Home schooling at it’s finest! It’s ok, it’s going well – honest!
So, due to the current circumstances, I am trying my best (with my husband), to home school our seven year old daughter. We are extremely lucky in that she is a learner – she loves to learn, she asks for maths challenges on a Saturday morning! I have no idea where she gets it from, but it’s great when it comes to home schooling. It must be awful to have to try to teach a child that doesn’t want to do it and quite frankly, if it was me, I would have almost definitely given up by now! But no, we have a smart-arse who enjoys explaining the difference between nouns, pro-nouns and adverbs to us! So, what’s the problem? Well…
The problem is, she doesn’t like to get things wrong. I’m talking, throws a bit of a hissy fit because she didn’t know the answer. Admittedly this might be due to the fact that when she was a baby and said ‘blurgh’, I was the Mum, saying ‘oh you clever girl, talk to Mummy again’, and suddenly ‘blurgh’ became my favourite word, but hey, that’s done now! Ok, so, bearing in mind, that her spelling for example is very good, so I tested her on year six spellings the other day. Wrong move Mum! Don’t do it… yes, she got a few wrong. I tried to explain that it doesn’t matter because she has four years before she needs to know those words but that clearly wasn’t good enough. So, I had to find another way to teach this always wanting to win child of mine.
So, this was my new tactic…
It’s really good if you get something wrong. Not just ok, not just good but bloomin’ amazing. Because if we get something wrong, that means we have more to learn about – how exciting! Well, I’m not sure I believed that at all at first, but it worked. So, Nanny’s spelling test for her this week included Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (it is correct – spell check said so)! It’s good, because Lexi has spent the last week learning that word – brilliant, there’s always a time in life when you have to spell it out – hmmm…
Anyway, it got me thinking. It is ok to not know something, I know that and believe that. In fact, I often come across a little thick because I am quite open about what I don’t know in order to learn more about it from others. When I started to think, I realised that actually I quite enjoy learning too and in fact, if I knew everything (please don’t tell my husband or my child that I don’t because I like to make them believe I do), I would be really bored. I am constantly doing courses and reading up in order to learn more, or even to learn again – I am not great with technical terms and it takes me a good few times of seeing something before I remember it.
Anyway, I wanted to put this into health and fitness terms. What I am getting at is. It’s ok to not know what to do – diet wise, fitness wise etc. That has always been my philosophy and I try to encourage others to learn and I guide them in the best way that I can. But now I think, what if I didn’t know anything about it. It would kind of be even more exciting, because there is so so much to learn. What if I had no idea what to eat, no idea how to do a squat. That seems alien for myself, although I know it doesn’t to a lot of people. Honestly, it’s exciting – the things you can learn, the way in that your body can change, as well as your mind. The more you learn about it all, the more you understand and honestly, the easier it all becomes. Now I understand what happens to my body if I don’t exercise, or how different hormones are released when I do, it makes it all so much more enjoyable. Sometimes I wish that I lived in ignorance and didn’t know how bad chocolate or wine was, because it’s only knowing that, that stops be from becoming an alcoholic, chocoholic mess (especially in lockdown)! But hey, overall, that is a good thing – I think!
Anyway, please, if you don’t know how or why or what or when, please don’t be put off. Make it more of a mission to learn about it. It’s not just ok not to know, it’s exciting to be able to learn about it. If I can help you to learn anything at all, please get in touch. You’d be better off keeping things to health and fitness related questions – not adverbs – I am learning but even after an English Literature A level, I am still really only at year 2 level!
And for anyone home schooling – well done, keep it up… or don’t – it doesn’t matter – they will be just fine! Lexi will be a qualified PT by the end of it, but she still won’t be able to draw! Pictionary is the only art this family sees – and it is not good!
Stay Safe xx
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