A Learning Experience to Remember: August 2021-August 2022

Do you ever feel that as adults we can become blinkered sometimes?  We are weighted down with responsibilities.  Some of us are trapped in the past.  Some of us are too focused on the future.  The present day can be at times merely dismissed as hours we are counting down to reach tomorrow.  I feel in the hustle and bustle we can forget to be in the moment, we don't tend to allow ourselves the gift of boredom, of silence, of focusing on ourselves, or learning from our environment.  Children are naturals at living in the present moment, and at exploring and learning from their surroundings. They lose this gift somewhere along the way.  We have set our house up to be a learning environment, to stimulate the children's imagination, natural curiosity and to take advantage of their ability to absorb knowledge like a sponge.  I love seeing this in action.  We have half of the living room set up for the purpose of developing creativity and imaginatio...

There will be plenty of families like us facing the battle and balance of keeping up schooling whilst dealing with long term health problems which involve repeat visits/stays in hospital. Two of my children require frequent hospital attention and the challenge then arises to make sure their education does not get forgotten in the world of needles, operations and doctors.  Over the years I have used the car as a mobile teaching portal. We are in there for an hour and a half at least every hospital visit, and playing fun games helps settle the nerves and helps the time pass for us all.  Car/bus/train games are surprisingly educational once you start getting into the spirit of them. They provide a moving landscape full of pockets of information across all topics. 'I spy with my little eye' is a classic which teaches young children vocabulary linking the alphabet and phonics, teaching observational and concentration skills.  Science can be covered in the weather report, and t...

Sophia greeted me at 6.30am with, "What fun things are we going to do today?", followed up by Kira answering, "Let's do horses". I didn't even have to open my mouth before they had decided in what order to start the day. That was fine by me, decision making skills being exercised before my brain had caught up on what day, month, year we are in. We cracked on straight away after Xanders's first meds of the day. We started with the information book on horses, then viewed some horses and their roles on YouTube, followed up by an informative video on horses presented by the children's presenter Blippi, who is a great, fun presenter for this age group.  Sophia was delighted to see that one of her favourite child YouTubers, Adley (from A for Adley), also had some videos on the topic of horses, so they were eagerly watched. In Sophias mind she has scored a victory having 'free tv' before midday. It was an interesting video to be honest with a young ...

On Sundays we have a review day on the past week, and tie up any loose ends ready for the new week ahead. It's a lot more slower paced, more arts and crafts and garden time, family cooking sessions and walks.  Sophia wrote out her 'At' family spellings from memory, and she recognised the alphabet method used to make sure she hadn't missed any. She was so proud of herself and then wrote the word 'cow' for me. She asked if there were any other words like cow she could learn.... Next weeks spellings will be the 'Ow' family. This method is working for both girls which is amazing. There's a new lease of life in our spelling sessions.  I baked cupcakes whilst they had a freshly made banana milkshake, porridge and eggs, which the girls got very excited about. We have to make freshly baked goods daily and cook fresh food every meal for Xander currently due to the medication he's on until January. He can only eat items that have been cooked within 24hrs, ...

The children wanted to watch exercise videos on YouTube from 6am, note that I said watch.... we were all cuddled on the sofa under blankets together just watching the entertaining footage for the first few.  Eventually the girls emerged and completed a few different platform game run throughs, where they run, zig zag, jump and crouch to mimic what's happening on screen. They particularly love running along a game play through with Ryan Worlds - Tag with Ryan (which is just something they came up with, it's not an exercise one). Ryan's World does have several official exercise videos with Ryan and mum which are firm favourites too.  We then switched to this years educationplaylistt. They sang gustily along with Jack Hartmann's 'Spanish colours' several times and then move on to maths. They were shouting out the answers to videos on comparing numbers, adding and subtraction, and the concept of money. They sang along to multiples of two and five, and number pairs f...

  I am relieved to report that nothing disastrous has occurred during this traditionally superstitious day. We also had a lie in till 6am, which really makes all the difference.  The girls were hot off the press this morning, straight after their pre breakfast snack of milk and salmon, they were clamouring to continue the farm project. Kira wanted to re watch the video on hay making, and Sophia was fascinated to watch the process of milking a cow. Both girls preferred seeing hand milking by a farmers wife and asked a lot of questions. The milking machine scared them a little, they were not convinced it wouldn't upset the cows. Sophia was also keen to see an angry bull in action, and Kira was fascinated to learn that there is an even more powerful breed than the bull...oxen.  We are hurtling through this first book, it will be finished by Sunday, which lines up nicely to start book two next week. I am reviewing daily with them and they are eagerly retaining the information...

The day started at 5am and as I stumbled down the stairs after an energetic Xander, the girls met me with their first weird and wonderful questions of the day.  Sophia had found a sprig of rosemary lying around that Dad had found foraging and wanted to know all about the herb. I made my way down to the kitchen to sort out the first of the many meds for Xander, Kira sought me out and we had an in depth conversation about how snakes kill their prey.  Ever since I first had Sophia I remember being warned 'just wait till you reach the questions stage', but I personally love it and take them in my stride, answering them around whatever I happen to be doing at the time. I really recommend you to embrace this question phase, they're not an annoyance, but an opportunity for a quick five minute snapshot lesson, which can sometimes extend into an entire topic. Try and analyse their questions as they can give you insight into the children's interests, and inspire full projects.  T...

Hello everyone, we started the first official day in our learning journey. I implemented my new plan to tackle spelling by introducing the ‘At' family.  As I sat down with the girls they automatically reached for paper, fair enough it was clearly going to be a spelling and handwriting practice combo session. The girls quickly caught on to the pattern and spelt nine words easily. Sophia then made a sentence using several ‘At' words. She found the session really easy once she could apply the logic. We also started our ‘On the farm’ project which will hopefully continue all year through. I am following a set of DeAgostini ‘My animal family' books, which corresponds to a farm set collection. This week’s book was on cows.  The girls were very enthusiastic, I started by reading the first two pages of the book to them whilst they were holding the cows from the farm set. They then watched YouTube videos which reflected what we had read and talked about. Sophia fell in love with a n...

In our experience, our autistic children need flexibility within a routine, and that took a couple of years to reach the right balance. Currently the following works for them and the entire family.  The children wake naturally between 5-6am in summer time and 4.30-5am in winter. They have their morning milk and fruit and get dressed, and we are ready for the day. We learn till breakfast time at 7am (often during as well). We have another learning session until 9am and then it's garden time, where I'm chasing after them madly with hats and suncream.  Snacks follow at 11am, freshly made fruit, chocolate milk smoothies/milkshakes with homemade pancakes. Learning time commences until midday, and then it's free time/free tv time for the children until 4.30, broken up with dinner time. Free time activities include tv, ipad, roleplay, arts and crafts, puzzles, Lego, Playdoh, baking, or more garden time if they request it. This is my main time for housework, cooking and writing. ...

Last year I did not consider the forthcoming year curriculum until the 4th September. I stayed awake until the early hours of the morning planning a rough guideline, so I could face the girls in the morning with some confidence to welcome in the new learning year together.  This year I planned it at the beginning of August! I reviewed what they had learnt over the past year, wrote their yearly reports and from there gauged the path I wanted to take them down this year. Dad and I also had a long conversation about our end goals for their education, so we can start to roughly plan the next ten years out for them. This gave me clarity in the direction we are guiding them towards.  I sat at the school room desk and calmly planned and noted, with the full knowledge based on last year, that flexibility and spontaneity remains absolutely pivotal and should be your constant guide.  This may sound conflicting, but in practice having a plan whilst allowing spontaneity to flo...

Hello and welcome! We are Sophia (aged five), Kira (aged four), Xander (aged three), Mum (it’s rude to ask) and Dad (never knows his age). Yes the Morris family is here for another fun filled year of learning commencing August 2021.  We have been teaching our little brood for five magical years now and it remains as exciting and challenging as always.  The majority of the family are neuro divergent, and as a neuro typical, I trail in their wake of brilliance whilst leading the pack in their learning experience at the same time, which is always an unique experience.  Sophia, Xander and I also have a bonemarrow failure condition which keeps life super interesting and busy. The hospital is our second home, and I’m sure we’re not on our own here.  Xander is home currently having just survived a life saving Bonemarrow Transplant, but we still have frequent hospital stays.  One final obstacle Dad and I face together is the complicated dietary requirements of our ...