Sept 7th

First of all, sorry for the unimaginative title... But at least it gets to the point! Hopefully I'll get a bit more creative as time goes on!

Today was Wiyots first(ish) Brazilian Soccer class... He did go to two in July, but this was the first one  proper one set up for our local home ed community. A big thank you to the mom(s) who took the time to set it up! Wiyot seemed to really enjoy it, as did most of the other kids, saying straight away that he wanted to come again. I'm not exactly sure how he got on, the weather wasn't great today so the session was held inside. This meant it was hard to really watch, but from what I could see he was doing ok and for the most part listening to the coach... Wiyot has a tendency to do what he wants, rather than what someone else wants him to do!

After Wiyots class there was a second class for the older kids. Some of the families have children in both groups, so we decided to stay at the centre, playing and reading with the other children in his group and also the older ones when they had finished.

While playing outside Wiyot picked a flower for me, later when we got home he drew a picture of it:

His flower has a smiley face, around it he wrote, "doo yoo lik flowus" - do you like flowers :)

I forgot to add these on yesterdays post, so thought I'd add them here:

I'm sure you can work this one out!

He drew this for me last Friday evening, a picture of Wiyot and me with "I Luv yoo mum" - I love you mum underneath. I was so impressed as it was the very first time he had written anything independently. I was doing the washing up when he announced he was going to draw me a picture. Lets just say I was blown away when he came back with this! Even gave himself black hair and me brown :)

A couple of weeks ago while shopping at Tesco, Wiyot spotted a General Grievous Lightsaber. Immediately it became item number 1 on his ever expanding Christmas list! After telling him that he needed to write a letter to Santa he got out his paper and crayons and wrote, "I wont a jen..." repeatedly before giving up and asking for help.

I realise now (with the benefit of Google)  I spelt Grievous wrong... 

He copied my sentence and then added some monkey stamps and sound effects, I hope you can make them out! They include zooOOOM, Owch and voom, I think he got them from reading the Star Wars: The Clone Wars graphic novels from the library.

He's looking forward to doing the real letter to Santa now, I told him he could decorate it with Christmas stamps and draw pictures of the toys he wants :D

Today he also read In the bath - Book 3E again no problems. He is even beginning to add emotion to the words while he is reading... Does that make sense? What I mean is, he is sounding less like a robot! lol

Well that's all for today! xx

Sept 5th, 6th and other stuff...

Well, I said I was going to try to blog more often, so here goes! 

As I mentioned in my previous post, this is Wiyots first 'official' home ed week. Bit of a slow start so far, but plans for the rest of the week. So far he has read three books to me:

Runny Honey - Tadpoles (for newly independent readers)

The Spell - Set 1 Story 4

Black Hat Bob - Set 1 Story 5

He read them all really well, needing very little help from me. He's also been pointing various things out from around the house and reading them to me; "Not so scary halloween party," on the side of a candy bag on our dinning table and "The Little Black Dress" the name of the book I have been making a dress from.

I think the best thing about all of this for me, is that I haven't asked him to do any of it. He just goes to the books on the sideboard, chooses one and asks if he can read me a story. :D

I still need to work on our living space so that there are more educational things that can be 'stumbled upon!' It's definitely getting there though. We have made a few purchases recently which have been greatly received. Firstly our blackboard from Ikea, which I posted about before, a table and chair set from Toys r us and various new art materials, including some twistable wax crayons that I had been after for a while! 

Because I don't have much else to share as yet, I thought I'd share some of the stuff we've been up to over the summer holidays!

Heres one of Wiyots blackboard doodles that I liked:

Spyro the Dragon

Something I've had for a while, but recently decided to get out an extra set of magnetic letters:

I MIS MIKE MAWS - I miss Mickey Mouse

He loves to write little messages to me on the fridge while I am doing the washing :) He uses phonetic spellings, something I only recently read about, since allowing him to spell this way, he has become much more open to reading and writing!

A mask colouring book from Nanny Sue:

The Good Knight

wiyot has never shown much patience in colouring, but these masks have really turned things round. For the first time he has made an effort to colour inside the lines, fill in all the space... and use a colour other than red! lol

Shone hasn't grasped colouring in yet. But how cute is she!

The blackboard, masks and letters have bought so much confidence, Wiyot went on a drawing spree and named the characters as he stuck them on the fridge: (hope you can make them out!)

SONIK D HEJHOG - Sonic the Hedgehog

SPIDUMAN - Spiderman

MIKE MAWS - Mickey Mouse

No room on the fridge for Zurg!

Shoshone doing a bit of colouring

She holds her crayons really well!

Inspired by mommy's new hair, Wiyot got out his Incredibles suit and colouring book:

More colouring.

Very proud of his FIRST completed picture.

So proud, vastly improved from previous attempts!

Well that's all for now, I'll be posting again soon!

xx

Compulsory School Age!

Here in the UK children don't become 'compulsory school age' until the term following their 5th birthday.

I wonder how many parents actually know that fact? I'm betting not many!


Wiyot turned 5 in July, so this week is officialy the beginning of our home education journery... I guess we just ignore the past 5 years of exploration and learning! lol ;)

My hope for this blog is that I'll keep a record of our daily/weekly activities, which I can use should the LA ever come knocking, but mostly so we can keep track of the progress we have made.

And so... May the education commence!

xx

Planning... sort of...

Last week most of the schools in the UK broke up for summer. Ironically this is the time that Wiyot has started showing an interest in writing!

Recently I've been reading various books and articles on the internet, mainly about the Montessori method of education. One of the results of this is that I am trying to create a better learning environment for the kids. This basically means I'm gradually moving all the toys up to the kids bedrooms, as well as evicting some of my craft stuff, to make room for more educational stuff.

I'm hoping this will result in them choosing to do educational stuff, rather than me trying to instigate it. When I try to get Wiyot to do something it rarely goes smoothly, he becomes very resistant and usually doesn't do anywhere near as well as I know he can. This results in us both getting very frustrated and me occasionally loosing my temper, which is obviously very upsetting for us both.

I REALLY, TRUELY believe that learning should be something that you want to do and you enjoy.

I guess its natural, but I frequently find myself having a crisis of confidence, wondering if I'm doing the right thing by them... If I'd sent him to school in January, I wonder if he would be doing better with his reading and writing... But then I know I shouldn't compare him to schooled children, as I know he has knowledge in areas that wouldn't be pursued in school for some time... As you can probably see, my mind is going round in circles!

I guess its only natural, as a parent all you want is the best for your child...

Back onto the positive side of things!


As part of the improved environment, I decided to buy a double sided blackboard/whiteboard easel type thing from Ikea.

One of the biggest area's of resistance for Wiyot has always been with writing/drawing based activities. I don't know why... even when he was little he showed no interest in playing with crayons, other than pretending they were cars or aeroplanes or something. Recently when he says he wants to draw, he will get the crayons and paper out scribble over the paper, draw a few lines and a cross, roll it up and declare it a treasure map. Don't get me wrong, I value all his attempts and do think the whole idea is quite creative, but I know that when he puts his mind to it he can draw and write very nicely.

So anyway I have bought the easel, and as I said at the beginning of the post, so far it seems to be working wonders!!!! :D

I'm hoping it will last!!!

I'm trying to keep the montessori stuff in mind... I should state that I AM IN NO WAY CLAIMING TO BE USING OFFICIAL MONTESSORI METHODS, simply that the methods are inspirational and providing me with a new way of approaching things. I hope that makes sense?! So basically I am trying my absolute best to make everything really fun, like a new game, with no expectations and no feelings of failure.

Yesterday I began writing messages to him on the board using purely phonetic spellings, allowing him to easily read the words. For example:

"Wot shud wee hav too eet?" (what should we have to eat)

Then I drew a circle for a plate and asked him if he could draw what we could have. He thought this was great fun and laughing drew a few lines in the circle.

Me, "Hmm, I wonder what that is? Can you write it on the board?"
Wiyot, "I guess I can try..." he writes on the board telling me each letter:

"pasd" (pasta)

 I responded drawing a :9 and asking him to write what sort of pasta he wanted.

"red"

was the answer and I wrote:

"tomartoe" with a picture of a tomato

Again lots of laughter and a very happy little boy!

Later, as I was washing the dishes he came into the kitchen and said he wanted to write me a message on the fridge.

Here's what he wrote:

MOMY DYOOW WOTOOW BATH US NAW!

Translated, "Mommy do you want to bath us now!"

Has struggling for letters and had to improvise... Q's became o's and an upside-down f became a t. Also the i was turned to become an exclamation mark... apparently he was shouting to me :D

I was so pleased with him and even better, he was over the moon with himself! He declared he no longer needs to speak to me, he can just write me messages! lol

Coughing like crazy!

So yesterday Wiyot started complaining that his mouth was tickling...

I had no idea what that was supposed to mean! However, today (and throughout last night) all he has done is cough :(

Poor little fella sounds awful. Really wheezy and short of breath... He should be going to gymnastics on Friday, somehow I can't see it happening!

As I was getting him ready for bed, I mentioned that I would book an appointment at the doctors for him in the morning. I wasn't expecting him to suddenly burst into tears! Evidence that he's still traumatised from our trip to the A&E on our holiday to Florida.

For those of you that don't know the story, last year we went on holiday to Disney World, and Wiyot came back with a rather unfortunate souvenir. On our third day there he tripped over in the villa we were renting and cut his head open on the coffee table. Luckily, there was no fractures, concussion, infections, swelling, or even bruising! However, he did have a gaping hole in his head that looked rather like a third eye, allowing you to see through to his skull... Nice! I'll spare you all the grisly photo's in case you're eating while you're reading!

An ambulance ride, seven stitches and a week of antibiotics later... Wiyot has a lovely bright pink scar on his forehead, reminiscent of Harry Potter. I knew I should have bought him the accessories from Universal!

Well anyway, as you can imagine, it was not exactly a pleasant experience for the little fella! I guess I'll be finding out tomorrow just how big the doctor phobia is :/

Not much home ed-ing today, although I have been using the time to do some research. I've been trying to find some Montessori books that are available at our library. I've also been constructing word lists to help Wiyot with his reading. At the moment focusing on the vowel sounds of ay, ee, igh, ow and the two oo's (eg look and zoo). He know's them on our speed sound cards, but as of yet, hasn't got any books to put the sounds into practice.

As I was looking for word lists, I found a rhyming word exercise and realised I already have cards made up to do this exercise. It was basically a number of different pictures and you have to match up the ones that rhyme. As soon as Wiyot is feeling up to it I think I'll get him to give it a go.

For anyone that might be interested (as well as me if I lose my other list :/), here are the words that I chose to include in my lists:

Words with 'ay'

• Day
• Play
• Stay
• May
• Say
• Way
• Lay
• Bay
• Hay
• Pay
• Away
• Clay
• Gray
• Tray
• Spray
• Sway
• Crayon
• Holiday

Words with 'ee'

• Bee
• See
• Been
• Deep
• Feed
• Heel
• Keep
• Meet
• Seed
• Tree
• Week
• Cheek
• Green
• Sheep
• Queen
• Sleep
• Sweet
• Teeth
• Sixteen
• Street
• Between

Words with 'igh'

• High
• Sigh
• Fight
• Light
• Might
• Night
• Right
• Sight
• Thigh

Words with 'ow'

• Low
• Tow
• Mow
• Row
• Own
• Slow
• Blow
• Snow
• Yellow
• Bow
• Bowl
• Elbow
• Show
• Grow
• Crow

Words with 'oo' (short u)

• Good
• Hood
• Wood
• Book
• Look
• Cook
• Hook
• Woof
• Foot
• Wool

Words with 'oo' (long u)

• Poo
• Zoo
• Boo
• Igloo
• Shoo
• Moo
• Food
• Mood
• Roof
• Hoof
• Boom
• Bloom
• Broom
• Room
• Zoom
• Cool
• Pool
• Tool
• Balloon
• Moon
• Spoon
• Hoop
• Loop
• Boot

Well that's all for now folks!

Cruising

No we're not on vacation... although the new Disney cruise ship does look very appealing!! Rather, we are cruising through our days in a fairly autonomous fashion at the moment...

Funny, in the past I thought I'd follow more of a structured approach to learning. The temperament that Wiyot has though, definitely suits the more autonomous approach. 

As with anybody really, if it is something that he is interested in, he will sit and do it for hours! Otherwise he becomes very passive and defeatist. 

Currently he is interested in a number of subjects; tectonic plates, volcanoes, stars and planets, dinosaurs, human anatomy and physiology, among other things! He is also really enjoying helping me in the kitchen with a variety of tasks; peeling garlic and onions, doing the washing up, measuring ingredients, making breakfast and baking :9

Recently we joined an online maths tutor called Maths Whizz. He really enjoys going on there, quite often laughing while playing the maths games, such a great way to learn! Even better, at the moment I don't even have to ask him to play on it. All I do is turn on the computer and he comes over and requests to play on it :D

He's still doing well with his reading, often pointing out words when we're reading to him. Recently he has started reading to himself and requesting to read to us. Just this morning he got into bed with me and pointed out the rhyming words in one of his reading books!

Another thing we did today was making our own bread :9 He read the recipe, measured out the ingredients and discussed various things with me... what the yeast smelt like (Shoshone's poo apparently!), what the dough felt like, why the dough was rising, etc... 

The rest of the day he spent playing with his Thomas the Tank Engine Duplo sets, running around dressed as superhero's with Shoshone, playing hide and seek, and taking apart and fixing our Guess Who board game... 

Bizarre! :D

Feeling quite content at the moment though, was feeling fairly stressed about the whole "officialness" of it all since January... I got a book from the library on Friday called "Twenty chickens for a saddle" based on a home educating family in Botswana in the 80's and 90's. I'm only half way though at the moment, but so far am enjoying it. I think its really helping me to relax and have faith that what we are doing will work and will be for the best. I've also been watching various talks given by Ken Robinson, one called "Changing Paradigms" is particularly entertaining... very thought provoking! 

Well I think I've rambled enough for tonight!

Over and out!

I'm Back!!

So I've been back for a couple of weeks really, having a nose around... and have done a few posts on my other blog.

Today I really wanted to post here though.

Over the past months the home ed had kind of slipped for  a while... Not being of school age yet it was not so much of a big thing and we were mainly doing things if he showed an interest. For example after meeting with a local home ed group, I realised that he is intensely curious about the human body. Since that time we have spent many hours looking through my university anatomy and physiology text books... I am fairly confident he is more knowledgable about the inner workings of the body, than many much older children. I personally didn't do anything on these subjects until at least 11, for him that would be such a waist! Being able to learn about what interests him is one of the reasons I loved the idea of educating him at home.

Anyway... with January and "compulsory school age" around the corner, I figured it was about time I started back up with the daily "lessons." Not in a regular school day sense. More like, after we've finished our breakfast we spend however long doing a few bits n bobs.

The amazing thing is, while he's just been enjoying himself over the last few months, the phonic sounds he learned earlier this year have settled in and he can now easily blend the sounds together to read phonic words! Wow, that was a long sentence... hope it made sense! He could sound blend before, but now he doesn't even need to think about it!

To cut a long story short, it seems that things I'd prepared and bought ready for when we "officially" began, may now be redundant as he has already passed that level!

I am so proud of him I can't even put it into words!

The best thing about it all is that he didn't know he could do it either! He is so proud of himself and is really enjoying being able to read the words. Consequently I can do much more with him before he gets tired or bored and actually wants to do it!

I really could not ask for more :D