The Artful Education of Alfie and Annie Rose.

Life is moving forward, Our education journey has taken us in new directions. Life is busy and tiring but usually filled with colour, noise and beautiful people. Today is the start of another chapter in our story.

Our new journey.

Recently we diverted from our path and have taken our lives in a new direction. After many hours of agonising over the choices and the consequences, after many mornings of tears and tantrums, after countless nights of tear soaked cuddles in the dark we decided to take the plunge and de-register Alf from school. I am now solely responsible for insuring his education. A terrifying responsibility and at the same time so wonderfully liberating and exciting. We are taking things slowly and settling in to our new routine, working out how we both learn best and exploring our options. We have been spending more time socialising with old friends and strengthening friendships. Coincidentally this week Alfie would have started school in Australia if life had gone to our original plan.

Annie is still at nursery 2 days a week following a pre-school program and although, on those mornings, we often have similar behaviour to that which she has witnessed on school mornings for the last 18 months she is happy and thriving. She is very different in character to her brother and as the younger sibling has spent much of her early life just along for the ride. I am told at pre-school she is a confident and knowledgeable child who is very good at communicating her wants and needs as well as directing and encouraging others. I think she is enjoying having a place to step out of her brothers shadow. She is growing up fast and babyhood is behind us now.

 Now our biggest challenge is to simplify our home life, declutter and create a space we can both live and learn in. Slowly, slowly one small pile of clutter at a time I am changing my thinking, letting go and moving forward.

This little girl of mine is growing up fast.She is sweet and smart and funny and I really enjoy hanging out with just on the days her brother is at school. There is still something of the strong willed, persistent little creature that dominated my days in her babyhood left about her but she is growing into a rational little human and those moments are fewer. We were offered a nursery place at our lovely local children's center and we are slowly settling into the idea.

The road to uncertainty

The road ahead is at the moment a little uncertain. I am unsure of the best route to take. We have been plodding along and trying to making the best of where we are at. It is not completely successful. Alfie is enjoying the opportunities that flexi schooling has allowed us but it is becoming increasingly clear that his time in the classroom and especially the playground are not always happy experiences. Over the last month he has had a run of viruses and a lot of time off school. We have stepped up our home education and unschool learning and I have noticed a calming in his body and actions. Over the weekend as we got closer to Monday morning the erratic and frantic flipping and spinning increased. We hardly slept on Sunday night as he woke again and again fretting about school in the morning. It breaks my heart and I feel as though I am crushing his soul asking him to push himself through his anxiousness and fear. He has told me he feels unsafe and yet I tell him it is OK and take him back there each day.

Finding the right path..

It has been a challenge working out how to balance all the components of our educational journey. It is important that this alternative arrangement works well for all parties involved but most importantly that it becomes an enriching experience for the children. It needs to add benefit to their education rather than detract and complicate their school experience.

 

 

Rainy afternoon adventure to St Pancras Railway Station where we sat sat high above the concourse and watched the people coming and going. We drew portraits and collected rubbings of textures and letters.

My approach has always been to follow the needs, interests and curiosities of my children and to encourage investigation and wonder at the world around them. Since starting school Alfie has taken a grater interest in letters and numbers and has directed a number of activities that investigate a letter.

The first of these was the Anteater project. It was created on the first sick day after a conversation about anteaters in the doctors waiting room. Alfie asked to look up anteaters on the internet so when we came home we did. We came across a colouring page image of an anteater that he asked to print. After colouring the first sheet Alfie decided that it didn't really look like a real anteater and we discussed ways we could make the fur look more like fur. We looked at books by Eric Carle and Jeanie Baker and then Alf created his anteater fur by tearing up some old paintings. After the anteater was finished he asked for a letter A 'because anteater starts with an A like Alfie'. This evolved into turning his artwork into an anteater costume. Alf created a mask and glued ripped scraps of paper to his finger nails to create claws. For the rest of the afternoon my feverish ant eater boy lay curled on the sofa because anteaters spend a lot of their day sleeping.

 



Change of season.

Autumn is here and with her she brings the flu. We have had a run of sickness the last few weeks and Annie seems to have been in between sick and well since the first leaves began to change. We have been doing our best to enjoy the season and take note of the beauty that autumn brings and find small joys in the little delights and natures treasures. A rich brown, silky conker, a perfect red leaf, wind fall apples in the park and the delight of running through crunchy brown leaves, if you can find a pile with a low chance of a dog poo surprise.

Diving back in.

Diving back into blog land. It has been awhile. Life has been busy and so much and so little has changed all at the same time. It is the start of a new season and the beginning of a new adventure...
We are flexi schooling. Alfie will do 3 and a half days a week at our local school and the rest of the time we will home school.  I am hoping to get the balance of this one right for all of us and you can come along for the ride.