IT for tots.....

If anyone had ever told me before I had Ethan that a [just] three year old would be able to use a personal computer almost unaided I'd have laughed them out of the room. However, here I am eating my words because Ethan can turn it on, load Internet Explorer click on the link to his favourite sites and play pretty much unaided. He always has half an hour on the PC with Simon once he gets in from work and he's amazing at it. He can click and drag, use the directional keys, know's the difference between a left and a right click and one click and two clicks. It's taught him to recognise words like "loading", "well done", "enter", "full-screen", "home" and any other word you would associate with children's educational and fun web sites, notwithstanding the potential to learn to count generally and also to see letters [capitals sadly] on the keyboard itself. The opportunity for learning without realising that you're actually learning is huge.

Here he is using the directional keys. He's very accurate and can play platform games better than I can.

Here he is laughing which is always a sign that he's having a good time which is what it's all about at this age. Education is supposed to be fun and primarily about learning through play in the pre-school age group, whether learning at home or at nursery.

Personal Awareness....

- Pleased to meet you!! At the moment we're looking at Personal Awareness and today we were looking at our faces. We started by looking closely at ourselves and our reflections in a mirror. We spoke about our facial features ie how many of each feature there were, what colour, what shape, what size and any differences. We discussed whether they were big or small [ie Mummy has bigger ears than Ethan - only just though lol]. We talked about their uses - teeth for chewing/biting, eyes to see, ears to listen- that kind of thing. Ethan actually knew alot more than I realised but he was amazed when I pointed out that we had eyelashes and spent ages touching mine. We also looked at what facial expressions we could make and had a go at guessing if we looked happy, sad, angry etc.

After this we painted our own reflections with happy or sad expressions onto paper mirrors. Above is Ethan with a happy face. He did really well with this as you can clearly see a smiley mouth, nose, eyes and yes, green hair. Don't all three year olds have green hair???

I had cut out some facial features such as eyes, nose, mouth, ears, eyebrows and Ethan painted them [I had to paint the eyes for him as they were a bit tricky] and once they'd dried he glued them onto plain oval face shapes I'd drawn on some paper and you can see that he got them in exactly the right places with no help from me. He even drew some hair and a beard on the one he's holding in the photo' above.

He also managed to do some cutting out today and did the best he's ever done using his little scissors with only the minimal of help. I had the outline of some shapes for him and he managed to cut out a recognisable square, circle, rectangle and triangle. He already knows all the basic shapes but it was a really good exercise in using scissors which is really tricky when you're little.

We're still looking at our Autumn project but I've had difficulty finding many resources that don't involve colouring/painting which are great but have a limited teaching ability. He's very much a kinesthetic and visual learner so it takes something quite hands on to keep his interest. Books on the seasons seem to be as rare as hens teeth. We're going on an Autumn walk with MKhen in Ocotober so with any luck we'll come back from that with some things we can use. Our trip to Willen Lake Park was good for talking about Autumn and looking at the leaves, trees and seeds [conkers, acorns] but not much to actually bring home and record. Trips out are great but until Ethan can actually draw recognisable things and write a few basic words recording them is going to be tricky. It will all come in time and he's really enjoying what we're doing at the moment.

Horse Riding....

Ethan quite often gets to go pony riding when he visits Grandma's house [Dave's Mum] and here he is a couple of weekends ago with his cousin Beth out on the pony in the paddock.

He just looks so grown up on there.

Willen Lake Park....

...well as we hadn't been out much this week, and hardly at all last as Ethan had a really nasty cold, we decided to chance the weather and head off to Willen Lake Park on the other side of the city. It's only a ten minute drive and people from the Home Ed. group have been saying to me for ages that it's really good there especially during term-time when it's really quiet. So, armed with wet weather gear, change of clothes, drinks, snacks and some money for the parking we headed off.

The sun was shining and a steady breeze held off the rain that had been forcast and we had a blast. Over two hours we spent running around, playing pooh sticks off the bridges, feeding the ducks [for those who don't know Willen Lake is huge and is almost two lakes divided up where they do all manner of water sports]. There were very few people there so we spent quite a while in the park area which is full of lovely equipment including a Pirate Ship, yo ho me hearties!! After we'd exhaused the play area we went off exploring then went back to fetch our bread that I'd remembered to bring for the wild fowl there so we could feed the ducks etc. We also saw some absolutely huge fish under the bridge where we played pooh sticks.

While we were there we collected some things for our Autumn topic and spent a while looking at the trees, the colours of the leaves and the shapes of the many different species of trees that surround the lake. It really is quite lovely there and I could just let Ethan run and run [water allowing obviously lol]. Finally we decided to take our snacks to the picnic area by the Pirate Ship and eat them and after one final go on the ship we headed back home. The whole morning cost me£1.00 for parking. Excellent value and we will be going again next time with a camera that some silly blonde mare forgot to take today - doh!!! Told you I was pants at this photo thing!!!

Tomorrow we're at Soccer for Tots again [third one this term] and it's still going well. Am considering changing him to MK Dons at some point but need to check prices, availability, times etc. before I go messing things up.

Hugs all and take care.

Sharon and Ethan xx

Autumn....

Finally we've decided that for the next few weeks we're going to be looking at Autumn as a season - what happens and why. This will involve a trip to the library for resources, a few nature walks to look at the trees as their leaves change colour and drop. Also at things like conkers [seeds], and any other bushes, plants etc. that change significantly for the Autumn. We're due to attend a Autumn Fungi walk with the MKhen in October so that should add something of value as well. We'll make a lapbook to record our findings with a few words, lots of pictures/photo's and some drawing/colouring and the odd souvenier of our walks. This will hopefully lead to us looking at the other three seasons in a similar fashion as they roll around.

We're also going to look at farming from a very pre-school perspective as Ethan has been asking things like 'Where does milk/do eggs come from?". So to start with we'll just look at farm animals that he knows and talk about what produce they give us. Not venturing into crops yet as far too advanced for this year I think. With any luck the Seasons and Farming topics will eventually tie in together as Ethan realises that the seasons also dictate what happens on the farm at certain times of the year ie lambs in the spring, hay in the summer. We intend to make a lapbook to record the Farming topic too.

The usual things like phonics, stories, early numeracy, music, IT, and endless play of all kinds continues on daily in any event.

This week we've made cakes, been to buy stamps and post a letter [he's going to send himself a letter next week so he can see that what we post eventually arrives at the destination of our choice]. We've also already looked at conkers and picked an unripe one off the tree and bought it home to dissect it and see the new conkers nestled inside. He was absolutely fascinated.

Tomorrow we're back to Soccer for Tots and Musical Mini's on friday.

Watch out for the next update guys - love to all who read.

Sharon and Ethan xx