Our “Wunder-Neighbour”
I have to now introduce another teacher-figure into our little family school – our neighbour, Phyllis. I am in total awe of this retired spinster, who has not only lead a full and most interesting life, but has the most amazing recollection I have ever come across in anyone of events from when she was a young child (ie knee-high to a grasshopper) through to the present day.
Phyllis has been a great source of inspiration and practical support ever since we began our home schooling endeavour, not only offering to take the children off my hands whilst I was revising for my final degree exams, but even taking them to the park and teaching them how to do those blessed su dokus! I think Phyllis is probably of the same ilk as Gary and I, in that she is genuinely interested in life and knowledge, and is only too keen to assist those others showing the same capacity to learn.
It was our
initial agreement that Phyllis would teach the children twice a week, and these
lessons would incorporate geography and history. The geography was to focus on the differences
in landscape and environment between
History
As I mentioned above, Phyllis has the most amazing recall about her life, and this talent enabled her to teach World War II history from a very personal, as well as factual, point of view. It became a social as well as political history, so the children learned about what the war seemed like to a child of 4 or 5 – the games they used to play; stories about older relatives involved in the war effort; VE day street parties; how 1940s housewives had to clean their homes without the benefit of vacuum cleaners, and so on. Each week, Phyllis would carefully produce a “chapter” of her story which the children would read through with her, and then answer some questions. Thus a little comprehension was also thrown in! She was also diligent about including the more political issues of the day, such as Winston Churchill’s great wartime speeches (which they were able to listen to on a CD-ROM) and the major military campaigns of the war.
Although I had made a conscious decision not to get involved in adding to anything Phyllis was teaching them, we had not long previously bought the “Horrible Histories Woeful World War II” CD by Terry Deary. The children love listening to this and learning about the blackouts, the blitz, gas masks, and why black cows had to be painted with white stripes!
About two thirds of the way through their history course, the children, Phyllis and I took a trip to the Imperial War Museum in London. There is, of course, much to see at a place like this, and we certainly didn’t attempt to cover it all. However, the best exhibit for the children was, understandably, “The Children’s War”. This included the “1940s House” set – both Phyllis and I have the book of this TV series, so the children were looking forward to seeing it in real life! Suddenly, all the things which Phyllis had talked to them about were there in front of them, for real: the Morrison Shelter under the dining room table; the Anderson Shelter (which they actually sat in and exclaimed at how small it was); the mangle used for wringing out the laundry, and the tin bath.
It is, I think, difficult talking a child to a museum since we forget, as adults, just how much there is to take in. We are then in danger of being disappointed when the children lose interest or don’t take time looking at the exhibits we think are worth stopping at. However, “The Children’s War” exhibition was a definite success, as were all the arms and artillery on display.