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Autumn: breaking new ground
Autumn has officially arrived and, at least where we are living in balmy Cornwall, the first mists and chilly fine rains have begun. The cows still graze outdoors down here so most of the fields in our sight are green, with only the odd muddy corner to betray the change in season. The only earthy, brown fields belong to the daffodil bulbs lying dormant beneath the soil, waiting for the smallest shift towards warm in order to push up their green spikes of promise after which, slowly, slowly their bursts of smiling yellow will trumpet into whole blankets of gold.
No matter what your view – city streets, churning seas or the arable deserts of east Anglia, in my experience autumn brings a turning of the soil – sense of churning, a time of reassessment, a good long look at the schedule, ideas list, project file or unschooling patterns, that can be very inspiring.
For the last two years I have been fortunate enough to be able to take my long look from the arms length oasis of my sister’s farmhouse in Brittany. As a home educating mum of three children, ages 9, 7 and 6 and a resident non-native of France where home education is far more unusual, my sister has challenges that I don’t have to think of. (She also has, however, a much bigger house with a whole room dedicated to a learning space – a luxury I can only dream of.) I have found it so helpful to spend time with her family, watch her with her children, watch them learning and playing and to gain some perspective on our own ways and methods, make lists, make plans – what do I like? What do I notice is less successful?
This year I have returned with a week planner – more cheering than it sounds as the days of the week are written in French, thus rendering the whole thing rather reminiscent of holidays! A determination to include some elements of language learning – vocabulary, singing, counting, watching the odd video on You Tube perhaps and making sure we consciously include a smattering of BSL (British Sign Language) too. I have also begun to keep a home education diary which, while slightly laborious and usually the last thing I feel like doing when the children are finally asleep, ensures that I keep track of all we have done each day and serves as a reassurance that we do far more, covering a far broader range of topics and traditional ‘subjects’ than I ever realised! This idea also serves as an aid to my husband’s understanding of our day and enables him to feel more confident that the children are busy, learning and happy as well as encouraging him to join us on his working-from-home day which has produced Daddy-led, library, Lego-club and swimming lessons for our son – result!
I asked some other home educating parents about their autumnal soil turning and what form, if any, this takes:
Marie, a single parent of three is already a home education diary pro. ‘I make sure that I fill the diary in each night without fail, even on weekends. The diary acts as proof to all of us that we have very full, social and interesting lives. I try to make a point of discussing our day as a family too so that we all add something, usually a highlight, to the diarised events and this seems to help them feel gratitude for their lives and all we do as well as confident in their education which is, obviously, very different to the one they were receiving at school. I also find that the diary helps me feel more prepared and sure of myself when we have our local authority visit. It is a positive record that is well worth the time.
‘This year we have also made a determination to pursue individual projects. I am happy about this because there are things that I would like to do, such as knitting and sewing, and I have found it hard to model this care of my own interests while the children did not seem able or involved in activities that were just for them. I think it has been more about their ages as opposed to inclinations but now they have both eagerly begun teaching themselves something that fuels their passions – Will is teaching himself to play the guitar and Lauren has started writing and producing a news and fashion newspaper for our family and her friends to read which takes a great deal of her time.’
‘When I honestly reassessed where we were this autumn I could see that we needed more relaxation time’, explains David, home educating Dad to Clara age 7 and Phoebe age 3. ‘For us this has been a scheduled time on the beach each week – making art with found objects, drawing in the sand, building castles, skimming stones, chatting, walking, climbing, taking photographs, foraging, collecting – no pressures, just being together and breathing in the freedom we can enjoy here in Cornwall. I had become so worried about making sure that Clara was reading, writing, doing some maths, some language learning, some craft, some computer time, gym, walking outdoors, singing – you name it, we had sort of lost our joy. There is a lot to be said for taking time to just stop and look around. No prescribed list of things to do can replace the habit of relaxation. De-stressing is a key lesson to learn in the modern era.’
Home educating parents Leah and Rob told me about their thoughts for the season. ‘We talked things through and felt that we would like to introduce more of the wisdom of others – tutors, older and wiser folks, professional mentors, inspirational figures. We started by reading some of a set of books that we had bought, about important and inspirational historic figures – Frieda Kahlo, Amelia Ehrhart, Albert Einstein – and we paid visits to local museums and a gallery or two. We approached a local photographer, a potter, a willow weaver, someone who keeps horses, a gardener and several older persons in our community and asked if they would be willing to demonstrate to our children what they do, or just tell them about life when they were younger – perhaps share photographs or memory boxes with them. We have started to incorporate these ‘extra voices’ into our schedule now and it has been a very positive move for us as well as the children.’
Gaining an insight into the way others conduct their home educating life, a very similar one to the life that we each lead day-to-day, can be very helpful. Just these small suggestions can plant, if not a whole new field of bulbs, then maybe one or two ideas that may blossom in time. My suggestion remains that whenever you come across and find the time to read this article make some time as soon as you can to have a think through how you spend your home educating days. Whether you decide to make more efforts to log your activities or make a bigger change such as including a regular tutor in your week, turning over the soil in which your children are flourishing will be a positive and uplifting experience.
© Melanie Crocker-Hulse