Home education and anxiety

I'm a worrier and always have been. Of course, starting to home educate didn't end this-not at all. Home educators are prone to plenty of worries especially if they are rather anxious perfectionists!

Anyway, here are a few of the favourite worries and some thoughts about them.

I'm not teaching the way that schools teach. 

This is almost certainly true. Most home educators have small numbers of mixed age children.
 Does it matter? It may and it may not but it is easy to feel intimidated by really silly things. Soon after we started, a kind teacher friend gave me some books which included complex sample lesson plans including plenary sessions. I gave some thought to plenary sessions with a nine year old, two year old and a baby and gave up plenary sessions. I also had a wobbly moment after watching the young glitzy teachers in the government phonics DVD-does it really matter to my children's education that I'm going grey?

Textbooks are bad

 This worry seems to come from two sources: primary school teachers and unschoolers. I'm not necessarily saying that textbooks are good but they can be a helpful way to guide a busy mother through a subject. Yes, they probably aren't necessary and we don't use them rigidly. I've tried doing without-making lists of topics to cover and working with these but why re-invent the wheel? For me, often having a text as a backbone and going for "added value" items works best.

My child might be falling behind.

 It often seems that every  home educated child, and most children in school, can read by age four. This is more than a bit worrying. Does it matter? Well sort of-having children who can read is one of the primary aims of our education. We want to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and that includes being able to read His Word. But not being able to read by four, or even five or six, doesn't mean a child will be illiterate just that there will be hours spent over synthetic phonics making slow, steady progress and a humbled mother-no bad thing.

I'm no good at ... so I can't teach it to my children.

This has actually worried me less than I ever thought it would. As someone who has science/maths A levels, I always thought that teaching these subjects would be easy but teaching languages and art would be well nigh impossible. In many ways, this has been true but it hasn't meant that my children haven't done modern languages or art. I remember at the start of our journey, spending time praying about these subjects and there has been amazing provision.

Art has probably been the biggest surprise. There have been art lessons from an art student and in a local centre. People have pointed out to me guides to learning about art and artists. Strangely, I've enjoyed art, and learnt far more, with my children than I ever did in school.

 In some ways, explaining concepts from subjects that I find easy has been far more challenging.

What if they fail academically?

 We don't home educate for academics but they certainly are important to me, very important, probably far too important. We are charged to Provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Yes, we need to give them as good an academic grounding as we can but more than that to teach them of the Lord. It is easy to lose the wood for the trees.

Ultimately, I, and any other worrying home educators need to remember

Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 

Philippians 4 v 6-7

Bits and pieces

Half term is over and we are back to the satisfying routine of term time. There isn't always much to show for this in terms of new and exciting things but the regular repetitiveness of learning.

The younger children have been laminating autumn leaves

and painting is fairly constant.

Sometime ago I reviewed a lovely book about Lady Jane Grey. It is now available in the UK from the Christian bookshop Ossett.


We've also been having fun with some new books. Miss Belle had I want to be a chef around the world for her birthday. We haven't done much more than scratch the surface so far but this book is what it says and is likely to keep us busy for much longer! An ideal accompaniment to studying a country.

Last week, I flicked onto the Homeschool Post site and to my surprise found that I had been nominated for Best Homeschool Mom Blog. Do pop over to the site-there are loads of blogs to explore in several different categories. Of course, I would be delighted to have your votes!

Saving and spending

We've just had a great half term.

Now, we are in the run-up to Christmas when prices go up anyway on a background of general price increases. So, just a few thoughts on how we try to spend less.

• Home made soup is cheap, nutritious and tastes good. Left over end of casserole can be used as stock or make your own. 

• Those enormous carving pumpkins can be halved, roasted (bottom of the oven when cooking something else) then the seeds removed and used for soup. Pumpkin soup is best pepped up with  onion, garlic, cumin, coriander and a chilli-yum. One large pumpkin will give enough flesh for for three soups for our family.
• We have saved so much making our own bread. Most of us think this tastes better than shop bread although there is a minority opinion! We use a bread maker which pays for itself after 100 loaves.
• Drying clothes outside, even in November this means less time on airers or in the tumble dryer.
• Turning sheets sides-to-middle. I need to do this soon. This prolongs the life of sheets which are thin in the middle but have had less wear, obviously, at the sides. Old sheets are good for cutting up and making into cot sheets too.
• Cheap tin openers work as well as the expensive and in my experience also last as long. I don't know whether this is me but my tin openers only seem to last a couple of years.
• Try economy brands. We don't like value cornflakes or washing powder but other products aren't much different beyond the packaging. 
• Electricity is expensive. We have an electricity monitor which came free from our then supplier. They seem to be around £10 at present. This device tells us how much electricity is being used. It jumps up when the tumble dryer, kettle or oven go on. It has made me much more careful to try to use the oven full, not to boil more water than needed and to avoid using the tumble dryer as much as possible
• Be thankful-we have so much more than our forebears and so much more than many people alive today. 

Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.    1 Timothy 6 v6-8

Perhaps the best museum

Our second stop on the Living History trip was at my favourite museum: The Weald and Downland Open air Museum. This fantastic museum has buildings which have been rescued and moved from all over the Kent and Sussex Weald 

along with fields with farm animals,

woods with animals

 and even a charcoal burners' camp.

 It feels just like a historic village and the houses, church and school are open for visitors to nose around. There is just so much to see-the Tudor kitchen which was making pottage and apple fritters when we looked-so smoky and dark. The bedrooms with pillows at both ends to fit the children in,

trundle beds,

 chamber pots under the beds, the chests for the clothes, the rag rugs

  
and the kitchen range.

 It was a pleasure to show all this to Miss Belle and Mr Exuberance, for the first time.

This is definitely a child friendly place. There were conkers, horse and cart rides as well as clay modelling with loads of props for open-ended exploration.

50 acres leaves plenty of room to run and the animals are fun to watch.

It is always a bit of a shock to realise how dependent our forebears were on the land and locally grown materials. Probably not as ideal as we might like to imagine but fascinating to observe and imagine what life would be like.

This museum is enormous. At this time of year it opens at 1030 and closes at 1600. We were arrived just before 1030 and left just before 1600 and still didn't quite see everything. By the end, the children were really quite tired with all the walking, running and exploring that they had done.

I really recommend this Museum and no, I wasn't paid to say that. I just wish that we lived closer and could visit more often.

Being a Roman soldier

The two younger children and I have been experiencing some hands-on history.

The first stop was at Fishbourne Roman Palace in West Sussex. Now, I must say that we've had mixed experiences taking children to Roman sites. I remember several years ago having some very disappointed children after a visit to a large villa. The children had expected something like a castle that they could go inside not just some half ruined mosaic floor. Since then, I've been very careful to manage expectations before going to see bits of floor. Thankfully, Fishbourne didn't disappoint-it is an enormous complex with a fair few mosaics but in addition, this week, is their Roman soldier week. 

The Roman soldier week was fantastic for the children. First, they had to visit the recruiting officer and be enrolled in the Roman army using the Roman version of their name. They were then given a sheet with six tasks that had to be completed in order to obtain their pay for the day-a denarius.

They had to go to receive the Roman army tatoo which thankfully came off in the bath later.

Then there was drill practice-in Latin. Both children now know that "sin/dex" is Latin (OK shortened) for "left/right".

Soldiers had to be able to throw stones at wild boar.

Then there was spear practice, medicine making and food tasting. I don't think that my children got beyond the spelt bread but there were other Roman goodies-not dormice. 

Of course, there was plenty else to see. The Roman gardens

including the amazing box hedges laid out on what are thought to be the original pattern, in the original spot

and even the gardener to tell us how much more difficult it is to garden here than home in Italy.

This was a great day. We don't plan to study the Romans properly until later in the year but this was a taster that has left the children really enthusiastic.

Jungle Doctor and the whirlwind

Years ago, I read the Jungle Doctor books by Paul White, generally one a week from the Sunday School library. They were some of my favourite books and are partially responsible for my interest in medicine as a child which ultimately led to medical training.

 Over the years, I've reread them to the children with some amazement about the differences in medicine between Africa in the 1930s and the UK a couple of generations later. So when I was given the chance to listen to the audio book of Jungle Doctor and the Whirlwind I jumped at this.

Jungle Doctor books combine excitement, medicine and a strong Christian message. This comes out clearly in the audio book. They are set in Tanganyika in the 1930s where Jungle Doctor is a medical missionary loosely based on the life of the author, Australian Paul White.

In this book, Jungle Doctor comes to face with difficulties in the country, illicit drugs and with his own staff at the time of a dysentery epidemic.

I'm always struck by accents in audio books. When I read, I tend to assume that everyone has an English accent like me unless it is completely obvious that they haven't. I was quite surprised about the Canadian accent in Anne of Green Gables. This time, I wasn't surprised but felt the Jungle Doctor's Australian accent made sense.

My one criticism of this audio book is that chapter one is not chapter one of the book but a series on background information. Some of this is useful such as the author's biography and information about diseases mentioned but other is a long list of Swahili words and their translation. The information in this chapter would be better put at the end of the book.

Start with file two and enjoy the story! There are some brilliant turns of phrase and an end with echoes of the parable of the prodigal son.

This audiobook is suitable for older children.

Jungle Doctor and the whirlwind was provided by Christian Focus and Christian Audio for the purposes of this review. The opinions are entirely my own.

Discovery Wok

Recently, a kind blog reader sent me some picture books, thank you Morgan. One of these books was The Emperor and the Nightingale.

 Both Miss Belle (6) and Mr Exuberance (3 3/4) have loved this book so we listened to the song of a nightingale and collected together some Chinese items from around the house. We were going to put these together as a discovery box but decided that it was more apt to put them together in the wok as a Discovery Wok.

The wok was overflowing and only the lower right edge can be seen. It contained

Chinese kite-the bird pattern at the back

a book with information about giant pandas

a recipe for a Chinese meal

a Chinese vase

soy sauce

noodles-to make our stir fry to go with the book

a toy made in China

chopsticks

a short list of (English) words connected with China

The story about Ping-another loved book about China

The Emperor and the nightingale

Collecting items from the country in which a book is set is something that we will probably do again. It was a very visual and hands-on way to place the book in its setting and to think more about a different culture.

This is linked to Explore the world through picture books at My little bookcase.