We've been continuing our topic of space, we have started on a wall display which at the moment has all the planets in our Solar system on it and labelled. We are planning to find out a little more about each planet and stick notes on.
LA painted the planets, but wanted to do them in the correct colours, so she looked through an encyclopedia and found them all with no problem. It was another one of those - "where did you learn to do that?" moments. She didn't need to do worksheets and workbooks on alphabetical order to grasp the concept, and it made me realise that my thinking is still very much in the school mindset at times.
The swimming issues from last week were resolved, they now have 2 instructors in the group, which helped enormously. The child which needed the individual attention received more attention without having to resort to destructive behaviours and the rest of the group were able to continue.
We baked chocolate chip cookies yesterday, and LA's friend H came to play. LA is having a few issues with control at the moment, we are experiencing numerous tantrums and sometimes aggression on a daily basis. It's hard going, but I'm sure its just a phase. It is about control and her perceived lack of it, so we're trying to be adaptable - but obviously there are limits.
Friday, 27 November 2009
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Space, TV and Swimming...
LA has decided that she doesn't want to do the "My body" project that she originally requested and I have provided! This is no surprise as she has been avoiding it since September. I rather suspect she knows most of it already, so no worries. She would like to learn about Space instead - so I've been doing my homework!
Rich has splashed out and brought a new (very posh) TV and Sky, both of which are now installed and working. It is nice to get the huge old TV out of the room, there seems to be so much more space now. Although we are having problems getting rid of the old one, I always struggle with Freecycle (or Freegle, as it calls itself now). Whatever I do, I seem to get my posts rejected. I tried again last night. I tried really hard and I'm sure I finally got all the information in the right places for them. But no, it came back to me. It seems that there is now an even more local group than the local group, so I'm not allowed to offer on the old local group until I have advertised on the new local group. Of course I'm not a member of the new local group - so I can't do that until I join... and to be honest, I really can't be bothered, because next time I wish to offer something, something else will have changed and I'll have to start all over again. So we still have the old TV. Any ideas, ideas that don't involve the little Hitlers at Freegle/Freecycle?
It was LAs swimming lesson tonight, but she only managed to swim for 10 minutes before banging her head on the wall and getting a huge bump. In her group there is a small (5 ish) girl who is totally unable to behave. I and the other parents spend time trying to conceal our "tuts" each week, but her Mother doesn't notice anyway, she's got her paperwork to do! She jumps on the instructor, physically stops the other children swimming by deliberately blocking them, spends enormous amounts of time playing the fool to get the instructors attention, throws her floats away, and refuses to stay in the same area of the pool to the rest of the group - all of which mean that the other children get less time. Well, today she decided that she would spit water at LA and wouldn't stop. LA backed off but she followed, LA tried to get out of the pool, but slipped and banged her head. I have asked for the head instructor to call me tomorrow, but I have concerns that I'm over-reacting. I would not send a child of mine who behaved like that to swimming lessons, I couldn't. So I'm hoping to be able to express my concerns about the child in an appropriate manner. I'm hoping to go down the "The instructor is trying very hard, but I think maybe there are reasons why the group needs a little more support". But I know I'll probably say something more like "There's a horrid little brat in the group, who caused my child to hurt her head, it could have been much worse! I strongly suggest you look at the safety of the children in the group if this child is to continue swimming..." Blagh!
Rich has splashed out and brought a new (very posh) TV and Sky, both of which are now installed and working. It is nice to get the huge old TV out of the room, there seems to be so much more space now. Although we are having problems getting rid of the old one, I always struggle with Freecycle (or Freegle, as it calls itself now). Whatever I do, I seem to get my posts rejected. I tried again last night. I tried really hard and I'm sure I finally got all the information in the right places for them. But no, it came back to me. It seems that there is now an even more local group than the local group, so I'm not allowed to offer on the old local group until I have advertised on the new local group. Of course I'm not a member of the new local group - so I can't do that until I join... and to be honest, I really can't be bothered, because next time I wish to offer something, something else will have changed and I'll have to start all over again. So we still have the old TV. Any ideas, ideas that don't involve the little Hitlers at Freegle/Freecycle?
It was LAs swimming lesson tonight, but she only managed to swim for 10 minutes before banging her head on the wall and getting a huge bump. In her group there is a small (5 ish) girl who is totally unable to behave. I and the other parents spend time trying to conceal our "tuts" each week, but her Mother doesn't notice anyway, she's got her paperwork to do! She jumps on the instructor, physically stops the other children swimming by deliberately blocking them, spends enormous amounts of time playing the fool to get the instructors attention, throws her floats away, and refuses to stay in the same area of the pool to the rest of the group - all of which mean that the other children get less time. Well, today she decided that she would spit water at LA and wouldn't stop. LA backed off but she followed, LA tried to get out of the pool, but slipped and banged her head. I have asked for the head instructor to call me tomorrow, but I have concerns that I'm over-reacting. I would not send a child of mine who behaved like that to swimming lessons, I couldn't. So I'm hoping to be able to express my concerns about the child in an appropriate manner. I'm hoping to go down the "The instructor is trying very hard, but I think maybe there are reasons why the group needs a little more support". But I know I'll probably say something more like "There's a horrid little brat in the group, who caused my child to hurt her head, it could have been much worse! I strongly suggest you look at the safety of the children in the group if this child is to continue swimming..." Blagh!
Friday, 13 November 2009
Reassuring myself...
... I think its the climate, no not the weather but the political climate. I pretend it doesn't really have any relevance to our daily life, but it does, in a sneaky sinister unspoken way.
I have been worrying that we are achieving very little. We seem to socialise an awful lot, but education? Nope none of that happening here!
So, I took stock.
Since September 2009:
LA has taught herself to read - really read, not that faltering monotonous reading that 5 years olds often adopt for their adults, but real reading with tone and emotion, both loudly and silently.
She is working on writing - but has little interest at the moment. Well, no that's not true - she will eagerly write memos and lists.
We have explored the Stone Age using books, games, videos and visits.
We have looked at Evolution, the big bang, and various religions.
We have been to Spain and learnt a little Spanish and about air travel.
LA has been able to label all the continents and many (15) countries on our big map of the world and is able to identify these countries on different maps.
She continues to work eagerly with numbers. I'd find this difficult to describe in more detail, because she does bits and bobs of lots of different maths topics, addition, subtraction, times tables, shape, time, measuring ...
We have learnt about Guy Fawkes, Gunpowder and fireworks.
She has learnt to swim 5 metres.
As well as all the usual crafts, cooking, shopping, playing etc etc etc.
I'm feeling better now. We've done quite a lot in 2 months. I'll stop worrying.
I have been worrying that we are achieving very little. We seem to socialise an awful lot, but education? Nope none of that happening here!
So, I took stock.
Since September 2009:
LA has taught herself to read - really read, not that faltering monotonous reading that 5 years olds often adopt for their adults, but real reading with tone and emotion, both loudly and silently.
She is working on writing - but has little interest at the moment. Well, no that's not true - she will eagerly write memos and lists.
We have explored the Stone Age using books, games, videos and visits.
We have looked at Evolution, the big bang, and various religions.
We have been to Spain and learnt a little Spanish and about air travel.
LA has been able to label all the continents and many (15) countries on our big map of the world and is able to identify these countries on different maps.
She continues to work eagerly with numbers. I'd find this difficult to describe in more detail, because she does bits and bobs of lots of different maths topics, addition, subtraction, times tables, shape, time, measuring ...
We have learnt about Guy Fawkes, Gunpowder and fireworks.
She has learnt to swim 5 metres.
As well as all the usual crafts, cooking, shopping, playing etc etc etc.
I'm feeling better now. We've done quite a lot in 2 months. I'll stop worrying.
Monday, 9 November 2009
Still here...
... just a little busy.
We had a lovely time at Twin Lakes with friends last week, they have free pumpkin carving available in the run up to Halloween so we came home smelling of pumpkins.
Then we went to the best party EVER! A halloween party organised by some Home Ed friends. Wow, what a party - a magician, dancing, McDonalds, Pizza, Icecream, Fireworks, and Lanterns! We came home very happy but very knackered. Eoin and Emma - you definately get the award for best party of the year!
On Saturday we went to see the Firework display at Abbey Park. A beautiful evening and as always a brilliant fireworks display.
We had a lovely time at Twin Lakes with friends last week, they have free pumpkin carving available in the run up to Halloween so we came home smelling of pumpkins.
Then we went to the best party EVER! A halloween party organised by some Home Ed friends. Wow, what a party - a magician, dancing, McDonalds, Pizza, Icecream, Fireworks, and Lanterns! We came home very happy but very knackered. Eoin and Emma - you definately get the award for best party of the year!
On Saturday we went to see the Firework display at Abbey Park. A beautiful evening and as always a brilliant fireworks display.
LA has continued to exceed all my expectations (child number 3 - why do I have expectations???) in her reading ability. She is now on the (dreadful) Rainbow Fairy books and has read the first 4 books in the last 3 weeks. She really enjoys them, so we're going along with it, but the stories are awful! Any recommendations for a 5 year old would be very welcome!
Its still not so easy to get her to write, but we're not pushing this, I'm sure the time will come.
She now has her own website - its a blog on which I have listed lots of sites that I feel are relevant for the week ahead - she loves the independence of being able to go to the computer and get on with it, so its working well.
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