Often, when people start to think about homeschooling their children, they worry that they won't be able to afford it. They are concerned about the potential cost of resources, homeschool groups or coops, and the loss of income if one parent has to give up work to stay home with the children.
I am often surprised at this time of year at the amount of rotting fruit on trees and bushes. I don't just see it in wild places but in gardens too. Apple trees laden with fruit leaning over garden walls or pears scattered across the grass at the park that are mostly left untouched by humans. Why is this? Hundreds of us go strawberry picking at local farms during the summer but come autumn we have abandoned our hunter gatherer instincts in favour of the safety of the supermarkets.
I have a confession to make. I started to write this blog post over a year ago but at that point I was still figuring out how to actually homeschool with a baby around. I waited and waited because I was waiting for it to get easier. I mean, babies aren't difficult forever are they? But the thing is, it started off way easier than it is now.
Muslimori has been teaching Arabic to students of all ages since she moved to the UK from Egypt after completing a degree in linguistics and translation. Her university dissertation looked at the problems foreign learners encounter while attempting to learn Arabic. After witnessing the struggles language learners had with learning the Arabic language, she thought there must be an easier way for them to learn.
I love nature. I live it and I breathe it. It calms me, inspires me and reaches deep into my soul. Outdoors is my happy place. With the grass under my feet and the sky overhead. With the sounds of my children's laughter and shrieks of delight when they stumble upon a minibeast they haven't seen before. 'Mum, come and look at this', they cry. Their excitement is catching and soon I am enthralled by a tiny moving creature and wonder at the beauty of nature.
It seems ironic that I am writing an article about getting outdoors in bad weather in the middle of June. We are on the brink of summer but the weather is far from summery. In fact, it has rained everyday for over a week now where I am. Not only is it wet, it is also cold and I occasionally have to put the heating on! This is something I never do in June, but I guess we never can predict the great British weather!
In order to speak clearly and make themselves understood, a child must be able to say each speech sound accurately and be able to string these sounds together to make words and phrases. If a child cannot do this, it may be hard to understand them. Children may not acquire the full repertoire of speech sounds until they are 5-8 years old. There are developmental milestones for speech sound acquisition, therefore, different sounds are acquired at different ages. The sounds p, b, t, d, m and w are among the first sounds to be learnt and r and th may be among the last.
