Learning Challenges and Home education - how to tackle them!

Yesterday the Rosetta Space probe landed on a comet.Well it sort of bounced off again and then landed some time later.It was a historic moment. I thought I'd mention it to my son.It turned out he already knew! Home education has opened my eyes so much when it comes to learning, John Holt was right,children teach themselves!

At the moment I'm reading about dyslexia.My daughter is struggling with her English and whilst it's nothing major I recognized some time ago that the phonics system doesn't work for her. She can't sound things out and The Gift of Dyslexia has shown me why.Dyslexics think in Pictures and if the word represents an object they are more likely to recognize it. If however it's a word like and,or, there it's far harder to picture and therefore much harder to identify. What is interesting though is the similarity to Aspergers. It's the brain functioning in a different way to the norm and often results in a far more creative, out of the box thinking individual because they have learned to compensate for their difficulties. Therefore there is a large percentage of dancers and athletes with dyslexia!
I found that fascinating as my daughter loves dancing and sport. Her problem with language has never been major enough for her not to pass her assessments but it's she has made it clear that she feels that'she can't get her thoughts down on paper' and I've realized of late that she is missing little words out so that her writing doesn't make sense. Even when she proof reads she is seeing a word that just isn't there. The problem is being confounded by her difficulty with punctuation and the fact that the government have finally decided that it really IS necessary after all and that it will be taken into account when exams are marked.(Not that I disagree but it's a wonder that it hasn't mattered for the last ten years since my daughter started school!) Just what is going on?

And so it's time to tweak our educational style! I may be barking up the wrong tree but my gut feeling tells me we're not far off the mark so we are starting at the beginning, routine sight test first then take it from there. I'd love to hear from anyone who can point me in the direction of good tips and resources. Parents always know far more than professionals! Meanwhile I'll let you know how we get on!

Back to the Future!

Why, I wondered had history become so much more vibrant and exciting in the last few years since I began home educating? As I sat rhyming off dates of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, the sinking of the Titanic,the Chernobyl disaster,The first World War I realised that I hadn't 'meant' to learn them, they'd just happened because I was interested.

Why I was interested was another matter- for me, history starts with people and I usually come across them (both real and fictional) whilst reading books. Yesterday, for example , I was reading a book The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse and found myself looking at the role of prehistoric caves in the French Pyrenees as a refuge for the Cathar communities in Medieval times. If I had started with a text book looking at the role of the crusades and religious wars I would probably have closed the book but in this case my interest was picqued by one fictional character who could have been any one of us.

That's why I think I'm attracted by people  like Anne Frank, or Schindler or Ghandi because they make me realize that history is just  the everyday things that happen to everyday people but in the past , and it can happen again in the future.

I've realized that the technological revolution we're going through now, is not all that different from the Industrial revolution. It is having an impact on where people work, how many are needed to do a job,and competing with local retailers.

One of the most useful books I've bought is Eye Witness to History by John Carey  which is a compilation of eye witness accounts ranging from the burial of a Viking to an execution during the French Revolution,it brings home the enormous importance of us recording the most insignificant events and customs which we take for granted and encourages us to open our eyes to the world around us.

My son, on the other hand who has the same passion for history as me,sees things from a very different viewpoint. Being Autistic,it's not people and their emotions which interest him. He thinks logically, with far less emotion than me , and,  whilst the reasons for war would concern me ,he would be far more inclined to simply announce that 'war is stupid and futile' but then go on to investigate the strategy of war, what weapons they used,how the geographical terrain and weather affected the campaigns and how, if you have to go to war, to lose the fewest men! He would make a good military leader!

Books and programmes like Horrible Histories and Victorian Farm, together with historical dramas and films have also played a massive part in feeding his passion and I can't recommend highly enough anything at all by Michael Morpurgo whose books filled our earlier years and still now slip in and out of our life as the book takes us!

 Like many Autistic children he is a visual learner and if you ever read Thinking in Pictures by Temple Grandin you'll begin to understand that their brains are arranged like computers-as each piece of information goes in it is stored and filed in the appropriate file so building up a picture of a subject which once stored is rarely lost.

So if memorizing facts and figures is a struggle then 'don't'. If the interest is there it will come. You need to fuel the passion first and once your child is on fire then they'll teach themselves.

Learn just a little bit!

 

If you take your child to an event always make it clear that should they wish to leave at any point then they are entitled to do so.

Now this isn't easy to do particularly if you've laid out good money to pay for a play or event which you think your child will enjoy or which you feel is educational  and I have to confess I haven't always succeeded. It's particularly important with Autistic children who may be effected by sensory issues such as noise , sensativity to lights  or too many people.Some of which we may not notice  but it applies just as much to neuro-typical kids.

Unfortunately many parents will somehow regard the request to leave early as a failure on their part to provide a sufficiently stimulating activity and in their need to control and be in charge of the situation they inwardly fume whilst their children squirm and moan beside them. The result is that neither child or parent ends up enjoying the event and both end up disappointed and grumpy. In fact it is just as likely that their child has taken in as much as it can process. This can often happen when you visit a museum and feel the need to 'see everything' because you have travelled a long way and paid a large entrance fee to get in.

Far better to spend a while in a specific area of the museum taking in the sights and sounds of one particular exhibit and to go away wanting 'more'.

Horrible History Exhibition

I remember feeling very disappointed to find that when we visited the Natural History museum the children wanted to leave after ten minutes because it was too busy and they couldn't see the exhibits. Similarly, having borrowed special 'back packs' to explore the British museum we found it hot and uncomfortable on a hot summers day to stay there longer than half an hour.

I have learned that our most enjoyable learning experiences are unplanned and often simple, such as a small local museum where the guides had time to tell us stories of the local history because we were the only ones there. They leave you with a feeling of wanting to know more and going away to do more research. The educational value is immense and lasting and provides the building blocks upon which to build your solid teaching.

Films and Education- they do go together!

We watched a beautiful film today.The Painted Veil by Somerset Maughan was a birthday present and I chose it for its reviews on the photography which features rural China. As a result a trip to China is certainly on my 'to do' list. As we watched the film together my son and I witnessed beautiful scenery, learned about chinese culture and after the film talked about cholera and its causes and the life of Somerset Maughan. All in all a geography, science , history and english lesson all rolled into one. We have watched so many films like that.There are some fantastic films based on factual events in history such as Amazing Grace (William Wilberforce), the Madness of King George, Ghandi, Amistad, Cry Freedom (Steve Biko). All wonderful films in their own right. Commonsensemedia.com and Amazon are great for reviews and I have seen some films I would never have known about had it not been for their suggested purchases. Similarly www.British Empire.com has some great suggestions if you are looking for historical films. The bonus is that it doesn't feel like education because it's fun!

Learning Styles

We all learn in different ways. My youngest son definately has a style all of his own. He is Autistic (Aspergers syndrome to be precise) and in his case that involves a large dose of oppositional defiant disorder. My son learns best when he can see what is being taught so the television and computer are great learning tools and sometimes moving about helps him to absorb information. He has been known to listen to stories whilst standing on his head on the settee or read books on the trampoline.

Over the next few blogs I will explore the ways we learn together and the resources we've found useful.