How we homeschooled today #46
Afghanistan, swimming, memory palaces
Today I introduced a new habit: to-do lists, written by me the night before, in a notebook for each child. I came across this via Rachael Ringenberg, who found it on Read Aloud Revival. On our first day I love it. My youngest was so keen that he voluntarily wrote ‘help get spoons’, which he’d already done, just so he could check it off. It meant that even though we went swimming this morning we still managed to do Jolly Phonics books and Multiplication by Heart before we went out.
The National Geographic article about education under the Taliban that I read to the children a week or so ago has obviously struck a chord. This morning my son asked to learn about Afghanistan, so we started by finding it on the map and my husband talked a little about the geography and religious background. We’re going to see if there’s a useful book at the library. At the evening meal tonight my five year old said “shall we… talk about the Taliban?”. Dinner party conversation may need some work.
Both children got out a variety of activity books and sticker books this morning (Build Your Own Dinosaurs and Superheroes, Never Bored in a Car, and Spy Puzzles). My daughter read more Norse Myths—she’s keen to finish it and it’s 280 pages so it’s taking some dedication. We re-read The Charge of the Light Brigade, and they asked if there were really 600 soldiers involved. Our book says 637 (although sources vary), so then they asked why Tennyson hadn’t written that. I answered the question by reading the poem with the correct number: ‘Into the valley of Death/Rode the six hundred and thirty seven.’ It’s quite a different poem that way!
At quiet time there was blissful silence as they both read (my daughter also spent some time staring at the ceiling), and then my husband came home and taught them about the memory palace, a technique for memorising information. They practised by memorising Pokemon.
Our neighbours have recently got back from travelling, and kindly brought us Kacang Tumbuk (peanut cakes) and Batu Seremban from Malaysia. The latter is basically a game where you throw stones in the air and try to catch them, but this description gives you no idea how much fun it is, nor how strangely addictive! So we had a very enjoyable Malaysian-themed time eating the cake and playing the game.
Then we played outside for a bit, my daughter practising basketball bounces, before my husband took them both off to Beavers/Tiger Cubs, where my son read The Snow Queen and played with WW2 cards while his sister did her club.
Reading in bed: The Count of Monte Cristo (a re-read, after my daughter raced through it a few weeks ago and then announced she hadn’t understood it at all), and Animals at War.
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Glad you enjoyed the notebook day 1 trial!
This is fairly random. I made an audio radio play of Rory Stewart’s memoir of walking across Afghanistan just after the fall of the Taliban in the 2000s. It was on radio 4 but I have a link they / you could listen to, if interested. It’s a tiny bit old for them but gives a very different insight into Afghanistan. For you, I recommend the book the play is based on: Places in Between.