When in foreign places expect to meet interesting ‘locals’. Here is “Leafy” who provided much interest and amusement one day. He stayed with us until night fell and then wandered off at his own leisure. We have no idea what he actually is, other than pretty darn big – probably a good 10cm long or more – no one was game to measure.
If you know what Leafy is, feel free to leave a comment below so the Oh Waily kids can look up his relatives from the comfort of their computer.
Starting tomorrow we are giving a new history curriculum a run-through.
We did try out a Classical option earlier but found that it wasn’t a really good fit for us. Between the age that the kids were when we tried it and my completely unrealistic expectations of what and how home education would work for us, it turned out to be the first thing to drop from our lives.
Now, however, I have finally figured out that the best way to get ‘learning’ in to my children is to sneak it in, in small doses and with as much fun as I can manage to cram in. And to be completely relaxed about the whole process as well.
This time around I am giving a secular Charlotte Mason curriculum it’s opportunity. Hopefully I’m also more aware of what is a reasonable expectation from my kids and their ages, so we are slightly less likely to founder on the rocks so quickly. I already had the two main books that form the spine of the curriculum, so even better from the planning & purchasing point of view.
For this round of learning about the ‘Ancients’ we will be doing lots of colouring in, listening to information and if I can find something on YouTube or Netflix, watching documentaries too. I’ve also learned to not put pressure on the kids or myself. I will happily do all of the reading and writing, rather than impose my expectation on them to do that (or parts of that for Master Oh). Flowing with their interest and skill level is going to be key to following a full curriculum like this, but I’m looking forward to the opportunity to introduce history on an ongoing basis.
I’ve printed out the first lesson’s worth of pictures and text and will be reading sections to go with that. The kids can colour in the pictures while I’m reading. I’ve even made the pockets out of A3 paper I had on hand and there’s even some washi tape getting in on the act. (Only because Miss Oh hates staples after she opened a birthday present that stabbed her mercilessly. Ah the trials of being young! )
For the record, the curriculum we’re going to use is History Odyssey – Ancients Level One from Pandia Press. I really liked the fact that the owner seems to have a sense of humour (read their explanations of eBook over printed and the cost of the curriculum soapbox explanation) and that they were willing to let me (and you) have access to a decent chunk of the lessons to help decide if it looked right for us. If we find that this works well for us, then I may consider their science curriculum too, but that’s a decision for later as we have basic science stuff that will see us through a few more months.
So… do you follow a curriculum? If so, what and why?
As an eclectic home educator I’m really interested in the choices people make and why. On a personal level, I love to research and look in to the different options I can present to my kids to keep their minds open and growing, so feel free to go to town with your comments if you have something you love.
There are plenty of reasons why you might choose to home educate your children. In the 2013 NCHENZ survey the top 5 reasons, in order of the number of responses were:
– learning at their own pace
– more flexible lifestyle
– closer family unit
– not happy with the school system
– family values more central
Interestingly the 2015 survey found an almost identical choice of answers. And as you can clearly see, the majority of people actively choose this option from a positive perspective. Of the top five reasons, four are all about the positive benefits of home education and only one is about avoiding the school system.
I think that this fairly reflects my view on things too. As neither of our kids have been to school, there were no issues around bullying or being left to drift, or possibly struggling in some areas. We haven’t been forced into choosing this path for the Oh Waily kids, and our view has always been about the positives rather than the negatives.
While both the Oh Waily parents did very well in school, there were things we thought home educating would do that schools simply can’t. Individualised learning being one of the main ones. Our kids can go as fast or as slow as they want in learning, without fears of being teased or ‘aware’ that they are either ‘geeky-bright’ or ‘falling behind’.
The little blighters have one-on-one tutelage available to them on call, 24/7.
We have a fabulously flexible lifestyle that allows for lots and lots of experiences that school kids often have to ‘save up’ for the school holidays or weekends. We get to go places in the quiet times and enjoy a more relaxed meander through and around places that otherwise might be teeming with people. Case in point – last week we went to Auckland with Mr Oh Waily, who had to be up that neck of the woods for work. While he worked, the kids and I went to Kelly Tarlton’s, the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Auckland Zoo and Butterfly Creek. We finished off with a game of mini-golf at Adventure Golf. And along with that, they got to catch up with their grandparents as part of the trip.
Are we a closer family unit? I’d like to think so. For the most part my pair of monkeys get on really well and look after each other when they need to. They scrap like other siblings do, but are also brilliant at co-operating when the mood takes them. And I hope that this continues and grows as the kids age.
Is it all a bed of roses? No. We are together 24/7 and that has its moments. But I love being with them and can’t imagine farming them out on a permanent basis to anyone else to teach and be with. Even when they’re driving me nuts. Well maybe not right at the moment they’re driving me nuts, but afterwards… for sure.
As for being unhappy with the school system, yeah I guess as we’ve gone along I have come to thinking that way about things. This isn’t to say that it’s all a mess, but there are things about it that no longer make sense to me when I watch my kids learning. First off, I don’t want them to disappear in amongst 20 or 30 other kids. I don’t want them to have to take tests to show skills – at least while they are young. This was reinforced in my own mind when I had to sit tests and exams last year for a university paper I took, and had it confirm for me that all it was doing was showing how many snippets of knowledge I could remember and get out on paper in three hours.
I don’t want them to waste their lives on ‘busy work’ while they wait for the remainder of the class to catch up (or be left behind and have their self-esteem and confidence take a blow, while others waited on them). I don’t make my 7 year old daughter do stuff that she has clearly shown she understands and is capable of doing, over and over and over again. Revision of information, sure. Repetitive work, no.
I don’t want creativity sidelined for ‘academic’ work. I want my kids to be as rounded as possible – as whole as possible. I want them to indulge their sporting sides, their art and crafting sides, and if it ever shows up…their musical sides. (In the meantime, I’ll settle for their love of dance and appreciation of the wide variety of music I play to them. This being a current favourite.) And I don’t want them to be convinced that their interests are ‘geeky’ or ‘odd’ or ‘weird’ or whatever the term du jour is for kids who dance to their own beat.
Pretty much that covers the family values side of things too. I want the kids to be themselves, learn at their own pace and be valued for who they are and what they’re interested in learning about. I want them to have a childhood where they can spend at least 50% or more of their time in creative, playful explorations of their own. I want to provide as many opportunities for life experiences as we can and is sensible to do at this stage of their lives.
I think we can give them the best environment to do that in.
I know that’s not possible in school as they would already be spending seven hours most days following other people’s rules about how they spend their time. They only have to follow mine for a tiny fraction of that time during our days.
I don’t know about your household but that would leave roughly two hours in the morning (6:30am rising in this house, people!) and four hours in the evening for “their time” – and that doesn’t include time out for dinner and to do any homework. (I included an arbitrary 30 minutes before & after school in my estimates for travel & general faffing around, but knowing the shamble that my pair are like getting ready to go anywhere…it’d be much longer and more nagging on my part than I care to think about, just to get ready.)
Is this choice for everyone? Nope. Not at all.
Does it have its downsides? Yep. You don’t get nearly as much ‘time off’ or ‘personal time’ or ‘personal space’. You need to have a robust support network or ridiculously strong internal fortitude – either / or both. You will often have to live your family life on one income and still fund all of the learning opportunities you want your kids to have. Thankfully a lot of learning opportunities do not cost an arm and a leg. Still, a little bit more than $700 a year from the government would be nice, since we’re saving them several thousands of dollars per child per year in funding. A little bit more for us would be nice. How single parents do home ed, I have no idea, but they have my fullest admiration as I can’t even begin to imagine how much harder that would make it.
Does the downside outweigh the positives? For us, nope. For others they may be a deal breaker. Like all things to do with home education… it is entirely personal. Your kids, you and your family. Your situation, your life, your expectations.
It truly is the beauty of home education in a nutshell. Nothing need come out of a box. You can create it from scratch and make it fit to you. If it doesn’t fit, then you don’t need to try and make it. It is simply another educational path to take, nothing more and nothing less.
Over this past Christmas and New Year I spent some of my quiet time reading Positive Discipline by Jane Nelsen. I was looking for more ideas on how to positively interact with the small Oh Wailys. I found a few new ideas and met some old favourites.
While the book is a bit of a mish-mash of home and classroom ideas, there is plenty to take away from one environment that would work in the other. The key idea for me, though, was the Family Meeting.
Not long after I finished the book we decided to give it a try and see how it would work, or not, for us. At the first meeting we wrote the ‘minutes’ down on sheets of paper and it dragged on for what seemed like an interminably long time – especially for the kids. There was a lot of explaining about what we were going to be doing at the meetings, and setting up expectations around listening and taking turns speaking. Then, finally, actually trying to have a meeting. It was all a bit dry, in hindsight.
We persisted and by the third meeting, which was just myself and the kids as Mr Oh Waily was away for work, I had taken up the further idea of having a permanent record of our meetings. I had the perfect book for the task that had sat in my stationery drawer since my last pre-kid trip to Singapore way back in 2006, an A4 blank ring bound journal. It had been waiting for a good use and now I had one for it.
We struggled through the next few meetings, trying to get a rhythm and working on the fidgety bugs that seem to infect the kids after a fairly short while. Now we are two months on from those first tentative steps and I have to say that our meetings flow really well, for the most part, and the kids are both participative and able to concentrate for most of the meeting now. We have dealt with a number of problems (one of the key uses of the family meeting) that have occurred during the preceding week, and everyone has been able to have a say in possible solutions. The kids are learning to problem solve and to come to a consensus – as that is the only allowable outcome of the problem solving. You just keep it on the agenda if consensus cannot be reached.
It seems to have reached a point where we rarely have actual problems to solve, so the focus of the latest few meetings has been firmly on the positive sections – compliments and planning fun activities for us all to do during the next week. We have also dealt with our chores issues through the meeting, with a fair amount of success. It is an ongoing work in progress, but at least it is not left to fester with anyone for long periods of time.
I think we will have reached another point in the process when we come home from our holiday in April. It will be time to add in a new aspect or two of the meetings – expressing gratitude and maybe coming up with a family motto – just to spice it up a little and keep it interesting. I can see that the meetings will become a more positive aspect in our lives as it becomes another family tradition, just like pancake day has. It is something that binds us together and adds memories.
I definitely recommend getting a copy of Positive Discipline and checking out some of her ideas. There are moments of repetition, and slightly banging on the same points, but overall it was a useful read and the Family Meeting idea made the reading all worthwhile. Check out your local library for a copy first to make sure it gels with you and your family.
And as some wise friends said – keep it short, don’t make it a parent-lecture-opportunity, or a hidden parent-control-method and actually make sure the kids are involved and listened to. Otherwise it will turn out to be the opposite of what I personally hoped for – a proactive, cohesion building tool for the family.
Back in October the Oh Waily family had a very short stay in one of my favourite places, Singapore.
The kids got to see, feel and enjoy some of the sights.
On Orchard Road it was hard to miss the sculpture exhibition.
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We also took a trip around the Zoo to see some animals that are not so common in our part of the world. The kids got to watch the sea lion display, see polar bears, orang-utans and more. The highlight for all would be the elephant ride. Yes, on the back of a real elephant. Very popular it was.
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We also took a trip to the Botanic Gardens, specifically the Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden. The kids had great fun in the treehouse play area, learning about photosynthesis and most importantly in the heat of mid-morning Singapore, getting in to their togs and playing in the water play area with a bunch of local pre-schoolers.
And as usual, the swimming pool attached to where we stayed was also a popular spot. Unsurprising in the equatorial heat really.
They must have had a nice time because they keep saying ‘the next time we go to Singapore we can…’ every now and then. And frankly I can’t wait for it. There was plenty to do that we simply didn’t have time to and as they get older they will be that much more able to withstand the temperature so that we don’t have to have a daily siesta.
And without warning there was Art.
Art that did not include masses of paint or crayon colours splashed across the page with abandon and no form.
Art that showed previously unseen fine motor control using pencils.
Art that shows an actual named figure !!
Meet Laval from Chima, as imagined by Master Oh Waily.
Apologies for the quality of the photograph… must work on my art photography skills. 🙂
Today, on the invitation of a friend, my two small people and I took a long uphill walk to the top of Mount Kaukau.
And what a walk it was. It’s roughly 2-3 kilometres in length but will take you to 445m above sea level in an hour or so. I have no idea how long it took to get to the summit, I just know that I am:
a) unfit;
b) unfit;
c) very unfit.
I also note that I will be unable to get out of bed tomorrow or walk more than a few paces. The amount of steps and steep inclines will guarantee that sitting will be uncomfortable for days to come, and my thighs will be protesting their misuse on the downhill slopes. I was tail-end Charlie for the entire walk uphill… even after the small children in our group. Frankly, I was stuffed.
In a first, however, Master Oh Waily led the way. So keen was he, apparently, that he regularly disappeared out of view of his lagging and feeble mother. I suspect he was out of view of most of us for quite a bit of the time it took to get to the top. This is the same boy that would complain bitterly about walking around our neighbourhood (on the flat) and any attempt by me to get him to go for bush walks nearly always ended with me carrying him at some point. In light of other developmental changes (which I will probably blog about soonish) in him, perhaps this is another small milestone ticking over. He also led the way downhill, not quite so far ahead this time and often with me. At least on the downhill I was able to keep up with everyone.
The walk, leg- and bum-killing as it was for the unfit, has a brilliant payoff at the end. Stunning views of the city, harbour, north and across to the South Island too. Very well worth all of the discomfort (for those of us who were discomforted).
Here are a couple of snaps taken with my phone at the top.
Master Oh with central Wellington in the background
Miss Oh with central Wellington in the background
They did a fantastic job of the whole walk. I’m very proud of them, despite Miss Oh’s merciless teasing at being the slowest of the slowpokes.
In the process of the walk we saw lots of neat locals – tuis by the dozen, some wood pigeons and on one of my many rest-stops I was joined by a small bird that may have been a wax-eye or perhaps it was a bellbird – hard to tell as it was doing it’s best to stay hidden behind some large leaves in the nearby tree. And the piece de resistance, on the way back down the hill, we came across a kaka ripping away at the bark of a tree. According to what I’ve read since coming home, it’s possible he was using that very pointy beak to get at the tree’s sap. See what you think.
Thanks to Mel for sending through the video. 🙂
As you can imagine, we have a fair amount of art materials in the Oh Waily household. Miss Oh has always been fond of creating her own art, and I have always enjoyed providing different materials for her to do this with. The only problem being a degree of paranoia on my own part that if I left some of the messier items down at kid-level then all heck would break loose on the spillage front. So for the most part the art supplies have lived up high or in large plastic tubs that were hard to get into by the small people. The exceptions to this being the crayons, pencils and felt-tip pens.
This naturally leads to two problems – the lack of encouraging independent use by the kids and the storage of all the bits and pieces. We did have an art caddy, once upon a time, but found that it simply didn’t work for us so it was barely used. Then when we created the cot desk, the home-made (i.e. improvised) hanging tubs became something of a nightmare in that they would slide from side to side and spill their contents far too easily. The obvious reason for this being that they were hanging from a single hook rather than firmly anchored along a railing.
It was all rather disjointed and was discouraging the kids from regular engagement in a variety of art without a lot of my time and effort to oversee, which I haven’t always had to give at short notice this past six months^. And art in this household tends to happen at short notice.
I had been wanting to fix the cot-desk storage for ages and ages, and came across the wonderful Bygel storage solutions from IKEA. I drooled over the idea of the rail and buckets doing their thing, but there being no IKEA in New Zealand posed a minor problem. I had intended to deal with this issue by attempting to buy through Fishpond or Amazon. In the end, they were bought in Singapore on the last leg of Mr Oh Waily’s long overseas trip and for the princely sum of NZ$15. A bargain in anyone’s language.
The improved crayon, pencil, pen & scissor storage then made me realise just how woeful the rest of the art supplies were and how fed up I was at seeing a huge, ugly pile of stuff languishing in boxes in the hallway and strewn across various high shelves in Master Oh’s bedroom. So the hunt began for a way to deal with it ALL.
At this point I was reading a decluttering book (as you do) and had an epiphany. One of the key tenets of this particular book was ‘the toothbrush principle’ – you don’t leave your toothbrush in random places before & after use… because it is stored right where it is used. Using this very obvious notion I realised that pretty much all the art in our household occurs at the dining room table or the cot-desk. Luckily for me, I had already relocated the cot-desk into the dining room, so that just left what to do about storage nearby. Well, he have one of those not-bay poking out windows in the dining room – just perfect for something like a buffet or sideboard.
The hunt was on.
A buffet unit that would not break the bank, considering what it was going to be used for and by whom, but one that would not look like an eyesore in what is a shared, public space of the house. I cannot tell you how many stores I trudged through and what horrible prices I was seeing flashing in front of my eyes (fine if it’s for decor, not so much if it’s for kids’ art supplies). We thought we’d found the right piece, and it was a great fit, but the price was too high. The shop wouldn’t budge below a certain discount and I couldn’t face paying the amount of money, so the the search resumed.
Revisiting one earlier piece and finding out it was ‘end-of-line’ and could be bought for pretty much half the price of the cheaper end of the buffet market was brilliant. I was even willing to disregard my dislike of the handles, knowing at the price we were given, I would have no qualms about taking to them with a hammer if they turned out to be a cause of accidents. (They’re thin and pointy-ended, as you will see shortly.)
A flat pack was purchased at a further, small discount, and Mr Oh Waily set about construction.
The following day I set to clearing out all the art supplies and rehoming them. I was hopeful, but not convinced that they would all fit. I was delighted when all but the larger pads of paper and one very long tin of pencils were the only things that couldn’t be accommodated. Here is the transformation. I am extremely pleased with it.
That’s the new unit in white behind the dining table (which has since been turned 90 degrees). The console table, which was my command centre, has been removed to create space and the monthly calendar replaced by a lovely piece of art that had been in storage too. As you can see, the desk had become a dumping ground and the art supplies were scattered on shelves and in a pile of boxes in the hallway. << shudder >>
I emptied everything out on to the table and floor of the hall to see what needed to be moved & where. My storage solutions were almost as big a problem as the art supplies. Those plastic tubs in the hallway photograph are full of boxes stacked inside each other, rather like matryoshka dolls !!
Finally though, we got to the good bit.
The desk was cleaned up, and all the art stuff was rehomed in the buffet. I don’t have any fancy dividers or drawer organisers, just my plastic buckets to contain the spread, so we will see how that goes for a while.
Am I happy? Yes I am.
Not only are the art supplies available, they are also hidden from view. And the top of the unit can be both a place to put provocations, and to display the kids’ artistic creations. (Thanks to a couple of little place mats from Japan City.)
On the far side, and barely visible in the morning sunlight, is a sketch by Master Oh. In the middle is my attempt to introduce different ideas to the kids without shoving it down their throats. And on the near side is Miss Oh’s giraffe family in building blocks.
I’m very hopeful that this will go a long way to encouraging Master Oh’s newfound interest in drawing and art, and continue to provide lots of opportunity for Miss Oh to do her thing.
^ I was studying for a university paper for most of the last 6 months and the best part of two of those Mr Oh Waily was overseas for work.
I love this photograph of Miss Oh Waily that I took on our visit to Tikitapu, just outside of Rotorua.
I also happen to love the quote from Lao Tzu. What could be better than combining the two?
This is now my desktop wallpaper. Every time I open up the laptop, there she is with a reminder and motivation for me to focus on three really important aspects of our character.
The Pukeko Patch 