Wednesday 20 October 2010

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Today is the first really, rather cold day of this Autumn.  So cold, apparently there will be a hard ground frost tonight.  The heating will be popped on shortly; as the sun moved round to the side of the house, the house temperature has noticably dropped. 

What a beautiful day though.  Blue clear skies, lovely sunshine, which felt rather warm, just the wind was rather brisk.  I met a friend with her twin boys a the park, and the children had a lovely time running around.  And then my friend and I hit the charity shops.  Bargains galore!

I have bought a sewing machine.  Its a Brother one, which, I don't know; but from the stitch squiggles on the machine it looks like it has quite a  few settings.  It was sat in the charity shop for a mere £20.  It has the instruction book too, very useful :-)  I pick it up tomorrow as I couldn't carry it home today.  Very exciting.
 I also found Rye a lovely bright orange fleecy jumper, some t'shirts, couple of puzzles, a Harry and the Dinosaurs book and a lovely little earthen ware milk jug - oh and some  yarn. **blush**

A very lovely way to spend a morning.  The minded children went down for a nap with barely a whimper.  I decided to try immediately leaving the room, rather than sitting there for 5-10 minutes and singing, and bless 'em, they have settled and gone to sleep without a peep.  Rye really could do with a nap, bless him, he's really tired too; but he's instead laid quietly on the rug playing and chattering away to himself.

 The book people delivered my order too, excellent timing, I'd only been back about 10 minutes when the delivery fella knocked on the door;
The shakespeare set is one to go away for when Rye's is a bit older.  The Read at Home set looks pretty good.  Rye has already been looking through the books.  The advantage of being an unschooling, waldorf influenced home educator is, I have no problem with Rye learning to read now if he wants to.  I do agree that it shouldn't be pushed, and if Rye isn't ready to read until he's 6 or 7, which is when from a Waldorf point of view one would start to look at the child learning to read - from an unschooling point of view, if he's interested now, (and he appears to be) then I have no problems reading books with him and telling him what words say when he asks. 

My position is simply reading will open a whole new world to him; it will further his learning journey and enrich his life, prehaps more than other skill he can learn.  I also believe in trusting Rye; I do appreciate the Waldorf argument for waiting, which is why I shan't be insisting we read a "learn to read" book daily and that Rye has to repeat the words, or mess around with phoentics etc.  I will simply follow his lead.  If he wants to read any of the "learn to reading" books, then we'll read them.  I will ensure he has plenty of apportunity to explore reading - but I won't be forcing or timetabling it.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Bitterly cold!

Tell me what those books are like, I was thinking of getting them to have around if Sam takes an interest.

It's funny what they pick up though isn't it - Sam knows his numbers up to 10 and I just happened, strangely, to be looking at an online colourblindness test (naturally) so I said to Sam come and see if you can see these numbers (they are disguised in bubbles). I pointed at the first and said 'What is that' and he said A. I thought, well he's colourblind - clearly it's a 3. He kept insisting it was A and then I realised that each picture was marked A, B, C etc and that's what he was referring to. So somehow he knows what A is! LOL. And he isn't colourblind, I don't think! haha.

But yes, when we're reading he keeps asking what specific words and sentences are, and amusingly he's started an over exaggerated head movement from side to side to mimic that he's reading along :-) Kids, aren't they hilarious!

Becky
xx

Fiona said...

I thought your comments about Rye learning to read were lovely, and so spot on.

Here in Switzerland the kids don't start to learn to read until at least 6 or 7 - something I do agree with. Our own Waldorfy style at home means that reading should not even be on the agenda (here or at school) for at least another 12 months.

So when Sofie started asking to read at age 4 I did everything possible to put her off. Until i realsied that a child centric approach is best and whilst many children don't want to read until later, it doesn't mean we should offer the resources to those who do.

Sofie (age 5) just finished the Magic Faraway Tree (on her own), and got such a huge amount out of it that I could never see her being able to read as a bad thing.

I am sure Rye will appreciate being surrounded by the resources and support he needs, when the time is right for him.