Boat school out and about
"The important thing is to not stop questioning."
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955
Packing books and pencils into the bag and going ‘somewhere
else’ has long been a favourite, even when the eldest started school and had
reading to do in the evenings we would often combine that with a dog walk in
the summer - stopping by the river to read, sometimes with an ice-cream. It’s
great to be able to decide to spend a day at a museum or sit outside to do art.
They’ve run around a car park pretending to be planets, counted boats and
pontoons for numeracy, sat at coffee bars doing literacy, learnt numeracy and
languages in the supermarket. We love being able to remove the boundaries and
take learning into the real world and yes, they have also learnt the really
important stuff like how to programme a washing machine, do hand washing, what
can not be tumble dried and how to cook and clean and how to react in an
emergency. Possibly one of the most important things we have taught them is how
to stop look around and say ‘wow’.
I don’t mean to make them sound abnormally angelic, of
course there are days when they don’t want to do literacy or just don’t ‘get
it’. Home education can sometimes be tough going (for children and adults!) and
does require planning – preparing worksheets, making sure they all have
appropriate work books before they
finish the last one, preparing lessons which work together but cater for 3
different ages, finding exciting stuff to do, reacting to opportunities such as
being told that the replica Shackleton boat would be named at the marina the next
day. But it is a delight when we sit around in pyjamas discussing politics or
geography, poke in rock pools or decide on a PE day and go for a long bike ride
or sometimes just enjoy the chance to listen as they talk non-stop about their
latest hare brained scheme.
We worked the boys quite hard over the winter with the
intention of spending more time exploring than studying once we started moving
again. Travelling through the Basque country we have found lots of museums, art
galleries (including the Guggenheim), natural phenomena, wildlife and had lots
of opportunities for learning ‘in the world’ – watching chocolate being made,
poking around amongst the sea life, walking city walls and seeing political
demonstrations. These have triggered lots of other research in books and on the
internet, drawings, writing and long discussions about how, when, where and why.
That is to me what home education is all about, taking the opportunities available
and knitting together a web of knowledge.
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