The thing I've learned about home schooling is that it is alot different to traditional educational models. Education is about teaching kids not just reading and writing but also all those skills in between like one of my favourite, cooking!
Life skills are also a big part of it, I find traditional education doesn't teach kids about life skills or responsibilities outside of work deadlines and one of my previous posts I talked about how education was designed to create the perfect "worker" someone who could go to work and do as their told for 8+ hrs a day and not talk back.
But home education is alot more it incorporates fun into every day tasks which school won't teach you.
One of those skills is cleaning up! And I have to be honest it is one that I have been struggling with and to put the answer why into the words of little miss "but cleaning up is boooooooooring working from home and lock downs increases the challenges in trying to maintain a balanced life and cleaning up is one that is even harder. So many people in the same space makes everything challenging.
But it is one that I constantly try and reinforce with little miss she's been great at some of the cleaning chores and please, I don't make her clean up the mess but rather do it with her. Well typically it's me that does the brunt of it but it's about showing her the process.
It's also about setting certain expectations and giving responsibility to and autonomy to kids so that they can learn about having fun and doing all the things they love but at the end of it they need to be prepared to clean up after themselves to ensure a tidy and safe space for everyone.
At current little miss loves doing dishes and enjoys splashing about in the kitchen sink, I end up with more water on the floor than I'd like but it is a learning process which then also shows us that splashing water has consequences and now we need to get a towl to mop it up otherwise someone will slip and fall. That someone tends to be little miss who will come in later and fall. To which I typically respond "see, that's why it is important to clean up after yourself"
Tonight we were cleaning up the kitchen table after dinner and our table is made of glass, If I could make a request it would be don't get a glass table they are scary once you have kids.
While cleaning up we incorporated a bit of fun into the mix to make the process easier and distracts us from the chore at hand. Little miss stood on one side of the table and I on the other and we played a bit of sponge ice hockey.
The winner was the one that could get their side cleaner than the other first. Each player had 5 seconds to scrape away at the mess and then flick the sponge across fast trying to also score a goal.
We ended up with a shiny glass table that took 45 minutes to clean because instead of cleaning we turned a chore into a game!
What are some of the ways you've brought fun into education and what do you find works best?
