Home School in our Nairobi home

We are all learning a new type of home-school in our temporary Nairobi home.

Doing home school here is a different experience.
For one thing, Joel has joined us, adding an extra layer of learning as he starts out from the beginning of Primary school. At 5 years old he still needs lots of help to consolidate his knowledge of the alphabet and numbers to 20.

Meanwhile, Esther is working towards the end of Primary School at Y6. Her maths gets harder and harder, but I have little time to prepare lessons or to even teach her with all the distractions of working in our lounge all together.

 Ben is supposed to be starting Y4 work, but at the moment all I can manage is to to revise his work from Y3. I am facing a new learning curve as I try to mange 3 levels of learning, alongside three contrasting learning styles, in a very different environment.

During this season, I find that The Teacher side of me is battling with The Mum side of me...

The Teacher feels very concerned that we are falling behind curriculum requirements. During these times, my head feels like it is going to explode, trying to keep ahead of the children's educational needs! I feel so overwhelmed by the thought of trying to teach everyone according to their level that, quite frankly, it makes me want to curl up in a ball and ignore the problem- it feels like it is too much effort!
 It requires clear planning to manage this well. Planning well requires time and space... both of which are tricky to find in this season. I haven't managed to find any time to plan ahead yet, so we swing from day to day, just revising last year's curriculum for Esther and Ben and starting out with basic literacy and numeracy for Joel. This makes me frustrated and concerned. I feel guilty when I pick up the children's home-schooling curriculum files and know that we are falling far short of what we ought to be doing, if we were in a more organised class-room environment.

The Mum side of me is enjoying this precious time with my children. I know it is a privilege to be master of this season of time with my children. It is a gift to have my children with me while they are still young. There is a sense of freedom that I don't have to answer to any school policy. The free spirited side of me is glad that I am not having to follow a particular set of rules imposed by some unknown education minister who thinks they know what is best for my children...
The Mum side of me is enjoying this school time to follow projects which are inspired by my children. Last week, the children had fun planning a meal for their dad's return from his week in Juba:

Joel planned pizza for starters.
Esther planned spaghetti and stir-fry chicken for main course.
Ben planned Andrew's favourite rice pudding for dessert.

Each child wrote down their shopping list, Esther and Ben having first researched their recipes on the ever-useful "Google" site. They had a think about possible costs in Kenyan shillings and wrote out their recipes in their literacy lesson, ready to use them for cooking the next afternoon.

On Friday morning, we borrowed a car and I drove them, with their shopping lists, to the supermarket, where they each found and bought what they needed. Esther and Ben used cash and tried to work out their change ahead of time (a tricky task, as it all moves so quickly at a check-out and Esther got a little upset at this point, bless her! A lesson in coping with pressure!!).

That afternoon, the cooking started. Utter mayhem with 3 mini-chefs in our kitchen eventually produced a wonderful Welcome Home meal for Andrew when he came back from Juba!
Now that kind of home-school definitely pleases my Mum-side, even if it does not tick all the boxes for the anxious Teacher in me!

 So we carry on... and today will be another day... we will do our best, with limited resources. Nearly all of our home-school resources are still sitting in the wonderful school room in Juba: we miss that school room sooooo much!! :-(  Last week, Andrew was able to bring back the children's rulers, maths equipment, reading books and pens- but we are still missing so much. However, we can be resourceful: dry pasta replaces maths counters for Joel, and home-made number lines and alphabets replace the posters still up on the Juba school-room walls... there are ways to continue even while we miss our class-room.

Home-school time in Nairobi: