Half Half Term

It's half term but being EHE the holidays feel a bit weird. On one hand, they're like a normal day and we still do regular stuff like maths, moaning about my cooking and teeth brushing. On the other hand, we can actually see our school-going friends in the daytime which means outings and playdates.

Like everything home ed, it's flexible.

So today, the sun is shining the boys' cousins are round. What better than some colouring, trampolining, clay models and wood carving. Wood carving isn't my forte, so thank you YouTube for an intro to the basics. So far we've made a really nice ....

.... chisel mark in a piece of wood.

Theory and Practice

Contextual learning is a fancy way of saying that the kids own their learning, slotting it effortlessly into their individual world view. Clear as mud. Here's another nutshell attempt : learning happens in a meaningful way linked to real world experience.

Wave goodbye to 6 + 6 = 12. Say hello to "You ate 6 biscuits. Your brother ate 6 biscuits. How cross is Mummy on a scale of 1 to 12?"

It's a big hunky theory to explain something that is regular common sense once you shine a light on it. If you're told something or discover something that relates to your own experiences or hopes or interests then you're more likely to retain and assimilate the information.

Children however are far too lazy to have gone out there and done all the great stuff we adults have done like travel to Antigua, get a mortgage, cook a paella, celebrate their 30th birthday, shop at Argos and dance the tango. The more new experiences I expose the boys to the more reference points we have for their learning. Field trip freedom is one of my favourite aspects of EHE.

It works in a classroom setting too and I am starting small.

When we were doing time this week, W was struggling and getting increasingly frustrated. W is a tactile learner so if cutting, throwing a die or sticking can be integral to what we're doing then he'll pick it up faster. We ditched the worksheets and got out the card, scissors and split pins. 

When it all goes wrong and you're faced with a mutiny you can salvage the day by reverting to an activity they love and sneaking the learning in.

Like mashing up broccoli in their yoghurts.

Cake. And Eating It.

It's a ranty sort of a day. I am fed up with the perfect, high exposure, close up world of social media where everything looks all lush! and gorgeous! and awesome! Everything looks amazing from the right angle.

Yes - you can make a nice eggs benedict. No - you can't spend 5 minutes arranging your coffee, a copy of the Guardian and a pencil so you can get the perfect instagram snap. Have you lost your mind? It'll be cold. Just get on and eat your breakfast.

Raising children is a tough gig, always has been. A few generations back you only had to keep up with the Joneses. Now you have to keep up with YummyMummy4, DomGoddess1978 and SuperMumof4 who are on an unstoppable mission to make you feel like a failure by posting close up pictures of their craft and culinary successes.

Imagine if every picture had to be taken wide angle, showing the context. However amazing that meal or craft item, there was MESS on the way to the finished product. Big dirty piles of it. Creativity in all its forms is messy and glorious. But showing the horrific state of your kitchen after cooking cupcakes with little children is not a good look in the social media world - a place where we only ever show our best side.

Sites like Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest are undeniably brilliant; they are bursting with great ideas but the images are a tiny zoomed-in peek at the result. The process is so much more important (and a whole lot messier) than the outcome.

To that end, here's some of our process. The process started with a 6am start (why, children, why?) and we set to work on a lego drive-through museum. There was some sharing, designing, negotiating and writing 'The Gems of Insanity' on a Lego block in sharpie.

It's chaos, Jim, but we had fun.

And here's my nod to social media. From ImTotallyTheBestMumEver1980.....

Milk Bottle Sound Waves

The small group and hands-on control of home schooling means you can get very cross-curricular. Or if the kids are behaving, happy-curricular.

It makes it harder to track what you're teaching but it's like a secret shortcut to the holy grail that is learning-more-than-one-thing-at-once.

Taking an example of a simple sound wave experiment here's how to cross-curricular it to the max.

LO : Be able to describe and draw sound waves with various amplitudes and frequencies.

Experiment : Fill 3-5 bottles with different amounts of water and tap the tops, drawing the sound waves for each one.

Hold on to your hats, your bonus teaching points are on their way ...

1. Maths - decide on your quantities (patterns/number lines), use a measuring jug to pour the water into each bottle (measuring)
2. Science - write or discuss a hypothesis, label your bottles
3. Art - add drops of food colouring to each bottle to create different colours
4. Music - compose a simple tune on your bottles

Labels

It's lovely to think you're unique but equally lovely to know there are other people out there who share your perspective.

I've spent some happy time today exploring the EHE forums. I was a bit ruffled by a theme that run though indicating that there are two reasons families home ed - because regular education can't meet behavioural/SEN needs of the child or because the family have a philosophy which is at odds with formal education.

I began to feel like we were falling through the cracks as we don't sit comfortably in either group.... but happy days! It turns out there is a third group to which we can belong and it even has a label.

We're called Structured Home-Edders. Or on a day when it all goes wrong and we end up walking the dog and making cakes - Semi-Structured Home Edders.

It doesn't make a fun acronym so I'm probably going to reject the label anyway. I could rename it OH-FUC : Other HomeEds - Following Usual Curriculum. But that's not big or clever... (chuckle).

When I can't get a feeling of 'fit' I like to ponder if fit even matters and whether there's a common trait between all the different Home Ed groups. The broad spectrum of home educating families is a strength as everyone can learn from everyone else and there seems to be a common goal shared by all HE families:

Find different ways for our children to learn 

And that is very inspiring.

One Question

Has anyone ever said

I wish I'd spent less time with my children when they were little

?

Food Chains

We accidentally built a food chain in our house this week. It could have gone very wrong.

K loves animals and has a real affinity to anything fluffy, scaly or small. So this week the first bit of animal magic was a caterpillar (that I did originally write off as a maggot) found lost and lonely in the garden.

Fab little opportunity for some internet research, some consideration of location of the discovery and possible food sources, and a discussion on habitat. We think we have a cabbage moth caterpillar. We promptly ruined a perfectly lovely bit of tupperware and made our own pied-a-terre for our new family member, named (inexplicably) Custard.

Next up in the food chain was a nut hatch, looking extremely put out at having been taken for an unscheduled tour of the house by the top of the food chain - Stevie the cat.

I entered the bedroom armed with a pair of scissors as I thought we had a very screechy burglar and thankfully was able to rescue the little bird while Stevie went into a full on "Look what I got you" purr-fest of meowing, rubbing and showing me her tummy.

I wasn't sure whether any damage had been done by Stevie's enthusiastic game of 'keep moving I want to bat you until you die and then I shall tire of you and have a wash'. There are no winners here. Except the cat.

We built a rudimentary cat-proof shelter for the bird in the kitchen and dug worms, all of which were ignored by the hatchling, the lucky squirmers. After a few hours our sparky little nuthatch was pooing happily on the curtains and so, reassured that no lasting damage had been done, we released him back into the oak tree.

A happy ending.

And what of the caterpillar you ask? Custard, exhausted by the lavishing of daily love, attention and rhubarb leaves, turned himself into a cocoon. The boys' Nana happened across another one in the garden so we have a growing collection....

Don't Be a Hero

Armed with the National Curriculum, subscriptions to some of the primary resources sites, a strong coffee, packet of jaffa cakes and some good ol' fashioned positive attitude I figured I had this Home Ed lark in the bag.

Not really, as it turns out. The bag is big and has holes in and your stuff falls out the bottom when you're not expecting it. How annoying.

It's only once I was on the way I realised it's a bit bigger than I thought. I was totally focussed on the teaching aspect - what do they need to know, how can I teach it - which only gets you so far. If you're trying to stay aligned to the National Curriculum you're going to need some assessment.

Also some subjects might not be your thing. I'm not great at history. It didn't interest me when I was at school and I have some serious knowledge gaps (the gap is pretty much 1980 back to ... the big bang. Ask me about the last 30 years though and I'm fine. Because I was there.)

I'm revising British monarchs and the Roman Empire and feeling a teensy bit like I missed out. It's good stuff.

What's the point of this ramble? Just 2 tips.

1. If you want to stay on track for English and Maths get external assessment (RMEasimaths, Mathletics, Explore Learning etc etc)
2. Outsource some subjects to willing friends/family or private tutors

It gives me an objective feel for if the boys are making measurable progress against national standards, boosts those social skills and gives me a much needed bake-a-cake / put-the-washing-on / hoover / pay-the-bills / prepare-for-next-week break. I think of it as PPA. Worth every penny.

Antisocial Behaviour

One of the downsides of dropping out of normal schooling is the social aspect. As politely as people try to phrase it, the message is loud and clear - You're going to make your children weird and socially backward!

Oh dear, that is a worry.

Truth is though, the social element they miss out on in normal school includes its fair share of negative as well as positive aspects. Think peer pressure, teasing, being left out, having arguments, unkindness, not getting a turn, feeling stupid, not getting picked for the team etc. Now children have got to experience all of that to learn how to handle it. At some point (but hopefully not too often), children will need to know how to cope with feeling powerless, losing, rejection, teasing, being told off, other people's aggression and irrational behaviour.

We're okay with our boys experiencing those scenarios with family in normal life rather than within a school system where it can be a trial and error approach. Case in point - K would occasionally come home from school and report that he had no-one to play with at lunch. We discussed strategies - how about tomorrow you ask this child if they'd like to play, or suggest this game, ask this child for a play date, hang out in this place, or pay this child to play with you (the last one is a joke, don't write in).

Then the next day, in K goes and then out he comes a few hours later to report on the success or otherwise of whichever strategy he tried. Black box education on one of the most important skills children need.

The question isn't what they miss out on socially. It's whether you can identify and articulate the social education a child needs and then meet those needs. One by one.

So here's my quick brain dump of essential social skills for children that you get free from school but can pick up elsewhere if you're EHE:

• Finding and keeping friends
• Sharing and negotiating
• Manners
• Winning and losing
• Listening and following instructions
• Contributing and standing your ground
• Controlling feelings and accepting consequences

Great social opportunities for Home Ed families:

• Staying in, where you might see and interact with: people
• Going out, where you might see and interact with: people

I'm being facetious but the point I'm making is this: what makes the specific group of children at school so special that it's better than any other social group children can interact with? Maybe there are benefits to children interacting with a wider range of ages, cultures, situations. There are sports clubs, music and theatre groups, youth clubs, scouts, shops, parks - all full of interesting people.

This isn't rocket science. Wherever there are people you can teach your children social skills.

What's the Point?

Doing something different and unusual inevitably involves a lot of soul searching. Once you've located all the necessary souls it's time to get on with working out why you're about to leap into the unknown.

It could be a practical decision - can we afford this, can we juggle work, are we capable of teaching, do we have the resources ... but once you've ticked off all the practicalities you're left with the elephant in the room. His name is Dave and he's awfully nice but takes up a lot of space and eats all your peanuts.

No, the elephant in the room is a big question - I mean a proper biggie.....

WHAT IS THE POINT OF SCHOOL?

See it is big.

I googled, because it's not the 1980s. You get a tidal wave of responses that will pretty much drown any thoughts you had up until that point.

Here's an incomplete summary of thoughts on the matter:

• Pass exams for future earning success
• Free childcare
• Open hearts and unlock minds (ARGH)
• Prepare for adulthood
• Be responsible citizens
• Learn the 3 Rs 

I like Martin Luther King's pithy summary. The purpose of education is 'intelligence plus character'.

In 2013, a report by LSE asked 'What Predicts a Successful Life' and they found the most powerful predictor of adult life-satisfaction is the child's emotional health. Next is the child's conduct. The least powerful predictor is the child's intellectual development.

Interesting stuff.

What's in a Name?

We've had a bit of a tough week. It's been a juggle, emotionally and physically, and I'm a bit weary.

On lots of occasions out and about we've been asked about school and I've been upset by the reaction to the answer 'we home school'. Nothing's said but eyebrows lift a fraction and we all know eyebrows are the window to the soul.

In a flash, I see their judgement - the kids are too naughty for school (they're not), you're a hippie (I'm not, well maybe a bit if hippies shop in John Lewis), you're weird (alright you've got me on that one), the children are probably stupid (they're not. Shut up with your eyebrows).

It's sad to do something that provokes at worst a negative reaction and at best, a 'oh my how .... "alternative" ' reaction which is actually possibly worse. Usually followed by a question about whether we spend all day face painting and putting on plays.

Not to be down hearted we're changing our language to circumvent this tricky little problem.

We no longer Home School.

The boys are now Privately Educated.

Take that, eyebrows.

What's the Plan, Stan

A fairly flexible week ahead - K is having 2 teeth out, W has an eye appointment, we have a family funeral. So the plan is sketched out but we're ready to adapt if needs be.

After all our lovely adventures we need a dose of rules and routine so although I don't normally plan out the whole week on Sunday evening I did it in one go. So here's how the week looks -

Numeracy - this is W's favourite subject and his number bonds and mental recall are solid so I'm teaching to a high level 3 with a hope he'll get to level 4 in the coming year. For W it's time and fractions. He's struggling with equivalents so I've got some fab resources and quick fire plenary activities to see if we can get him happy with the idea that 1/2 is 4/8 is 6/12 etc etc.

For K it's finishing off algebra and patterns, revision of triangles and polygons and some mental maths drills. K is great at getting the right answer but he's not quick so one of the objectives for this year was to boost his confidence and speed him up!

Literacy. Well K is in his comfort zone here and races through a book a night. I wish it was high brow literature but he loves boy comedy - Captain Valiant, How to Train Your Dragon, Mr Gum... so his vocab and comprehension is a strength.

W finds it more of a struggle. He'll read a fact book but we get 2-4 pages max a day of reading and that needs to increase. Got to try and find some books which give him the joy of reading! He's capable but skips over words he doesn't know; he grasps meaning well overall. Spelling is a bit exhausting - a HomeEd problem - in school he'd just have a go, but at home he gets upset if he doesn't know a word.

This week we're nailing adjectives, nouns, adverbs and verbs - particularly adverbs (time, positional and using multiple adverbs).

We've got Art and Humanities taught off site and we do English and Maths at Explore Learning - more on that later.

We're doing teeth and digestion for science as it seemed topical with K's teeth coming out!

A forest school adventure is planned to the hollow for lunch one day as we went on Sunday but couldn't stay as long as we wanted.

Update:
Well teeth went out of the window (not literally, the 2 actual teeth went to wherever the tooth fairy stores them). On a whim, K&W asked to make teddy bears and with the funeral tomorrow I thought it would be a nice activity. We templated, chose felt and buttons, learned two types of stitch and independently sewed and stuffed two very passable little bears..

.. and a hama bead creation from before breakfast!

The Obvious

What to do when you've got the kids out of school and everyone else is in school?

Swap your holidays. Obviously.

We worked all Easter so we did what any sane person would do and booked to go away. A fab week in Centerparcs where we spent a lot of time doing PE (improving our swimming, cycling and bowling) but I'm not all heart and I made K&W do their maths work every day.

For literacy we read books and it's amazing how much education you can find in a menu - there are nouns, adjectives, adverbs a-plenty to identify, replace and define. Enter synonyms and antonyms. All over the joys of a crepe suzette.

Other opportunities were mathematical - scoring for bowling, crazy golf, pool. Working out remainders for the balls left on the table and fractions for how many reds Vs yellows. The boys took control of some money for a quick brush up on coin value and working out the cost and change due at the checkout.

So many opportunities and a fantastic break away.

A week back before we headed abroad to stay with friends. It was amazing - too much to list but for K&W it was their first time on a plane, first time abroad, first time using different currency... we had the most incredible time and a huge confidence boost especially for W who expanded his own boundaries in trying new things.

The history was mind blowing; mostly Roman but some later. We did castles, ruins and the amphitheatre.

And yup - I made them pack their maths books...

ELAA (Everyone Loves An Acronym)

LOs, Learning Objectives, are a fancy word for what they're going to learn. In a normal classroom setting, you'll often see 3 levels - an LO that everyone will hit, an LO most will hit and an LO some of the class will hit.

So for this blog post,
ALL will be able to describe what an LO is
MOST will be able to explain why LOs are important
SOME will be so inspired by the LO discussion that they write a book on LOs, make a million pounds, set up a home school for gifted cherry trees and live in bliss for the rest of their days. Or something like that.

That's your differentiation: leaving room for the more able pupils to go further but ensuring the less able still learn what they need to and get that all important sense of achievement.

A few tips to write successful LOs.
1. Be specific - your LO might be related to a piece of knowledge, a skill or an attitude (or all 3)
2. Make them measurable - use measurable verbs (like describe or explain rather than 'understand')
3. Check - are they realistic given your resources, lesson plan, children?
4. And finally : You might not need 3 levels if your class size is 1 or 2. Do not spend long writing them. They are just a tool. Use of LOs does not guarantee teaching returns. The attitude of your children may go up as well as down. Typical APR 10%.

So what does this mean to Home Ed? Surely this is one of those 'system constraints' or 'made up mumbo jumbo' or 'political correctness gone mad' that we must reject as the system tries to force learning on children's fragile little minds. Well maybe.

However teaching without LOs would be sailing without a map. Or flying without a unicorn. It's not about success in the box-ticking world, it's more about having a barometer for progress at a really micro level. In this 30 minutes, in this room, with these 2 kids.... what do I want them to take away from it.

And what about holistic learning I hear my EHE colleagues shout. Being so rigid you'll miss learning opportunities! You are right my lovely friends and therein lies the key to LOs - they're not the be all and end all. You will throw them out and ignore them when a better learning opportunity (LOp?) rears its creative head. You will fail to meet them and be annoyed that the kids and/or the lesson didn't work like it was supposed to. But my goodness, don't start a journey without some idea of where you're going.

Runner Beans

W wanted to grow a bean - he'd done it at school last year and wanted another go. Perfect.

So a few plastic cups, some cotton wool and bean seeds later and we had a slightly unscientific experiment on the go. We learnt what a hypothesis was and decided whether our North, South or East beans would do best (no West window in the kitchen so ruled that out).

We covered a lot of ground in a few days : what do plants need to grow, what is photosynthesis, how do external conditions affect our seeds, why were they growing in a particular direction, what did we control.

As with all experiments where the variables (would I remember to remind the boys to water them?!) are uncontrolled, our hypothesis was wrong. But we wrote up our results and planted out the seeds so I'm calling it a success!

Revolting Recipes

Off the back of our literacy week reading Roald Dahl we decided to invent some revolting recipes. Inspired also by Moshi Monsters, K&W made beautiful menus (K used lots of lovely adjectives and adverbs) and then made - and worringly ate - their disgusting creations.

A gross and fun morning all round.

Edit: Yes that really is jelly and baked beans.