Screen Learning

I have said before that fear of the children not learning usually has me running for the textbooks and workbooks. I also worry about trying to explain unschooling to people steeped in the education system. So yesterday I lied. Someone asked me if I get my curriculum from the UK and I said yes. It's only a little lie and I have got textbooks from the UK that we never use or use occasionaly but the truth is I just don't want the hastle of trying to explain it to people.

Most of our learning is conversational learning inspired by TV series or Films usually. Lexy also does a fair bit of on screen learning on the computer. With Lex there is a lot of input and not much output other than dialogue. She draws a lot and writes occasionaly, I am glad I don't have a HE inspector demanding to be "shown work".

I read the HE blogs of people out in fields and museums all over the UK and think about how much of our Home education is actually done in our home. I worry that we are all too screen dependant, myself and K included. My computer is always on and I love TV and films. K loves computer games. The kids all love screens. Movies as Kiki now calls films are her favourite thing in the world.

The other thing they do- is watch the same movies over and over again. Why is that? I can only assume they are learning something that really interests them. When I talk to Lexy about it she says it is because you notice different things and especially in a long TV series like Alias there is so much in it that when you get to the end you want ot go back and watch again. When we watch a series we do talk about everything in it. For example, Re-genesis. I cannot actually recommend this as the amount of bad language was horrendous - I didn't know Canadians swore so much but the topics Lexy and I discussed were vast and there was so much science in it. When she watches movies she also talks a lot about how they are made and how they are written; about plot development and character development. About the use of music in film. We talk about genre and about putting a new spin on old ideas. We discuss why we don't like something- Firefly- just couldn't get into that series.

We talk about the things I am learning about as well and we all three enjoyed watching Pride and Predjudice together. Lexy watched that about 8 times too. She likes to read the same books over and over too, so I think repitition of familiar material must be important to her learning style. I am so the opposite I am always hungry for new things and new ideas.

Not all days are screen days. Some days we are baking together or like yesterday we went to a talk on Persian carpets and saw some of the most beautiful carpets and learned how they were made. We occasionaly get out in the world and meet real people. We met an interior decorator turned art teacher yesterday and Lexy was thrilled as those are her two dream jobs at the moment.

Is she coming or going

I blogged last week that Clo was about to be home educated. Well, that's all changed again and she is glad to be back at school. I gave her a week off "sick" as she kept saying she wanted to be home educated again and we tried it out. She loved it but missed her friends and some of the clubs at school. I think she has now realised that the things she likes about school outweigh the bad things.

It is a nice school in many ways but they do expect a lot of homework. Clo is not so keen on homework. I'm not a believer in homework for homework's sake myself and find it hard to encourage her to do some of the tasks set.

getting arty again

In England we had a fabulous big consevatory that the kids had named their art room. It was well stocked for any art and craft project and we used it all year round. Since moving here with nothing but our two suitcases each, it has been a slow process to set up home and get used to living and working here. When your starting your life over from scratch stocking up on paints and hama beads and sculpey clay all take a back seat to kettles and knives and bedlinen and towels. The kids brought some toys with them and we tried to buy a few little extras. All the toys we bought broke or were really expensive. Even finding somewhere to buy something was pretty tricky as toys r us hadn't opened here yet and the supermarkets toys were really shoddy quality. I did buy though a very nice set of watercolour paints and they were well used.

Now we are more settled I want to stock up on more art and crafty things. When Clo was off "sick" last week we did art on the patio every morning. Lexy is also doing a correspondance art course. I would post some pictures of our artistic efforts but I need to go out at some point this morning and posting one set of pictures a day is all I have patience for. We were looking at abstract art and we all tried out different styles. I say we as I had to have a go too.

I'm thinking of doing a kind of art evening once a week after school, so the schoolies don't miss out on all the fun. Lexy will enjoy helping me set that up. Last year we set up a theme night on thursdays after school a few times and she loved organising that and coming up with ideas for things to do for pirate night or hawaiian luau night. Now to find places that sell good stuff to do craft with.

Blogging as procrastination

I really should be doing other things. I have my first assignment due for my OU course, dishes in the sink and washing to be put away and yet here I am. Inspired by an article on women bloggers in the times and knowing how much I enjoy reading about other peoples lives on their blogs I thought I'd give it a go.
I will probably blog mostly about my kids, they take up most of my brain space most days. There are four of them Lexy,Clo, TJ and Kiki. Lexy is educated at home, Clo is about to become home educated, TJ and Kiki are at an international school. I have a split personality between PTA mum and a more radical school is an unnecessary imposition on our lives type mum. If good parenting requires consistency my kids are out of luck.
Home is Al Ain, UAE. Well home is wherever we as a family are and this is where we are right now. K is my wonderful husband and is a schools advisor as well as a great maker of cups of tea.
I may write a little about life here in Al Ain but mostly the culture shock has worn off and it all feels rather normal now.
So if you want to read another mummy blogger chatting about her kids this is the blog for you. Travel, Culture and politics not so much.