How We Homeschooled Today #72

Maths investigation, secret missions, climbing trees

Pen Pal Story of the Week

In The Week UK I came across another eggs-ellent pen pal story (sorry, not sorry). In 1951, 19 year-old Mary was working in an egg factory and wrote her name and address on one of the eggs she was packing, along with “Whoever gets this egg, please write me”. Nothing ever came of it. Until last month, when a cousin saw a Facebook post about an egg with Mary’s name on it. An artist in New York had bought the egg in 1951, and treasured it before eventually passing it on to a friend. The friend eventually posted it online, and Mary, now 92, has been reconnected with her egg, and, finally, a pen pal! It only took 72 years.

I thoroughly applaud this unusual approach to finding a pen pal. But if you’re looking for something a little speedier, consider the How We Homeschool Pen Pal Exchange. Nearly 50 children have now been connected around the world, and there are more on the waiting list—maybe one of them is just right for your child.

Leave a comment or send me an e-mail with your child’s age and home country and I’ll get to work. And if you can help me spread the word I’d be thrilled.

Long shot: one child (a teenager) has specifically requested a pen pal in Korea. If you know any Korean families, please let me know!

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How we homeschooled today

(If you’re new here, my daughter is 7 and my son is 5.)

• A slow start. Several of us have colds. The children played with their Lego (they are obsessed with Lego at the moment, and our floor is constantly awash with creations that are too precious to be tidied away).

• When I said it was time to do a little work they both expressed a need for second breakfast, so while they ate I read aloud from two French story books. This meant they could tick off French from today’s list while doing little more than eating.

  

• After a break from this strenuous activity, we moved onto maths. Today I had a ‘maths challenge’ for them, and they were intrigued because this is something a bit different to our usual maths options. I explained that sometimes maths is more like science, and you can investigate things instead of just trying to get the right answer. We did Subtracting Reverses, a free resource from Math for Love (video here). It’s about investigating what happens when you subtract a number from its reverse (eg 72-27), and seeing if you can predict what might happen next or even hypothesise a rule. I was a little apprehensive because this kind of maths is outside my comfort zone, and I didn’t know how much they’d enjoy it. But they loved it: we spent perhaps an hour investigating before I suggested a break for some fresh air. It was an opportunity to practise subtraction using a hundred chart and/or column method, and we also used the 9x table, and square numbers. They coloured in squares on their hundred squares and were amazed to discover that by picking random numbers to subtract they made a clear pattern on their hundred squares. They have asked to do a maths challenge every day—if you know a good source for such things please share!

• When they’d finished playing in the garden they came inside and surprised me by asking to do yet more Subtracting Reverses. After that we did just one card of Multiplication by Heart, learnt one ancient Greek question and corresponding answer, and my daughter learnt one new spelling. This all took about 5 minutes and meant that by the time we got to lunch they had done all the work on their lists for the day.

• After lunch and some TV I said they could either read or play quietly, because I needed to read some of my husband’s forthcoming book (being published in 2024). They chose to play, and I actually did manage to read some of the book. The book is about late bloomers and you’ll be surprised to hear that I think it’s Really Rather Good. It also has many overlapping themes with home education. Here’s one line that particularly struck me: “Late bloomers follow their own interests and take lifelong education seriously. They never stop teaching themselves; often, they set their own agenda.” See what I mean?

• While I read, my daughter went on a reconnaissance mission and made some notes in a notebook. She spelt ‘sitting’ ‘siting’, so I found the relevant spelling rule in Alpha to Omega and explained it with examples on the blackboard. (‘When a word has one vowel before a single final consonant, double that consonant before adding the ending’—amazing how as a native speaker you can have no idea these rules exist while following them every day.)

• They chose to do some drawing, and then we went to a nearby school to collect a friend. From school we went straight to a playground and all the children spent an hour and a half climbing trees, searching for the perfect stick, and chasing each other for no other reason than the thrill of it.

• Back at home, we shall spend the rest of the day treading the fine line between ‘having fun’ and ‘getting overexcited and ending in tears’. At the moment they’re all drawing silly pictures of each other, shrieking with laughter and denying that they’re remotely hungry. Wish me luck…

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