Introduction to ethics

The TV series Ethics Matters is a really good basic introduction to some of the key issues in Ethics.  I highly recommend it.

It  is currently a series of 12 12-minute videos, each of which introduces a different topic/issue in ethics, such as the environment, nationalism, justice, rights, religion, freedom, etc.

I've decided to start using these videos with my critical thinking / philosophy students (young teens).  We watch the videos together, stopping and starting them and discussing it along the way.  So far it is working well.

Enid Blyton, moral guide

My blog post title is simply following the title of this very interesting article on Enid Blyton.  I highly recommend it.

We have got many dozens of Enid Blyton books here at home.  I loved them as a child.  Mulan and Miya love them.  Blyton's books are among our first chapter books for new readers, and they continue to be loved well into the tween years (or even teen years!).  Whenever we get a new pile of books from a book fair, it is always the Enid Blyton books that get read first.

In other words, there is something about Blyton's books (like Harry Potter, or Roald Dahl) that just seem to appeal.  Her storytelling is simply very, very enjoyable.

But yep, Blyton's morality is sometimes question-raising, and we need to acknowledge those dubious aspects of her moral teaching.  (When I read aloud books to Mulan and Miya, we sometimes discuss together the questionable aspects.)

But nonetheless, the article does a nice job of picking out the morally admirable aspects of Blyton's books -- the bits that make Blyton's books, on the whole, pretty good moral guides for young children.

(There are a few of Blyton's books that I have chosen not to keep, such as the Amelia Jane stories.  Blyton's characters can sometimes be vindictively nasty, but these stories seem to be based entirely around vindictively nasty oneupmanship, and I can't see anything worth keeping in them.)

Solo dad, three daughters

Yup, I'm solo dadding again.

Mama is in China, looking after Laolao, who is in hospital having her pacemaker battery changed.

And I have got an extra daughter at the moment (a teenager, too!), as we have a homestay girl for a couple of months while her family is also in China.

The hardest thing is having to get up at 7 am every morning to get breakfast/lunch organised before our teen leaves for school.  It would be much better if she homeschooled!

More books

'Tis the season of book fairs.

Yesterday, there was the one at Devonport Holy Trinity Church.  They have an unusual system of charging by weight -- $4 per kg I think.

I picked up 53 books for $44.  About 20 of those books are good for Mulan and Miya now, while the rest are either for me or for their future.  I see that Mulan has already started on the new Enid Blyton books.

And two weeks ago we had the annual Rotary book fair at Northcote College.  I paid $33 for probably a similar number of books.

Our books shelves are once again bulging.  Do I need to buy yet another bookcase?!

(PS, these are just the English chapter books.  We've got another five bookcases for English picture books and Chinese books.)

Reluctantly following the school year

It's school holiday time.

That shouldn't make a difference to us homeschoolers, but it does.  In a big way.

The thing is, like it or not (and Mulan does not like it!), homeschoolers mostly follow the school term system, stopping and starting their activities at the same time as the schools.

Sometimes it's because we do the same after-school activities as the schoolers, such as:

• Ballet -- during term-time, Mulan has two classes each week and Miya has one class.
• Music -- during term-time, Mulan has recorder and flute classes, while Miya has recorder and violin classes.
• Swimming -- during term-time, both girls have a class each week.
• Basketball -- during term-time Mulan has a team game (playing for the homeschool team, against school teams).
• Netball -- during winter term-time Mulan has a team game (playing for the homeschool team, against school teams).

But sometimes it's because homeschoolers choose to make their homeschooler classes run with the school system, such as:

• Gymnastics -- during term-time, both girls have a class each week.
• Basketball -- during term-time, Mulan has a skills class and each week.
• Sewing -- both girls have sewing lessons with Nainai and the cousins.

What's more, with our teaching business, both Mama and I contribute to the socially-constructed term-based mentality for children's learning.  Almost all of the children we teach have stopped their lessons over the school holidays.  (In contrast, Mama's adult students are continuing their lessons.)

Nonetheless, despite all this social pressure to stop and start our schooling, my attitude is that learning is a life-long activity that should happen all-year round, day by day, in a gradual way.  To me, learning is no different from eating, sleeping or exercising, as an everyday (mostly) enjoyable activity that continues us along that winding path of self-improvement.

So, here at home, in our little family, completely oblivious to the school holidays around us, we are continuing to do our usual schooling activities.  These include:

• Maths -- both girls work on Khan Academy every day.
• Silent reading -- both girls read every day (Mulan reads at least an hour or two every day).
• I read aloud to both girls most days.
• Social studies -- most days as a family we watch and discuss history/geography YouTube videos (eg Geography Now and Khan Academy).
• Chinese -- Mama does lessons with the girls every couple of days.
• Ukulele -- Yeye gives lessons once a week.
• Tennis -- the girls and I play once a week.
• And heaps of the usual family discussions (and play) that are hard to label but grow the critical thinking skills and general knowledge.

Congratulations Miya

Miya is now independently reading chapter books.

A few weeks ago, I started reading the Animal Ark Pets series of books to Miya and Mulan.  I read the first book, Puppy Puzzle, and got halfway through the second book, Kitten Crowd.

But about a week or so ago, Miya couldn't wait to hear the rest of the story, and so she took the book and finished it by herself.  She then continued on to the next book, Rabbit Race, and beyond.

She also picked up our Nook e-reader, which has the Magic Tree House series on it, and has continued reading those by herself.  (I had previously read up to number 13 in that series to her.)

I think I can safely say that our project to get Miya reading, which we started 15 months ago, has been a success.  (I blogged about it in August last year, with an update this April.)

Congratulations Mulan

Yesterday, Mulan finished her US 6th Grade maths at Khan Academy.

She is now working on 7th Grade, and as of today has finished 24%.  (There is some overlap between grades, so some skills mastered in 6th Grade are counted as mastered in 7th Grade.)

Miya is also doing very well, and has completed 70% of 3rd Grade.

I last wrote about the girls' maths work in January.  Since writing that, we have slowed down a little with regards to introducing new skills.  The girls are still doing some Khan Academy every day, but on many days they are consolidating skills by repeating already "mastered" "practices", rather than continuing on with introducing new skills.

My general rule of thumb with how much new stuff to introduce to them is that it is okay if they can't do the work completely independently, but of the bits of the problem that I talk with them about, they need to be able to understand my explanations and do the steps of calculations themselves.