What does an unschooler do at home? 18 February 2010

Thursday.
Someone asked me 'What does En do at home (if she doesn't go to school)? Watch Tv? Then, laze around? And what? " I have never been able to answer this question convincingly. One of the reason is possibly that they do many different things in a day and each day is different from the other. This question again popped up in my mind, when I was drop dead tired at the end of the day and saw En full of zest, still busy with stuffs! I have not seen her idle today !

Morning 8am.
Hui and I woke up to prepare food for picnic at Bukit Kiara, TTDI. We made tuna,chicken ham & egg sandwich and steamed sweet potatoes. After breakfast by the brook, EnHui played at the playground. There were  monkeys hanging and swinging nearby. Some got near to other picnicker who used an umbrella to 'shoo' them away. I felt uncomfortable! and kept all the food in the picnic basket. *must bring umbrella for picnic. There are more monkeys now!!

                                         

Hui spread tuna on bread.                    Picnic by the brook.

Dad & EnHui @playground

             This tree is right on top of our picnic mat!

En fished with her net and came back with an empty container of dirt water!

Hui hold her tubs & net but didn't step on the water as she dislikes sand sticking between her toes. When she saw me pushing the trolley, Hui said happily "I help".

Afternoon.

We continue to have picnic at the kitchen! En loves food!

Hui chased me all around the home with her new fighting skills that she picked up from Shaolin Wushu performance at One Utama. She is so agile!

Left- EnHui pretend -play @Hui's "house", cooking, talking, eating & zzzz!

 EnHui drew with chalk on cement floor and cycled along the corridor

Aunty Lynn bought us a box of volcano making kit. yeah!

Add baking soda, vinegar, detergent & red paint to simulate lava.

During the first experiment, En was imagining real lava erupting which is hot and burning. She stayed close to me and watched from afar. After witnessing the tiny flow of lava, she went and joined the fun. They put other colours beside red..to create colourful lava. En sticked her finger into the volcano to check the temperature!

Snack time.

We baked cookies for snack, with cincau. En made a gingerbread girl! :)

While waiting for the cookies to cool, En took out fabric paints & an old T & doodle. Hui joined her.

En's T.

Hui's T.

After snack, EnHui read the dracula book and tied up the dracula coffin - book, to prevent the dracula from stepping out as the sun was setting! RM7

En decorated Maisy's magnetic playscene & Hui, Maisy's pop-out-playbook.RM15

Dinner.

After eating dad's spaghetti con tonno, we went to pool. When En came back, she did a craft ; dragon dance! while Hui watched "Muzzy" in french.

Long body and tail .3 poles to hold. Black head. Red "something" to entice the dragon.

She said "Fai, Han & Hui hold the poles while she hold the red "something!"

Reading with dad.

En took out a giant puzzle of 28 pieces. It was assembled with 2 minutes. It was at 8pm, I told them to go to bed. EnHui was reluctant.. and jumped on the home made elephant. I told them it's bedtime. Hui slept zzz almost immediately. En did another drawing and colouring and zzz at 9pm. Before she slept, she said "I can't wait for tomorrow morning!!"

Children learn all the time.

Learning is not a product of teaching. Teaching does not make learning. Learners make learning. Learners create learning. Children learn from anything and everything they see. They learn wherever they are, not just in special learning places. They learn much more from things, natural or made, that are real and significant in the world in their own right and not just made in order to help children learn, in other words, they are more interested in the objects and tools that we use in our regular lives than in almost any special learning materials made for them. We can best help children learn, not by deciding what we think they should learn and thinking ingenious ways to teach it to them, but by making the world, as far as we can, accessible to them, paying serious attention in what they do, answering their questions - if they have any - and helping them explore things they are most interested in. - John Holt, Learning all the time.