Tuesday 8 July 2008

More thoughts from Swanage

The sun is shining today, the children have gone out to the beach with their grandparents and my husband and I are going for a six mile walk. It is not often that we get extended time together, certainly not in daylight hours without children so it will be good to talk things over and reconnect.
We had fun yesterday on our quick visit to Swanage. While I blogged the boys read in the library and my middle son was eager to show me the pictures of peregrine falcons and capercaille he had found. Afterwards, we bought chips from adjacent chip shops and decided which we liked best. The seagulls congregated greedily around us waiting for scraps. I mused about whether they would be so interested if we had apples, or apple slices wrapped up in white paper? How do they know that we've got chips?
We had a beautiful view of a buzzard as it glided over the road and landed on a telegraph pole. My middle son was particularly impressed, likening it to golden eagle.
During the rain yesterday we started a thousand piece jigsaw of 'Kings and Queens of England and the United Kingdom'. The boys occasional placed a piece with a comment like, 'Chainmail, must go around here,' or, 'I recognise you, you're Henry VIII's son.'
My eldest has read the delightfully entitled 'Why is Snot Green?' I now know that there are four ways to be struck by lightning, including being splashed by electric charge that has grounded near by! He was insistent that I should never wash-up during a thunderstorm as apparently this is dangerous. (I can add that to my reasons not to wash up!)
In the face of such enthusiatic and voracious learning, I am still happily planning September's curriculum. I'm not sure why. Despite being the adult, I think it is me that needs the security blanket!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think you are right about the security blanket. But what the heck. When I get into planning mode, I end up reading things that expand my own learning. As long as you let go of the idea that you have to have the kids execute your plans for that time to have been worthwhile, it's all fine.

The walk sounds lovely. Doing things like that is really important.