A radical idea.

The more and more I think about homeschooling versus school, an issue that keeps reappearing is the freedom that it gives you. How long has school been from 8.30am until 3.30pm or later and been set out in a three term structure. The winter term being the longest and hardest, and believe me I know this from experience having been a teacher. The seasons are changing and peoples work life balance is changing.

Do you think it might be that homeschooling is not the only answer but maybe a more flexible school day and term set up. How about school being for the same number of weeks in a year but set out differently. School could start in late January, giving everyone much more time to enjoy the Christmas and New Year period and enabling everyone to go away for some of those January blues. Then having two weeks in March off, two weeks in May off, two weeks in July off and then all of September off which does now seem to be our summer. Returning to school in October and having a week off at the end of November and then finishing a week before Christmas. The children will then not get overtired, parents do not have to find activities for eight weeks of the summer. Everything just seems a little easier and more spread out.
Or how about having part time school either a four day week or a shorter day. I know the shorter day will cause problems with people that work etc so I think it should be part time school and lets all have a longer weekend. Is life for working or living. I do love my bubble that I live in I wish everyone else could join me!

Let me know your thoughts?

Is this right?

Having just had a conversation with a fellow mum back in England a couple of questions have arisen. Today Isabella asked me what day it was. I told her it was Tuesday and she said “ I wonder what everyone at school is doing” This is the first time she has asked me this. To fuel her curiosity and mine and I called a fellow mum. The children are having school photos today. This then got me thinking again about have we made the right decision.

A very simple day.

This morning Isabella found a friend, a little girl from year three who has been taken out of school for ten days to go on holiday. Isabella has immediately befriended her and is playing building dens. My daughter ran past me saying, "you be the rabbit and I will be the dog"the game is completely beyond me but the two children that have never met until now, who are from different backgrounds and different ages are mixing and having fun!

Now at 6pm whilst sitting having a drink a little boy aged two has come over and now Isabella is being his teacher, teaching him how to use her scooter. She is saying "Now Tom I will teach you something else!" and"after you have learnt this Tom you must have a break"I feel like I am Jekyll and have created a frankenstein.

Monday Morning

It is very early and we have a busy day ahead of us. The object for today is to make sure that Isabella can spell all her key words. I am finding such a difference doing work one to one. She's able to pick things up so much quicker. I know this may sound obvious but having a smaller number of children in a class must make such a huge difference. My only concern is that at the moment she is learning things one way, that is my way.

I keep having to remind myself that she is happy and we are happy. The guilt can sometimes be in the back of my mind about whether she is missing out on seeing her friends like she would be this morning (Monday). I have been so brain washed into thinking school is the right and only way to do things. I musn't forget the other experiences she is getting are also invaluable and at this age I believe experiences are hugely important.

Other ideas

Other really useful ideas which my daughter loves are wordsearches and crosswords. This extends her vocabulary and is also fun. The books we are using at the moment are Horrid Henry fun books. They don't feel like work, yet are helping to develop all sorts of important techniques. We completed one today and had lots of fun doing so.

I used to teach at a school that came up with the words "thinking outside of the box" and I think this is such a wonderful phrase. I think it can apply to everything that a child needs to learn. Whatever you do, your child can learn from it. Count balls when playing a sport game or count lamposts on a walk. All it takes is time, make sure you give yourself extra time whenever leaving the house or going off on an adventure. The trip that used to take you ten minutes could now easily take half an hour!

Useful ideas.

I have found the most useful tools for teaching are the old fashioned games that I used to play. I started playing these with Isabella when she was only three.

Hangman
Noughts and Crosses
The square game ( this is where you draw an even number of dots ............
............
............

almost like I have shown you. Then you take it in turns to draw one line at a time to make squares. Whoever draws the last line to make the square wins it and puts there name in it, the winner is the person with the most squares at the end.)

As soon as possible create a diary, use pictures if they can't write and then add simple words later on. Or collect things from your adventures. This starts to teach them the basics of time and language.

The other thing which I did with Isabella as soon as I could was take her to theatre performances. Any sort is good. Musicals to local Am Drams or even concerts. This allows them to build an interest in performing. Which results in confidence being built up. LAMDA exams and local drama festivals are my first choice. See http://www.lamda.org.uk/

I also have tips on how to teach reading and maths at a young age. I have followed these ideas with Isabella even though they are quite different to the way school did it. I do think sometimes the old ways are the best. I cannot stress enough though that if these ideas do not suit your child then try other ways. Also if your child seems unhappy at any stage then stop. My ideas are supposed to be fun without them feeling that they are working.

See my blogs over the next week for reading tips and maths tips.

Now I am six

Now I am six I think it is very fun but I would like to still be five! years old. I love my Mummy because she works hard with me.

Thats Isabella xx

The Outcome and outlook

I am feeling slightly confused today. My whole outlook has changed.

When Isabella was at school I wanted her to be top in everything and work hard and be ahead of the game. Leaving school in my mind was going to make this easier and more possible with the schedule we had. However having been with Isabella now for three months without school. I have become more relaxed and not so uptight about the levels she should be achieveing. This does not mean we will not be working towards targets etc but it means that the self fulfilling need that parents have to make sure their child is at the top of the class due to what other parents say, is no longer there for me, as I am not surrounded by other mothers all day long. Is this a good thing? I am not sure. I know this world is a difficult one and if we want our children to succeed then they need to work very hard. But then the question of success arises. What is success for the individual? For me at the moment I just want Isabella to be happy and safe and enjoy life. I know we will have to fit back into school in a year or so, so I will have to make sure we keep up with standards in schools. I do however feel life would be so much easier if everyone slowed down and didn´t worry so much about what everybody else thinks. I definitely need to listen to my own advice in future.

I wonder if I should have been born on a desert island away from everyone else!

Time for bed

I have written a whole set of books for parents to work on with their children and I am trying to get them published as we speak. (I have an article coming out again in Families upon Thames next month so please watch out for that.) However going back to my books for parents, these are an excellent source for anyone wanting to do something slightly different with their children yet don't always have the know how. My books can help you to have fun and educate at the same time.

Anyway if you are interested let me know and I can send you an email version of one of them. They are applicable to children from 0-8 years.

Now I really must go to bed as I have to clear up from the last two days of me not being in the house. It is not a pretty sight!

The supermarket lady

Everyone has an opinion. I was buying my weekly shop on Wednesday when the checkout lady asked Isabella why she wasn't in school. She explained she was taught by Mummy at home. The lady did not respond until I was about to pay whereby she suddenly said " Doesn't she miss out"

It is an immediate response from everyone. I feel I have to justify myself.

My only comment on what I am doing is "I am not saying that this is the only way to do things". You have to have the certain type of child that wants to be home schooled and can cope with it. This suits us at the moment due to all the experiences we have had and will have in the future.

My main point and vision if you like is more personal to the individual rather than the large topic surrounding home schooling. Home schooling is just a byproduct of my strong beliefs. I believe everything is good in moderation. Every child is different. Every child should be treated with respect and every child is unique and special in their own way. Therefore I believe that if our children are to have any morals from a positive upbringing then this needs to start at home. Even if this is half an hour of quality time in the day with Mummy or Daddy. We as parents need to start taking some responsibility for our children's actions and not blame everyone else for the things they do wrong.

I may be speaking to the minority as I believe everyone has the potential to be great parents. We just need to educate ourselves more. We need a licence for a cat or dog but not a child!

I am not Wonder Woman

It is official I am not Wonder Woman, the reason I know this, is because if I were, my feet would not be as painful as they are now. The last two days have not gone as well on the homeschooling front as I would have liked. Firstly as stated before I am human not Wonder Woman therefore can only do one thing at a time!

I have worked solidly from 9am until 6pm for two days travelling around London running presentation skills training and then going out networking both nights. This has meant that Isabella has not been taught for two days. This is quite a weird feeling as I feel guilty that she is missing out on me and also her education. Then reality takes over and I have to confess to not being perfect and that this will happen from time to time as I have to work occasionally and I enjoy my work.

My friend Gemma called me up the other day and made me promise to have time out for me. This is difficult when I believe my role as mother and teacher is full time. What I have learned from these two days however is that it is just as important to have this time away. Firstly so your child can experience other peoples ways and secondly so I can come back into the situation with a fresh approach and maybe some new ideas from my experiences in the last two days. Otherwise we would both stagnate.

The most important thing I have learnt is to not wear these shoes for longer than four hours!

No TV

Did you know, we don't own a television! This is very bizarre especially as we have a daughter who appears on a TV programme three time a week. We made this decision three years ago and we haven't looked back. We have iplayer which means we can choose to watch something if we want to or watch DVD's. My only thought on this is not to preach but to comment: Every morning Isabella's first thought is to play or make something, NOT watch TV. I can't tell you the difference it has made to our lives as a family. I know there is an "off" button but I could never find it! My mother is very good at calling me up and telling me if there is something we should be watching and we will watch it on iplayer like the Olympics or Last Night of the Proms. It means we find alternative entertainment. We play cards or a board game or read and talk. I cannot express how amazing it is to have a daughter that doesn't rely on TV.

The only problem is that I don't want her to be abnormal, her friends commenting on her being different or Isabella not being able to join in with a conversation. There is a fine line between being accepted by your peers and being strong enough not to follow the crowd and be a sheep.

I hope I am giving Isabella the skills to make her own decisions and be different if she wants to be.

A six year old.

My daughter is officially getting older and making me feel much older. Time is going so quickly. She had her birthday at the weekend and is very proud to tell everyone that she is now six. There is so much to do. How are we going to fit it in to our lifetime? We want to experience so much as individuals, as parents and as our little family unit of three.

My point is to let people know that if they think that they can't home school, this is not the case. Everything is available on the internet, all National Curriculum objectives are available for any aged child. All you need is love, time, patience and an interest to learn new things. If you want to learn new things then learn them together with your child. I am expanding my knowledge about Romans, different countries and improving my maths. If you have the attitude of learning with your child this will help much more than the attitude that you are teaching your child.

Good luck

Money

I am slightly concerned that when people read my blog they may think that it's only possible to home school and do interesting things if you can afford it. I wanted to give two opinions about this.

When I work I am fortunate enough to use my earnings for extra curricular activities for Isabella such as private violin lessons and private tennis lessons and so on and so forth. These are all helping Isabella in becoming a well rounded individual. It is however not necessary to do all these things that cost money in order to achieve a well rounded child.

There are so many wonderful activities that are free. Today we have had a making day. We have decorated mugs, made coloured sand pictures, used all our loo rolls and pipe cleaners to make different objects. We have played a couple of board games and at the moment my daughter is playing with her various toys and playing a wonderful imaginative game that is way beyond me!

Today was our weekend as she has been filming all weekend and Monday. Also we went to the Puffin Post launch at Kensington Roof Gardens last night which was for children and we met some childrens authors such as Jeremy Strong. We left at 9pm and got home at 10pm. I cannot describe the feeling of relief knowing she could take part in this with me and not be worrying about the time we went to bed. the feeling of freedom is amazing.

Anyway more ideas for free activities in my next blog.

Everyone is teaching her!

Neighbours, friends, families and parents. Everyone is participating in helping and teaching Isabella new things. Our lovely neighbour Julia asked her if she knew what a certain flower was. Our friends are asking her questions instead of telling her things. Everyone is taking an active role in teaching her. It's bizarre. It's as if people are responding in a different way to her, everyone wants to be part of this higher education of life. It's brilliant.

The Highs!

I know I seem to go on about it, but today really was a good day. We did all our work this morning and then went off for another adventure to celebrate Isabellas birthday. We had lunch at the Ritz as we do every year for a special treat. This wasn't even the best bit, we then walked through Green Park to visit Buckingham Palace. A lovely police guard came over to chat and showed us his gun! He told us the queen was away for two weeks.

It was a wonderful September day and I really just can't describe how happy I was. Isabella has experienced soooo much today and to top it off she saw a very special lady called Alex.

What a birthday!

The South Bank

Today was wonderful. After a very busy day doing French, Maths, English and Reading we went into central London on an adventure!

It was 6 o'clock and we had finished our jobs in London and were heading home when Isabella said she wanted to go on an adventure. My immediate reaction was to say "NO, we have to go home to go to bed". BUT then reality hit me.We do not have to get up early tomorrow. So we went to the South Bank which is our favourite place. We sat in the South Bank Centre and had a drink and then went for pizza. Charlie joined us after work which again was a real treat. We got home at 9.10pm. Isabella was tired but had had a wonderful day.

She has become very emotional today due to speaking french. We had a lot of "NON" and "OUI and "MAMAN" or "OOHH" and lovely little french phrases.

Also a fun idea was to buy postcards that you put photos in. We decided to draw our own pictures of something from a country and then on the back write where it is, what food they eat, what language they speak and some interesting facts. These will then be put up on a map. It is a lovely way to learn Geography.

It was a lovely day.

What a morning!

I know it is only the beginning, but what a morning. This morning we have collected conkers. Maybe this does not sound interesting but it is amazing what you can do with 30 conkers!

We then went and sat in a cafe and drank hot chocolate whilst eating pain aux chocolate.
In the cafe we then did multiplication, division and fractions all with conkers. She then paid for the drinks etc and we came home and played shops to learn about money. If that is not a perfect day then I don't know what is. It is a shame I have to work tomorrow! My mother however is coming up and her plan is to play shops and do lots of money exercises. This is learning through play at its best! Then on Friday we are going to a fantastic place called Borough Market where we will put all our learning about money into practice.

So far so good.

Never be presumptuous.

I have travelled back from Spain today and realised something important.

Never presume to know how someone is bringing up their child. I will explain further. After a very long day of travelling my five year old was watching a DVD on a portable DVD player. This was as we arrived back from Clapham Junction on the train and made our way through Tescos to stock up for supper and breakfast and then back home. A woman passed me in the street and said loudly " How appalling to let my child watch DVDs in the street."

Little did she know that
1. We do not have a TV at home.
2. We have just spent seven hours travelling
3. It was a way for my daughter to be entertained for the last twenty minutes of our journey.


I have the same problem though, being presumptuous. I see children on Nintendos and PlayStation's or playing with their phones and I think terrible parents!

There are therefore two thoughts to take away from this experience: Firstly you never know what that child has done in the day and is allowed to do as a result of that day. Secondly that I do not condone this technology. Even in my situation at the end of a long journey when I had been entertaining her for six hours solidly, reading, colouring, making and playing I still chose the easy option. However if that easy option is to give the parents a few moments rest then that is a good enough reason for me. If however it is used as a substitute then I do question what our future generations are going to be like.

I know this is fiery but I felt wronged. I just hope I do not wrong others.

Coming home

I have had a vision. I know I will have a lot of people responding to my vision in a good way but also in a bad way. The vision is one I will be working on over the next year to see if it works. My daughter and I will be the guinea pigs!

More about that as time goes on.

For now we have a busy week ahead of us. Coming back to England means I have to work and also arrange my daughters activities. I have set out a timetable of activities as well as my teaching for her. She also has a birthday coming up and this has to be arranged. I am looking forward to making her birthday cake with her, I think we are going to go for a train that we saw on Big Cook Little Cook.

My thought for the day is: try spending at least half an hour talking to your child. Don't ask questions. Let them ask you things and discuss things. For that half an hour let them have opinions and have a fun discussion.

Enjoy.

A Difficult Day

Today has been a very weird day. Everyone has gone back to school and we have not. We are still away and are not yet affected by the start of term. I feel slightly light headed thinking that this is it. There is no going back now, I don't want to, but, this is now real. Her class have all gone back in their uniform to their new teacher to sit at new desks in a new classroom. I know I have made the right decision but it still feels weird. Isabella is not aware what has started as she is busy snokelling in the sea looking at different types of fish and getting very excited realising she can breathe underwater with a snorkel on.

I know this year will go quickly and I am filled with excitement and trepidation at what is around the corner. I just have tiny flashes of playground banter by the mums and the coffee mornings I won't be part of. I don't think I will miss these as we will do other things.

I had a lovely text message from a mother as she returned to school sending her love and hoping the girls can play soon. She still has invites to lots of birthday parties and I know we will have lots of playdates. I think the hardest thing is knowing everyone has gone back to the day to day school life. I just hope we have done the right thing. So far so good (but it is only one day) I will start to let you know what techniques I pick up as I teach her and hopefully these will be useful to other parents out there.

Adios