How we homeschooled today #94

The worst maths game in the world, and the nicest taxi driver

Last night I put all the new library books in the children’s room, with the result that when they woke up this morning they read in their beds, in silence, for two hours. Now that’s a good way to wake up! They had breakfast in bed, and when they eventually got up they moved into the sitting room and started playing. I decided that after two hours of reading they probably weren’t ready to move straight to the table and get out their workbooks. (What were they reading? Mostly books from the Usborne Young Reading series: Spartacus, White Fang, The Railway Children, The Canterville Ghost, The Black Death etc. Also a small quantity of Pokemon/Minecraft trash.)

Also last night, I had written the word skeptikos on the blackboard (in Ancient Greek). The word ‘skeptical’ came up twice yesterday in two different children’s books, so today they transliterated it, and I told them that in Greece it had meant ‘thoughtful, inquiring’, and we discussed some examples of situations that might prompt skepticism.

More playing, using maths cubes to make swords. Yesterday in the library I borrowed Dominic Sandbrook’s Fury of the Vikings, which I’m desperate for the children to read because they’d love it, but they both rejected it. So I took it out myself, which means I can drip feed little nuggets of Viking information. This morning I told them that the strongest swords were made of several rods of iron, twisted and hammered together in the smithy. The most prized swords were ‘ring swords’, with a gold ring embedded in the hilt, ‘the weapon of a great captain’. They took this all in and carried on with their own sword-fighting.

Then onto the sofa for more reading.

While they read, I looked through a book for a maths activity. I picked one that looked good, and spent the precious quiet reading time making game boards and number cards. With all the different cards and counters it looked quite fun, and the children were keen to get started. But it was terrible. The questions generated were either far too easy (6+1), or far too hard (9 divided by 7), and although we played at least a dozen turns nobody managed to move forward even a single square. My son (just 6) almost got rather upset, but luckily we all managed to laugh at how truly appalling this game was, and my daughter (nearly 8) came up with a much better version, using a hundred square. It was quick, and fun, and most importantly prevented any tears.

More playing and more reading, and after lunch a little bit of handwriting practice, but by the afternoon it was very clear that we needed to get out of the house. Alas, no one wanted to get out of the house, and I didn’t rise very well to this most repetitive of parenting challenges, so it took us an age before we managed to set off to the British Museum, to see the Viking and Anglo-Saxon exhibits.

Unfortunately on arriving in central London we found there were no buses, and, feeling that we had come too far, at too great a cost, to give up and go home, I rashly hailed a cab. I never hail a cab. And this afternoon I remembered why. The traffic was stationary. The sky was leaden, the rain poured down, and the taxi metre went up. And up. Our options were to get out and walk back to the station for home, get out and walk to the museum, or stay in the taxi and burn through our life savings. I asked the driver—trying to sound nonchalant—if he thought the traffic would be this bad all the way. He said if we stuck with him and let him take us to the museum he’d ‘sort something out’. We continued to sit in the taxi, in the rain. I continued to watch the taxi metre, and continued to sweat. (Also we played a fun game of making up a story one line at a time, which did slightly distract me from my impending bankruptcy.)

We got to the museum. I got my card out, fearing the worst. And do you know what our lovely taxi driver did? He halved the fare. I could have kissed him. What a hero! Naturally the children now want to take taxis wherever we go.

Anyway, it was a whistlestop tour of the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. The children were truly amazed to see the Sutton Hoo helmet that they’ve seen before in books. We saw lots of swords and golden arm rings, iron rivets from a Viking ship, a witch’s wand, and a whalebone chopping board/serving tray (is it just me, or do you sometimes think archaeologists have no idea what this stuff was?).

Viking chopping board?

A quick dash round the shop, and then out of the museum as they locked the doors behind us.

By the way, the British Museum has a Roman exhibition coming next year: Legion: Life in the Roman Army. I don’t know who’s more excited, me or the children.

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Speaking of Romans, I know lots of How We Homeschool readers also enjoy Classical Wisdom Kids. Anya Leonard, who runs it, wants to hear your feedback. She has put together a super-short survey—it’s only two questions—about what you enjoy and what you’d like more of. If you can spare a moment, take a look.

Please! Let us know...

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