Written by Susan on 02 July 2009
So today is our structured day. We’ve got geometry maths group here from 11-1 and then art from 2 until we finish. the earlier part of the morning is usually taken up with cooking something for the group, reading, music practice, tidying up and nail painting.
Do you know even nail paining can be educational? Aside from the further development of fine motor skills, Ruth is noticing the colour change in the nail varnish she has had on for a while and the freshly painted nails – so we are taking about the effects of the sun fading things. This only takes a couple of minutes but still contributes to learning and isn’t it good that she is making observations and talking about them herself.
How is this autonomous you may ask yourself? Well the children have decided for themselves what they want to do and they want to follow these structures for a while.
What does Jonathan do while this is going on? Well he is reading atm. Some classic perhaps? No the Pokemon annual, but he has learnt to read mostly through his interest in Pokemon and is continuing to develop in that way – am I happy with that – oh yes (perhaps another blog post is needed about children reading in their own time). Then he will go and play at a friends and then come back and join in with the art (ooooh another blog about differentiation (not the maths concept) may also happen). What is he going to play at his friends and will it be educational? Well I don’t know what it will be but I’m pretty sure it’ll be educational. Last week it was watching a TV program about the Romans – then playing Romans for a long time and discussing what they knew about the Romans from sources as diverse as Asterix and church services. Could this be an education?
Tags: art and craft , Badman Home Education | No Comments »
