Learning takes place everywhere...

Although Bear is still young, we do have what we call our 'intentional learning time' in a day where we sit down together at either our kitchen table or the space we have in our living room, and we learn something specific. Whether that be maths work, where we are currently looking at times tables and an introduction to money, literacy, where we are looking at when to use capital letters versus lower case letters and trying to use full sentences, science, which we are still exploring the human body, or our topical work, where we use our Whimsy & Bug subscription box. I try to do something that fits this heading of 'intentional learning' daily, even if that is just Bear reading a book, as I also prioritise getting out and about as much as possible.

What I am very much an advocate for, however, is that learning, even intentional learning, doesn't need to happen at a desk!

Some days, our intentional learning is a pre-booked Home Educators day at a venue like Eureka! Children's Museum, where we recently attended to learn all about the digestive system via their interactive workshop, as well as all the possibilities from the museum itself, or the Home Education Day at Boston Park Farm where we learned all about lambing. Other days, our intentional learning is sit down work, but not at the table at home. Recently, we have gotten out of the house for a change of scenery and taken our work with us. We went to the pub for dessert and took some maths practice and a reading book with us to work through after sharing ice cream together and chatting to a few familar faces and we headed to our favourite Cafe, Grimm & Co and took some more maths practice, another reading book, and some card games with us to play while talking to the staff there. 

Aside from all this intentional learning, Bear is a very inquisitive little person, and we are always finding something out from either a question he has thought up, or something random that he has read or heard that he has asked about. Where possible, I try to let him follow a train of thought to his own conclusions, and then give him what facts I know before resorting to looking up answers.

We also spend a lot of time outside, which means there is always something new to discover. A recent outing was just an excuse to get out of the house and enjoy the unexpectedly warm day we had and we took their bug hunting gear with us and their outdoor journals. This turned into a full on bug hunt and we researched the bugs we caught and did some drawings, but we also checked out one of the experiments in their outdoor book which had us making a compass out of a stick and using the shadow from the moving sun to find North. This was an accidental learning curve and we got talkaing about shadows in general which led to the boys doing their own experiements over the course of the afternoon.

All the 'unintentional learning' is probably my favourite at the minute, as I love watching them follow their own theories and finding ways to check out what they are thinking. This probably leans into the idea of unschooling as far as a home education term is considered and I can understand why so many families choose this way as a general idea for their educational path. I also love when we get together with friends, and what starts out as something intentional, quickly gains traction as they bounce their ideas off each other and some up with new and exciting ideas that they then want to investigate.

Even their play matters - this morning for example, as I sit writing this post, the boys have been playing together, really beautifully, for ages. They are building with Duplo and I can hear Bear helping his brother to choose the right blocks for what they are trying to build together. Bear's structural skills are impressive and he can build almost anything, often without any help or direction, and work out how to correct mistakes when his builds don't quite act how he intended them to. The fact that he can apply this to teaching The Cub too, I find impressive and all great building blocks in his conversational skills.

I'd love to hear what your approaches to learning are like in your home educational journey. Do you plan and deliver 'intentional learning' or do you lean more towards the unschooling ways of letting your children lead their journies?

Mama Bear x

Independent Reading

Bear turned six at the beginning of February, and one of the changes we have made for him growing up is that he gets to stay up for a little extra time at bedtime. He still gets bathed and ready for bed with his younger brother, and then we have story time together before their bedtime routine and getting into bed. However, now, Bear gets half an hour of independent reading time before he has to turn off his light and get settled down, and he is in his element!

He started off with one of his birthday presents, Dragon Tales by Dav Pilkey, which I bought for him having loved the way it was written. Clear, short chapters, colourful pictures and small amounts of text on each page. Plus, it's about a dragon, which Bear loves.

That first book was finished in three nights, being three short stories within the book, one story per night! Done. That was not what I'd expected when I'd said he could start reading at night... I should have known really, he is just like his mama, a total bookworm. But now I have to fund not only my own book addiction, but his too!

Once he had finished the book, we looked at writing a book review. He could easily talk to me, and tell me what each short story was about in the book, and together they made up a whole story about Dragon. The way he can recall stories, some parts word for word, especially speech, assures me that he is understanding and taking in what he reads. He can answer questions about the storyline and characters, giving more detail when asked for it.

His book review included being able to copy one of the pictures out of the book which he loved to do, and he wrote a sentence or two as a summary, giving it five stars! Then we moved on to a new book at bedtime... The Wizard of Oz, an early reader version.

He has made it through four books in February, including a couple that we sourced at the library, because if he is reading them this fast, there is no way that I can afford to buy them all. I have agreed to buy ones that we already have parts of a series for, and maybe a few new series if they are ones that I know we will reread and The Cub will love too, but many of them are going to have to come from the library, which means more regular visits there.

If I can get him onto bigger chapter books, I may be able to slow him down a little, but I don't want to overwhelm him, or have him struggle to take in the book if it is aimed a little older than him. For now, we will cope with speed reading books like I do, and see where his interests start to develop as far as genre goes.

And of course, wanting to be just like his big brother, I found The Cub in bed ready to be tucked in, chilling with a book. "I'm just reading my book." I let him finish looking through and then tucked him in that night with a smile on my face that both my babies love books as much as I do and that reading is enjoyable for them, and not a chore.

We'd love some recommendations of books suitable for a six year old to read independently; what are your favourites for this age group?

Mama Bear x