I have two children, T who is almost 5 and should be in reception, and R who is only 2 but quite frankly drives me stir crazy. He is uncontrollably wild at times.
We don't follow a curriculum, we don't plan, we just live life as it comes, and take the opportunity to go and do educational things as and when they arise. Yesterday we played out in the open, wild and free, well the children did, in their pants in February while I sat with a cup of tea watching bbrrrrrrr. We got home had a bath and T read a picture book to his little brother. While their disorganised mother gave them tinned soup for tea. It was a great day.
I woke up this morning feeling so deflated, most likely tired from the long day we had and that R woke me to take him to the toilet in the night, this is becoming more and more common it drives me up the wall, but it would probably be ten times worse if I didn't bother to help him and he pooed in his bed.
R has just fallen asleep, he doesn't normally nap during the day but tbh I need a break. I've just whipped around the house and tidied it, because he is named after wreck it Ralph. T meanwhile is desperate to play games on the computer, and I'm struggling to find the strength to go yeh sure you aren't dressed, sitting in your pants playing computers all day is fine, you're five! but then in the back of my head, my self talk is saying one day he's going to have to learn that money doesn't grow on trees and he will have to go and get a job. His dad models getting up, getting dressed and going to work pretty well so maybe I just need to take a chill pill and breathe.
The boys dad is wonderful, he has complete faith in our home ed adventure, I'm sure there are times where he wobbles too but he doesn't show it, I sent him a really horrid text message today and then swiftly apologised he replied with "fancy fish and chips for tea?" He knows exactly how to make me smile, it's sometimes like he's just given me a hug through my phone. I'm so lucky to have him as my husband :)
Actually writing this is making me feel better, I promise future posts will be a lot better and less wooly :)
Don't get me wrong, I love home education, I love that my children will grow up to feel free and learn from mistakes, and not be afraid to make them. I love that we can do as we please, holiday when we want to, learn what we are ready to learn, and I love showing my children new, fun and interesting things. School just didn't work for us in so many ways and that's why we decided on home ed for our boys. Overall I feel free, not tied into a school run routine, and I love watching my children grow and learn in front of my eyes. They are beautiful and they are so interesting to watch. We follow their interests, we go at their pace. I love those moments of random information that comes piling out their mouth and I'm sat on Google trying to figure out if what they are saying is true! Some people don't understand how I don't know how T has learnt something if I'm the one 'teaching' him. He teaches himself, and what better way to learn, to have the self motivation to find out for yourself. That is a great quality to have as an adult, something I had to work hard to do, at school information is fed to you, at university that doesn't happen. My five year old is doing something so natural to learning at five, that I struggled to do at 19. He is already teaching me a thing or two about life. And how it's important to love it, live it, and learn it.
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