The Amazing Discoveries of Brandon

Some days in home education, like yesterday, are a disaster, and other days are really productive.

Yesterday I had planned for us to go to the library and meet the therapy dog like we did last week (thank you Maisie, because of you we managed an hour in the library) but Brandon didn’t want to go. He agreed to try out the home ed hang out in the afternoon… and then we got the message on Facebook that it had finished last week.

It threw me out as much as Brandon and we only did a bit of maths and some remix live. We also had a conversation about what the phrase “press gang” means because the Minecraft youtuber we were watching was making villagers join his army. We googled the history of it and chatted about it and that was yesterday’s learning.

Today was more productive:

• We did “how did Jesus hear from God” in our Who Is Jesus book. And talked about hearing God through the Bible. Brandon didn’t want to read the verses, and I realised that my pressure sensitive boy (a term coined by Dr. Naiomi Fisher) was worried God would make him do stuff. We had a long conversation about how God is love and NEVER forces anyone.

• We started looking at how to crochet. I know Brandon wants to learn, but the pressure of something completely new meant he struggled to even watch me do a chain. We had to have a conversation about how when you feel out of sorts there are better ways of dealing with it than hitting mummy with the crochet hook. It doesn’t sound like progress but it was and we will be able to do more next time.

That’s the thing with pressure sensitive children, you cant underestimate how much time they need.

• I have started doing a thing I’m calling “brain boost” with Brandon – at the moment it is him choosing mindful monster cards to do. Today it lead to spontaneous writing on his part – hooray!

• We did remix the live app and listened to artists in the same genre. We discussed why some sounds sound right and others don’t because they were in time or not.
• Finally we did a story board and stop motion animation. I’m aiming to get Brandon practiced in storytelling, and over time gain a love of it. It improves his English and will be another feather in the quiver towards writing.