The blog has been quiet hasn't it. I really don't know where this week has gone.
N attended the White Star summer school this week. She went along last year and really enjoyed it. The children attend for three days and at the end of the third day, they put on a show for the parents. I am quite an emotional person and the first two days that I collected N, I was moved to tears when I watched them rehearse. I felt sure there was no way I could watch the full performance tear-free (after all it has never happened before), but I managed it!! Then the dance teacher gave a speach saying how great the kids had worked and how much effort they had put in...... and she started crying, well that was it for me... I find tears catching! Never mind - there is always next time ;)
We have been spending the week finding our way around the Education City website, now that we have our bargain subscription (very big thanks to another home educating Mum who put hours into negotiating that deal). You have access to all year curriculums, so we thought we would start working through the Year 2 activities - making sure there isn't anything that a 6 year old should know (according to the National Curriculum) and N doesn't! and work our way up to Year 6 which is the year in theory N would be starting in September.
I'm not particularly concerned that we don't stick to the NC as I really don't want to, but it is nice to check and see that even though we don't do things in order or the way they would in schools, things are still getting done.
I am not going to worry too much as since N has been playing with the local school kids during their holidays, I have heard her having to explain to one of them what a 'predator' means and she came home the other day slightly shocked that none of them had heard of Cleopatra. Her words to me were "I don't know what they are teaching them at that school". That made me smile.
We haven't started working to our schedule yet because of the summer school and N has two days next week at the Cogges Museum Philosophy & Outdoor Learning sessions so maybe the week after! We WILL start it (I went to the trouble of laminating that)!
I get tearful at performances too :) My kids aren't ones for performing so on the very rare occasion it happens I have to stop that lump in the throat rising...:)
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a smug home ed mum moment lol. Bizarre that even after all that time kids spend in school they seem to have such little general knowledge. When I worry about my kids' academic abilities I reassure myself that they know so much about other, more interesting, things.
Hope the schedule goes well. Ours has lasted a week so far. But will be disrupted next week, so we'll see if it continues!