Diary Day 1

A Home Learning Experience

Diary Day 1

As the primary caregiver for two young children my day begins early as my four year old granddaughter is an early riser!. My door opens with the words: “Granny …” After that anything can happen.

Monday started off in the usual manner with Emily, the four year old, asking me a million questions about why I was still in bed. We discussed the rising of the sun, birds starting to sing, darkness which is sometimes a bit scary and the need to get up and get dressed. Thereafter we went into the garage to redraw the hopscotch on the floor. We played it a few times counting the numbers up to 12 in the blocks. We then drew the hungry caterpillar on the floor and numbered his segments to make a new hopscotch game.

Breakfast followed with pink wheatbix and discussions about how to mix colours to get purple. A home schooling session followed with her school teacher and mother where art work was shown, objects starting with the letter S were displayed, a new song was learnt and a story was read.

Baby Ethan had in the meantime woken up and needed breakfast and a bath. Much fun was had with containers and toys. Tremendous splashing was the order of the day.

Both children were then taken outside for a bit of fresh air, Emily on her bicycle and Ethan in his pram. Birds, cats and dogs were observed and discussed. Ethan was taken out of his pram and was given pebbles to put in a jug. Emily asked to wear my running watch and did a few laps to check her speed.

Ethan needed his bottle and fell asleep in the pram so Emily and I had a chance to work on her school art. She drew a large tree and divided it into four section, Spring (Lente), Summer (Somer), Autumn (Herfs) and Winter (Winter). She goes to a dual-medium school and speaks Afrikaans. Fortunately she is fully bilingual.

Lunch time saw us making noodles with Emily’s help. Meal times are a big learning opportunity. We discussed the making of orange juice. Ethan loves feeding himself so he has a mixture of textures, some feeding by Granny and some finger foods.

The afternoon is usually spent playing with toys and books. Emily builds puzzles, watches TV and has fantasy play with her dolls. She is shy about this and does not like to be watched. We count often, talk about colours and shapes, and often have deep discussions about all sorts of things. Today animal young came into the discussion and we touched on bullying. She is sometimes too rough with her baby brother. We germinated a few beans so these get watered every day.

Bath time with Emily also affords us time for additional learning. She has alphabet and number sponges which can be stuck on the side of the bath. She has learnt to write her name and can sing the alphabet song. We also talked about zero and how bigger numbers are formed using two numbers, eg 11, 12 and 13. She played with the bath foam and pretended to make a cappucino for me.

After supper we spent a bit of time working on my laptop. I taught Emily how to use the keypad to draw and fill shapes in Paint. We also added music to her birthday book powerpoint presentation. We emailed it to her parents and then rushed upstairs to watch them open the files. After that it was story time and then thankfully sleep. Parents play a more active role from five pm so tasks are shared. Granny was then off duty till the next day.

 

 

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