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7 Jan 2014

Our hackschool days in 2012/ 2013

We started on this home education journey in June 2012, by taking an extended four month holiday abroad. The complete break from school did not mean that Mr Curious or Miss Delightful wallowed in idleness! On the contrary, they each persisted in self appointed tasks. Mr Curious proceeded to run wild in the  huge back garden of his grandma, riding his bicycle at full speed and trying to perform heart stopping stunts, falling and bruising himself almost everyday! He read relentlessly from grandma's home library, demanded maths puzzles and word searches when he was, in his  famous own words '' too bored'', played with friends and even learnt to play carom!

Miss Delightful decided to toilet train herself and that was it! She asked to sit on the toilet one day, and since, she has not worn a nappy. I introduced a toilet seat for comfort, but she was clear in her resolve, to do as 'mama' and refused to use it. She also took part in running wild on the grounds and suffered numerous bumps and bruises, learnt to speak french creole, scribbled on grandma's freshly painted walls, played with her mama's old toys, and taught herself  to draw shapes on the white board gifted my grandma and grandpa!




MR CURIOUS AND MISS DELIGHTFUL IN LAKE DISTRICT

We did not start any academic work until Jan 2013 and since then, our days have flowed, sometimes like a gentle stream making its way to the river, imparting soothing sounds of flowing water  and other times like a river after a heavy rain, gushing ferociously, forging its path blindly. Intense children produce intense emotions and add an intense parent to this equation, we have numerous tumultuous days. But we have learnt and are still learning from our everyday experiences, how not to let the glass overflow.  Mr Curious being the absent minded professor that he is ,often tunes out from our boring world and we can be waiting for him to start breakfast, when he is in deep reverie in the comfort of  the lavatory! Or he has been known to sit in his underpants, engrossed in a book he happened upon in the process of dressing up, while we waited at the door, ready to leave the house for a particular appointment or activity. We will slowly introduce more rhythm to our days this year, as I continue to implement strategies, to enable Mr Curious in becoming more independent in his daily proceedings. We will be using lists drawn up by Mr Curious himself and more lists, to help keep Mr Curious on track, if that is at all possible!

Miss Delightful has been delighting in her unstructured days. She is very good at occupying herself most times, although she does have her moments of consternation! And these moments normally come, when I need to spend some time working with Mr Curious. So I am hoping that the additional rhythm, will give her a sense of what to expect everyday.

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