Monday
My piano lesson this morning has been postponed to Thursday, so we spent the whole morning reading Plato’s Republic instead. Plato never actually says anything himself, but speaks through other characters in debates usually featuring the great philosopher Socrates. My mum and I read Book 1 this morning, which involves a discussion between Socrates and Thrasymachus over many philosophical and political issues, including the definition of justice; why, or if, we should be just; and if we are happier or less happy when we act justly.
In the afternoon, I had a private swimming lesson as no one else showed up! As soon as I got home, I logged onto Damian’s Advanced Problem Solving maths course that restarted today. It was a really fun lesson that predominantly covered mental arithmetic.
Tuesday
This morning, my mum and I got right onto Book Two of Plato’s Republic which you can read here. This chapter introduced Plato’s kallipolis, or the ideal city (from kallos (beauty) and polis (city), as I pieced together from my patchy Greek knowledge!) and where justice comes into play within that utopia.
In the afternoon, I wrote up my summary/analysis of Book Two, did my piano practice, debated with some narrow-minded muppets from my Greek course about the place of what I dubbed “trashy teenage fiction” in society and got called an elitist classist as a result, and then went to the gym in the evening.
Wednesday
The plot thickens. The debate on trashy teenage fiction has evolved into a debate on feminism and its place in the UK. I’ve been called a “Little Miss Ann Widdecombe”, an elitist and a classist (again), and various names that imply my supposed homophobia, racism and sexism. And now all the people in that group hate me. 🤔 It just interests me how ridiculously over-the-top to reaction was to a difference in opinion. They weren’t interested or curious to see what my reasons were for believing that while we’re screaming about tampon tax and school skirt length limits, we could be doing something about the actual problems that women and girls are facing in Saudi, Pakistan and Afghanistan and many other countries. The people on this group were evidently, and rather oddly in my view, absolutely mortified by this suggestion.
Once I had had enough of that conversation, my mum and I went to Costco to stock up on some stuff. I got lunch and a smoothie there while my mum had an eye test, and then we came home and snacked on our new supply of olives!
Afterwards, I did my instrument practice and then watched some Masterchef with my mum. She made a huge delicious chilli for dinner, followed by wine gums and lemon drizzle cake from Costco!
Thursday
I went up to my piano lesson bright and early this morning, but as it has been completely thrown off schedule I think my teacher forgot and was still asleep when I got there! So my next lesson will just be Monday as normal. So instead of having a music lesson my mum and I went on a lovely long walk in the sunshine.
Then we did some planning for the next few weeks. As I’m planning on taking my Latin and Physics GCSEs next January, we’ve decided to do two hours of physics one morning and two hours of Latin the next, alternating on weekdays until Jan when I sit the exams. I’m already about a third of the way through the Physics IGCSE syllabus, and I have Dave’s upcoming Masterclass to help me through it as well.
Afterwards, my mum and I read the third book of Plato’s Republic, in which Socrates discussed exactly which works of literature, pieces of music and works of art should be hidden from the children of the kallipolis. He also introduced his famous myth of the metals.
In the afternoon, I did my instrument practice and had my first maths lesson back with Niall. Then we watched Masterchef with wine gums!
Friday
This morning, I finally did some more physics after such a long break from it! After looking up some helpful GCSE resources to help me out over the next few months, I took a past paper just to see out of interest how well I could do at an exam, knowing only a third of the syllabus! It’s yet to be marked. I could only do 1/3 of the questions but I’m still fairly confident at at least a 6 or 7, as the grade boundaries were so low these last two years (a 9 last year was something as ridiculously low as 60%).
I think one of my favourite things about being home educated is the flexibility. Dropping physics for a few weeks to concentrate on Plato isn’t an option at school, but home education allows for that sort of last minute change in routine.
Weekend
Over the weekend, I started drawing a picture of one of my favourite bands, Skunk Anansie. My favourite songs of theirs include I Can Dream, Because Of You and Lately. This is the photo I’m copying:
Nanny came round on Saturday afternoon, and in the morning I taught my two little LLL students, Georgie and Charlie. It’s been ages since we could have a proper piano lesson as the piano in the library was removed during covid, so it was really nice to get together again and use my keyboard at home. They’d already done some music reading with their mum so they picked up some nursery rhymes and other little songs very quickly. I absolutely adore them and teaching them is so much fun – I hope they enjoy it as much as I do!