Learning doesn't stop on Fridays!

My eldest son turned down a school trip today in order to go to college which according to him is 'awesome'. It is lovely when your child is happy and learning - that's why home education can work so well because you tailor it to your individual child,

Last weekend for example  was full of memorable moments, It started with my daughter going geo caching with scouts on our local common. Her elder brother meanwhile chose to spend an hour in the gym. He has been going since last June and stuck with it without any pressure from us. He is fitter and thinner and well on the way to being ready for his 40 mile sponsored walk to raise money for his  trip to Austria with the Explorer scouts in the summer.

At community choir on Saturday we practised Disney's 'Beaty and the Beast' and 'The Seal Lullaby ' by Howard Whittaker. Afterwards,having been desperate to go and watch the film Les Miserables my daughter and I finally managed to fit it into our schedule.

 "It's three hours long you know' we were informed at reception ' and It's pretty boring'. 

I informed the young man we had sung the music before and wanted to see it - we were so glad we did-The acting and singing were fantastic and we both declared we would definately go back and see the film again. The film played on my mind all evening and the next day it was so well executed. Later in the week my autistic son watched the Oscar nominations and listened to the cast as they sang one of the choruses.Another piece of the 'musical jigsaw' .

Whilst we watched Les Miserables my autistic son was playing with his friend on the computer- Technology plays an important part in enabling him to interact with his peers and prevents him being isolated. The two of them had even taken the dogs out for a walk in the sunshine!

On Sunday my daughter and I went training for our sponsored walk in May. We walked along the beach to North Walney nature reserve. The beach was empty and the scenery spectacular. As we sat on the beach eating our lunch my daughter declared that it was our best walk so far. We didn't come home empty handed either- we collected wood on the beach as my eldest son is making a computer desk from recycled wood for his DT  GCSE and pulled it along the beach in an old fish crate which had been washed up on the shore!

My son and his dad meanwhile worked on my son's car together and my husband commented how his motor engineering skills had come on in the last year.

As a seasoned home educator I can now appreciate just how much all my children learned over the weekend without 'school' or 'lessons'. Learning didn't stop at 3.30pm on a Friday- it continued as long as we all had open minds!