So much to do, so little time

Argh! I feel so overwhelmed at the moment. I am currently finishing off a course I started some time ago, and I have 4 weeks to complete a few assignments for it. There is also all the materials I want to make for our homeschool, the house to sort out, the garden to prepare for the better weather... More recently I have felt the real need to be more creative, to bring art and crafts into our home but also I need a creative outlet that is for me and not for the children. I also need to try to supplement our income so that we have a little extra put by for times when we might need it too.

At the moment, my days consist of getting up at 6.15am, going for a swim, coming home for breakfast, then get ready for our day, do school or whatever we have to do for the day, and some afternoons I get to sit down to try to catch up on emails etc, but often I don't, then Daddy comes home, we have dinner, he baths and gets the children ready for bed while I try to get everything I need to get done without interruption done in 45 minutes, then I go upstairs and sit in bed trying to do more stuff. I have been really exhausted since Bear was born, and I tend to go to bed real early! I remember with Addie though, that there was a time we decided to go back downstairs after she went to bed, and our productivity rose greatly...

So, I have been giving a lot of mental effort into trying to work out how everything can work out, and we also get a better work/life balance as well, especially with the summer coming!


I need to make some small changes, some medium size changes, and some what some may consider to be big changes.

We need to spend the next week leading up to Easter getting the house in order. That is a big thing. The house is not in order, and it needs to be. With order comes tranquility and more time too. Less time needed to straighten things up, more time to do other things. I have almost done one room, the room we call the family room - it was intended to be a quiet room where we could go as a family, hence the name, but has been developed into the room we start our school day in, we sing, we read, we say prayers, we learn a little. I have a library of reference books in there, and our readers. I have now also put our language materials in there (not all of them, but just the ones we will need shortly). And our geography materials, and the Pink Tower - all the items that need to be kept from Bear's reach at the moment! This room is definitely still a work in progress in terms of the materials that need to go in there, but is the most sorted room at the moment. And I love sitting in there!

We need a strict timetable I think, to stick to until we are in a rhythm that can be sustained and have us where we want to be. I need to be stricter with myself and try to find some ways to increase my energy. I need to go back downstairs once the children have gone to bed (oh but I love getting into my bed, so this will be a real struggle!).

I need to get my assignments out of the way asap, and then get on with making some of the materials I want to make. There are quite a few, and I think I need to schedule time into my week to make these, so I know I will make progress on them each week, because at the moment I feel I can't do them with my assignments hanging over me, which I can't concentrate on because the house needs sorting!

And then, in May, I am launching my new business! I am so excited, I want to launch it now, but I just can't. I have to do all things in order, and using common sense that right now I cannot do it, but once my course is over, and I have some more materials made, I can do it. And I am so excited!

Do you want to know what it is? Maybe I will leave that for another post (and leave you all guessing!).,. but let's just say that it combines my need for a creative outlet, my love of nature, and hopefully will provide me with not only a hobby that I feel I need, but also a means of earning that additional income that I feel we need to have at the moment...

Must get back to the assignments now, but I just wanted to say that sometimes life just really gets on top of us, we have so many things we need to do and sometimes we just need to take a day or two out to plan and to decide what can and can't be done, and in what timeframe, to make us feel more empowered and certain about the future. Otherwise we can get bogged down and keep trying to wade against the tide and getting nowhere fast.

The purpose of my blog

I have been thinking recently what the value of me blogging is, to others. There are so many amazing blogs out there that are written for other people. By that I mean, for example in Montessori and other methods of education/homeschooling there are excellent bloggers who blog to help others to do what they are doing. They publish printables, how to videos, a post on a new topic or subject they teach every day. 

This blog is different at the moment I think. I am writing my experiences, and I suppose I am writing them for an audience. I can see from the stats that a few people have my blog on a feedly list, so when I publish a new post, they get notified. Great! I am writing, not with any plan or schedule (which is what a 'good' blogger would possibly do maybe) but with things that come into my head on a particular day, so it is a bit random. It is, however, a little spotlight into our lives as home educators, some of our struggles, some of our triumphs, some of how we are doing things and what it looks like in practice. In the future, there may be printables, but to be honest there are so many amazing people out there offering printables, I use them rather than making my own - it takes less time! And time is something I don't seem to be able to have much of at all (I have no idea how they have more time than I do in the day!)... 

Anyway, thanks for following, thanks for reading.. I will continue to do what I am doing when I can. March has been a good month for blogging! 59 posts ever done on this blog, and 21 of them in March so far! I am enjoying it and long may it continue. 

A tiny ray of hope!

Those of you who have been following my blog (and my facebook ramblings!) will know that having a 15-month old around while I am trying to present to Addie has been quite a challenge! Bear wants to be involved in everything, touch everything, do everything that Addie is doing. She can be really in to doing something (rarely on her own, but there are moments of individual work), and he will just come in like a tornado and leave devastation in his wake... !

Some times, Daddy will take Bear to work with him, so we can really get in to some work, but he can't do that every day, and the struggles I have been having have really made me question whether or not I can do this home education thing...

However, today there was a tiny ray of hope.

I sat down with Addie to present Open Ended Distance Matching with the Knobbed Cylinders, which she absolutely loved, and along comes Bear... And he absolutely loved it too! Neither of them did the activity 100% as it is written in the album, but there was so much sensorial learning going on! Actually, Bear really surprised me once again with these. Although it is really a work for a 3-year old, he is really good at matching the cylinders to their holes (except the one where it is only the height of the cylinders that changes). He puts them back with no hesitation and very little error. And actually, it was not a disruption this time, it was great to see them working together. OK, so Bear did not get the cylinder that was requested, he went and got another one (and placed it, first time in the correct hole regardless of which cylinder it was), but Addie was really good at selecting the correct cylinders too, and we went through all of the cylinders, doing both the Open-Ended and Closed-Ended presentations because they loved this game! I was pleasantly surprised and the tiniest ray of hope started to come through... I managed to capture some of this on camera, but I have realised as I added the photos that I actually don't have any of the main work they did, just that difficult 4th block and also the last block we did when we started to lose interest...!

Bear is really good at realising when he has made a mistake - he recognised that the cylinder he did put in was in the wrong hole, and corrected himself - something I have only noticed from looking at these pictures as I write this post!

Addie did some more work on her lifecycles today... Here she is getting her Insect Lore Life Cycle Stages Frog to kiss 'his picture' on the Tadpole to Frog (Lifecycles) book (I wasn't going to correct her that the frog is a lady frog!)... 

And then Bear and I did some more work together - Rolling a Work Mat and putting it away! So cute! (and after that we got it out again and looked at the Children Around the World pictures together!)

Today was a good day. Tomorrow will be different. Actually we are going to watch the solar eclipse, hopefully at the beach! Onwards and upwards with a tiny ray of hope...

Dispelling the Home Ed Myths: What do you do all day?

A lot of people think that home educated children spend 6 hours a day or so sat at a desk at home doing school work. This is a myth. Here is an incomplete list of the things going on in the home ed community near us for the last week and over the next couple of weeks. It is incomplete because it is only what is included in facebook groups, but there are lots more things going on that are not put on facebook!

Here is an idea of what is going on:

Parkour group
Badminton
Mini golf
Open space meet ups at different places
Soft play centre meet up
Trampolining
Breakfast at the beach to watch the solar eclipse
Social swim
Junior & Senior archery groups
Library meet up
Farm visit
Drama group
Ice skating
Visit to an activity centre
Acro
Craft groups
Forest school
Workshop on postage stamps
Musical theatre classes
Book club
Meditation
Bikeability
French Club
Storytelling
CSI Forensic Science Whodunnit
Home Ed Network gathering
Recycling centre visit
Farm to fork visit at Tesco
Wood carving classes
Playdates
Magna Carta Themed Art Workshop
Trip to Marwell Zoo (mega trip of 230 approx home educated children)
Horseriding
Ballet session
Home ed camps

Fantastic! A lot of these are weekly activities, and there are far too many to go to all of them! But what an amazing range of opportunities available to home educated children who would not get these opportunities if they were in school! Obviously Addie and Bear are a little young for a lot of these at the moment, but we did go to a farm yesterday, and we are going to the beach tomorrow for the eclipse...

Hopefully that helps to dispel a myth...

Look Mummy! A seed!

This is what Addie said to me while eating her apple this morning.

Spring is a great time to start introducing lots of botany studies. I am looking forward to being able to get ours properly underway, and here are some of the ideas and resources I have been using or plan to.

Whole and Half Fruits
We have been looking at whole and half fruits, which covers so many bases - it is a matching activity of sorts, but also something we have used to show that things go together (related objects, except these are the same object, just its half!), great for healthy eating, practical life if you get the fruit and cut it in half, sensorial as you can do a tasting game with the fruit. With older children, it is great to introduce halves, parts of the fruit, seeds in a fruit, and where the fruit is grown.

Here is a great download we have been using for this from Montessori for Everyone.

Plants need light
I have done this experiment a few times with children and they love it. All you need is a tiny flower pot, some compost, a bean, a shoebox, some extra cardboard, scissors and sellotape. And you basically need to do this inside your box, and let the seed grow. I watered it every few days, because seeds need water too!

We will be starting this experiment soon!

Start a kitchen garden!
I support a charity called Send a Cow, and one of the things they do is teach community groups in Africa how to grow food and compost at the same time using a kitchen, or keyhole garden.

I have been wanting one of these for a few years now, and hopefully this year we will be able to have one. It works on the basis of having a composting basket in the centre of a growing bed, and all the nutrients can percolate into the surrounding soil. You just top up the compost basket with your compostable food waste!

Watch this video from Send A Cow to see how this works!






Read some great books
A Seed is Sleepy - This is the book we have read today. It is a lovely book about seeds, and I highly recommend it. If you click on the book, it will take you to Amazon so you can buy it (this is an affiliate link)!


Grow some sunflowers!
Growing sunflowers is so much fun! They grow so high, and they can be measured by older children too! Other plants are great to grow, but sunflowers are definitely the most fun! There are also all kinds of experiments you can do when growing plants - take out the things they need - air, light, heat, water, etc and see what happens!


Montessori Botany Resources

The Pinay Homeschooler recently posted a mega collection of botany materials here.
Montessori in Bloom show how you can dissect a flower with 3-6 year olds here.
Carrots are Orange have a good post about parts of a flower here.
The Helpful Garden has some great printables for botany here.
Elementary Observations also recently had a great round up of Botany posts on the internet here.
Montessori Edible Garden - Lessons for Lower Elementary and Upper Elementary
If you are in the UK or Europe, you can get your Botany materials from Tower High Learning.

300 Picture Books - the list so far

These are all the books I have written down towards our 300 Picture Books challenge for 2015. I think there are a few more, but this is my starting list!

 

1. The Nature Year: January

2. Abby the Alligator

3. Bubble Bear

4. Copycats

5. The Cat in the Hat

6. Gorilla, Be Good!

7. Jaguar's Jungleberry Jamboree

8. Winter

9. The Lamb Who Loved to Laugh

10. We're Going on a Bear Hunt

11. Olive the Octopus's Day of Juggling

12. The Pig's Picnic

13. Worm's Wagon

14. The First Day of School

15. The Nature Year: February

16. When Tilly Turtle Came to Tea

17. The Story Blanket

18. Hungry Caterpillar

19. New Baby

20. Frozen Storybook

21. Kangaroo Kazoo

22. Teeth are Not for Biting

23. Rosie Rabbit's Radish

24. The Yak Who Yelled Yuck!

25. Monkey's Miserable Monday

26. The Nature Year: March

27. Seal's Silly Sandwich

28. Zack the Lazy Zebra

29. Hide and Seek Hippo

30. The Nicest Newt

31. Umbrellabird's Umbrella

32. Ten Little Caterpillars

33. Enormous Elephant Show

34. The Quiet Quail

35. Tortuga

36. Fifi Ferret's Flute
37. Owl's Winter Rescue

263 to go! 

The Big Bang Science Fair 2015

I originally wrote this post for the UK Home Ed Conference website. Visit the site here.

The Big Bang Fair has become annual event at the NEC Birmingham, and as home educators we can attend on the 'schools only' days (as well as the family day on the Saturday). Here is our family report from the NEC from Friday (schools only day) and Saturday (family day).

On the Friday, we arrived at the fair at 10am and had to queue up with hundreds of school children from all over (there were minibuses from Wales, London, Manchester and other places). It was very different on the Saturday when there were a lot of families around too.

Some of the things we saw and did at the show were amazing. Here are some of them:

Antibiotic Hunters (more info and a great video here)

There were what seemed like hundreds of stands, and the first one we visited was a stall that taught us how scientists are learning from leafcutter ants about how antibiotics work. The exhibitor asked us what we thought the ants were feeding on.  Jay said he thought it was the leaves.  But he was wrong.  The ants collect leaves to feed the fungus that was in the dish.  The ants then feed off of the fungus.  They showed us a separate petri dish and asked us what it smelled of.... it smelled of wet soil and he explained it was the bacteria within the soil that had antibiotic properties.  When the ants travel through the soil, their bodies collect the bacteria and take it back to the fungus which keeps it cleansed and healthy for them to feed on.  They explained that by studying ants, we can learn a lot about making naturally occurring antibiotics.

How crystals formed from lysozyme

We grew some crystals from lysozyme, which is a protein found in tears (it prevents conjunctivitis) and egg white. The crystals grew under a microscope right before our eyes! It was very quick.

Van der graff generator

We saw how a Van der Graff generator works to produce static electricity and hooked up a bowl with some metallic strips on it to the generator. It made some of the metallic strips positively charged, and some stayed neutral. A metallic ping pong ball was placed in the bowl, and it was attracted to a positively charged strip, and pushed towards a neutral strip, which reset the ping pong ball's charge, which was then attracted to the next positively charged strip. This resulted in a ping pong ball that circulated around inside the ball. It is also how the Large Hadron Collider works.

Pinhole camera workshop

Justin Quinnell showed us how to make a 6-month exposure pinhole camera. It was great fun. Watch his video here to make yours!

Oscar the Sellafield robot

One of the really fun activities was talking to Oscar, the Sellafield robot, who answered our  questions, called us by name, and asked if we wanted him to pose for a photo! This was a  big hit with a lot of children, so there was a little bit of a wait to get to meet him.

There were also other machines on the Sellafield stand, where we could do a Crystal Maze-type game where you have to catch pieces of paper that are flying around your head and collect as many as you can in the 15 seconds you have.

Other robotics and machine hands-on activities were available as miniature replicas of how different waste and recycling processes are carried out.

BAFTA games design workshop

Another highlight was the BAFTA Young Game Designers workshop where we got to design a new game, with the designer of the new online game SkySaga. What we found really great was that, in addition to the main schools workshop, they also ran one for children with ASD and other SEN. Jay went to that one, because the main one was far too overwhelming for him. And once in the smaller group, he had a great time!

Astro Pi (website here)

We have just got our own Raspberry Pi, and we are still trying to get our heads around it. It was  really fun to see the Astro Pi stand at the fair, where they are aiming to put Raspberry Pis into  space! Children can also get involved too, with their competitions. If you are primary school  aged, you can enter The Big Idea competition, and come up with how the Raspberry Pi can be  used on the International Space Station with astronaut Tim Peake. The closing date is the 3rd April 2015, so you need to be quick if you want to enter!

There is also a secondary school Astro Pi competition, where you get to actually have your code launched into space! Deadline for the initial stage is 3rd April 2015.

On another stand we saw about 30 different Raspberry Pis, all being used to calculate Pi!

What on Earth books

One of the very few sales stands was the What on Earth books stand. Chris Lloyd, a home educator himself, is the man behind these books. We will be using these as our timelines in lower and upper elementary. Find out more about the books here. I will also write a blog post about them shortly!

Extracted DNA

I had the opportunity to extract my own DNA, and put it in a little vial, to present my own mum for Mothers' Day! Using salt water, washing up liquid, pineapple juice and rubbing alcohol, I was able to actually see my own DNA rising to the surface of the liquid it was in. To get the DNA there in the first place was slightly unpleasant! I had to swish salt water around my mouth for 2 minutes without spitting it out! Then, I had to put some of that solution, with the cells collected from my cheeks, into a container, add washing up liquid, invert it 3 times, add 4 drops of pineapple juice, invert that 3 times, then add the rubbing alcohol. I asked the people on the stand from the Life Science Centre how they extracted DNA in a lab, and this is exactly the same way!

And here is how you can do this at home! Once you have completed Step 5, you need to leave the liquid, and the white strands and clumps you see forming is your own DNA!

Rowland Emett's Marvellous Machines

Have you watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang recently? The machines in the film, the one that makes the breakfast, makes the 'toot sweets', and all the other machines featured in the film, were designed by Rowland Emett. There was a display of some of his amazing work at the Big Bang Science Fair, and we were fascinated at how beautiful the machines were. Watch a video about them here.

And lots more...

These are just some of the things we were able to do at our two days at the Big Bang Fair. There were loads more, from building a motor using a paperclip, magnet, battery and copper wire, robotics competitions, Formula 1 technology, dancing robot arms, a thermal camera, a presentation by WaterAid where we had to carry water around the stand like they have to in Africa, a model of the Warhorse, making music from vegetables, a huge rocket built from K'nex, a chance to play games using an Oculus Rift headset, a spin on the human gyroscope, balancing a ball on an Airbus jetstream, a planetarium with shows, a robot maze, a look at meteorites and earth rocks, learning how painkillers work with proteins in the body, making paper aeroplanes, changing tyres on a car, a Mars Rover display, talking to inspirational people from the Armed Forces and learning how science and engineering are big roles in the forces, getting dog tags cut, talking to a Beefeater, seeing an eagle, talking to people working on the Higgs boson project and an astronomer working on the Gaia project, where they are photographing 1 billion stars in the Milky Way (only 1% of all the stars in it) and using the world's first 1 billion megapixel camera to do it!

All in all, we had a very packed couple of days. We found the Big Bang Fair to be really interesting and educational. On the Friday we were given many educational resources to help with our current and future learning, and all of the stands treated us seriously as home educators. They were all very excited that we were home educating and many of them offered to run workshops and give talks to home education groups. We made sure we asked everyone what their jobs were, how they got to be doing what they do, and the stories were very inspirational. We got a lot of careers advice, from the people actually in the careers, and their enthusiasm and love for what they do really came across.

There were a lot of stage shows, which we did not have time to do, a lot of hands on activities which served as introductions. We could see how these could be adapted for younger and older children, with a little imagination (obviously they cannot cater for all ages at the same time) and if we talked to the stand holders, they were more than happy to go into more detail for the older people among us!

National Science + Engineering Competition

One of the last exhibitions we saw was for the Crikey Bikey - a harness designed by an 11-year old girl called Sky, to help parents help their children to ride a bike. It was designed as part of a STEM competition, and she was one of many juniors and seniors displaying their ideas at the Big Bang Fair. What struck me about Sky, was that she was very innovative, a great presenter, and very passionate about designing her own products. What a great learning journey she has been on. Not only that, but she won first prize in the Engineering/Technology stream of the National Science + Engineering Competition (Junior Section) along with her sister Kia for the Crikey Bikey!

Unfortunately, as we only attended on the Friday and Saturday, we missed most of these exhibitions. Wednesday would have been the best day to go, as that is judging day for the National Science + Engineering competition. Next year, we aim to go on that day, to inspire our young people even more as to what they can achieve, even before they are 18.

I managed to speak to one of the people involved with engaging students with the competition, and he would love to see more home educated juniors and seniors entering the competition. Hopefully we will see more home educators entering and exhibiting too in the coming years! Find out how to enter here.

Would we go again? What is our main tip for people going next year?

We will definitely be going back. One tip we really have is that you need to be enquirers yourselves, especially if an activity seems too simple or too complex for the children you take. The people there are more than happy to pitch at all different levels to match a child's questions and interest (we were adults, an 11-year old and a 3 year old and we all learnt loads!). It might not be so obvious upon first seeing a possibly simple craft activity or stand, but we found out so much, even the adults have had a reinvigorated enthusiasm for science! Oh, and ask for resources. We came away with three full bags of books, posters and information to use as springboards for our learning in the coming months!

Did you go to the Big Bang Science Fair this year? How did you find it? Will you go again? We would love to hear your experiences!

300 Picture Books - The Introduction

I found out about this reading challenge today from a fellow home educator on her blog. We are a book-loving family, and Addie absolutely loves picture books. In fact, today alone she has asked me to read several! So, although we are a little late in the game getting started with this challenge, I think we can still do it (although Jax recommends starting on a lower number now, we are up for 300 by the end of 2015!).

I have a record of all the books we have read together, so I will make an update post very soon with all of them in.

So, what is the challenge? It is to read 300 picture books by the end of the year.

A picture book is defined as a book that uses pictures/illustrations and words to tell a story. The Reading is Fundamental site says: "In a picture book, the illustrations are as important as the text, and both work together to tell the story. When you share picture books with children, be sure to pay attention to the illustrations - reading picture books means exploring the art as well."

If we had started the challenge at the beginning of the year, it would amount to reading 5-6 books a week - easy right? Well, the challenge is to read 300 different picture books for the year, so rereading a book doesn't count, ok?

As of today, there are 296 days left of the year, so that is one a day plus 4... but we have already made a start, I am going to count the books we have already read too towards that target. It isn't cheating either by the way, in my opinion. It is a 2015 challenge, so I will include all the books we have read in 2015 :-).

There is also a hashtag on Twitter, which is #300PBs that you can use to follow the challenge on there.

A note from a Montessori point of view: There is a lot of discussion over Montessori and fiction for the under 6 age group. We tend to pick books that are either realistic in their stories or, where animals, for example, are shown to be talking or doing human things, we talk about that a little and how it is good for the story, but obviously dogs/kangaroos/cats, etc cannot actually talk like we do. It isn't spoiling the fun, before anyone says anything about that! We still love and enjoy reading these books together... ! And we love reading non-fiction picture books too!

One thing we also make sure we do when we read the books is to discuss who the author and illustrator are. In our company, we employ illustrators, so hopefully this will create a point of reference for Addie and Bear as they grow up.

Useful article: Getting the Most out of Picture Books (RiF)

Build it, and it will come

I couldn't really think of a great title for this post, but I think this sums up a little of what I wanted to get across.

One of the main downfalls, in my opinion, of Montessori home education or homeschooling is the lack of other children in the learning community. This is a big thing in Montessori, where children learn in multi-age communities, and often learn skills from observing or being taught by their classmates. At home, this is a lot less possible, and while I have toyed with the idea of opening a co-op in my home (but found that it would probably be too overwhelming as I would possibly become the 'teacher' rather than just another co-op parent) this lack of community has been something that I have been quite sad about at times.

For Addie, in particular, I have felt this could be an issue. As the oldest, she has no older children to observe and learn from. And she is a great observer. One thing that struck me today was that she will probably have to learn from me and what I do. So perhaps I need to be doing a lot more work with the materials myself, as my own work, when she is working. Even the much later stuff, to entice her and show her what the future holds.

Bear, on the other hand, I am not so concerned about... Today, he started doing this, copying his sister!

So, perhaps all is not lost, but the relationship between siblings is going to be a very important one, and one we need to make sure we build on. I know some siblings that never get on and are never close. Luckily, Addie is a natural teacher to Bear, and she loves helping him (far too much quite often!)... so even with presentations I might be tempted to adapt or even skip, I need to make sure I don't and that I do things properly, so that if she has the opportunity to teach, she can do it in the 'right' way. 

So, as the adults, and the main adults affecting our children's education, we must build a solid Montessori environment, in order to best facilitate this as a family of learners, each teaching each other. This reminded me of one of our scriptures: "Organise yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, ...a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God." 

Build it, and it will come...

Long term homeschool plans

This morning, for some reason, I felt that I had to consider our long-term home education plans. I have no idea why, and obviously things may change, life and our experiences may change the plans, as they so often do. So far, my ideas have not changed in the last couple of years, but what it looks like in reality at the moment is not what I expected.

Here is what I want to do in our home education journey.

Age 0-2
Lots of experiences, movement, language rich environment, starting to do some practical life exercises.

Age 2-2.5
Lots more practical life activities, language, experiences of the world.

Age 2.5-6
Montessori primary programme, using the Keys of the World albums, spending 1000 hours a year outside (influenced by Charlotte Mason). A major learning phase based on developing practical life skills, handwork skills, developing the senses, having a rich language programme, based on phonetics and within which by the age of 4, approximately, they should be 'writing' using the moveable alphabet or writing on paper, mathematics developing to being able to, by the age of 6, undertake basic mathematical operations. Through language and sensorial learning, comes a good foundation in the natural sciences, botany, zoology, physical sciences, geography, arts, music and a sense of history.

Age 6-12
Montessori elementary programme, using a combination of the Keys of the Universe albums and other Montessori elementary albums. This will include a study of the Great Lessons, which open up learning across all subjects - language arts, including modern foreign languages, mathematics, sciences - biology, botany, zoology, physical science, matter, astronomy, ecology, chemistry, geography, history, the arts, health sciences, peace and citizenship, design and technology. A focus on creativity, action and service, learning the arts, serving the community, being active and participating in sports. The aim, through the Montessori approach to develop learners who are enquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced and reflective.

During this stage, and in the first part of the next stage, I am planning for us to travel the world. At the moment, I do not think that is possible in one chunk, so possibly over 3 years, 3 months at a time.

Age 12-16
Combining the approach of the Montessori adolescent programme, entrepreneurship and business, and the structure of the International Baccalaureate's Middle Years Programme - learning in the 8 areas of Language and Literature, Language Acquisition, Individuals and Societies (geography, history, politics, social sciences, economics, civics, business studies, psychology, sociology, anthropology), Sciences (environmental sciences, life sciences, physical sciences, sport sciences, health sciences, earth sciences), Mathematics, Arts (visual arts, media, dance, drama, music), Physical and Health Education, Design (digital and product design, coding, etc). Within these areas, there is a large opportunity for personal choice and autonomous learning. In addition, there will be goals in creativity, action and service, and a personal project to be undertaken each year (similar to the personal project undertaken at the end of the MYP5). It is my intention to encourage my children to pursue a GCSE or iGCSE or whatever the qualification is a the time in each of the 8 areas as a minimum. We will also start looking at the theory of knowledge which is part of the IB Diploma Programme.

Age 16-18
We will continue to follow a Montessori approach to learning, with academics falling within the IB Diploma Programme structure of 6 subjects - Language and Literature, Language Acquisition, Individuals and Societies, Sciences, Mathematics and the Arts, creativity, action and service and continuing the study of the theory of knowledge. Either this or something more career-related.

Creativity, Action and Service
This is another influence from the International Baccalaureate, and is quite loose in its structure. Creativity is defined as "arts and any other experiences that involve creative thinking", Action is defined as "physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle, complementing academic work" and Service is defined as "an unpaid, voluntary exchange that has a learning benefit for the student". The CAS programme is part of the Diploma, but is something I would like to put aims on from the age of 6, to an extent. In the Diploma programme, it used to be a requirement that students had to complete a minimum of 50 hours of each across the programme (150 hours minimum), and many students completed hundreds of hours over the two years. I have no idea if I will put hourly requirements on the children, but I think it is important for a balanced education to cover these.

Obviously, all of my plans will probably change, and we will be child-led, so some areas may blur, some may be omitted or added to. I do want to have a form of structure to our learning, because I feel this is what will work best, but within a Montessori approach, so they have to have a well-rounded education, and there will be minimum requirements, but there will be a lot of room for maneouvre for personal study and following individual pursuits.

I felt that I had to do this, for whatever reason I felt prompted to. I know it might seem a little too 'planned out', but hey, I am a planner! I actually think that, given the Montessori elementary curriculum is, in places, akin to GCSE level, we may have to look at the 12+ curriculum when we get there!

I also know that many people follow a less structured approach, following the interests of the child. Although I seem to have everything planned out until 2032 (!), I am definitely not saying that it is set in stone. I would like to have what I feel is structure. We will not be sat at desks for hours every day, but I will follow the approach to learning that is established in the Montessori elementary years.

Watch this video for an idea of how that happens:

Elementary Meetings and Conferences from Montessori Guide on Vimeo.

Weekends are for learning too!

So today, Addie and Bear went with Jay and Auntie S went to a Wildlife Park... It's the weekend, and you can't possibly learn at the weekend... can you? ;-)

Playing in the sand, more time outdoors, wolves, wallabies, badgers, owls, deer, bison, otters, warthogs and lots more...

And then when they came home, Addie did some hoovering and sorting out the laundry, and both Addie and Bear helped Daddy scrub the floors in the classroom - they loved it, great hand strengthening squeezing out the sponge, and a great practical life exercise... but, of course, no learning ;-)