Taking a break before we’re broken
And documentary recommendations. Please share your own!
Until very recently we were zipping through our morning work with enthusiasm, focus, and enjoyment. The children had impressive stamina, they were keen and engaged, and it was very easy to feel good about how things were going. I even felt a little bad writing about it, because who wants to read about someone else getting through a really nauseatingly great morning’s work?
No longer.
Last week I asked a very simple multiplication question. The children are both good at multiplication. We’ve been working on it for a year or more, they’re not yet human calculators but they’re doing well. So I was a little surprised when the response to my simple question was wild, heartfelt sobbing. It took me some time—reader, it took me days—to realise the very simply explanation.
The children are… tired!
Of course they are! We took all of December off and they came back to work with such willingness and enthusiasm, but now it’s almost Easter so of course they need a break—and so do I! In our unschooling days we didn’t seem to need time off, and there wasn’t much difference between weekdays, weekends, term time or holiday. This had its pros and cons. But now that we’ve got a bit more structure and I’m trying to take the children through a programme of study, they definitely need a good rest from time to time. This is despite the fact that their academic work is limited to a few hours in the morning. Their noses aren’t exactly pressed to the grindstone, but what they do is clearly enough to require a break from time to time.
So they are taking that break, and I’m taking one too. But before I sign off I want to recommend some documentaries, and I’d love it if you would share your own recommendations too.
We don’t watch many documentaries, and I don’t think they’re a replacement for reading books or visiting sites. It would be nice and easy if humans were good at absorbing and retaining information by watching TV, but alas it’s just not so. However, there’s nothing wrong with it from time to time, and documentaries can help build on learning that’s already happened elsewhere. And of course a documentary can show you parts of the world that most of us never get to see in person.
I was looking for some good programmes to hold in reserve during our time off, but it’s not easy. Many historical documentaries come with sex and violence warnings, and even a PG-rated one we tried this morning had plenty of shots of axes dripping in blood. I wouldn’t have minded so much, except that the amount of information in the programme was negligible. My 6 and 8 year olds can understand documentaries made for grown-ups (I often press pause to explain things), but if the content is unsuitable it’s obviously a non-starter.
So here are the few documentaries that we’ve watched and enjoyed:
Madagascar (you can’t go wrong with David Attenborough. If only he did history docs too.)
Britain’s Great Cathedrals with Tony Robinson (We’ve only watched the Canterbury one so far. It’s rated U and was all fine, but bear in mind that there is no way to make Henry VIII entirely family-friendly. I did wonder if the children would ask me what the phrases ‘consummate a marriage’ and ‘have an affair’ mean.)
A friend recently recommended The Eagle Huntress, about a 13 year old nomadic Mongolian girl fighting to become the first female eagle hunter in 12 generations of her Kazakh family. I haven’t seen it but it looks and sounds brilliant. Rated U.
And I really want to watch On The Way To School, about the extraordinary lengths children around the world go to in order to get an education, but it seems to be impossible to watch it in the UK. If you can watch it elsewhere, lucky you!
I’d love you to share your own recommendations in the Comments, and then we can all enjoy some relaxed and informative TV time over the Easter break.
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I am SO glad that you are listening to your own and your kids' cues and taking a break! Real, frequent breaks have been so important in our homeschooling. We cannot get along without them. When we're doing formal schoolwork, I schedule in a week off after every 6 weeks, and often we will take a day off or a couple of days off somewhere in the middle of the six weeks.
I also plan to switch to unschooling around April 1 of each year and finish out the year that way. It doesn't seem to be needed this year, but it's still in my back pocket if we do need it!
As you know, the learning doesn't stop during unschooling and the learning doesn't stop during "breaks," either -- it just takes a different form. You will not regret taking breaks!
I’m not a huge fan of documentaries, to be honest - I prefer reading for learning and watching shows for entertainment- but I loved the documentary “Babies” - showing how babies are raised around the world. It was lovely and also a bit funny at times to see how pampered they can be in the US/ UK compared to other cultures! Highly recommended.
A while back there was also a series, “Becoming You” which follows children around the globe in a similar style. Not sure how much of the neuro science/ philosophy would go over kids’ heads and how much it would bore them.
Last one, a documentary called “Outside the City” was broadcast on BBC as “Brotherhood: The Inner Life of Monks” - it was so, so good and really did a great job capturing what life in a monastery today is like! Nothing inappropriate for kids but definitely be prepared to discuss dying and death (the documentary handles it in a very beautiful and of course Catholic way.)