We lost our way this month (October) and my goodness did life give us a kick in the A…hem bum.
Remember how I told you the children wanted to incorporate worksheets into our learning and how I was opposed to that sort of learning but you know child led, well we let it spiral out of control and kaboom! This week (first week of November) culminated in all of us reaching boiling point.
As requested I printed off the worksheets for the kids. We were completing the sheets in the morning, leaving the afternoon for ‘fun’ activities, outings, tuff spots, etcs. Again not the way I would have chosen to home educate but after years of having their education dictated to them I wanted the children to have some autonomy over themselves and especially their education. I watched over the weeks as their behaviour began to decline but couldn’t quite put my finger on why. The ‘work’ was taking longer and longer to complete and it seemed that it was me putting in more effort to get it done than the children but they were still insistent this is what they wanted.
The beginning of this week it all went to pot. We sat down at the table to do the worksheets, there were tears, there were meltdowns and that was just me (joking, it was all of us). After a heated confrontation (I’m not proud as I know there are better ways of handling my babies but we all have a breaking point), we all walked away, had some breathing space. I had a chat with each child individually, then Samantha took it upon herself to talk to Riley about what they wanted from their days, they then came down to speak to me.
We established they are hating all the worksheets (they asked for) because it feels too much like school. They would still like some worksheets sometimes but not every day. They would like to go back to learning through game play, tuff spots and exploration.
I have listened and to be honest I am quite happy as table learning is never how I saw our learning journey going, it’s just not what suits my children’s personalities and is one of the main reasons I pulled them from formal education in the first place. We have relaxed back into inspiration baskets (baskets of activities I place in sight to inspire their imagination and learning) and tuff spots, which has had an instantaneous effect on Riley’s behaviour. He is visibly calmer and less emotionally unstable. Samantha takes longer for her anxiety to dissipate to ‘normal’ levels but I am confident it will with time, at least from this.
So far this week we have had a visit to the library, a visit to our local soft play (to run off all that excess anxiety), they completed a 200 piece jigsaw puzzle on the periodic table, as well as discussing the various characteristics and properties of the elements. The children learnt to use the sewing machine and completed a pattern from start to finish (a hair scrunchie and a bow) and they indulged in two new tuff spots for bonfire night. We have also started a family computer game, final fantasy 10. We are playing it together as the children do not game well as it dysregulates them (although strangely they are coping very well with this specific game). This game has a lot of morals to it, that I can draw their attention to and explain to them. The game is turn based which I think helps keep them calmer and it raises lots of topics of discussion like organised religion and individual belief systems. To top it all off it’s a great activity to have over the winter when we are unable to enjoy the outside as much.
This was all in three days, did they learn anything from the national curriculum? No, but neither do we have to. The children have learnt a new life skill (sewing), they have learnt conflict resolution, negotiation and problem solving, not to mention expressing their needs (eventually) and we have had some great intellectual discussions, I would call this week a win.
