That's no obstacle...

I woke up this morning in pain.  Had terrible night's sleep and everything hurt. Girl had been up late reading again and made me a lovely picture at 10 pm at night.

 Thankfully husband had let me sleep in and gave me some time alone to sort myself out.  Did all my physio exercises and a gentle workout to work up a sweat and mobilise the muscles and stretch.  By the time I got out it was 8:30 and the kids had finished breakfast.  I mentioned I wasn't sure what to do with the kids today as we had travelled all day the day before which usually makes them unwilling to leave the house.

'Evie wants to make an obstacle course' he said as he spread peanut butter for his toast.

My back was still pretty fragile so I wasn't keen on doing one of her courses but wanted to encourage her planning one, maybe the teddies could do it, I thought?

In the end, I decided work on her verbalising of her plan and encourage a little writing. It turned out to be more of a 'pre-writing' activity where she verbalised the activities that she set for herself and Solomon.  I walked the obstacle course once to avoid injuring myself.

I am starting to think of these self-directed plans of E's as Project Learning.  I really like when she initiates a project she wants to make or make happen.  However, they are often recipes for frustration as the more I am involved the more scattered she gets making the project bigger and bigger and more and more work.  I have a few strategies I use to try and keep it 'hers' and not too much exhaustion on my part.

Observations about Project Learning

1. Being 'busy' helps keep E choosing the project herself. (going to the toilet, just finishing my coffee, etc when I get back you can tell me how the obstacle course goes. Think about the steps).
2. Telling her I am confused or don't understand makes her work at creating a plan and sticking to it rather than getting more and more excited and adding too many steps that even she can't remember anymore
3. Having to verbalise what she means rather than saying "I'll show you" every time, she learns to describe things.  I am running ( but you can walk mummy if your back is sore) to the greeny blue fence and touching it, then I need to get a red rose from the bush and run back".