Our First Week Home Educating
Well, it came and went, or first week home educating The Boy.
This is how we started:
Slower, more relaxed mornings make for happier everyone.
Having seen his reactions and how he’s struggled with a few basic concepts that I know he was expected to know last year, and his reactions to him not understanding, I think it’s absolutely the best thing we could have done for him. He needs one to one, he needs help to keep focus, he needs help to manage his expectations, praise when he gets it right, reassurance even he doesn’t get something right, his self-esteem is very low when it comes to what he thinks he’s capable of in terms of school work, a classroom of 30 children with one teacher and one assistant and limited time or losing play time is never going to get that for him. All the time he needs on every single concept, every piece of ‘work’ and one to one with the person who knows him best absolutely is.
So, what have we actually done this week?
We’ve taken it pretty easy, really, a worksheet or two in the morning, then chill, lots of playing and some quality time with Mr T and I while Miss W is at school. I’m determined to get his self-confidence up, I’m not forcing him to write anything down but keeping him practicing writing more covertly, he has a real block against it.
He’s been climbing with his Daddy, cooked lunch for three of us, out on bike rides with both his Mummy and Daddy and we even went on junior Go Ape together (never again for me, but I had a go and made it round once, including the zip wire!).
We even made use of our Merlin passes and popped to Legoland for the day and took part in a home ed session on stop motion animation in the education centre.
Overall, a lovely week, and with Mr T on gardening leave from work, A is getting a lot of much needed attention and it shows.
It was finished off beautifully with his friend’s birthday party on Friday night where he got to see some of his old school friends.
I can’t wait until next week and can’t wait until we move now and we can get more involved with the local home ed community.
This week we are reading and talking around looking after animals, ending the week by collecting our puppy, Odie, on Sunday!