Monday musings

It took an entire weekend, but I managed to re-set my attitude to "positive"! And in some serendipitous manner, the module I'm doing on my 'homeschooling' course, hammered home the important point that what makes homeschooling successful is:

...not your academic ability. It's not your children's academic ability. It's not the attitude of your children. It's actually your attitude... Stephanie Whalmsley

It seems pretty logical, and I apologise to seasoned home educators if my epiphanies seem infantile, but sometimes you gotta experience it to actually get it.

I think we're progressing towards unschooling (I'm currently engrossed in The Unschooling Handbook and  How Children Learn  (by John Holt), but it's going to take a while for me to get my confidence up. In the interim we're nibbling from the smorgasbord of homeschooling/education approaches. The journey sure is fun as we work it out!

So what we did we do all day?

Morning session started out with what we call 'circle time' - as much of a circle as you can make with 3 to 5 people! This morning there were songs about trees and autumn. The MOTH led an amazing session of Te Reo stories and songs that captivated the three children. The glint in his eye showed just how much he enjoyed himself too!

This is kind of the 'official' start session, but before breakfast the kids had been playing Kiwi, rockets and tracing writing lines and letters in a write and wipe book!

Pre-lunch Keilani and Akira got out the paints and painted up the salt dough creations of last week. Keilani finished up first and went to wash her crab she found on Sunday to start on her 'nature tray', collecting all sorts of materials from around the house. She may finish that tomorrow.

Lunch was soft boiled eggs. The shells were saved to grow watercress seeds we got at the Sustainable Home and Garden Show in the weekend. Lots of water, cotton wool and interest. Letters were written and flat travellers' documents, then off for a playdate where a sandpit became a volcano construction site!

I can see so much learning... can you?