Counting

My dear darling husband came home extra early today as he remembered the scene that greeted him yesterday. I told him I'm OK today (relatively) as I'm tanked up on drugs. Sounds exotic that doesn't it. Now he has sent me upstairs to bed to rest for a while so of course I'll blog first. Well, a blog is as good as a rest...

Structure etc: I haven't been structured in that we have workbooks and stuff, but I do like structure - even if only 5 mins a day simply because I've noticed a difference in his attitude. Playtime is one thing but when it wanders down the path of innane activity and sheer boredom then structure isn't harmful. In fact, I can envisgage the time when it will be welcomed more and more. In fact, he came in from the garden last week and *asked* to do some work. And by work he means stickers and concentration time.

The Islamic thing where you play until seven doesn't mean they learn zip, but actually means you can't punish them if they don't learn. That doesn't mean they can't be educated - but just that it is their right not to if that doesn't float their boat. I have gotten a little more "up" on HE since Boss turned 3 (in Jan) simply because so far everything he has been presented with he has soaked up masha'allah so I simply feel it's fair to offer him more things to soak. He likes soaking and so long as it isn't "you vill learn zis or no food" type thing then I'm going to go down that route and cram as many things in his head as I can. I have learned from surprising experience that whatever goes in his head eventually comes out :) masha'allah.

Someone was telling me once (I think it was lmm) that the brain has three ways of processing information: 1) if it accepts it as true and useful then it stores it; 2) if it rejects it as false or unnecessary it loses it; 3) if it doesn't understand it it stores the information in another part of the brain to be processed later (usually in sleep, but sometimes at later stages of development). The Sufis (I do bang on about them alot don't I?) have used this information for aeons and that is why they use teaching stories rather than in-your-face information. Something you may out-right reject if you were conditioned in a certain way may be stored and thought about quite readily if encountered in a different format which the brain doesn't fully understand. Such as a non-rational story.

And while we are on the point, Robert Ornstein in his book Mind Field talks about this approach. Some other books by him can be found here. The man studied under Idries Shah, and although his books aren't about education, the workings of the brain and our pyschology make fascinating reading and help us to unpick ourselves.

Paracetamol: yes, I have come to the conclusion that the life of the mother takes precedent over the kids - after all, if I'm like I was yesterday then the whole house aches! Like I saw on a T-Shirt once in New York: If Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!

Amen.