View From My House

View From My House
Sunset

Sunday, July 26, 2009

In the Life of a rebelling UnSchooling (with basics) Family

Photograpy by Mero Today:Capturing moments...

So I can remember these times forever....


Because soon they will be a child no more. That and I don't have the money to go out and pay someone else to take them for me.


As for homeschooling, we're all good. They are doing handwriting drills just because I think they need to be able to do legible writing and in a decent time frame, mainly as it slows everything else down too much. They all seem to enjoy it, even Raven has his own book. Brought them from Big W for less that $5 a piece. It was a necessary expense unfortunatly. With any luck it will solve all the issues.


Did I mention that Raven had his speech evaluation (as he is/has been very difficult to understand), well the verdict is in... he's more advanced intellectually than he is physically and his vocal cords are not mature enough to speak the words his mind is capable of understanding and using. This is all good because now I can 'guess' what he's trying to say (because he doesn't gesture or use body language he just gets frustrated). Tonight he told me he was cwyt... I asked him to repeat it and he did but it was still too difficult then I tried to understand and realised he was saying 'caught' on a basket in the loungeroom and it gave him a scratch (which was another leap of understanding.) Its great, I can now 'get' his speech!

He's also capable of beginning to write and read, as he shows me constantly. This is huge. He only turned 4 this month, but as it goes this is quite natural really in a homeschool environment, he just wants to be able to do what the other older children are doing so he's jumped ahead.

This can be said of Monika who was devestated that I didn't buy her one of the books previously mentioned, but she is happy to be read to everyday. We all take turns (even Raven who 'reads' to her in his own special way - you know how non readers do it for younger siblings?) She also would much rather do a drawing than watch TV or play with toys most of the time. She is an extreme mischief maker too. Just today she cunningly got the bag of sugar off the toaster which is above the counter top. She must have pushed her high chair over to do it. She never spilt any in the kitchen but took the bag into the loungeroom and proceeded to dump half it on the floor and begin eating and 'drawing' in it. Luckily Dante was in the room and rescued it and set Labyrinth to task to clean the mess while he emptied the last of it into glass canisters. How grown up!

Where was Andrew and I in all this? I was in the shower while Andrew was stubbornly refusing to get out of bed (and didn't until 11:40 am!) That is one of the issues of mental health, you can't push him you can only poke and prod a little and hope he'll take the hint or he might just stay there and refuse to get up at all.

We got ourselves some bargain fish, fruit and vegetables. Checked out some chairs we were considering accepting but now am unsure. Reasons won't be disclosed here. Anyways... that is it for now, Q.

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