Thomas Edison and Picasso

I assume that the activities that go on in our house are not new to the converted and are probably carried out by the curious about homeschooling, but that's kind of  the point...you don't have to a home educator to channel Thomas Edison or Picasso and get nice and messy! So what did we do today?

The Science Bit...

Akira manipulates gloop

GLOOP!

We recently acquired (by this I mean bought as a result of my bag-a-book bargain addiction) an early 'chapter book' about Thomas Edison as a young boy. This has sparked discussion about history (in particular steam trains and transport) and a healthy interest in experiments, laboratories and science in general. Pulling out one of our 'things to make' books I found a recipe for 'gloop'. Keilani perused the same book and discovered a 'volcano', so this morning became a bit of a 'science' morning, although our kids called it 'making stuff'.

If you haven't tried making gloop, it's fascinating. It involves measuring and mixing (maths - tick) and discovering what happens with 'collodials' (that's the science bit).

To Make: Mix together -1 cup of cornflour 1/2 cup of water and a drop of food colouring, then experiment stirring it fast, running it through your fingers and banging it. It's not too hard to clean up and diluting it with water means it does wash away OK. Lots of messy fun.

We are currently building our volcano with salt dough pushed around a plastic bottle. Just waiting for the dough to dry, which might take a wee while given current weather conditions! We'll keep you posted as this develops.

Building the volcano

The Arty Bit

Since homeschooling Keilani had been expressing a real reluctance to draw. After some discussion, it emerged that she didn't like drawing because she 'couldn't draw real' and other people's drawings were better than hers. She had been quite an avid painter (painting her face and entire body at kindergarten once in khaki green - she was being a dinosaur) and I was curious if talking about and looking at other styles of painting and art might encourage that creativity again. We came across a book in the library called The boy who bit Picasso.  After thoroughly enjoying the account, we've found some other books about Picasso and Keilani is fascinated by him and his work.

I also read somewhere that homeschooling parents should worry less about buying books for their children, and invest in books for themselves that inspire them. By exploring what you are interested in will encourage children to see and learn from that enthusiasm for your interest/passion (a thinly veiled justification for book acquiring). They might not want to do the same thing, but as a 'tour guide' you make the offering. I love art and creating. I borrowed the Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas from the library (added it to my wish list on book depository). Keilani has pointed out several things she wants to try (hurrah) and I think it might be fun to try at least one new art medium a week, or fortnight, or month... maybe...

Artists at work

This week we tried blow painting. Wet watercolour paper with water (available really cheaply at the 'Gold Store' or the 1-2-3 dollar shop), drop food colouring onto paper (highly recommend pouring the colouring into small containers and using an eye-dropper after several near messy accidents), and using straw, blow colour about. We're also going to try with diluted water colours.

Keilani likened her efforts today to that of Picasso - YAY :-)

After being arty and scientific, we had a play date and went to ballet - tick boxes for 'socialisation' and 'culture and physical education'.

By the way... we just got to the bit in the book where we learn... Thomas Edison was homeschooled!

Serendipity

Serendipity means a "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful while not specifically searching for it. (wikipedia)

Homeschooling has somehow made me much more open to serendipitous events. Perhaps it's because I spend time looking for meaning and reassurances now, particularly when there are moments in the day where I start to question what I'm doing. In the midst of the struggle to juggle paid work and 'everything else', between yo-yoing from frenetic haus frau to bohemian-coolchick-homeschooling-mum (in my head), I do, like most homeschooling parents, have the occasional 'spaz out'.

We've had a bit of a 'feral' week. No goals, plans or predetermined outputs. It's ok for a bit, then I start to spaz out. I start to worry about all the things I think we (or I) should be doing, mentally going through the lists of learning outcomes and stuff we should have achieved and fretting that we haven't. And then serendipity finds me. Three times today.

Serendipity one

Eight month old Tama has suddenly become a cling-on. For every minute he spends commando crawling around, he spends at least two attached, or demanding to be attached, to me. Whilst cuddling him, I heard the two big kids counting to 150 together as they emptied the dishwasher. Numeracy and co-operation covered.

Serendipity two

Before we began homeschooling this year, Keilani could recognise the letters in her name. Other letters were a mystery. There's been very little direct teaching of letters (I tried and got as far as about 'c'), but resources have been laid about and made over the past few weeks (like the salt dough). I found this on her blackboard, completed sometime this week.  :-) Literacy ticked off.

Serendipity three

A lot of our days are spent reading - reading together, looking at books, me reading, Keilani spelling out words to read, Akira 'reading' his train books. I 'll blog about the books we're reading, but I'll focus on just two today, the serendipitous ones (both available in the Kapiti Library):

Why is the Sky Blue by Sally Grindley and illustrated by Susan Varley tells the tale of an old wise donkey 'teaching' a young bunny who is so excited to learn everything that he goes off on tangents. Old Donkey expects young bunny to sit still and listen. In the end, it's not just the bunny who learns!

The Wild Child by Jeanne Willis and illustrated by Lorna Freytag. A beautiful book with a real hidden message for a homeschooling mum... 

Why am I hiding and why must I run?

The grown-ups will catch me and ruin my fun.

They caught the wild children and put them in zoos

They made them do sums and wear sensible shoes...

They took all their wisdom and wildness away

That's why there are none in the forests today.

My wild children can count to 150, do the alphabet and revel in the joy of magical stories. The wild Mama needs to learn to focus on what is being done, not what isn't. Homeschooling is as much attitude as aptitude!

May serendipity surround you today ;-)

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?

Finding us on Friday

Fridays are our official 'outing day'. I say 'official' because we seem to be out and about most days, but Fridays, we have a wee excursion. Last week it was to the local 'dump shop' to find treasures (for the sand pit).

No two days ever really look the same in our house. Activity is determined by what time we went to bed, how people slept (or didn't sleep), the weather, the general temperament of the family, the activities of the day before...that's not to say that there isn't some rhythm to our days and week, but we are a bit of an eclectic mix of homeschooling styles and approaches, as we find our way and try out different things. Fridays are sort of 'unschooling' in nature...

This Friday we began with Akira's swim class and a lovely, long, library visit (where Akria enquired why it was called a library and the very helpful librarians talked about Latin words, Maori words and even sign language!) The library is viewed as a treasure trove of magic. Post lunch activities mostly focus on reading and looking through the 30+ books we've all managed to take out!

The library was followed by a perusal of the Kapiti Arts and Crafts Gallery. The Gallery is full of a huge variety of art and crafts in different mediums, from dolls beds to crochet knee blankets, oil painting to pottery. On Friday there were two lovely elderly women who engaged the children wonderfully. One let them paint a few strokes of paint on her canvas, the other explained what she was sketching and why, and let us take away her gum nuts she had collected so we can make gum nut dolls in the future. Just so charming. Add to that a playground for physical activity after and a glorious set of tall trees shedding leaves to collect for autumn collages, and it was a homeschooler's dream outing!

from: http://www.new-zealand-nz.net/new_zealand_kiwi_bird.html

We're usually home around 1pm, so that Tama can get a proper rest and I can have a cup of tea and a sit down for half an hour (okay, sometimes it's just 10 minutes). Keilani and Akira were engaged in a magnificent game of 'Kiwis', with Keilani explaining the need for more trees and the eradication of stoats and possums so that Kiwis will survive. Sometimes they include baby Tama in this, as a baby kiwi in the family burrow needing protecting. The Kiwi is 'topic of the moment' in our household, with everybook in the library on Kiwi being borrowed.They were so engrossed in the game, I managed the half hour sit down and got in some crocheting!

Inevitably, there was a squabble of some sort and the game ended... the remainder of the afternoon was a mixture of helping with chores (like the dishwasher and folding the laundry) so Mummy is free to read, read, read. We throw on one of the CDs: "Look at Me I'm Moving" and we wiggle and bop away - another hour gone...then it's off to dinner at Kiki's (the Man of the House's mother - the Maori word for grandmother is 'Kuia', but this has some how become 'Kiki', long before I joined the whanau (family)!).

So, that's what we did all day on Friday... But I kind of left out all the 'learning' stuff that happens inbetween as well -for example the discussions in the car with Keilani about drought and the need for rain. About a fortnight ago we finished reading 'Narni of the Desert' and last year, we came across a fantastic collection of Margaret Mahy stories in the local op shop that included one entitled 'Jabberwocky Rain', where a young boy recites this phrase and does a rain dance. Keilani made a connection between all these (unintentionally) related stories and the dying plants needing rain she's observed around her. She began her rain dancing on Thursday and uped the ante today!

There's a saying that for 'unschoolers, learning is as natural as breathing' (Mary Griffith) and a day like today makes it feel like it is so.