Wishing you calm seas,
Dana

I, too, have a 3 and 5 year old, and we are setting sail this Fall on a 44′ Cat. I am a certified teacher with a master’s degree, so am very excited to get to plan their education. My question is… how do you determine which books to bring aboard. I LOVE to read, and am going to have such a hard time deciding between books, especially reference books that can be so valuable in real-life learning situations! Any suggestions based on your experiences?

So glad to find your site, filled with encouraging education information!
Sarah

A number of peple have written to me on the subject of learning to read. I am intending to write short article on the subject – but, in the meantime, here are some thoughts which seek to answer your question:

Phonics can work for some kids but it certainly doesn’t work for all. In my experience (based on teaching my own children and watching other people’s ) I should say that phonics works only with people who have logical, tidy minds. The sort of person who can get to grips with maths at an early age may well learn to read by using some form of phonics.

The trouble with phonics is that it isn’t as logical as we would like to imagine. Merely teaching the child to pronounce A as in bat, and B as “Buh”, and C as “Cuh” doesn’t work – not in English anyway. In some languages the pronounciation of words and letters is very orderly, but the English language is a wonderful mish-mash of lingos, all stirred around and served up with complete disregard for any rules.

Phonetics is really only appropriate when it deals not with individual letters but with chunks. People learning to read memorise those chunks. eg. Mem-or-rise
This is the way in which my (very logical-minded) son learnt to read. I know this, not because I made him do it that way but because, like most small kids he began by reading out loud. I was able to hear him sounding out the words, bite by bite.

My elder daughter, who is very clever but who has a very “anti-logical” way of thinking learnt to read by simply recognising the words. Every word was photographed by her amazing mind, filed, and never forgotten!

The crucial thing, as with all teaching, is to be led by the child. Let him do it his way.
And relax – cos it’s really very, very easy!

Jill

UPDATE: The article on learning to read is now on line

I have just ordered your book and my husband has read your site inside and out. We have just moved onto our 48ft catamaran in the whitsundays Australia with our 5 and 3 year old. Though I still fight the deep seated program of formal education ( with well meaning family reminding me) your approach is what seems to feel right and we will continue with that.

As it will take a month or so for your book to arrive I was wondering if you could clarify why you feel phonics is not a good teaching method.
Also any imedidiate activitie ideas to keep a 3 year old girl and 5 year old boy occupied would be good.

Thanks for all your experiences on the site. A highly valuable tool for beginners to the experienced I’m sure.

Happy safe sailing to you and the family.
Thankyou
Lou

It’s always great to hear from people who are “schooling” their children in the same informal way; and, as you have already discovered, it’s an effective way and it’s fun for the whole family.
I think the idea of sending your kids to school, for short periods, in a foreign country is a very good one. We never really did this – largely because the kids didn’t want to – but I’ve noticed that cruising kids who spend time in schools in other counties always seem to end up being fluent in other languages. For example, we know a young French man who grew up cruising. He is completely fluent in English, having spent some time in schools in South Africa and England, and he also speaks Spanish and Portuguese.

Jill

Love the redesigned website! We are a family of 4 (mum, dad, Bethany aged 11 and Bryn aged 10) who are now in our 3rd year of cruising and homeschooling. We started off with UK curriculum-based materials (CGP workbooks) but now have a much more relaxed attitude to how Beth and Bryn learn, and a much better understanding of where their strengths and weaknesses lie. We now do projects on whatever the children are interested in, we learn (together as a family) about the history, geography, culture, religion, and customs of wherever we are, and we try to involve the children in helping us deal with the practical problems of boat life. While people are often fascinated to hear about our life, one of the first questions we get asked is what will we do about the children sitting exams. I often come back and re-read your articles on homeschooling — it reminds me that we are not alone and not totally weird! We are currently wintering in Greece and the children are going to school for a couple of months — their first taste of it for 3 years. They take in our boat school project materials to work on when they can’t join in and the whole episode is just to make friends and learn a bit of Greek. They are enjoying the experience, but we are all looking forward to getting back to ‘normal’ boat school — where we all learn a lot more! I hope that we get to meet you guys somewhere, someday. I was interested to see the link with Clare Collins, Llangollen and Chirk — I was brought up in Llangollen and lived in sight of the canal.

Sarah

I have just been reading about home schooling & I so need to meet you guys again one day!
I would have been worried too about if I could cope with home teaching, but your worries have been blown away eh!

Incredible kids, well incredible family!
Makes me feel a bit of a dullard!

Good on you!

Bear

Roxanne

Sorry I ask weird questions all the time. Sometimes they’re not weird, it’s just the voice I speak in.