ceramics

Really good day today. Drove up into the Highlands to meet other home edders at The Ceramic Experience (no longer there) near Cawdor. Biggest HE gathering weve been to, with two groups joining together now. At least 20 children aged 0-15 there. We all painted our selected items – Charlotte had a kangaroo, Daniel a frog and I chose an angel. As the children finished their painting they filtered off to the soft play area where mad riotous fun was had for the rest of the day! Lovely to see all these childen, most of whom had not met each other before today, get on so well. Daniel was persuaded to be braver and more athletic than usual by a very pretty young girl (I watched with interest). Later a more organised Dr. Who based game developed. There was no bullying, no mocking, no pressure to behave any set way… I’ve never been in such a large group of children where this was the case before… wonderful Was also lovely for me to meet lots of nice people and compare experiences and ideas. Was one particlularly special moment for me when another mum came up to me and asked if Daniel was my son – horrors of state school experience start coming back… don’t want your ‘different’ child playing with my normal one – but no, her son liked Dan so much he wanted him to come and play at his house. On the way home popped into Findhorn and bought some little foody treats. Gorgeous sky with bright half moon all the way home – have always loved twilight.

I have been noticing more changes in Charlotte again. She has been laughing and smiling a great deal. I would never have said this was something lacking in her time at school but when I see how she is blossoming now… it keeps reminding me of the open, happy child she was before school, but a more mature version. She also seems to be far more interested in learning about the world around her – today she questioned me about many driving/road related issues such as overtaking, road markings, dipped headlights and cat’s eyes – lots of child-instigated learning taking place

Quite horrified by this. I really feel it should be noticed that most other so called ‘civilised’ countries start children into formalised academic learning later and achieve far better results in the long run. Look at Waldorf schools… Ironically the BBC have used the same picture they used for their story on the recent study showing children develop better if cared for by their mothers rather than at nursery.

Charlotte is working her way through these Key Spellings workbooks from Schofield and Sims just now. She likes the method they use, seems to feel at home with it and it causes no spelling stresses!
 Buy UK or Buy US

Related posts: