What would I do without the BBC?

Today's education came courtesy of the BBC.

I'm convinced that I could educate my children using nothing but the BBC schools and learning sites.

Today ds2 spent 45 minutes on maths, including these three games from the BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/maths/aliencookbook.shtml, http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/dynamo/den/index.shtml, and http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/dynamo/den/shopping/index.htm. Again, all of these are focusing on cooking/money themes as this has definately grabbed his interest.

My youngest (3 1/2) insisted that he wanted to "do MY learning" after watching his brother, so he also went on the site. He is a whizz on the pc and knows his way around the "favourites" section of the internet - he even has his own log-in on my pc. He spent 25 minutes just playing these two games: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/numbertime/games/find.shtml and http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/numbertime/games/find_the.shtml.

I left ds1 to his own devices but he too spent most of his hour's learning on the BBC site.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/parents/search/ allows you to search by age, type of learning and/or subject. There are also other greats finds here http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ and http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/. In particular, their Skillswise section aimed at adults needing to brush up on their skills, is just right for some real life-based learning for older children.

The boys have a Reward Certificate - every time they carry out any work they get an appropriate sticker. When the Certificate is full, they get to chose the meal that the family has that night. I'm hoping that none of them realise that they could therefore ask to go out, but that they just select what they want me to cook! It will either be pasta/mexican (ds1), pizza/sausages (ds2) or chips and "dipdip" (ketchup) if ds3 makes it.

I'm thinking of asking for my own reward certificate so that I can choose for someone else to cook - perhaps I should suggest that they chose take out...