was determined to de-schooling him, in the sense I felt he needed a rather extended holiday. To my surprise I found out more about his education, or more accurately the gaps in his education, than I ever did with homework and chats about 'what have you done at school'. Until yesterday we didn't sit down once to do work but my goodness the amount of maths, science and grammar we have achieved by just messing the kitchen up-oops! by cooking! When we sat down yesterday and did 'formal' reading, I was surprised how much he had leapt forward. The writing is still as bad as it was but now he's convinced he wants to practice to make sure I'm not going to miss out words from his stories again -writing is really tough for him so he dictates his stories.
I have bought countless work books in the past and especially over the last year but I use them more for ideas than anything else, even dd (now 15yrs), who adhored school, used to hate them and would rather make her own work book!
I have also helped in school to have witnessed that schools too often have an art week or a science week,etc. which do not involve work sheets.

I was very nervous in allowing ds free rein. Predictably, he first gorged on TV, then TV and console games. After a week or so, games where now and again coming out and he had started to beg me to do some painting and baking. Now he mainly plays with his toys, chooses board games (including upword!), no longer begs me to go in the kitchen but drags me to the kitchen to supervise because he has planned a meal (he even includes veg for me!). Today he has shocked me by asking me if he could read me a book. I asked him if he was missing school and he replied 'No, you don't learn much at school.....for example, when would I get the chance to test if the dampness in the air affect how much flour you need to make pasta or biscuits?'

TBH, painting is a great way to learn awarness of your surrounding world (science), maths (to resize or imagine an image onto paper requires the brain to perform complex equations),writing (the handling of a paint brush can be more complex than the use of a pencil. Add to that fun, independence, discussions...and I think you have had a full day worth of teaching.

BW

hi everyone

i have been trying all day to reply but every time my toddler wants something or another

dad home now so am free

omg am still in my jammies we been on the go all day even made a cake and i dont bake at all, wasnt bad if i say so myself could have done with more time in the oven

anyway thanks everyone i'm feeling much more encouraged with the replies am guessing that confidence will stick soon as for now it seems to come and go

my story was basically i didnt want school to be the end all and be all of my kids child hood I find it very un natural that kids are away from home 5+ hours a day and i just kinda thought what they can do i can do better lol i know what am i like

its great having some reasurance (is this spelled right)

as its a real nag the constant how much would he have learned in school by now etc and the whole am i doin enough am gonna get the how children learn book i think this might be a good read for me to help calm my nerves

am gonna go get washed and dressed even though its 5 30

lol we did some life skills i.e how to clean ur room hey it works for me lol

thanks again
bridget