It’s a funny thing that I remember learning formulas at school. I don’t remember them now and I’d get flustered if I had to do a complicated sum and show my working out because I doubt I’d remember the right formula but at some point after I left school and began to live in the real world, numbers (or money to be more specific) suddenly started to make perfect sense. So now I could do that sum in my head and maybe with a little help from my fingers and I’d know exactly what the numbers depicted. For my children I wanted to bypass the complicated bit and get right onto the logical bit so most of our maths is talking and demonstrating. Sometimes we use money, sometimes edible items (these work best), sometimes Geomags, anything that we can add to, subtract from, share out, or change in some way. This means that Ms R (and possible Master R too) would be ‘behind’ in this subject if they were at school. Ms R might know what an equals sign looks like but she wouldn’t know many others and 12 / 3= would be to her what chinese is to me. She very quickly told me what ninety-nine plus eleven was today but has no idea what I’m talking about if I say "Imagine they are in columns, you’ve added the units up now carry the one over and add it to your tens". She can count in twos, threes, fives and tens and today we talked about counting in elevens. She got the pattern straight away and suddenly had an idea of what it would look like written down. Interestingly but rather logically I suppose, her imaginary written numbers started at the bottom as she said "You’d have a one and a one and on top of that you’d have a two and a two and on top of that…" I suppose it was years of looking at times tables trying to memorising them that had me briefly horrified that her numbers went up and not down. Master R said he wanted to learn to count up in tens so we did a bit of doing that. Often the most educational part of our day is the journey to some place promising educational opportunities.
Other recent gems:
Finding lots of sticky notes that read ‘OOT Of ORDRE - SORRY’ stuck on chairs and other places.
Ms R making a tiny book at our home ed group and starting to write a story in it about Master R and his cat Buzz.
Rainbows beginning again and me being able to drop her off and pick her up (as I wasn’t working). She’s still hoping there’ll be a sleepover soon and I’m hoping there won’t.
Master R piping up "If you cut an eight in half you get two threes!" when I was randomly giving Ms R numbers for her to halve. After a bit more of what seemed like daydreaming he said "And if you cut it the other way you get two zeros!". This very predictably led to talk of symmetry and asymmetry and which other numbers you could cut in half.
Ms R having one of her paintings displayed in an art exhibition. Unfortunately I didn’t realise it was a weekend only thing so we missed seeing it.
We went camping for five nights, returning to the site of our maiden camping trip. We had a chuckle remembering how small our first tent was and how naive we were in the blanket department. Our big tent makes camping easier. The weather was mostly glorious although a little breezy at night, which didn’t bother anybody else but did effect my already over keen imagination and kept me awake enough to learn that the little boy opposite hated his parents and the woman in the tent to our right had smelly wind. The entertainment as always was patronising to children and slightly inapropriate (do three year olds really need to worry about dating?) as well as deafening. During the week nights most of the other children were three and under and Ms R didn’t want to be dancing with toddlers but at the weekend there were plenty of older children for her to blend in with. Both of them managed to get themselves on stage and win medals/certificates. Master R was very proud of himself, having sat listening very solemnly when the teamstar was introducing a talent act and explaining how difficult it is to get up on stage in front of a huge audience. He said "It’s difficult getting up on the stage you know, Mummy" in a very wise been-there-done-it voice. "The man said so", he looked thoughtful for a moment and then added "You have to sort of climb up, I guess thats why there’s steps". We managed to swim everyday, Ms R made lots of big splashes jumping in and then swam about lots. Master R swam around with his floaty jacket on and his face in the water so on the second day I suggested he try without the jacket and so he did. He realised he could swim under water unaided, we realised that he can hold his breath for about three minutes but then it’s best to drag him up a bit quick for air. One day we went to the local theme park. Master R seems to be a bit of a thrill seeker, loving rollercoasters and being big enough for most of them…if accompanied by an adult. Colin and I took it in turns and have made a mental note not to return in two years when he will be big enough for the most terrifying ones. There was a circus show on which we all enjoyed and some more tranquil rides to bring our heart rates down and settle our stomachs. We are all grateful to be back in proper beds and using proper non-communal toilets.
Our home ed group started up again the week we were away but we were back in time for the second week. It was busy and noisy with the addition of new families and the Rs took a little while to settle in. Another child into the equation rocked the boat a bit by suggesting that some of the smaller members were too young (or the wrong gender) to be involved in private conversations. I don’t really get the need for girls to lock themselves in a toilet cubicle for secrets at the age of six and seven and am keen to discourage Ms R from getting dragged into that sort of thing. Eventually, after many interruptions the group disbanded and the Rs fell into a game with their usual friends which the other child didn’t want to join in with. I did briefly wonder why I had been so looking forward to going back. Master R found some "black chalk" left over from someones bbq and was delighted to discover that it could be used for writing. He really was excited by it and drew an ‘H’ with a piece which he remembered as being a letter from his name. He went on for ages about how useful it could be and was clearly very pleased with this newfound information going on to think of many situations in which he could apply it (if all the pens in the whole world got lost, for example). Ms R lost her first top tooth in the evening leaving a huge gap. She made quite a thing about putting it under her pillow and showing me exactly where it was so that the tooth fairly could leave her a pound for it. The following morning as she was waving her gold coin around excitedly Master R looked at it suspiciously and asked me "Are you sure there’s a tooth fairy Mummy or do you just put the pound there when she’s asleep?" rather loudly and insistently. Something happened then (I can’t remember what) which got me out of answering that question. Of couse I’m quite sure Ms R doesn’t really believe in the tooth fairy but she’s not going to risk admitting that in case she loses out on a quid. One of those little games we play like when Colin does magic for them and they look all wide eyed and believing but as soon as he goes up for his bath they explain matter of factly to me exactly how he does it.
On Tuesday we had our usual visit to my grandparents to consume biscuits and the Rs both came away with a pack of cards and a small packet of animal shaped biscuits. We went on to visit our friends in Lewes, arriving early we decided to stop at a shop. After that we got totally lost, went the wrong way down a one way street which was closed due to road works (made a pretty bad dent in one of the wheel hubs) and then followed a road for miles ending up in another village at which point the petrol light came on. We did eventually make it to our friends house, only an hour late, and it made the time we visited them in the rain by train seem less traumatic. I think next time we are early we’ll just wait in our car in the next street as opposed to being clever. The children had a great time though, lots of mess was made but no fallings out and I got to drink some well needed coffee and cuddle a rapidly growing baby.
Wednesday deserves a mention as it was the Not Back To School Picnic. First though the Rs had a dentist appointment. Master R went first and got a lecture about not eating sweets every day but having them only once a week. Ms R got the same lecture and I’m quite pleased really. They ask for sweets nearly everyday and I keep explaining to them why I don’t like them having sweets so I’m glad they’ve heard it from someone else too. They didn’t realise though that biscuits, cakes and squash also counted as sweets. I think the message must be sinking in though as Master R asked me (on the train, no less) if the Salt & Vinegar sticks he was eating contained sugar. A quick glance at the ingredients revealed they did which has given us more to think about. The Not Back To School Picnic was held at our local park-with-lake. The weather looked threatening but held off although it was a bit windy. I met lots of local home educators whom I haven’t met before and saw some bigger, older home educated children which is always reassuring. Ms R is fairly tall and it was nice to see her in a group where she was one of the smaller ones for a change. Master R ran off and played with the main group of children which seemed to involve carrying sticks, hiding behind bushes, sometimes crawling along on stomachs and lots of running around. Ms R hung around a bit, played with a couple of very small people and eventually played with a couple of other girls. My first nephew spent some of the day in hospital having an EEG, this may or may not reveal whether he is having epileptic fits during the night. I’m not sure if it will give any indication as to why he has developed mild cerebral palsy over the past year.
Today we went to London. It was a very last minute thing, decided between breakfast and getting dressed. The ticket man tried to charge me £7 more for a ticket than I wanted to pay (I simply didn’t believe it would cost me that much to travel two stops on the tube), this delay of about ninety seconds caused us to miss the direct train, it literally pulled away as I reached out to open the door. [Edit: Deleted the long rant about the ticket man who, after all was only doing his job] Thankfully another train came within five minutes and the one change was quick and easy and at a station we are familiar with. We found our way to the Science Museum where we spent about three hours. We discovered all sorts of things and probably walked up and down every set of stairs at least once. For some reason nothing was where it was meant to be the first time we tried to go there but was the second time. I found it quite hard with two children both having questions and needing help with different things at the same time, there were things I’d have liked to have explained in greater detail to Ms R but Master R was commanding my attention most of the time. Maybe that was fine, Ms R could have found the answers or a way to get more of my attention if she’d needed it I guess. Before we left we sat in on a show about explosions. The message was very basic; that you need heat, fuel and oxygen to make fire and that fire causes heat, light, sound and movement. Some of the experiements weren’t successful and some seemed unrelated but the children enjoyed it and Master R was chosen as a volunteer to make a bang. We then raced back to the station as I couldn’t remember who said what about train ticket restriction times and had sudden visions of us not getting home and sleeping in the Underground. The tube was packed on the way back but Master R exclaiming very angrily "Mummy! Why didn’t you choose one with seats?" resulted in not one but three people leaping up to offer us their seats. It was slightly embarrasing and doesn’t really enforce what I’ve been saying about how getting what you want can be dependant on how you ask for things. We really enjoyed our trip to London and are eager to go back.