How we homeschooled today #42
Education under the Taliban, and a midweek movie
The children started the day by looking at a Pokemon annual together in their room.
After breakfast, Jolly Phonics. My daughter has nearly finished her book. You may remember that last week she hated the book and could barely be persuaded to write in it. This week she loves it and is working so carefully and doing much more than she’s asked to. Who knows what’s coming next? Also, Multiplication by Heart.
Khan Academy maths. I discovered that my daughter has temporarily forgotten how to subtract ten having previously been very competent. I always forget how rapidly these skills are forgotten when they’re not used regularly.
My son read some of The First World War and we talked about this map, and what it was intended for.
We had to run some errands in town and practised subtracting tens on the bus.
Quiet time after TV, not as successful as yesterday but still pretty good.
Then my husband (The Common Reader) came in and asked the children if they’d like to watch a movie with him. We never watch movies on a weekday. I don’t know who was more surprised at their good fortune, me or the children. They watched Ponyo, and I dashed to the supermarket, made biscuits, washed up, changed some bedsheets, and read National Geographic.
SOLA students By the time the movie finished it was 3pm and everyone felt pretty lethargic. We played Double Digit again, and then my son added a new page to his history folder. My daughter wanted to add to hers too, but after several drawings that ‘weren’t good enough’ she abandoned the idea. I think she was also defeated by the amount of writing involved in her chosen subject, ‘The Extinction of the Carolina Parakeet’!
I read aloud to the children from the latest National Geographic, from a piece about girls’ education under the Taliban. It was pretty incredible and they were suitably impressed. We found Afghanistan and Rwanda on the world map. (Rwanda is where SOLA, an Afghan girls’ education programme, has had to relocate to).
While my daughter was in Beavers/Tiger Cubs, my son laid out all his Pokemon cards ready to play against his imaginary friend, and then decided to read Norse myths instead. This made me pretty happy.
Bedtime reading: What the Ladybird Heard, If you Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, and more First World War.
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