Today started poorly, life took over home education and lesson plans.
I try to treat education as a full-time job. This is my priority and I set my daily schedule around boys. Notifications on my phone are turned off so as not to distract me, and so is the TV. However, there are days and situations when the ordinary problems take precedence over plans. And so this morning I had to spend a good hour on the phone trying to solve a problem with the energy company. Life itself… But this is where our routine and daily plan worked well.
After morning chores, when I was finally able to call the energy company and was on the phone, Oscar simply took out his maths book and started the work. Unfortunately, Dominic wasn’t feeling well (he had a cold), so he sat in the living room and started playing with his army vehicles. In the meantime, Oscar got stuck on one of the task. I asked him to do a different one while waiting for my help. And he did a different task… a task of helping his brother with the army set up. Well, team working is an important life skill!
Later, when I have finished with energy company I was ready to help with maths. In fact, I just sat there with Oscar and my presence solved the problem. Oscar read the task again and suddenly understood the question about radius.
At the moment he is working on geometry and he uses Junior Maths book from Galore Park. Their books are quite thorough, but sometimes the explanation lacks clarity. Dominic does the same books for his level and today he started lessons about division and various methods used to make division easier. For example, repeated subtraction. The explanation was so unclear that even I was confused as to what it was about??? I had to quickly come up with a more understandable explanation. We ended up using a completely different method. Plus dividing the sweets turned out to be essential to calming the growing frustration of the student and the teacher…
After all this, there wasn’t much time left for English, but once again our routine saved us. Oscar simply took out his books and Dominic sat down with me and started practicing spelling.
So far, we have focused mainly on what to write about, but it is time to move on to the next level of improving the composition – i.e. working on spelling. I try to hit from many angles:
- using knowledge about phonics – what sounds do you hear? What letters can make this sound?
- copying short fragments from famous books
- good old word lists and dictations.
Twinkl (resources that are used by homeschoolers and teachers) has a great spelling program that follows National Curriculum and we use it a lot.
Surprisingly, this spelling lesson helped Dominic regain his good mood. Or maybe it was the snack he got?
When they both finished English, we moved on to Polish lessons, which they also do separately – according to their level of advancement. I still speak to them in my own language. Unfortunately, this is not enough for them to actively use it – hence the extra lessons.
And so we made it to the midday break for fresh air and lunch. We often use this break to go cycling to the park, but since it’s generally rainy and Dominik wasn’t feeling well, the boys only ran to the garden today. When you get a little tired then lunch tastes better. Bonus – Dominik forgot about his cold.
After the break, it was time for lessons that boys do together – today’s one was history (Henry VIII and Anglicanism), which, in addition to reading Story of Civilization, included a short and simple game to check what they remembered. We needed two pawns (buttons from a box with sewing supplies), a simple board and a few cards with questions. Each question was assigned a number of points. Person A draws a question and asks it to person B. If person B answers correctly, they move forward as many places as the question had points. You were allowed to check the book for the information you needed to answer. The guys were so focused on finding answers to more difficult questions that they forgot to argue about who won! (This is a common side effect of playing games… nevertheless don’t give up!)
Afterward we did drawing lessons with triangles (maths revision, by the way). We drew a landscape picture using triangles. I had to help Dominic a little with placing the triangles to create the landscape. After a while he draw a nice view of the lake in the mountains in stormy weather. Oscar’s landscape also turned out well.
At the end of this more formal lessons we have a reading time. So boys chose comfortable seat: a bean bag and a sofa and they started a quiet literature session. Oscar was finishing reading Lord of the Rings and Dominic has just chosen a new book recommended by his brother – Spy Dog.
In the afternoon, if we don’t have music lessons or sports activities, boys can do random projects. At the moment both are fascinated with coding and Dominic is working on a simple scratch game while Oscar is creating animations using Blender.
Now I can work on the computer, do the laundry or tidy up the house. Today, at least I didn’t have to worry about dinner, because my older son promised to make spaghetti with meatballs when he comes back from school.
Evening dinner is a time when everyone gathers around the table not only to eat, but also to share stories from the day, talk and laugh. Those who were at school talk about what happened there, those who were at home boast about their small and large achievements. There are conversations about human psychology, philosophical theories and deep analyzes of the news of the day.
Just another day in life …
