BBC Programmes for Schools, Teaching Literacy, and Being Evicted!

No photographs this time, I'm afraid, as the weather has been rubbish for the past ten days - rain, rain, and yet more rain - and we've been mainly working indoors, which doesn't make for exciting photographs. So instead I shall give you my own personal favourite ... words!

Two or three mornings per week, the BBC shows Programmes for Schools that provide useful resources for my (nearly) five year old boys. Generally, these programmes tend to be for Key Stage 1 children, which is the school year above them, but since they've been doing so much concentrated literacy work over the past six months, they do seem to be taking KS1 work in their stride. So why not?

Today, as an example of what I mean, it was Look and Read, followed later by English Express (for slightly older children). They loved the Captain Crimson cartoon character in Look and Read, and it was good to see so many words flashed up on the screen as they were used, but oddly enough, I think they took more away from watching English Express, which was exploring adverbs and adjectives today. It was a more carefully structured programme, using lists of adjectives and showing how they turn into adverbs when we add 'ly' to the end. Look and Read is fun, but I think even 5 - 7 year old kids would need a lot of support to actually take away something useful from watching it, as it takes the form of a story and there is less emphasis on formal knowledge.

Although I love things that are fun, as do my boys, I don't subscribe to the current belief that young children can somehow learn by osmosis - not formal things like how to turn an adjective into an adverb, anyway. But I wouldn't be without the BBC Programmes for Schools series, so I shouldn't gripe. They really are useful resources to use alongside more formal teaching with a whiteboard or worksheets. But obviously, their greatest use only comes if you prepare for the programme beforehand, and then afterwards discuss it with the kids or do some worksheets or other written activities based on what we saw.

I know many - if not most, perhaps - homeschooling parents will groan at that schoolteacherish attitude. But I have yet to be persuaded that the softly-softly, laissez-faire approach to literacy works. At least, not unless you are prepared to stay calm and wait several years before your kids can read or write with any fluency. And being a writer by profession, I am most definitely not content to wait. Being able to read and write is absolutely vital in my everyday life. So formal activities are what we do, and that 'worksheet and book' approach is certainly working, as both boys - even Morris, with his 'Special Needs' - appear to be working above the national average for their age in terms of literacy.

On a more personal note, we heard recently that we are being evicted from our lovely home in the countryside and will probably end up living in the nearest town now, due to financial pressures. The landlord has decided to sell up, and we have only about five or six weeks to find a new place to live. A difficult and trying time for us all here, as you can imagine. Particularly for the youngest children, perhaps, who have never really known another home.

But never fear, we should still be based within the borders of Warwickshire, so the blog name will not have to change!