Lessons (un)Learnt

I have realised this week how much we go out. I have realised this week how much we rely on learning though activities. I have realised this week that shouting helps me but maybe not anyone else. I have also realised this week how we need structure in our day, even if we don't stick to it. In fact, having a timetable, and not sticking to it, has been one of the most successful things in our week.

Because Ferdy is not a sit down at the table and do worksheets kind of child, we have had to be creative in how we learn.

Some things work better than others; our weekly singing lesson with Uncle Al involved quite a lot of hiding from Uncle Al, and telling the time with a chalk clock lasted a total of five minutes. But our daily times tables stomp, which entails marching around the kitchen and singing along to the 2 and 5 times tables seems to be popular, as is Story Time with Granny (she is reading the Story of Tracey Beaker this week), Poetry with Roald Dahl and Michael Rosen and Lunchtime Story with Mum (Evie and the Animals by Matt Haig). And of course, we have listened to a vast amount of audiobooks and read a h*ll of a lot of books. We aren't doing much screen stuff; Ferdy spends a lot of time sitting around reading books so I am loathe to encourage even more sitting around. Although we are enjoying David Walliams' Elevenses and What's in the News? with Newsround, and I am also a big fan of 4pm watch Netflix and leave Mum alone for an hour...

Quite a lot of the really good things we've done, have been introduced by Ferdy or Gil. Like Ferdy's Story PE (this week the story was Chris Riddell's Once Upon a Wild Wood), where we read a book and do the actions.

Both boys have been thoroughly enjoying Evie and the Animals, so Ferdy proposed that we pretend we have pets and make Missing posters (in the book lots of peoples' pets go missing). Ferdy had a gecko Jumbo, Gil a dog Laz, and mine was a hippo called Harry.

And when we read about a painting competition in a Winnie and Wilbur book, the boys decided we should have one too.

Gil has noticed that we have a daily rainbow in our house, which led to us learning a little about refraction of light:

Gil and I are also on track with our letter a day project.

What have we learnt this week? Perhaps that it's ok to not stick to things. Perhaps that just because our world has got smaller, the experiences we have may not be less valid. Perhaps that Ferdy and Gil will probably tick the reading, writing and maths boxes, whether instructed to or not. And, as suggested by Ferdy, perhaps that Mum needs to take a deep breath, draw a bit more, and shout a bit less.