How we (haven’t) homeschooled this week

In sickness and in… more sickness?

How We Homeschool has been running a reduced service this week. We’ve all got—you guessed it—horrible colds, again. So horrible in fact, that the children have been voluntarily going to bed early.

If you’ve e-mailed me recently, I’m sorry you’re still waiting for a reply. I haven’t forgotten you, and hope to catch up over the weekend.

Susan Wise-Bauer writes that in her family ‘a bored, mildly sick or recovering child welcomed “something to do.” If there was no TV allowed, he continued to do some school work.’ Well, SWB’s family is clearly made of sterner stuff than mine! Nonetheless, the children have done a good job of keeping busy while we all felt sorry for ourselves and I stayed largely in bed. So here are some of the things they’ve been up to:

• Much time spent studying their Halloween hauls, trading sweets, choosing what to eat and when.

• Reading the new Mysteries in Time story and magazine that arrived at the perfect moment, and rereading stories from previous issues. Together we transliterated a message from Viking runes, and noticed that some of the letters were similar to their Ancient Greek equivalents.

• Looking through family photo albums.

• Lego, obviously. Thank goodness for Lego.

• Jigsaw puzzles (especially dinosaurs and farms).

• Playing with their dress-up dolls. These are really sweet, but the clothes are extremely fiddly. Even my daughter, nearly 8, can’t do them all independently. If you buy them for a young child, be prepared to do a lot of the dressing and undressing yourself! (Often available second-hand.)

• Together we have watched two episodes of Prehistoric Planet, and I’m sure there will be further episodes before the week is out. I especially like that this isn’t ‘just’ about dinosaurs; it explores natural processes that are still critical today, like wildfires, decomposition, and mating rituals.

• Now that I’m a bit better and can read aloud, we’re reading a few pages of Vaccinated: The History and Science of Immunisation, which was published in 2022 so covers Covid as well as the usual suspects.

• Sharing terrible jokes from a Lego Minifigures book. Laughter is the best medicine, as they say.

• I’ve been trying to read the UK government’s proposed new guidelines for Elective Home Education. Oof. Do I want to write a post about something so divisive? If you’ve read them, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Here is the draft guidance for local authorities, and here is the draft guidance for parents.

Very much hoping to be back to normal next week!

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