All of our 4 children have learned to read with the system created by Erik V. Hansen – Alkalær. His books has become a happy part of their childhood now.
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Learning from the elders
In a society where the main focus is on the benefits of age segregation, we focus mainly on the benefits of age integration in our home school. Learning to mix with all age groups gives you a greater tolerance and understanding of the different periods of human life. You will learn not to fear death, but accept it as a part of life, just as giving birth to little helpless babies. To see and feel that humans have different needs and abilities during a life span is a great part of learning to be a complete person. To show compassion with elders, who do not react as fast as young people, may have age handicaps, and to see them as wise experienced people that you can learn from.
Last year my mother died and left my dad on his own after more than 50 years of marriage. This has given us an opportunity to take care of him and learn all those exiting skills from him, that he knows.
Luckily, he enjoys telling about his life and about his experiences.
He has taught the children how to draw perspective:
Taught us how to use a scythe:
Let us experiment with a planer in his workshop:
Growing Crystals
We have made quite a few crystals during the years, and it is always like magic. This is the most recent one – a glow in the dark crystal.
Our friend Bob
2 months ago we found some moldy bread in the kitchen. Great opportunity to make it grow. Immediately we found a name for it – Bob. So Bob was put into a plastic bag and given a place to live in our kitchen, where he could develop in peace and in a non stressful environment. So we have been looking at him once in a while the past 2 months. This is what he looks like now.
Acid and base test with red cabbage 2019-04-07
Doing simple experiments with things you can find in your kitchen is cool. We like doing acid base tests with red cabbage. It is a simple harmless thing you can do with all age groups. And they can easily see that something happens. They can all take part. In this experiment, we mix red cabbage, boiling water and Sodium hydroxide. That strong base will change the colour to first green, then blue then end at yellow. Then the other glass is red cabbage, boiling water and lemon. That acid mixture will turn red.
Sinus, cosinus and tangens.
Studying an area and then making a lecture in front of an audience, is a good way to learn about a subject and making the knowledge stick in your mind. We use that as a general way of learning. The children choose a subject, then study it and then tell about it.
Making Posters as part of learning.
When we want to summarize what we have learned or a subject is hard for us to remember, we make posters. Our whole house is full of them. It is also a good way to easily look up formulas or grammar during teaching. The younger kids also benefit, they walk by and read about what they find interesting. Then we get a chance to talk with them about new areas.
At the end of the year each of our kids make a poster with the different areas they have learned about in math.
Visiting Esrum kloster 2017-06-01
Esrum Monastery is a great place to visit and learn about the reformation in many different hands on ways. There is a game room, where you can play a game where you can choose to represent or support the church or the king. Then you play against each others teams and learn about the different influences and powers which ruled then.
It is also situated in very beautiful surroundings. There is a large playground and a medicinal garden.
Making smoke rings with a Vortex Canon and smoke bombs.
Today we got to try out if we could make smoke rings with a Vortex Canon and smoke bombs. It worked! We had seen it at a Maker Space arrangement, and thought it could be so cool to try. The Vortex Canon works with air pressure. It is very simple, you pull back an elastic inside the cylinder.
Visiting the Barbie Museum 2017-09-12
As a child I really loved to play with Barbie dolls. It was an amazing universe for me. I build houses and made clothes for my dolls. Actually it was my start into learning to sew. I keept most of my dolls and their accessories until I got children of my own. When they were old enough, they were allowed to play with them.
My children has continued the fondness for Barbie and I get so happy when I see them play. When we found out that Lene Darlie Pedersen had collected more than 4000 dolls, we had to go see her amazing museum. http://barbiemuseum.dk/
The dolls shows fashion through the past 50 years and Barbies development. The owner took us through the exhibition on a personal tour, where we could ask questions and was also allowed to have a look around on our own at the end of our visit. It was truly amazing.
The owner had started out collecting porcelain dolls, but found they were too expensive. But Barbie was affordable, so she could add new dolls to her collection frequently.
