School Visit....

Ethan had his first school introductory visit today. After his previous issues with separation anxiety you can imagine that, despite my outwardly jolly appearance, inside I was feeling very anxious. He was a bit wobbly before we left the house and I was a bit wobbly when I realised that, on arrival, the mum's were just handing little 'Johnny' or 'Katie' over to the teacher and walking away. I knew that if I stayed today then I'd set the precident for next term when he's full-time so I decided to try and leave but not if that meant hysterical crying and vomiting [Ethan, not me lol]. I also had to make allowances for the fact that I've never left Ethan in a 'school' type environment ever apart from his one disasterous week in daycare. So after explaining to the classroom assistant what a big step today was for Ethan [and me] I told him I'd stay for two minutes and then have to go like the other mummies. So I stood there at the side of the room while he played happily with his new friends and then called out "Two minutes are up Ethan, I have to go now and I'll see you at lunchtime". "Okay Mummy" he called back, "I'm actually a bit busy looking after Ben right now so I'll see you later". [Okay, okay no need to be THAT keen for me to go lololol]. On a serious note I was mighty relieved that it had gone so smoothly [despite sitting in the car crying once I'd left him] and he was also fine when I returned two hours later to pick him up. Knackered yes, but he'd obviously had a great time and he's looking forward to going again.

I was mighty proud of myself at pick-up time when his teacher Mrs M told me that although he is the only child in the whole of his year who's not done pre-school it doesn't show in the slightest and if I'd not told her then she'd never have known. So I must have been doing something right for the last 15 months or so. Home education has been a delightful way to spend another quality year with Ethan and I'd fully recommend it to anyone who has the time, money and opportunity to do it.

We went to McDonalds to celebrate on the way home, well, you have to really don't you?? Photo's to follow when I've downloaded them........

Edited to add photo's as promised ~ taken just before we left for the school visit ....

Not sure quite what was so funny lol....

....and not sure quite why he looked so grumpy either.......

Er now then, what pose shall I strike ~ ah yes, my arms flying at the back like superman, that'll be the one....

Home Schooling fun....

Ethan and I recently spent a day cutting out large basic shapes [triangles, squares, circles and rectangles] and made a life size picture of Ethan with them. Here he is modeling his achievements. Yes, I know he's got his Sportacus suit on AGAIN but what do you expect lol!!

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.

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

Normality resumes...

..well, tomorrow reality hits again as the summer holiday draws to a close. Simon is back to teaching tomorrow and Millie is back at school to face her year 11 on wednesday so the house will be quiet again. Ethan will miss his daddy as they've been joined at the hip for the last six weeks or so. Some of the old routine will soon be back in place such as Musical Mini's on a friday, MKhen coffee mornings sporadically, and Soccer for Tots starts again in a couple of weeks. Swimming never stops as he goes with Dave every weekend.

Because we've always done 'child led' home schooling it's down to me make opportunities available to spark Ethan's interest and curiosity so I shall be getting my thinking cap on over the next few weeks to see what he'd like to focus on.

Watch this space.........

Sharon xx

A little about our home schooling.....

....I promised in the 'Summer 2008' post I'd write a little about our home schooling venture. Well, it's been very successful so far. We keep a daily journal of what we do but it's amazing how much of what we do anyway with Ethan is 'educational' in some way. We tend to do anything that takes a few minutes concentration in the mornings while he's fresh. However, alot of his learning is done through play as he's still so young. That said, he already knows nearly all the alphabet phonetically and can spot letters he recognises all over the place, especially when we're in the car and he sees them on signposts. He recognises some words like his own name, mummy etc. He knows all his colours including the difference between dark/light blue etc. He can recognise amounts up to about 5 and can count by rote up to 20. He knows all the basic shapes and some more diverse ones like oval, semi circle, rectangle. He can tell you a story by memory using just the pictures in a book. He's also just starting to tell the time.

We do all the usual stuff like crafting, play doh, painting, drawing/colouring, tracing, cooking, music, making mobiles [we recently made one of the life cycle of a buttefly as we were learning about that after reading 'The Hungry Catterpillar' book]. He's just learning to use scissors. We also go to the library every other weekend. He loves working in the garden with Daddy and has succesfully grown some plants this year from seeds.

He can use a computer really well. Can use the navigation keys and play platform games when he's allowed to. He can click and drag with the mouse really accurately. I watched him on it with Si the other day and I was amazed at how much he's learnt as he only started on the PC at the beginning of the summer holidays.

Outside the home we do some educational things through MKhen such as nature walks. We recently did a fire engine visit which he loved. Alot of what's organised by MKhen he's still too young for or it's in the early evening when he's too tired, he's usually in bed by 6.30pm. Socially we do the coffee mornings at Sarah's, Messy Play in Bletchley, soft play at a local play centre and Musical Mini's on a Friday morning. We also get together with the Christian Mum's group every now and again. He does his football once a week, swims once a week with Dave [and is nearly swimming on his own]. We all go cycling regularly around the city in search of local parks to play in with Ethan on the back of Simon's bike in his little seat. Must get a photograph of him on there before he grows to big to fit in it.

As you can see it's a busy time. To be quite honest I have to be careful to make sure we spend the odd day at home as we can be out five mornings a week. I was worried that I'd not be able to fill the days but in fact the opposite is true. I had moments of doubt when we started but they've gone now as I can see that he's already far ahead of his age group and we're not pushing him at all. We will always review our decision regularly though to make sure it's still the best 'fit' for Ethan. We're doing the 'child led' approach at the moment so everything he learns are things he's asked us about or has shown an interest in - the alphabet just started because we read one Jolly Phonics book and that was it - he was hooked. I love spending every day with him - it's just such a gift. It's also amazing to see him learning things and know that it was me/us that taught him. Very, very rewarding.

I will update of any new home ed. adventures as they happen and try to be a little bit better with my photo' taking.

Hugs to all who read...

every blessing

Sharon xx

Soccer for Tots.....

As part of Milton Keynes Home Education Network [MKhen] we've been lucky enough to be able to get places for our under 5's on the Soccer for Tots scheme. It's highly subscribed to as there aren't many football teams that cater for children under 4. In all honesty it's quite expensive for what it is. However, being home edders means that we get a group discount so this summer we got Ethan signed up and Simon took him every wednesday morning. Now, I don't need to tell you all how much he loved it. Once again we had to do a weekly countdown of 'how many sleeps until we see Glen [the guy who runs Ethan's class] again!! We've managed to afford to sign up for another set of six clasees as Dave and I went halves for the next course but it's so worth it especially now the summer is nearly over as it's much harder to find outdoor activities in the winter time.

Sarah took both of these for me as she takes her little ones as well!!