13th September - A busy day

Saturdays are usually quite busy for Sylvie, and today was no exception. She was quite tired still when she woke up - her body clock seems set for 7am at the moment and she will wake up at this time even if she really really needs another hour asleep. This did not bode well for the rest of the day, but surprisingly she was not too awful!

The first thing she did in the morning, even before breakfast, was 'Maths - Large number recognition module'. She brought me her Dr. Who sticker album and stickers, and we had a pleasant half hour finding the right spots for them by matching the number on the back of each sticker with the ones in the album. During this session, I had concrete proof that my efforts to persuade her that text tells the story have paid off as she pointed at the text on one of the pages and asked me to "Read those words to me." We are one step closer to her self-set goal of learning to read!

After breakfast and 'Personal Care' - she chose to wear a sleeveless top and trouser outfit that doesn't really fit her properly yet and pink foam sandals - we left for her dance lessons, Ballet then Intro to tap and modern. Last Saturday, the first week back after the summer break, we discovered that her feet had grown and her ballet and tap shoes no longer fit. The dance school sells the shoes itself but had no ballet shoes in her size so they had to be ordered. Luckily they had found a pair of taps for her as she had stubbornly announced that "I'm not leaving until I get my shoes." and showed all signs of carrying out this plan, but the taps molified her and she left content to wait on the ballet pumps. Unfortunately they had not arrived today, but she was fine about going in in bare feet again and had a good time. The owner of the dance school, who loves babies, took her little brother in to watch the tap and modern session (she has her eye on him as a future student) which was a treat for Sylvie.

After dance and lunch, we moved on to 'Fiscal Management' - Saturday is pocket money day, with Sylvie getting £4 for the week out of which she buys her magazine and what is left is hers to spend how she likes. Last week she had forgotten her purse when shopping so she owed her daddy £3.10 for her magazine and some chocolate. They sorted it out between them, ending with daddy replacing some of her loose change with a £5 note to make her bag a bit easier to carry. Then off we went to the shops. While daddy was in the supermarket buying such luxuries as milk and bread, Sylvie, Davy and I headed into the bookshop next door for the essential Dr. Who magazine. After she had paid for it, we went to the childrens section of the bookshop to wait for daddy and had an impromptu 'Combined Reading and Maths -Symbol recognition module' session - when we reached the area we found that they had laid out a huge foam mat with removable letters and numbers. Sylvie leapt to it immediately, removing every single one of the symbols and piling them up in a heap then trying to put them back again. Some other children came to join her for the putting back part, and I was happy to see that 'Social Skills - Sharing module' was going well today. She looked a little subdued, but kept playing rather than storming off yelling she hates sharing. Probably the size of the mat, which prevented too much encroachment of her personal space, helped.

I had suggested a nap when we got home, but she was very resistant and since she had slept in the car a little I didn't fancy my chances of actually achieving anything other than a fight if I pushed the issue, so we had a little 'Media Studies -Folklore module' courtesy of Joss Weadon and his 'Once More With Feeling' episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
We also had 'Reading -Comprehension module' as I read her her new magazine and she answered this weeks competition question, the answer to which is always mentioned in the text somewhere.
Once the baby was asleep I tried to turn the trip hazard in my living room into something resembling a floor and, to my amazement and delight, the little girl who tends to see her mess as a form of modern art and reacts to attempts to tidy it as if I am smashing up a precious sculpture, embarked on 'Social Skills - Helping people module' and got down next to me of her own accord saying she wanted to tidy too. She even continued for a while after I had to stop to attend to Davy.

She then had 'Art' - playdough followed by collage followed by colouring. The collage I am quite impressed with. Last week she asked for my help getting some glue out of it's container (she really needs some more) and when I went to help I found her in the process of making a book. She had folded some sheets of A4 in half and was trying to stick them together along the fold line. After she had done that, she decorated the front and the back with stuff from her Bits-and-Bobs box. Today, she added to the decoration and restuck a few bits that were lose from before. Once it dries, she wants me to write words in it for her.
The colouring I was less impressed with. She wanted to make a paint butterfly (she had already folded the paper in half ready), but I was feeding the baby and couldn't get her the equipment so she agreed to a compromise of me drawing the outline of a butterfly for her to decorate. However, she soon got bored with that and came happily over to show me how she had coloured in the fingers of each hand, the right in pink and the left in black. I asked her not long ago to stop using felt tip on her hands - water-based pen comes off easily with soap and water, but also comes off easily onto anything touched with wet or sweaty hands. This bit of art was washed down the bathroom sink immediately!

After this there was a little more 'Media Studies' (Superman DVD) before dinner, then bed. I was very impressed with how pleasant she had been considering her tiredness. Not only had she not got stroppy (her only blip was being silly over putting her clothes on to go shopping) but she had actually behaved really well in situations that usually bring out the worst in her even at her best. Long may it continue!

12th September - Art day

Today, as well as the usual 'Childcare', Sylvie had 'Art' interspersed with 'Madia Studies' (today's 'curriculm' courtesy of CITV). The morning 'Art' session consisted of sticking glittery stickers in places she wasn't supposed to, leading to a lesson in 'Social Skills - Respect for others belongings module', and some felt tip pen drawings. For the afternoon session she got out her oil paints and, with mummy acting as Gopher, she finished off a picture she had started months ago but left incomplete. It was one of her 'sketch in pencil then fill in with paint' efforts, which one day may lead to a painting of something recognisable but are currently more like posh scribbles as she is far more interested in the process than the finished product at the moment.

While painting away, she discovered by accident that if she filled her brush with one colour then caught the edge of the brush with a different colour she could get a very interesting paint effect. She spent some time deliberately experimenting with this effect, hence the large amount of yellow-green streaks on the final image. During 'Art' we had an impromptu 'Social skills - Manners module' ("Mummy is not going to hand you your drink in response to you calling "Service!")

After lunch, we ventured out, braving the rotten weather, for 'Citizenship' and 'Social Skills - Communication module'. I had picked up a leaflet the day before at the Breastfeeding Cafe about an all-day drop-in event being run by the local Residents Forum and we went along mainly because the leaflet said they were planning to run a tree-planting event in November and there would be information available. It turned out other things were available too and we left with a free shed alarm and energy saving light bulbs, leaflets on who to contact about nusiance motorbikes (a real problem in the local park) and the thing Sylvie was most interested in, a plan of the new layout for the revamping of the local playground and the information that they are going to start work in the next few weeks. We managed to avoid the worst of the rain by stopping in at the Community Office afterwards - We have lived there for 2 years and never been in before dispite it being at the bottom of our street, so a 'fail' for mummy in 'Citizenship'!

While out, thanks to the wet weather, we did some 'Botany', talking about how leaves collect water to drip it direct onto the area containing the plant's roots (which is why we got wet when we walked under the trees dispite the actual rain having stopped). Some of this sank in enough that when the residents Forum lady asked her what trees made her think of while talking about the tree planting project, Sylvie replied "The leaves collect the rain".

Later, she did some pages in one of her activity books, matching shadows to objects etc., on her own while I dealt with baby Davy. When I glanced at it, it was apparent that she had been learning 'Initiative' and had taken a wild stab in the dark at what she was supposed to do on the pages where it wasn't immediately obvious rather than asking what the instructions on the page said.

All-in-all, not too unproductive considering I spent most of the day either on the computer or trying to soothe a sicky baby! There was a queer incident that I suppose might come under 'Social Skills - Role-play module' - half-way through the morning Sylvie came to me to say she was sad because 'Donna' didn't want to play with her and had gone off with a new friend, while 'Rose' was ill so couldn't play. 'Donna' and 'Rose' are a couple of her imaginary friends, actually the companions from the new Dr. Who series. I was unaware that imaginary friends could abandon you to go off in preferance with another imaginary person. I dealt with it as I would a situation with Flesh-and-blood people, ("She is allowed other friends as well as you" "I'm sure she DOES like you she is just doing other things today" etc etc.) and in the evening she came back all excited saying that 'Donna' had returned to play with her and brought her new friends too. Ah, the workings of the 4 year old brain!

11th September - Back to normal.

Back into our usual routine now, we started the day with 'Writing' - family birthdays approaching, she wrote her name and the name of the recipient on the cards and envelopes, following the dots I made on them. This was followed by 'Personal Care' - 5 mins before I was planning to leave the house she asked for a shower. Since the mention of showers usually turns her into a screaming fury, having her offer to take one of her own accord was good enough for me to decide that it didn't matter if we were a bit late and gave her a thorough wash. She was even relatively ok about having her hair washed.

Then we headed out for 'Childcare Plus' - the local breastfeeding cafe I attend. On the way there we touched on 'Biology' ("All babies have to have a birth, don't they?" and "Men can have babies too, can't they?"). While there we had 'Social Skills' - she struggled a little with this unusually, but it became obvious she was quite tired and just wanted mummy - and 'Reading' - she found a small board book that she wanted to read with me, I read the words then she 'read' them after me. On the way back,we had 'Botany' - I spotted a lot of rose hips in the bushes and, memories stirring, I foolishly mentioned that their seeds could be used to make people itch. It captured her interest and we came home with two rose hips with the intention of harvesting their seeds. We also took in 'Physics - Friction module' "If you keep dragging the end of your umbrella on the ground, the hard tarmac will wear away the soft plastic.")
We talked about 'Time', though this is a subject she has trouble grasping. Terms like week and month are still pretty meaningless to her and to her question as to when the going away party fror her daddy's friend would start, the answer "Not until the end of next week" didn't stop her from putting on her party frock ready. Trying to explain how long it would be until she was 5, using major events in between like Bonfire Night and Easter just made her think Bonfire Night was happening tomorrow. Ah, well, plenty of Time to learn that!

'Observation Skills' were employed at lunch time as she easily spotted the less than perfect bits of pasta that mummy had burnt due to the demands of baby Davy, followed by 'Decision Making' where she decided she wasn't hungry enough to eat the polluted pasta even after the offending bits were removed. She also had 'Media Studies' (a Dr. Who DVD) which included a scene that inspired some more 'Physics', an explanation about mirrors reflecting light (and light-based death rays) back to the source that emitted it - "I love the bit where the dalek blows itself up!"

Then it was off to her cousins with her aunt and a peaceful house for a few hours for mummy while the baby slept. She came home tired but had apparently behaved well, playing nicely and not throwing any paddys dispite being tired, and stayed up for 'Memory training', enticing daddy to play the card game memory with her before bed and 'Story Time' with mummy.

10th September - First day 'Curriculm'

Today, as one might expect, I decide to start keeping a record of what we do all day and an unexpected turn of events means our day is drastically altered and I have to use paper and pen initially to note down what we did. A phonecall at 7am meant that instead of heading to the library for 'Music' (the Bounce and Rhyme session) 'Reading' (checking out library books) and 'Fiscal management' (using her pocket money to borrow a DVD) followed by 'Outdoor Activities' (going to the park to meet the Play Rangers who are there every Wednesday with a large bag of toys) we had 'Double Childcare'. My brother needed an emergency babysitter for his youngest and someone to meet his eldest off the school bus.
Since the bus drops my nephew off at my parents house and I don't have a car that meant spending the day there. Since they are currently on holiday and I have managed to lose the front door key they gave me somewhere in my house this meant Sylvie got in her first lesson on 'Breaking and Entering' as we squeezed our way through the side door which is currently mainly blocked by furniture.

So, our day consisted of plenty of 'Childcare' - helping me with her 2 month old brother and her 21 month old cousin which included a discussion on how children learn to feed themselves and why it is usually a bit of a messy process (cousin stuck eating utensil in ear and used his fingers instead). We also covered 'Family History' - the old photo albums were out on the sideboard and I took the opportunity to show them to her. Lots of pictures of me and my siblings as children and some of older family members that are no longer with us. It also covered some 'Social History' too - uncles in flares and lots of brown and orange wallpaper! She was fascinated, especially when she recognised some of the toys she plays with at her grandparents in some of the pictures and later got me to help her find out one in particular.

After this it was 'Art' combined with 'Geography' and 'Storytelling' - she drew a 'map' with some stickers in the back of an old diary, the big sticker being an imaginary country called Azigog, the small sticker being Azigog's police station and the felt tip pen scribble being the ferry routes to Azigog, with the dates on the following page being the ferry times. She also did some 'Writing', covering a sheet of lined paper with squiggles, all kept nicely within the lines but definitely not the Roman alphabet. When I referred to it as 'Sylvish', I was corrected - it was 'Ozisong', the language of Azigog.

There was a foray into 'Social Skills - Sharing module' which as usual she struggled with. ("I don't like sharing!" is her usual reaction and today was no different when told she had to let her cousin play with HIS train set too - she objected to his habit of taking the track apart)
During lunch, we had 'Astronomy', answering her question "The sun is on fire, isn't it?"
After lunch there was 'Reading' - she went through a children's magazine and worked out for herself that the words written above some cartoon animals were the sounds they make after originally assuming they were the names of the animals. My quest to show her that the words as well as the pictures are important seems to be paying dividends at last!

Later, she had a study in negotiation as her aunt tried to persuade her eldest to stop playing with Sylvie and leave without fuss. The outcome of that was a promise that Sylvie could go round and play with him the following evening.
So, all in all a day packed with learning dispite having an extra child around.

School doesn't start.

Sylvie is 4 years 4 months and 10 days old today. Had we gone the conventional route she would have started her first year of formal schooling at the local primary last week. Instead, she is at home with me and her baby brother doing what we have always done - home educating.

Since what we have always done seems to work perfectly well there seems no reason to to change how we do things but as I believe that children will learn because they want to and they want to learn what they percieve to be important for adult life - modern day survival skills such as reading as well as ancient ones like cooking a meal that doesn't poison everyone - this basically means she mainly does what she likes.

Consequently, although I firmly believe that she is learning something new every day, I often have no idea what it is and some days, when she seems to have done nothing but study CBeebies all day, I have trouble seeing how she possibly could have learned anything. Hence this blog.

The idea is to keep a record of Sylvie's education by writing down the 'subjects' I think we have covered. I'm going with a blog over a paper diary because the chances of me being able to find a book after a few days in the chaos I call my house are nigh on impossible - it is much harder to lose a computer under a mountain of paper and toys - and being on the web I can access it from other computers, so I don't have to wait for Sylvie's daddy to finish playing online with his friends if I want to add to it.

So, here we go. My first blog. My first blog entry. My first child. My first go at educating a child. Should be fun!