flynn011

When Mom is ill... school in bed! Right.  Here it is, January, and I'm once again writing about how I coped with educating my children at home while I was ill. Rocky watches Salsa with the pet bird on her shoulder Back in September, I lost my voice.  Over Christmas, I had the flu; but we weren't homeschooling then, so it didn't matter so much. Last week, however, I both lost my voice and had a flu-like illness that kept me in bed for about ten days, off and on. The maths must go on! And did we give up school?  Well, for a few days, it was cancelled.  Then I realised that it was a lingering thing, and that I was going to have to do something about it. Here are some photos of the kinds of things the kids did while I was ill: some with me, some on their own or in pairs/groups, some on the computer or telly, and quite a lot of it in my bed!!! Killer and Phoenix perfect their magic Busy Timmy works on map skills Killer has to get his own lunch Timmy and Phoenix work on th...

Personally, I like the idea of "routine" rather than "schedule" -- I'm  quite a free-form person at heart, but have had to get more structured for  my kids' sakes. So, I've gone with the "middling" description of routine, so it's still a  bit flow-y without being chaotic. Maybe it's still a bit chaotic We wake up about 8 (or so ...), and while the kids have breakfast and do  their morning jobs (normal toileting like getting dressed, brushing teeth,  as well as chores, which include some that are done every day like emptying  the dishwasher and some that are the same each day of the week, like  putting out new toilet paper rolls in all the bathrooms on a Tuesday), I  get my own breakfast, throw on a load of laundry, and have my quiet time. We start promptly at 10 every day. First, it's prayer and Bible song and  Bible reading and Bible memory verses. This is followed by history.  We're currently reading this book:  The Story of t...

Just starting your homeschooling journey and want to know some basics? Obviously, not all home educators are Christian. Obviously, not all Christians are home educators. Obviously, not all home educators who are Christian follow the same methods or have the same combination of aims, objectives or even reasons behind their choices to home educate. Never the less, I think Christian home educators DO tend to have one thing in common, and that is a distinctive value system that underpins their home-educating journey. To some people, this basic truth may feel like a strait-jacket, but for others -- especially if you're just starting out -- it's more like a rock on which you can build the foundations of your home school. On the other hand, I have firmly believe that home educating is a distinctively individual thing, and that includes each individual even in one family. What I do with my kids in my situation isn't at all what my friend does with her kids in her situation. Home-...

Surprised "Killer" this weekend with a "rock school" birthday party, led by his guitar teacher and the teacher's drummer from his band, Million Faces . Here's the song they composed during that morning's session.  It's called "Chicken Pox", and the singer is doing "pox, pox, pox," sounds along with crowing. What a hoot!

I must have been mad -- taking six children to Oxford's Ashmolean museum to look at their new Egyptian gallery. Even madder to meet up with a friend who brought along four boys. Two adults with ten children was ... just about do-able. Oxford's Ashmolean Museum est. 1683 (the current building is from 1845) The Ashmolean likes to provide little worksheet "trails" to its young visitors, and while it's true that the children love to do them (and get rewarded with certificates afterwards for completing them), the practical side of rounding up ten children who want to dash through an exhibition just to tick boxes isn't, it would seem, completely thought out. Ten items were identified and "collected" on their sheets, but did they read any captions?  Did they know what they were?  Like heck! The shrine of King Taharqa --  the only free-standing pharaonic structure in Britain Anyway, my friend and I did our best to take them all through a second time and poin...

Our church runs a scheme during Advent called the Posada, which is a re-enactment of Mary and Joseph looking for lodgings on Christmas Eve.  The festival originated in Latin American countries and traditionally starts on the 16th of December, but we start ours on Advent Sunday. Essentially, it's a rota of people who agree to keep the Mary, Joseph, and donkey figures from our church's nativity set. Each evening, the people with the holy family meet with the next people on the rota, and effect a changeover. This goes on until Christmas Eve, when the figures are processed to the front of the church and placed in the nativity scene. The changeover is supposed to be a time of prayer and celebration together, though these may sometimes have to happen on the fly with a quick "God bless"; other times, there's a whole afternoon of tea and mince pies, or a meal, or a few minutes of quiet together.  It just depends on what people want to do, and what they have time for. ...

Recently discovered the RSA Animate stable of fascinating videos: talks with white-board cartoon drawings that illustrate a 10-minute precis of lectures ranging from education to capitalism and other economic issues. Here is one of my favourite by Sir Ken Robinson called "Changing Education Paradigms": And here's me with my children + friends, changing some education paradigms of our own: Boo to "Batching!" Children from 6 to 11 prepare to board an imaginary LCV for re-enacting the D-Day landings.