No reason for beginning with the Adele song except for the rolling waves that are currently making their presence felt on our island shores. Normally I would be enjoying their presence but not today, or tomorrow and especially not the next day. On Saturday my beloved Molly is going to be attempting to get home and I have my doubts whether she will manage it. This is the one down side of living on Arran for me. It will mean a hotel for the night and another attempt the next day. Such is island living. Molly will cope as she always does.
The rolling waves are a useful metaphor for the shape of my year so far. At the start of the year I didn't plan any of the projects that I am currently engaged in. I think I am making the most of being a 'woman of a certain age' and learning to roll with the tide of my life and the opportunities that are presenting themselves to me. I quite like it actually. I have been a planner all my life so this period is a real change for me and I might even prefer it. If I am totally honest I am not sure I have much ambition left in me. At one time I was incredibly ambitious but I think I achieved most of those goals anyway. Now, I am happier to wait and see what comes along and deal with whatever it is only if I want to. It is, of course, the joy of being freelance and I do know how lucky I am.
Today was a day to focus on the children and home school in particular. Harry and I pushed on with his studies in sports nutrition. He finds it amusing when I glaze over as I struggle with some of the new information. By contrast, Harry moved through the module with ease and now only has one section to go before another assignment is complete. To say he has an impressive amount of knowledge in this area might be a slight understatement. But we move on to body systems next and I fully expect to assert my superior knowledge once more. I could be a little optimistic there because the few things Harry has said make me think he knows more than he is currently letting on. This gentle competition between us makes the sessions a real joy and the learning process so much easier.
Max, George and I then began our new studies on Zambia. The boys are at the heart of the fundraising project for the Butterfly Tree charity that is based in Zambia. Integrating it into home school is what we do in our family. I am never actually sure where school starts and finishes and I think that is perhaps the way it should be. Our studies taught us about the essential facts about Zambia and then we looked back into its history. A nation is only ever the result of its history which is a perspective that we in the UK understand. How many references are there to world war 2 and rightly so. To understand modern Zambia we needed an understanding of the journey it had been on. When looking into colonial history it is not always comfortable reading and today was an example of that. Over the years I have tried to encourage the children to view other countries as if they lived there and experienced what those people experience. We can be a bit too UK centred in this country and the danger is that we measure everything through a rather distorted view finder. Debates quickly revolved around the role of western countries in the development of Zambia and its battle to achieve a more democratic society.
Of course, we had recently studied the development of the African Union so our view of Zambia's more recent history was considered with some optimisim for the future. That said, the problems faced by the people of Zambia are huge. I think, in our family, we see these as our problems. Children should not be starving in the modern world and illnesses should not have such hold on whole communities. We want to do our little bit to help and this has led to the fundraising project for the Butterfly Tree. So we have made a start with our Zambia studies and we can see there is a lot of ground to cover. The joy of home school is thaat we do not have artificial deadlines to meet and the pressure that comes with it. One of the reasons we decided to home school was due to the high levels of assessment in the education system in this country. The problem with an assessment led learning strategy is that you are always chasing that assessment rather than focusing on the quality of the learning experience. I wanted my children to fall in love with learning. That did not mean they should all become academics; far from it. Molly is a true academic but Harry learns new knowlege through practice first and then attaches the theory. Both styles of learning are equally valid. We shall study Zambia until we are happy we understand the people and the place in which they live. Our understanding can be applied to our fundraising campaign and should serve to make our intentions more important.
I am saying this very quietly.....I think I might have found a venue to our final event in our campaign - the butterfly supper. I am not saying anything more until I am sure!
I am ending on a bit of a home school 'wow' moment as I show you what Max made yesterday. From plan to completed construction in an hour. I wanted a small raised bed for a new herb collection and the rest was over to Max. What an amazing young man he is and we really couldn't do half of what we do on the smallholding without him. Well done Max and well done home school.
Until tomorrow. xx
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