End of the summer holidays
It’s officially been the school holidays but don’t tell them
how much they have learned over the last few weeks. We’ve seen bread, sweets,
biscuits and jam being made, sardines being tinned and learnt about various
fishing methods, they’ve spoken and read French, seen how a country can change
from region to region, learnt some Spanish and learnt lots more boaty theory as
well as putting lots of sailing knowledge into practice, there is also the
journals they have been writing and all the books they devour.Then there’s all
the construction they have been doing with lego and meccano, and the eldest has
completed his first airfix model on his own.
No matter how much we teach them (and in our boys they quite
often teach themselves through reading and endless questions) the main things
they are learning are practical. Communication skills, problem solving, making
do, independence, things which are not so much taught as embedded through
experience. We have seen many boat children tackling tricky tasks which may be
considered adult only in another context – climbing the mast, handling ropes,
driving dingies. The Royal Yacht Association teach that ropes should be secured
using an OXO pattern. When our 5 year old ties up the dingy he mutters to
himself o-xss-o. In a crises when the boat ended up an adult down it was our
then 9 year old who stayed calm, remembered what he had been taught and got us
safely tied up. I’m not saying that other children can’t do these things just
that it is noticeable how confident with practical things and problem solving
our children have become. Then there is always the really important stuff,
learning that people are different with different ideas and that is what makes
the world interesting, learning to communicate, to feel valued and worthwhile.
After all that learning it’s time to start back at ‘school’
at the start of September. We’ll be doing the usual numeracy and literacy work
for the basics and lots of reading practice for the youngest. In addition to
that after lots of discussion they would like to look at towns and cities as
the next topic so I have a big list of activities and learning around how
cities develop, why they are where they are, what do we need cities for, light
and shadow, technical drawing, Tudor life, Roman cities, city v’s country and
anything else we can squeeze into the topic. They are keen at the moment, let’s
hope that continues once they have pens in their hands. We’re starting off with a ‘field trip’/day
out which should get the brains in gear and then it could well be more lessons
on deck in the fresh air to the amusement of passers by J.
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