Homeschool early days...

We started school 'officially' on Monday. I have to say it is proving to be much more tiring than I expected, but then my pregnancy this week has started taking more of a toll anyway. Up more times in the night, and also started having Braxton Hicks contractions, so it isn't too ideal for starting homeschooling!

Anyway, Monday was a little different too, as my nephew JJ had a teacher training day, so he joined us for school at the last minute which I was not prepared for! He got on with the workplan we had set out for his homework while I tried to present some things to Addie.

                        

 



After a couple of days of homeschooling, I feel very overwhelmed actually, and very inadequate as a home teacher. I am a little out of depth with working with a toddler, to be honest. Not as a Mum, of course, but as a teacher. I am going to be studying a 0-3 course soon, so hopefully that will help me. For now, what I have realised after observing Addie, is that there are quite a few things she is reluctant to do, so at the moment it is all about giving her new experiences in preparation for homeschooling, so right now she is playing with soapy water and getting wet! She is wiping the floor though to dry it when she spills some, so that is a good thing in itself! 

Sensitive periods
Between the age of 0-6, Montessori discovered that the child went through sensitive periods when they are more psychologically predispositioned to learn certain skills. From birth these are movement, language and a sense of order. All of these are characteristics that Addie is displaying, including putting back the towel in its right place after drying the floor! I will be writing a lot more about these in the coming weeks, but it is good to see these characteristics emerging in my own child.

In my element: The First Great Lesson

I am now part time schooling my 9-year old nephew, who I will call JJ. He attends state school Monday to Friday, but he is coming to me for 'extra' lessons on a Thursday after school and Saturday mornings to help him get where his teachers feel he should be. He is already above the average, but he has potential and should be further ahead.

I have been thinking what I would do to get him to where he should be in Maths and English without him feeling bored or overwhelmed with work, so I have decided to take the approach I know best - the Montessori way! I was just going to get him to do worksheets etc because that is what he is used to, but what does that teach him? Why would he want to learn if all he does is do the same thing over and over again, which gives him no fun or joy in learning. Isn't he much more likely to learn if he is doing something different?

So, I have told my sister I have a long term plan, and that it might not be completely obvious what direction I am taking with this. 

JJ would be in upper elementary in a Montessori school. However, I am having to adapt what I am doing to take into account that he has not had the first 3 years of Montessori elementary (primary in the UK), where a lot of groundwork is laid. He cannot, for example, do independent research to the level that is needed, and would struggle to do self-directed work. I am therefore using an approach which gives him choices, but within limits, and I will see how that goes.

Today I taught him the first Great Lesson - the Coming of the Earth. This introduces one version of how the world came to be - the Big Bang theory. There are several experiments that are done within it, and the concepts of atoms, different states of matter, land, air and water, volcanoes, the planets and the weather are introduced in this story. JJ picked up most on atoms and volcanoes, and didn't even pick up on the weather link, which is fine, because these lessons can be taught over when enthusiasm for learning wanes, and then they can pick up on the new ideas. What I love about this lesson is that it is introduced as the scientific theory, and follow up work is on creation myths, and can include the Biblical account of the creation also. 

JJ loved the experiments and is very keen to find out more about atoms. The next great lesson (the Coming of Life) will be taught next week, and he was hoping I would cover it today too, but no, he has to wait (the anticipation is a great way to build enthusiasm!).

Because I do not have JJ all week (although I would love to homeschool him!) I have set him some additional work to do. I have set it around three different areas - Personal, Research and Personal Finance. I am hoping that by approaching English and Maths from a different perspective, he won't feel like he is doing Maths or English, but doing something that is more fun. I took the idea of how to do this from a Montessori teacher who uses this method with students who have trouble deciding what work they will do, and I think it will work well, but we shall see. 

What I have given JJ is a table of choices of things he can do to earn different points, either 1, 2 or 3 points. By next Saturday he has to have done enough activities to have earned 12 points or more, and he has to do at least one activity from each of the areas. The activities for 1 point are simple, the ones for 3 points are more in-depth and the 2-pointers are somewhere in the middle. Each is designed to test and see how well he can do doing different things he needs to achieve, such as reading different types of text, summarising, writing a factsheet/bullet points, researching and understanding, describing characters and plots of fiction (note that 'describing' covers the grammar he is meant to know), making up his own writing and using different styles and lengths of sentences etc. This week his tasks revolve around the following areas:

Personal - goals and describing what it means to be a good friend

Research - reading his fiction book and describing characters/plot; reading non-fiction books (volcanoes or the solar system/a planet) and interpreting, understanding or summarising the facts and applying them; reading creation myths and making his own (with some illustrations included)

Personal finance - I want to make maths personal, and money is the way to go, so this revolves around his pocket money, and also budgeting 'Imagine you have £200 to redesign your bedroom - what would you have in there?'... I want to see how he applies maths, so I am hoping this will go well, although he already wants a big TV for his room (I think that blows the budget already!)

  

This is what the task list looks like, and each week I will give him a new one. He currently wants to do all the activities for 3 points, so we shall see how much he does. 

We also discussed what we need for learning to work, and we had a great discussion on what was important, which we will add to. This will become our ethos of his time with me on these days, and as he wants to learn more about atoms, then Martin will cover that one on Thursday with him.

I am in my 'element' (puns intended) because I love teaching 6-12 Montessori and now I get to! Woohoo! Keep reading for more Montessori adventures!

Paint and pasta!

Addie does not seem to want to wait to start school... so why should school wait for her? We aren't quite ready to start to be honest, the house needs sorting out which is this weekend's goal. But one thing is sure is that my little girl is bored of her toys and although she loves her books, she has been very demanding and tearful recently. 

She is breaking her last 2 teeth, so that might be contributing, and last night we went out for our anniversary and my sister babysat. Just after midnight she came in to me with her blanket, and wouldn't go back to sleep for ages, she just cried. For about an hour and a half! But I think she definitely is ready to start 'Tot School', so today we did a couple of things - some art and some practical life.

Art
I am aiming to introduce Addie to the primary colours week by week, but this work is not ready, so I decided that today she could paint with the colour red only. She has previously seemed a bit reluctant to get her hands dirty, literally, so I tried her with finger painting and hand prints, which she did do, but asked for her hands to be wiped and then used the brush. Afterwards, we looked at a red flower she picked yesterday too, so a gentle introduction to the colour red and art activities.

Practical LifeSo the other activity we did is Transferring with a Spoon, which Addie has done before, but this time we did it at the table, and she really enjoyed doing this. She started to transfer the pasta well from one bowl to the other, and then started using her hands. Any that fell on the floor she picked up, and she also poured the pasta out of the bowl into the large, deep tray the bowls are in. A lot of touching and exploring the pasta, which she calls 'patia'. She also experimented by putting the other bowl on the chair and started transferring with her left hand. She did this activity for about 40 minutes which was amazing and when she had finished, she put the tray back on the table and put the table away (it's normally kept in the corner of the room and was meant to be the nature table, but it is the only one we have that is exactly the right height for practical life work!).

Getting ready for school: Making sound shakers

For our family night activity, we made some great sound shakers together for Addie's sensorial room. Here are some photos where we are making the materials. This is Addie putting chickpeas in a bottle. We also have salt, lentils and couscous, and I will add stones and paperclips when I get some. We just bought a value pack of diet lemonade bottles from Asda, emptied, rinsed and dried them and filled them up. Actually for the salt, lentils and couscous we used a funnel - the first introduction to it!

And then it is time to play!

She really enjoyed it and I am looking forward to making the visual ones next!

British Pageant Extended Highlights Video

Here is a video highlighting the British Pageant which we were all a part of last month. Great memories!

My 18-month old does chores

Too young? No way! Babies and toddlers have more potential than we usually give them credit for, and can do a lot more than we normally let them. Addie has only a few simple chores, not to overwhelm her and we keep them fun. This is what she can do:

- Put her clothes in the wash basket (she loves doing this, and will often put ours in too!)
- Clean up her spills - she wipes the table, wipes her face, picks up things she has dropped. She has also taken a liking to the broom and dustpan and brush - 2 weeks before I was going to show her how to use them! She is telling me she is ready to do this now, so I probably won't wait the 2 weeks.
- When it is nappy changing time, she collects her nappy and wet wipes and takes them to the bathroom to get changed. We have started the association with the bathroom so she knows this is where things like that are done!
- She puts her rubbish in the bin. Actually I was very surprised that she knew what I meant when I said 'Go put this in the bin' and she went straight away and did it! Martin was even more shocked and told her not to put things in there (until I told him she was doing what she was asked!)

Other things she does which are independence-building, but not necessarily chores:

- she gets herself in and mainly out of bed herself. We put her in a toddler bed at 16 months so we had no problems with her climbing out of a cot. We involved her in the building of the new bed and taking down of the old one, and it seemed to work really well. 
- She takes her own shoes and socks off (don't they all?!) and we are happy she does this rather than getting frustrated with her that she repeatedly does it.
- She likes to try to get herself dressed. If that means trousers on arms, and socks on hands, then so be it! She normally takes them off, then we put them on right anyway, but try to encourage her to help in everything. 

There are other things we will start introducing over the next weeks and months, so watch this space!

We are raising them to leave us

Short post, but important.

A concern at times of people is whether a child can cope without his or her parents, and whether parents can function without their children. As in the example I gave in my previous blog post, some home educators keep their children at home because they don't want to be parted from them. I must admit that I never want Addie to leave, but I have witnessed the damage imposing this on a child can do, and a benefit of my Montessori training is being able to reflect on how I act, teach, behave etc, and I am very conscious that even if I feel I want my babies here forever, I am raising them to be independent, self-disciplined, self-confident people who will go out into the world and, hopefully, make it a better place. They can't do that at home tied to my apron strings (not that I wear one, but you know what I mean!).

I think some people are horrified when I am not sympathetic when Addie falls over and tell her 'Oh well, up you get' (unless she really has hurt herself), or when I let her play by herself instead of me being on my hands and knees all day playing with her. Well, I do not want a clingy child, who has no confidence to make mistakes or do things independently. Addie is very content, very happy and loves to get on with her own explorations of the world, and as long as she is safe, and not harmed (apart from the normal childhood scrapes), then that is fine with me.

Homeschooling: Answering some questions

A few people have asked questions about why and how we will home educate our children, so here are a few answers...

Why are you home educating?

Good question. Well, the long and short of it is that we want our children to have an authentic Montessori education. We gained approval for a Montessori free school to open in our town, but were ousted by the governing body we recruited. Many things have since changed with the plans for the school which no longer fit into our educational aims for our children. There are no other schools in the area that offer Montessori to primary (elementary) level, so as we are qualified Montessori teachers, we will do it ourselves.

But what about socialisation?

Our children will have many opportunities to socialise. Firstly, there is family (many around the same age now). Secondly, there is church - lots of kids. Thirdly, we will require our children to take part in Guiding & Scouting, so they will interact there. Fourthly, they will also be able to take part in other groups & activities if they wish. Fifthly, there are many children in the area being home educated. We will try to link up with them, and if the groups match our educational aims (trust me some are just free for alls and chaotic) then we will attend them. I am also open to starting/running/joining any home ed co-ops (where several families come together once a week to do art, or a language, or science, or whatever really) in the area.

How will they get anywhere without qualifications?

Well, they will get qualifications. Some families choose to not put their children in for exams, but I think that is unwise and foolish (my opinion only). GCSEs and A Levels can be sat via the exam boards directly, or via places such as the National Extension College. If the NEC is still running when the time comes, we will opt for this option. Also, the International Baccalaureate is trialling some home education programmes, and I hope they continue to do this, as I would be interested in that as an alternative, and actually I will be using their approaches to learning anyway because I think they are the best preparation a child/teen can have for the world of work.

Will you have a schedule?

Yes. I think this is important. Many home schooling families don't have a strict schedule, or they 'unschool' where a child learns naturally from their interest and interactions in life. I'm not up for that. I am a disorganised person, and I, like them, need order and routine otherwise I am a mess. So, we will get up at 6am every day, have family learning and scripture study at 8am, and start Montessori school at 9am until 12pm. The afternoons will be free for outings, seeing relatives, shopping, activities, etc. We will also have term times and holidays of a sort, although these will be different to school ones (so we can have cheap holidays and also travel if possible).

Also, by having a schedule, they will know that timekeeping is important, that they need to work to a schedule, etc.

But they won't get enough education if you only do 3 hours a day...?

They will... trust me! They will get one-to-one and small group lessons all the time. How many children get that?! Just exactly how much time do children get taught for in school anyway when you take out registration, assemblies, break time, lunch time, sports, etc. And in a class of 30 children, how much one-to-one time will they get?

Also, if they want to carry on with a project or other work in the afternoon, then I won't stop them unless we have concrete plans. They can carry on until bedtime and at weekends too if they like! And when they get to secondary, at the very least when doing GCSEs, they may need to do an hour or two in the afternoons so we will just play that by ear.

Won't they get burnt out by your term structure? 

We will pretty much be learning all year round, because why should learning stop? We will have different paces throughout the year - September to December will keep going without a break - yep... no half term! (shock horror gasp splutter!)... Well, Montessori discovered that children absorb things from their environment all the time during the first 6 years of life. Children are always learning, why should we stop when they don't? Also, there are plenty of times to rest, relax, play and do fun things - every afternoon, weekends... and if something comes up that we just cannot miss out on, then we will even take a break in the morning from school! 

We will generally have 35 weeks of the year where we will be strictly educating, classroom based etc. Other than that, we will have 2 weeks 'off' at Christmas, where our learning will be about Christmas etc. We will still have our 1 hour family learning and scripture study time, and do crafts, read books, shop for presents, etc too so there will still be learning going on. We will have a week out from school at the Temple in April, and then 14 weeks over the summer where we will be learning outdoors, travelling, going to the beach or the forest or the park, gardening, swimming. But we will still be learning, keeping up with language and maths skills, and I will try to keep these more applied, like reading a bus timetable, budgeting for activities, etc. Also, the activities we will do will naturally have some basis in education - education is all around us! Travelling to a new place - foreign language study possibly, geography, history, learning about new cultures. Going to the beach - tides, geography (Bournemouth has a great bay!), zoology - I have seen lizards and crabs, birds of prey, fish and otters just taking the in-laws around Bournemouth! And so it can go on... 

Will they be at an educational disadvantage?

No. Any parent can teach their child to be honest, and I do have the benefit of being Montessori-trained. However, my children will not be disadvantaged educationally by being educated at home, and it is my responsibility to make sure they get the best education they can get. There are no limits, no set curriculum, no restraints. I quite often call the Montessori method a curriculum, and I do have albums with lesson plans in, but these mainly tell me how to teach the equipment. However, there are countless other things that children can be taught, mainly in what is regarded as the 'cultural' part of the 'curriculum' (geography, science (astronomy, botany, zoology, matter, chemistry, physics, etc), history, ecology, art, music etc). And for these areas, there are some Montessori materials, but every Montessori school is different because the majority of materials to teach these subjects are lovingly made by teachers to meet their children's needs. 

Montessori has been developed over decades and is in line with how children learn naturally, and actually often will excel earlier than other children in some areas. I have witnessed children reading fluently in phonetic words at the age of 4 before they start school, and doing addition, subtraction, multiplication (up to 10 times table) and division at the same age because the Montessori materials, designed to be so attractive to them and motivate them to learn, appeal to their natural learning patterns, and they cannot put the materials down until they have finished learning with them. Plus, many times, they love it and it does not feel like the drudgery of learning, because it is fun and engages them for hours! A child who needs more time can also have it, rather than being rushed on to the next subject having not grasped the more basic ones. 

Observation is key in Montessori and I will always be observing and making notes on my children's learning, so this will help me assess and guage their learning without SATs or other formal assessment tests in primary etc.

Although it is not necessary, I will also be attempting to map their learning against national targets (although if I know that a certain skill will be learnt by doing something else later, I won't be stressing out about it too much). I have a great Montessori record keeping system online, which allows me to put in the national targets, and then identify which of the Montessori exercises meet them when I enter the Montessori exercises. Then it automatically tracks this for me. Cool!

We will also have a lot more educational opportunities than children will get in school. We can learn all the time, or at our own pace. We can go to museums, do activities, visit attractions, put our learning into practice etc much more than a child can do in school. We can learn more, do more, see more, experience more. The world is their classroom.

Is it legal to home educate?

Absolutely! The law says it is the parents' responsibility to ensure that their child gets an education until aged 18 (I am paraphrasing) but it does not dictate that a child has to actually attend a school. In some countries it is illegal to home educate, but not here, and I hope it never will be. We actually don't even have to tell anyone we are home educating, although if a child is withdrawn from school to be home educated, the authorities do need to know. However, you can inform the local authority if you wish, and we may do this. Many home educating parents do not want inspections and regulation, because they are home educating to be free from the system. 

However, I think there needs to be some regulation or notification at least because I have experienced 3 home educating families where severe problems have been hidden because they have not had to declare they are educating their child at home. One was severe abuse of children, one where a child is just not taught at all and at age 7 can only just write her name and recognise numbers 1-10, and one where a child is never apart from her mother, who has attachment issues. I think the child was premature or something, but the child cannot function without her mother present, and her mother cannot leave her child anywhere without her. Also, the mother's idea of teaching English is getting her child to make up her own language and spell that way (a gobbledegook language, she cannot write or read English well at all!). The child also cannot run, because her hamstrings are too tight (a 7-year old saying that is concerning in itself) and cannot play with other children because she is never given the opportunity. These situations are horrific to witness, and I know there are the majority of home educating families out there whose children are doing fantastically well, and are better socialised than those in school. I just would not be opposed to some form of registration at least to home educate.

Do you get financial assistance?

No, not a penny. State schools are allocated around £3000-4000 per student per year, but if you home educate or send a child to a private school they get no financial assistance. I think this is a shame, especially for home educated kids, as the parents do have to fork out on some kind of equipment for their children. How much does depend on how you home educate though, and many do this on a budget. Montessori can also be done on a budget, and shortcuts can be taken, however, we are planning at the moment to buy as many authentic Montessori materials as possible, and I will make many of them too. We are already budgeting for this, so hopefully we will be able to do as we plan. Also, home educating means that we sacrifice one income - mine. But, again, we have planned for this, and we have set up our own business, Martin works from home (and will have an office too away from home from this week onwards). The business will support us enough to cover both incomes, even if business is slow. And we can adapt it and amend things to match market demands, so for the medium term it will work anyway.

What about sports?

What about sports? In a Montessori classroom anyway, children are naturally more active because they can move around as they please. We have our garden, and our children will be able to play out there, run around, etc. Afternoons can be spent running and playing at the park, or rambling in a country park or nature reserve. A requirement will be at least once a week swimming. We will teach them tennis and go cycling once I recover from my c-section later this year. They will do yoga, and relaxation. We will go on long walks. They can go ice skating, rock climbing (Go Outdoors even has a climbing wall, minimum £1 donation!), play football, etc if they want. From the age of 2, I want Addie to do some form of dance & theatre, maybe ballet. If she wants to do martial arts she can do. At age 3 there is the local football club for preschoolers. We may not be able to afford everything from a club point of view, but the children will be involved in making budgeting decisions about that, and there are so many free things to do. Basketball in the park, archery, fishing, high ropes, rock climbing at Cubs, Brownies, Scouts, etc. There will not be a shortage of sports and activities to keep them active and healthy, and it will become part of our way of life, not just when you are forced to by a teacher you don't necessarily like!

Is it going to be a lot of work?

Yes. And no. The Montessori equipment is great because the children are presented it and shown how to use it, and then they are free to use that equipment for as long or as short a time as they want. Many of the pieces of equipment are used over and over and have more than one learning objective (some are used for 3 year olds, 6 year olds and 9 year olds, at different levels!) 

Sometimes this can mean that a child will grab hold of a concept and work on it tirelessly for hours, days or even weeks. Can I sit back and do nothing? No, but my role adapts to this, and I watch them, perhaps while preparing something else or working with another child. Sometimes a child is not interested in learning the things they have been shown. It is then the duty of the teacher to find something that will work, or observe and re-teach it later. 

There are many materials that do have to be made by me, which means sourcing or making up the documents, printing, cutting, laminating for durability, cutting, sorting, storing, binding etc. But, hopefully, once these are done they can be used for all my children and I can just store them away ready for the next child to use. I have many of these already, or ready to print (sourcing and making them up can be very time consuming, or could take a couple of hours depending on what it is). Montessori uses many manipulatives rather than just words or concepts on paper, but I love making materials so although it will take me time, I don't mind. 

Many of my lesson plans I have already in my albums from my studies, and my studies have given me the opportunity to be able to think up new activities using the Montessori method quite quickly. And I just have to follow each child's learning path, so when they show signs of being ready to learn something, I will be able to get things ready quickly (I hope) so I can teach it. 

I do have to plan, write up records, observations etc, and prepare for each day, but that is no more than if I was a teacher in a school, except I have fewer students! Also, I am looking it as a form of journalling for my children, so I am excited to get going.

For those of you who do not know what I mean about preparing materials for learning - keep coming back to my blog and follow our journey - you will soon see what I mean!

Other concerns

There are several other concerns that people have raised, such as won't they be missing out? Well, they will be missing out on being in a bustling school and class of 30 students, with the inevitable troublemakers who distract and disrupt the course. They will be missing out on being held back or pushed to move on to keep the pace of the rest of the class, and they may feel they are missing out on going to school. However, I hope that we can show them and help them realise that actually being at home is much better. The world is their school, and the opportunities are endless, not constrained by a national curriculum, attainment targets, adults who with all the best will and intentions in the world cannot give 30 children everything they need educationally all the time. I take my hat off to teachers, I think they do a great job. But for my kids, who I will know better than anyone, I will be the best teacher they will have, and if they want to learn about Africa or Aberystwyth, Zoology or sewing a zip - they can and they will, for as long as they want until that interest has passed. 

Got any other questions? Post them in the comments below and I will do my best to answer them