Home learning without the groaning.

It’s easy to forget how it feels to be a child, expected to follow instructions or rules, even if they don’t fit in with your own agenda.

When I first started teaching I asked a little girl to draw a picture and was surprised when she said, “No”! Another little boy assured me that he had drawn a dog but that he was invisible!

I was also flabbergasted when I was handed a forged sick-note from a child to say that she couldn’t do “Pee-Yee” today as she had a tummy ache!

During the summer I became enthralled by the Early Years summit hosted by Kathy Brodie and the Positive PDA summit hosted by Nicola Reekie. PDA stands for Pathological Demand Avoidance and I was fascinated by Libby Hill’s talks on PDA and selective mutism which are both anxiety-driven.

Libby advocates Low arousal strategies which work well for all children. Instead of overtly putting demands on children there are ways to engage them and make them feel like they have a choice.

During lockdown we spent a lot of time at the bottom of our garden, pushing the boys on the swings, while chanting number facts and times tables, and helping them to climb up the slide. Climbing up the slide is harder than it looks!

The boys became adept at scaling the walls like Spiderman and doing head-stands. I realised that this was “heavy work” that they needed to regulate their emotions and make sense of the world during the crazy pandemic.

Once we were allowed to venture out we would spend hours spinning each other around on a hill side or climbing up river banks. We blew lots of bubbles and did chalk drawing and writing on the patio.

For the winter lockdown our kitchen island is great for racing around and playing limbo beneath a broom handle. The boys are able to indulge in “Island hopping” on their space hoppers and we have nerf guns, remote control cars and glow sticks to keep us busy.

I’ve realised that planning in the moment and learning through play follows the children’s interest and inspires confidence and dedication to explore and develop skills.

My sons have played for hours at the sink making power rings with bottle tops, play foam, water and food colouring. I was struck by my son’s self assured proclamation that, “If you mix all the colours together, you make golden.”

The boys spent ages making a raft for their gingerbread man to try and keep him dry and edible when they flushed him down our curly slide with a bucket of water. They even managed to ride their raft down the slide and gallop around for another go.

The boys eagerly discover and reply to signs and messages around the house and garden. Instead of asking them to label something they have made, they are very keen to make marks on their creations or discoveries to give them extra powers. They really enjoy being masters of their own destiny.

We have been inspired by “Stick-it-Brit” by Jenny Neal. After giggling our way through the story, we now use post it notes and scrap paper to help us learn spellings, number facts and times tables. We made number lines and my son suggested we put the numbers on the stairs so that we can count on and back as we go up and down them. The post it notes can be left around the house as an invitation to play and practise without having to nag.

We love inventing and playing games with the Fun Phonics ping pong balls, dice, blocks and tiles from https://www.funphonics.education. We made a little pool table for potting the balls and play tennis and dodge ball with them. The tiles fit nicely with our lego toys and boards so can be used alongside the countless lego creations.

We use lots of play based materials from https://www.mrsmactivity.co.uk/. My son had great fun making a cardboard box into a spaceship as he listened to How and Why — Space Travel and The Moon on his Toniebox. I was so impressed as he stepped out of his spaceship and announced, “One small step for me, One huge leap for personkind!”

BBC Bitesize and Cbeebies are also great for home learning. We love the Number blocks, Alphablocks and Okido magazines and activities. Scholastic have some great themed workbooks too, especially the Paw patrol and superhero books.

The boys love playing Teach your Monster how to read and https://poio.com/ and learn so much at the same time. We all enjoy listening to Michael Rosen’s poems on his you tube channel. He seems to have a poem or story about everything!

We also enjoy playing printable games for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 from https://www.bellalearning.co.uk , especially the ones where we act out emotions for others to guess and challenge each other to perform balances. Orchard Games keep us busy too.

As Benjamin Franklin said, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”