What does "learning" look like?

Following the same path as my previous post about what 'play' looks like, I found myself thinking the same about 'learning' recently after talking to family and friends about expecting our first home visit from the local authority to meet Bear.

I started Bear's education journey with quite specific ideas in mind for how I wanted to plan and deliver things like phonics and basic number skills, but, as home education allows... and one of the big reasons I wanted that freedom, it soon became obvious that my methods weren't right for Bear, and over the course of his Foundation Stage 1 year, I adapted how I delivered the material numerous times over until I settled on a way that I thought worked for us.

Since Bear took an actual interest in learning to read this last month or so, those ways have changed again as it very quickly became apparent to me that Bear picked more up by actually reading books than he was by me 'teaching' him phonics. So, I ditched the 'lessons' and workbooks and we just read. We talk about new sounds as they come up and think about some examples, then keep reading, and so far, his recollection of sounds he has come across has been ace. 

But, aside from the obvious 'learning' moments, I'm talking about what learning looks like in the everyday moments, the unplanned ones where your child just learns... no books, no lessons, no guidance, the world around them just provides the education.

For us recently, that's looked like Daddy finding an old Choose Your Own Adventure book at a charity event and him and Bear sitting and playing for over an hour, Bear listening to the story and choosing his path, or rolling dice and flipping coins to find out what happened next. It's playing board games with Nannie and Pops, or teaching his friend who works behind the bar how to play draughts at the pub because it wasn't a game she knew how to play. It's reading a bedtime story, and asking questions about something he saw in the pictures and Daddy finding him a video to show him exactly what it meant alongside his explanation, or reading the map while we were out following a local scavenger hunt. It's picking out the keyboard/piano in songs that we listen to in the car because Mummy has been trying to teach herself how to play, and learning song lyrics because he wants to sing along with Daddy. It's realising that there are numbers on the coins in his purse and then putting them in order and trying to make things sink or float while playing in the water tray in the backyard.

I could keep going, but I think you get the idea... And what do I do with all these moments? I let them play out... I bought more Choose Your Own Adventure books and board games and I picked up a magnetic draughts set so that he could play for real at the pub. We selected new non-fiction books from the library to follow his interests. We chose new songs for Mummy to learn on the keyboard and got all the coins out of his purse to look at properly and discuss which ones make up the others so that he can start to count out his own change when buying new things...

The biggest draw to home education for me was that Bear would be able to learn about the world around him, from the world around him, not just from books while sitting at a desk. He can converse with people of all ages, backgrounds, and in lots of different settings. He isn't shy about going up to cashiers in shops or speaking to wait staff in restaurants. He listens to them, makes conversation and learns from them as much as he teaches random facts back... He wants to get outside and be around nature. He has a love of non-fiction books that even I don't understand because I am firmly a fiction lover, but he's like a sponge for facts and recalls them and asks more questions to further the knowledge he already has because he's inquisitive like that. And at the end of the day, I can't help but feel that the school system would squash that out of him because he'd have to learn what they wanted to teach him...

That's not life - life is for living, and he is living and learning every day in a way that is truly setting him up for his future and I am so glad that we are in a position to provide him with that opportunity!

What moments have you had recently that slide into this category of just learning by living?

Mama Bear x 

What is play?

As adults, who are we to decide what play is and isn't for children... we don't "play" anymore... not really.

The boys were playing outside today, where they can play freely. We have a secure, gated back garden, and we live in a bungalow so I have a constant view, or hearing range of them, even when I'm inside catching up on chores. I can see them from three different rooms of the house, hear them from every open window, and through the open door.

Today, I was hoovering and saw them out on the drive up the side of the house, (still within the secure gated garden) sitting in their little fishing chairs which they'd taken down there to sit in the shade of the house, with a skipping rope each and a plastic cup from their mud kitchen supplies. They were throwing the cups on the floor and then going to fetch them, just to do it all over again, and the adult in me leaned over to shout out of the window to stop throwing them around because that's not what they're for and they were likely to break them. Before I could shout though, The Cub broke out into giggles as Bear did it again, pretending to take a drink from the cup, making a face and shouting "Ick", and then throwing the cup away. The Cub copied, then, they both got up, fetched their cups, only to do it all over again, both giggling away with each other.

I stopped myself from shouting out to them to stop and just watched them. It turns out, they were fishing for electric eels, using their skipping ropes as the fishing lines, and their cups as their drinks. I have no idea what their drinks were "ick", I never asked, but clearly something wasn't right, and they kept throwing them away.

There had been no adult input into their game - when I'd left them out there, they were chasing bubbles around the garden. Said bubble machine was just blowing bubbles for itself by this point. It made absolutely no sense to me as an adult, but to them, they were having a blast. They were playing nicely together, and they weren't hurting anything. Yes, maybe the cups would have gotten broken and had to end up in the bin, but the majority of their mud kitchen equipment was old stuff from in the house that would have ended up in a charity bag or in the bin if it hadn't gone out there anyway. It didn't owe anyone anything!

So, I left them to it, and when they did finish up their game, they put their skipping ropes and cups away, folded their fishing chairs and put them back in the porch, and moved on to something else and were running around the garden with sticks by the time I went back out there.

My point being; just because it doesn't look like something recognisable to us, doesn't mean that it isn't perfectly relatable and meaningful for them.

Let them play!

Mama Bear x

Learning to Read

All the activities and practice I used to plan for Bear as the beginning of him

learning to read has changed into completing his This Bear Can Read packs, and reading books!

Honestly, I had so many workbooks and activities planned thinking I needed to teach every step, but that's my school-educated brain kicking in thinking that it had to be "taught". When in actual fact, the best way to learn to read is by reading!

We have been borrowing books from the library that follow the reading schemes used in school, meaning that they are abilty-appropriate to Bear's phonic knowledge. We are reading through these together, and whenever we come across something that Bear doesn't know or understand, we take a second for me to look at the sounds and to talk about how they differ to normal and I give Bear a few other examples using the new sound. Then we continue reading and with the books being repetitive, he has plenty of opportunity to read and practice the sound in the book.

More often than not, the next time he comes across the sound, he remembers, if not, we just do the same process. i have kept the pressure off and just let him enjoy books the way they are meant to be enjoyed. Reading is one of my favourite hobbies, and that has passed down to both of my boys already - they love books. I have no intention of changing that by forcing them to read when they're not ready.

I am now seeing Bear attempt to read words at random, for example, while out shopping, reading worksheets himself, looking through books and, reading signs when we're out walking. He can put into practice the sounds I know that he's come across before and his reading is coming on so quickly. I'm so proud of him.

Once he gets the hang of it there's going to be no stopping him because he already loves books, when he has the ability to read them too I have no doubt that he will devour books just like I do. More than once recently, I have found him with his brother, reading to him, whether it be reciting books he already knows, making up stories with him from the pictures, or attempting to read some picture books that they know the storyline to but don't remember the words.

My little bookworms <3

Mama Bear x