The trials of home educating

I knew when we started on our journey into home education there would be bad days, but the optimist in me thought they would be few and far between and I never imagined we would experience 5 in a row! Last week Chipman was on his 2nd week of a trial of no ADHD medication and I was in a really grumpy mood that I just couldn't shift. It was not a match made in heaven! Without his medication Chipman needed constant reminders to focus on his work and I have felt like a real nag, if I said once 'sit down' 'pick up your pen and write' or 'stop being an aeroplane' I said it a thousand times.

Being an aeroplane, train or gremlin have been ways for Chipman to express his frustrations but have unfortunately added to mine. On Tuesday we were working on simplifying ratios, not being in a particularly patient mood myself and numbers looking like a foreign language to me we stumbled on a problem solving the 6th question. I suggested to Chipman that we move onto the next question and talk to mathematically minded Dad when he got home about this particular question. He was having none of this as he said they had to be done in order. So whist I trawled the Internet, phoned various people and stressed out trying to find the answer Chipman spun around me being an aeroplane, noises and all. And just in case I was in any doubt as to what he was doing, the aeroplane engine noises and arms out to the side circling after all may not have been a big enough clue, he was periodically shouting he was in fact an aeroplane. Despite my pleas, which started out calm and turned into shouty quite quickly, Chipman's aeroplane was not going to land any time soon. In tears I decided that we had had enough maths for one day and called it quits, Chipman landed and got on with some geography.

The maths frustrations continued, the aeroplane made appearances, although Chipman's method of transport sometimes changed to a train as the week went on. And with the train as you may have guessed came noises, arms circling at his sides and the announcement that he was a train until Thursday. We had been stuck in the house for 4 solid days and think we were both starting to go a little stir crazy. So when the suggestion from a friend to go out for lunch came up we jumped at it. Having some time away from the house certainly helped, Friday was much calmer, although Chipman still needed to get around the house somehow so the aeroplane and train returned, I felt more able to deal with it just from a couple of hours away from the house.

I have learnt my lessons from last week, and there are quite a few. We need new strategies to help Chipman deal with his ADHD now that it is not being controlled by drugs and to get a fair assessment of how he is coping without them, we need time away from the house at least once a week and finally I am not blessed at being good with numbers so Dad is now the maths teacher. It was a trying week but reflecting back I can see my mistakes and I am hopefully going to learn from them.

Leaping into deschooling

Deschooling, a term I had never heard of until I started home educating. What is it exactly? Well it's getting school out of our systems, 12 year old Chipman has 8 Years of learning in a school environment and myself 14, we only know how to learn in a classroom. Home educating has so many advantages over classroom learning but both mine and Chipman's heads are in a school mindset, that each subject must be taught separately for a set time each day, that we must follow a very rigid timetable that is the same each week and that it won't be fun! We need time to find out how Chipman learns, what he loves and get to know each other, for the past 8 years the only time we have spent together has been after school and the holidays. So now the official school type learning stops and we have fun! 

So far this week we have started making a a 3d cardboard sphinx (he's really into the Egyptians at the moment), made clay models, watched films, been to the charity shops to buy books and games. We have learnt a lot about each other, I have learnt that Chipman loves crafting as do I but I have also learnt that I am not a very patient teacher and want to jump in and do it for him! I need to learn how to take a step back and to facilitate him rather than doing it for him. I also need to find creative ways for him to show his learning.

Chipman has also taught me how to play chess! We have learnt that both of us learn by doing and not by reading the instructions. I have also found that Chipman is a much more patient teacher than me and explains things very well verbally.

I don't know how long we will deschool for, I imagine for as long as it takes, there are many different theories that range from 1 week to 1 month per year of schooling the child has done. We will carry on learning about each other's passions, learning styles and who the other person is until we feel ready to learn and when Chipman and I can see that learning can be fun and not just workbooks.

Are you deschooling? Have you already deschooled? Share your experiences or ask your questions in the comments below!

A new adventure along our way

I had always planned to go to Africa and when I first became a Christian I was all ready to sign up and serve the Lord on a different continent. However He had different plans as I found out that I was expecting Chipman and I had to cancel. My desire to go to Africa has never gone away though and it is truly special that I get to share this experience with Chipman, God's plans do not always match our ideas but they certainly are for the best. Jeremiah 29 v 11 says so  "For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." I was devastated that I couldn't go when I wanted to, but now after 12 years of waiting I get to go on an amazing journey into the unknown with a very special young man. 

We are traveling with a charity called Mission Direct, and whilst we are in a town called Rukungiri we will be getting stuck into building site life. There is a mainstream primary school there already but nothing for disabled children, that is until Mission Direct started building an extension. Now the disabled children of Rukungiri have an amazing opportunity of their own to look forward too, an education. We will also be visiting other local projects and helping out, this is going to be the best 2 weeks ever!

I will be blogging more about our trip on a seperate blog and would love for you to come on over and visit it to find out more!

Would you be willing to support Chipman and I in prayer? This is a scary time for him as he steps out of his usual routine and into a different world, please pray he will adjust well and enjoy the new and exciting experiences. Please also pray for patience for me as I deal with Chipman's behaviour without the support of my husband. And lastly for my husband and daughter Beebie as they cope for 2 weeks at home without us.

Thinking creatively about creative writing

I was looking for ways to engage Chipman in creative writing and stumbled upon the TES website. It is full of resources uploaded by teachers and is free to access. Some of the activities need tweaking for one to one home educating. I found a fantastic powerpoint on the website which I turned into a workbook. Here is how I did it......

Firstly you will need to down load the resource from TES, this requires signing up to their site. It's free to join and well worth it for the treasure trove of resources you will find!

Next I printed off the power point slides, 3 to a page with notes, this option is available on the print screen.

I then cut them into individual strips.

 The next step was to get creative and make a front and back cover out of card. I made mine out of card which I cut just a bit bigger than my pages. I used a sharpie, gold pen and some card decorating stickers for mine, but this is where you can let your creativity go wild!

Lastly you can make your book by laying your back cover on the bottom, then laying your paper on top and finally your cover. The amount of pages you can include may well be limited to the number of pages you can fit in your stapler! I used 15 pages and then stapled it. I put the left over strips in an envelope ready to make another once A has completed this one.

For Chipman who is a reluctant writer the short amount of lines make the task achievable (although he does have to option to carry onto the other side of the page). It has really helped him start thinking about things imaginatively and is in good size chunks that don't overwhelm him.

Let me know what you think. Have you got any good ideas to get reluctant writers putting pen to paper or getting them to think creatively? If so please share them below.

Earthquakes at home and learning together

We did it! 5 morning's getting Beebie into school without any fuss and 3 nights of going to bed well! She is very happy with her bubble sword as a reward! As for Chipman and homeschool, all is going brilliantly. This week we looked at the effect of earthquakes on buildings with a hands on Lego experiment. It was great fun and both Chipman and Beebie enjoyed it. We have come to the end of our Japan topic and on Chipman's request are now moving onto Egypt. Again we will be lapbooking and will post photo's as we go.

This week there have been doubts. The main one of these for me is am I teaching him enough? From other blogs I have read I know I am not alone. I have been reassuring myself that no matter how much Chipman writes down on paper he is learning 24/7 and enjoying doing it. I have loved getting to know Chipman better and spending quality time with him during our learning. It is amazing to see his thirst for knowledge and how he will persevere. I am still being flexible and we are definitely learning as we go along together.

 Chipman has also enjoyed meeting up with his home educated friends at group and at the park. It's great to see him making new friends and also good support for me. I would recommend to anyone home educating or considering it to join a group, you can find lists of these groups on Education Otherwise. It has lots of information about home educating and is worth a visit. 

I am feeling so at home with being a stay at home mum and am very thankful to God for giving me this opportunity and peace in my heart. My prayer this week will be for calm in our home and hearts that want to listen to God and to each other.