Welcome to us

Deciding to homeschool our, now, 3.5 year old was one of the easier parenting decisions we've made so far.  Miss M is on the autism spectrum, she is high functioning, and highly intelligent, but struggles with changes in activities that aren't on her own terms, and struggles to understand many subtle, and some not so subtle, non verbal communication.  This often makes getting along with other kids hard for her.   So homeschooling it is, until we feel it doesn't work, then we'll try something else.

The aim of this blog is not to convince you that homeschooling is the bees knees, you can make your mind up all on your own.  It is not aimed at converting the haters or disbelievers.  But perhaps it might help some almost homeschoolers decide whether or not it is for them.  It might help our friends and families to better understand what we do.  And, I'm hoping, it will be a good reminder and a positive reinforcement for me on my 'doubting' days or frustrated days.  It is also not to show that we are amazing and have endless energy, we don't.  We have a constantly messy house, and sit and watch the tv just as much as the next person, the act of sitting and taking time out is under rated.

Because of how hard it can be to move Miss M from one activity to another we have gravitated towards the 'unschooling' approach to homeschooling.  Basically it means she chooses what and when and how she learns.  We are merely the facilitators, and our job is simply to recognise interest and opportunity and combine the two where possible.  Otherwise Miss M will largely be left to her own devices and interests.   For more details on unschooling see http://www.holtgws.com/whatisunschoolin.html

So what does our day look like? None of them look the same.

Yesterday started with Miss M sitting on the couch with the iPad watching YouTube videos of scuba divers exploring a coral reef.  She loves anything oceanic at the moment.  Fish, octopuses, jelly fish, sharks, anemones, sea urchins, you name it, she will know what it is and love it instantly.

Over breakfast we had a conversation (carried over from bedtime the night before) about water.  Miss M wanted to know what it was made of. We talked about H2O and what that meant (in my basic-vague-memory-of-high-school-chemistry-way).  That went on to antartica and what ice was made of and how it was made.  We looked at the ice in the freezer (she didn't want to touch it - it was too cold and wet!).

Then off to gymnastics for some jumping, balancing and tumbling.

We found a necklace that Nanna had forgotten last time she stayed here.  Miss M wanted to know why people forget things - but off course she had never forgotten anything, ever! She liked the idea of having a full head and getting distracted by something new, and then sometimes forgetting something seen as less important.  (seems to be what I do daily anyway!)

Baking some cookies with "mumma" (my wife) is always a favourite activity.  Miss M and Miss F (18months old) LOVE to help baking.  They clean anything with cake/cookie mix completely! They both love to watch the kitchen aid go around and around and help choose the cookie cutter shapes.

While the baby slept, I sat down with a cuppa and my knitting - Miss M 'helped' by unravelling all the wool.  We talked about how much wool was in a ball and how far it could go (all the way to the moon and back!).  Which led us talking about space and Miss M decided she would love to go into space one day and bounce on the moon like ben and holly did (abc4kids).  She wanted to know what was in space - "stars, planets, moons".  What are stars?  Ok (thanks google) - they are balls of gas, like our sun, really hot, and REALLY far away.  WOW!

Once Miss F woke up we fed the goldfish in the pond.  Looking at how some are bigger than others, and some are still 'babies', some have more white on them than others.  It was fun putting our hands in and letting them nibble our fingers.  We watched them swim and dive and duck away when we were loud or moved suddenly.  Miss M noticed that our lilly plant has a flower and a bud.

Then mumma went off to personal training - well that started a whole conversation about why? why? why? why?  We talked about how moving your body was important, and how muscles like to move.  How some people like to go for walks, or rides, or swim, or do gymnastics for exercise.  How as we become adults sometimes it feels good and relaxes us to go and do some movement / exercise.

Thanks for reading, sorry I'm a bit long winded today.  We had a busy day of random conversations yesterday! Today was quieter.  I cleaned the house and Miss M and F played on the iPads or in the back yard.

Bring on more interesting conversations and lots more google searching for answers!

😀