The End of An Era

Tomorrow will be King Arthur's last day at pre-school, and as this week has worn on I am thankful the holidays are nearing! The nature of a term takes its toll on them (they get tired, irritable and ratty), and on me (all the rehearsals, end of term dinners and concerts etc). I am one of those who can't wait for the holidays - I love having no where to go and nothing to do and the quality time it gives me with my children - roll on homeschooling!!! And for those of you in mainstream schooling  - no wonder December holidays are the longest!

We did manage to snatch some moments at the beach yesterday - pure bliss!

Seaforth beach - protected from the South Easter
and gloriously clear water! Not too crowded either.
I avoid summer crowded beaches and find all the
less travelled spots.

Today we spent making home made gifts for their teachers -

I kept the insides of last year's advent calendars
and so this year can make Christmas moulded
chocolates - a  lovely gift when wrapped nicely!

Aragorn wanted to paint a card for his teacher
and Belle was delighted with this!

Don't you just love the hat?! King Arthur
chose to make a chocolate cake for his teacher.

And he drew his own card which included this inscription:
"Noc Noc. Opin thedoorandfindout...
A bee in tree"
It's one of his jokes that is cracking him up!

Happy Holidays!

Reasons We're Homeschooling - the general school one

It's hard to actually know where to start.

• Hours of school (and here I refer directly to Junior school) - for a Grade 1 to be at school from 8am to 2 pm is lunacy – if you are telling me that you need all that time to instruct my children, then explain to me why you still need to send them home with homework every day? To reinforce a concept? Really? That can't be done in class? (or is the real issue the size of the classes hampers this individual attention?) And then why is time given to them so they can watch TV? Or do 'busy work' whilst a teacher marks other things/prepares something?

• I have a real issue with homework – Children are being sent home with increasing amounts of homework earlier and earlier. Why is there not enough time during class to teach this all? The endless projects, reading, etc. Either something is fundamentally wrong with teaching styles/methods, or there is too much required in the syllabus to cram into a short time. Homework is necessary evil because of the large sizes of classes in school today. This leads to incredible pressure on very young children. Something has to give...and I'm not willing to let it be my child's life.

• Class size: How can a teacher adequately monitor the progress of 35 children in a class? And here I speak from personal experience. Even at a high school level I could not help those that were falling behind...I simply had to let them go or refer them to remedial teachers for help. I focused on the core group of students, and tended to always aim to extend them and my students with higher capabilities. At junior school with fundamental building blocks of learning taking place all the time, this is even more critical.

• Different learning styles can seldom be accounted for, not only in the way in which learning takes place, but also with regard to the difference between boys and girls. (However a school in our local community does account for this, and very well I might add.)

• Starting ages of schools – without taking into regard the different developmental paces, schools, decided by the government, can start anything from 4-7 years across the globe. Who said that this was the best age to start teaching them? Has anyone ever queried the connection between the growing problems with literacy these days and the early age we're forcing their brains to make connections? And why is it that boys struggle so much – did anyone ever stop to think perhaps it would be better to start them later than earlier?

• I have a problem with the stripping of innocence - how children in today's world have little or no time to be children, to play and have fun – indeed, grade 4 (age 10) children are taught about anal sex...because the state says it is a good idea. How can it possible help a child so young to know such details? I don't want the innocence of my children shattered before they need to know just because some politician has adopted some liberal world view. I'm simply not ready to handing over my child's education to the State and have them taught only what the state tells me is relevant. (Just a teeny nursery school example – we're very strict with what we allow our children to watch, and how much time they can spend in front of the TV. So imagine my surprise when King Arthur came home from school telling me all the ins and outs of the Ben 10 – a show he had only watched once with us. He could name all the aliens etc – and purely from what his friends had told him in the playground – imagine what else he could learn in a few years time!)