01 April, 2009

Home-made clock woes on a rainy day

I hate it when brilliant ideas fall flat on their faces! Kids are particularly clever at causing such disappointments. Today for home schooling I decided to be creative in teaching clock-reading to our 6 yo. I found an old kickboard destined for the rubbish and a larger piece of cardboard. Figuring the boys could each make a clock. I felt optimistic even a tiny bit clever. The boys were excited, to start with. Somewhere in the process, though, my 3 yo decided that it wasn't at all to his liking and threw a tantrum. What exactly turned the tide for him, I don't know. But I do know that there are some things you can't undo - like the felt pen numbers on the foam board that he demanded be erased! I have never had the experience of home schooling with just one child under my care. I always marvelled at our eldest son's ability to learn things despite my divided attention and the attention seeking antics of his younger brothers. I cannot imagine what it might be like if a child had learning difficulties, nor if I had six children under my care (like one homeschooling mum I know). Juggling the needs of several different aged learners is just a little bit difficult, especially when one or more are under school age. Any mum who has managed it without going crazy, I salute! But it doesn't mean that I wish to join them for the long term. As for time, we've called "time out" for now and will get back to it later when tempers are a little less frayed.

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