Splashy Science

One of the things I love about Home Educating is spontaneous learning opportunities. A couple of days ago, the heavens opened and my first thought was to hurry and get our raincoats on so we could get outside and enjoy the downpour.

Needless to say, by the time we had got coats and waterproof trousers and wellies gathered and dressed ourselves,  we missed the really heavy rain. That didn’t stop us going out in the drizzle for a splash in the puddles…

In fact, it quickly turned into a science lesson when Ninny decided to test the ‘splashiness’ of puddles depending on the ground they were made on. We made predictions of whether a muddy puddle would make a better splash than one on the pavement, tested it and came to a conclusion.

We discovered that the harder the ground, the better the splash. Concrete won, followed by the rubbery play-area paving, sandy path and lastly mud (which was generally more squelchy than splashy, unless you found a really deep puddle…).

We came home wet, muddy and very pleased with our experimenting. I was especially happy that our impromptu lesson managed to cover scientific reasoning, testing hypotheses and making conclusions – all at the perfect level for a five year old to understand and (most importantly) enjoy!

Freedom From Screen Time

I didn’t think there was anything wrong with introducing dvds and apps at a relatively young age. In fact, I was thrilled when I realised that half an hour of Octonauts would let me do the dishes uninterrupted.

It started out ok, a half hour or two most days when I needed peace. Over the last couple of years it spiralled, until the first thing he asked when he woke was “Can I have a dvd?” and he would insist there was nothing to do, refusing every activity I suggested (including fun things like painting or baking) because all he wanted was to stare at a screen.

I tried one day to see whether he could self-regulate and get bored. He watched three full length dvds before lunchtime and screamed when I wouldn’t put on a fourth while we ate – at which point I ended the experiment.

Screen time became an obsession, an addiction. It turned my loving little boy into a raging monster, only ever interested in his next ‘fix’. He would even beg me to watch the news, because he knew it wasn’t something I would put on for him – he was that desperate for anything televised.

I tried reducing the daily screen time – one episode of whichever CBeebies program he chose. It didn’t work – he begged and screamed for more for the rest of the day.

Finally, after Christmas, I decided that we had to try cold turkey. The first week was hard, but I could see some gradual changes for the better. By the end of the second week he was playing happily for hours in imaginary worlds and in the third week he told me, “I really want a dvd but I know I’m not allowed” and then went off to play something else.

Now, screen time is a treat. An occasional reward for good behaviour.

I used to think parents who let the kids watch only one program/film per week were in some way being unfair to their kids.  Now I am one of them, and it has brought only good things to our home.

Meet Our Whimsy

I can’t remember where I read it, as I have been on a lot of blogs admiring handmade felt or wooden gnomes, but somewhere I came across the plural term for a group of gnomes as being a whimsy.  How wonderfully appropriate!

Over Christmas, after finding this tutorial, I went a bit gnome-happy with some peg dolls I found in the back of my craft cupboard. In a couple of evenings, I whipped up a dozen colourful friends and even improvised a little baby gnome with a needle-felted head.

 

Little Fox

The shift of mindset that I am attempting to make in our home, moving from cluttered I-might-need-that-someday to a more minimalist and natural environment is having an impact on my work, too.

I set up business making bags and accessories last year, but my design plans for this year are taking on a more nature-y feel. I have decided to add a range for imaginative play and dug out the felt. I set about designing a couple of animal masks and they were immediately commandeered by my son.

He spent the evening being a Russian speaking fox. It was great – the new identity seemed to take away his inhibitions about speaking in Russian and he was using full sentences with minimal English. This is almost the complete opposite of how getting him to speak Russian usually works…

What a great incentive to make more masks! I know at least one person who will be benefiting from my new range in the shop…

Project Gnome Home – Getting Started

We have started sanding our tree rounds!

We worked for over an hour and managed to get one big and one small round mostly smooth. Little Gnome didn’t last that long, although he worked hard and with great enthusiasm to start with he struggled to use enough pressure with the sandpaper to make much difference to the wood…

 At this rate, I expect us to need another six or seven sessions before we can move on to the much more exciting construction phase. I considered buying a little electric sander, but decided not to (for this project, at least) because it will be an important lesson in diligence, patience and hard work.

Dabbling in Educational Philosophies

We are just dipping our toes into the world of Waldorf education. I have always been intrigued by the beautiful ‘Waldorf’ toys on Etsy, but I had never looked further. Possibly because I have only ever heard how ‘crazy’ or ‘ridiculous’ Steiner schools were… Really, I should have known better. I’m the crazy home educating hippy of the family – why should such a reputation put me off finding out more? If anything it should have encouraged me to look deeper!

I vaguely remember finding on youtube a rather biased BBC report on a new Steiner school opening – there was an odd bit making it seem like they focus only on gnomes and then they tried to get the headteacher to admit that since Steiner believed in the supremacy of the white European (not entirely unexpected in the early 20th century) and that the schools are based on his beliefs on education that they are essentially teaching Nazi ideals to the children. Twisted logic and not the best introduction to what I’ve since realized is a gentle and nature-based philosophy that really resonates with me.

Before Christmas, I was certain that I would be using Charlotte Mason as the foundation of our lessons, but now I am less sure; there is another path that I am drawn to almost as much. I don’t know how Waldorf I want our education to be. I haven’t really read much into the later years and am still in love with Charlotte Mason’s philosophy, but there are a lot of similarities (handicrafts, nature study, literature base with lots of fairy tales in the early years) ahd both agree that there should be lots of free play and outdoors time with little formal study before 7, so I’m quite happy to dabble in both for the next year or so and figure out what works for us as we go along…

 

Project Gnome Home

I went a bit gnome-happy with peg dolls over Christmas and my Little Gnome decided that they needed a home. His friend has a lovely wooden tree house for his gnomes and we had a little browse online to see what other ideas there were… I soon realised that they were a little out of our price range.

Then we came across a blog post showing how one family had made their own out of tree rounds and sticks…

Thus we have our long-term handicraft project – Project Gnome Home.

I spent around £20 on 2 large and 10 small tree rounds and over the next few weeks we will be sanding them down, collecting and sanding other sticks to use with them, and eventually constructing something homey for our whimsy.

 We can’t wait to get started!