Home School

Well what a year it has been already for so many.

As for my little family, I left them at the start of January for me to work at the navy base in Darwin. I had a lot of reservations about leaving them, considering Shayne being pregnant and issues we had with Harrison’s school last year, but that’s a post for later.

I decided to do the long haul at the start of the year and not go home until just before the baby was due; pretty much three months straight. I was concerned Harrison would not cope very well because he has previously really struggled with me going away. This time was different because I was only working in an office on the base which allowed Harrison and I to FaceTime several times a day.

I was actually really amazed at how well Harrison handled the whole situation this time. He lasted just over a week before he had a big melt down where he cried and begged for me to come home. After that, he realised he could talk to me often via FaceTime and he handled things a lot better; he never had another major melt down.

Due to COVID-19 and everything getting locked down I managed to fly home a couple of weeks earlier. Just in time to start home schooling.

Shayne took Harrison on a “school excursion” to the airport to count planes, they just so happened to drive past the terminal and see me standing there. There was one very excited little boy who couldn’t get out of the car quick enough when he saw me.

We had a quiet weekend reuniting after three months apart, but then it was into home schooling on Monday. I had read quite a few funny Facebook posts about parents having to home school their children, and even though I joked about it as well I was actually really looking forward to the opportunity to teach Harrison.

Our first morning of home school was pretty good, it started off with a walk around the bushland near us, then back for a PT session from YouTube, and then we went through some of his English and Math work. He also had to watch videos the teachers had prerecorded.

By lunch time I was feeling pretty good, and confident we could really make this home schooling stuff work. We also managed to get through without arguments or lost tempers.

After lunch when Harrison had his next lesson, the three of us started to get a little bit annoyed but after a quick discussion to explain things a different way and why we were actually having to home school him, he was fine.

At the end of our first day we were all pleased it had gone off without a problem.

The next day however was not quite as good.

I was a little bit slack first thing and let Harrison grab the iPad for a bit. I have mentioned in a previous post that we limit his iPad time, and this particular morning reaffirmed why he has limited screen time. When I asked him to turn it off he became annoyed and argumentative. I said to him that he had now lost the iPad for the rest of the week and I put it away. I stuck by my word, and he didn’t ask for either the iPad or TV for the rest of the week.

For the rest of Tuesday he was very up and down with his attitude and behaviour but what we were finding was that as soon as he had finished doing a lesson, he would run straight outside and play for a bit burning off energy. Once we asked him to come back in he would be straight back into a lesson pretty much without incident.

If you have read several of my other posts then you will know I am very big on communicating. I know sometimes I can do too much of it and I am aware I’m like that, so it’s a matter of trying to balance that with my point I am trying to get across. I can tell very quickly when Harrison has had enough of listening to me, I then leave him for a bit or switch to a different tact.

By the end of the second day I was a little tired and frustrated but very determined to work with him and have a great student teacher relationship.

On the third day everything was going well up until recess time. Harrison excitedly finished a lesson and raced outside to play. Shayne and I were inside the house when we heard Harrison crying. Shayne raced outside and found Harrison holding his face.

Through his crying and shaking shocked voice we discovered he had been playing along the back of the pool fence with a stick, and decided to poke something hanging out from underneath the capping at the top. It just happened to be a wasp nest and they didn’t take too kindly to a little boy waving a stick at them, so they attacked and stung him on the cheek several times.

This was his first encounter with a wasp nest and out of all the ones we have around our yard he just happened to find the biggest one.

His cheek got a little puffy and we could see the sting marks but surprisingly it went down again pretty quick. After he had calmed down he said “Dad, no more school today I need to rest”.

Environmental studies ✅
Situational awareness lesson ✅
First aid lesson ✅

After an extended break we got back into schooling, and the rest of the afternoon went well. Thursday and Friday were pretty uneventful but we were all pretty happy with our home school efforts.

It was a very heart warming feeling seeing the joy on my sons face as he started to make sense of things I was teaching him that he didn’t previously understand. You know you have done a good job when he keeps wanting learn more or expand on what he knows.

I certainly do not envy teachers; there is no way I could do it for a full-time job, but if I was in a position to home school him permanently then I would love to do it.

He is a very active child in both mind and body, as with anyone, he needs the right environment and encouragement to keep moving forward. I hate to think any child would be getting left behind in learning because the teachers or the school only want a certain type of child that they can constantly control, but it happens.

I love that fact Harrison asks questions, and yes sometimes there are a lot, he is so curious about the world around him. He doesn’t just want to be told one or two facts about something, he wants to know everything about it.

During the past week of home schooling, Shayne and I discovered that Harrison responded very positively to being able to run free at every break, where he could be either outside doing his own thing or playing inside with his toys, instead of just being stuck inside all day every day. It also reaffirmed what we already knew, that positive reinforcement goes a long way, regardless if a child has been misbehaving or playing up, you should not punish them for the rest of the day and ignore the positive behaviour based on the bad.

I created a sticker chart for him, so when he does well with our lessons during the day he gets to choose a sticker. I have also made up and printed off various other learning charts which I have placed around the house. These seem to be working really well so far, and we have found him reading them outside of our lesson times.