Monthly Archives: October 2012

A mini round up

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I’m blogging this week now because I won’t have time over the weekend, and I’ve already posted about Monday, so just three days to round up.

On Tuesday, I went to Toddler group with Tiddler, leaving Rabbit at home with Supergirl and the boys, as she wasn’t feeling well, again.  I met a lovely mum, new to the area, who is home educating and I enjoyed chatting with her, and some of the other mums.  We spent most of the rest of the day at home.  Among other things, Rabbit made a lovely sparkly door hanger, Tiddler tipped the glitter on the floor and Monkey and Rabbit made an ice cream van, more detailed than Monday’s one but I failed to get a photo.  At the end of the afternoon, Owl and Monkey had their swimming lessons.

On Wednesday, after several nights with Rabbit in our bed coughing all night, I took her to the doctor’s.  Although she was, of course, feeling better by the time we got there, my suspicions were confirmed and she was diagnosed with a chest infection.  At least we now have antibiotics, so I hope she will be better soon.  She has had enough of being ill, poor thing.   In the afternoon, Owl, Tiddler and I went for a walk in the woods with Home Education group.  We had a lot of fun, got very muddy and enjoyed the company of our friends.  The children had fun splashing in puddles, collected a few more (rather damp) leaves and looked at lots of interesting mushrooms.  In the evening, Monkey went to Beavers.

Today we had a day at home.  The big three wrote Autumn poems and did a bit more of their Prehistory project.  Rabbit did some knitting, Monkey did some Hama beads and I read Bible stories to both of them.  In the evening, Owl was invested at cubs.

Over the three days they have done Reading Eggs, Conquer Maths, Mathletics and Spellodrome, and music practice.  Tiddler did some colouring and the big three did quite a lot of Maths.  Owl finished the chapter on Time in his Galore Park book, Monkey worked on the three times table with Multilink cubes, and Rabbit did a page about circles in her Thomas shapes workbook, and continued writing numbers and drawing pictures to match.  Monkey and Rabbit also drew numbers using templates, and did some weighing with the balance scales.  They have also done some French (clothes, days of the week and food.)

I feel that this post needs something more, but it’s nearly 2am and I have to be up in three hours, so I just need to publish it now.  I have photos to add but don’t know when I’ll find time to do it.  So, for now, I’ll leave you with a joke made up by Monkey.

What do you call a pig in the bushes? A hedgehog.

A typical home ed day in pictures

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There is no such thing as a typical home ed day, which is one of the things I love about home education, but this is what we did today anyway.

Owl and Monkey played with Lego in their bedroom after breakfast, and then Monkey came down and joined in with the little ones playing with the wooden railway and Lego Duplo.

After that, we had some Maths table time, and Rabbit continued with a project she started last week, drawing pictures for each number – she is up to number 5.  Then she started playing with the small (unifix? not sure what they are) cubes, and I offered her a sheet with numbers 1-12 for her to add the right number of cubes to, which she really enjoyed.  Monkey did a page from a workbook about telling the time.  I had suggested a different piece of work, about times tables, but he wanted to do the time one instead.  He used the Plan Toys wooden clock to help him.  Owl did a set of questions about subtracting time from his Galore Park text book.  Monkey also made a rather excellent Multilink cube man!

Monkey, Rabbit and Tiddler made an ice cream van and played in it for a while.

Then I took Owl and Monkey to their piano lessons.  Their teacher is a friend of mine, and while each one had his lesson I sat at her kitchen table and did Bible Reading with the other one.

When we got back we had a very quick bit of English table time before lunch.  Rabbit drew some leaves and traced over the word which I wrote for her, and Owl and Monkey finished off their Autumn mind maps which we started last week.  We are planning to write some poems this week.  Rabbit then went and made a beach scene in the playroom, and played in it with her baby doll for a little while.

After lunch we played the Tell the Time lotto game, and then my friend came to visit with her three children (4 year old twins and a 2 year old.)  We did some French, using flash cards as a starting point.  I asked the children if they could match some of their toy animals and vehicles to some of the cards, and they did a few but then one of the children wanted to match a toy helicopter to a card, but there wasn’t one, so Monkey made one for him.  We then talked about which French words would be most useful when we go to France, and decided that food words were the most important.  I asked Owl what he would like to be able to order in a restaurant, and he said chips, so he made a flash card as well.  The other children mainly played with toy animals and vehicles, and Rabbit made a field out of crepe paper for one of the horses.

Owl did some research about France on the internet, and then he and Monkey and Rabbit made French flags.  The little ones played and the twins did some excellent drawings (a car in a hole, and a fish with lots of faces!)  After that I read some poems to the children, until it was time for our friends to go home.

This evening Owl had his first rehearsal at Strings group, and before, during and after that various other things got done (BBC Bitesize Science, Mathletics, Spellodrome, Piano and Violin practice, tidying up and hoovering.)  Looking back over the photos I can see it was quite a productive day, though at the time it didn’t really feel like it, so I’m glad I did this post, even though I am up at 1.30am writing it!

Ups and downs this weekend

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I feel like I need a ticker across the top of my blog with the names of those currently ill in our house, just to save time.  It seems that every other blog post I find myself writing that someone was ill again.  On Friday night and Saturday morning it was me (feeling sick, tummy pains, couldn’t sleep.)  Suburban dad was heroic, and did breakfast without me then took Tiddler to Dramabuds.  The others decided that they wanted a pyjama day, and had a good time playing, watching TV and doing various Lego-related things on the computer.  They were very happily occupied, so I stayed in bed nearly all morning.  Which would have been more enjoyable if I wasn’t feeling ill, but I appreciated it anyway.

In the afternoon, Suburban dad and I went to the final rehearsal for our choral society concert, while Supergirl and her friend looked after the children.  I was feeling a bit better, though not great, and determined not to miss the opportunity of singing in the concert.  After the rehearsal, we dashed to M&S to buy an outfit for me to wear (I have lost a lot of weight since I last sang with the choir, and the clothes I used to wear have long since been taken to the charity shop.)  We came home, gave the children supper and got ready to go out, and my friend (R) came over to babysit, so Supergirl and her friend could come to the concert.  We sang Durufle’s Requiem and it was hard but I enjoyed it.

Rabbit has also been feeling unwell again, and she got worse last night.  She spent about half the night in our bed coughing and complaining of tummy ache.  This morning, I was feeling too ill and tired to go to church, and I suggested that Rabbit might like to stay at home with me, but she really wanted to go with the others.  I had quite a productive morning of housework at home while they were at church then playing with friends afterwards.  Rabbit was sick again, though probably just as a result of coughing so much.

We had some more friends over for lunch (R and her family), and they stayed for the afternoon.  All the children played very nicely, and did some more Hama beading, while we chatted and carried on with the housework.  R did some ironing (Hama beads and clothes) until her husband arrived, at which point she stopped in case he got any funny ideas about her doing this at home!  I am very grateful for all her help.  She is the best sort of friend – the kind who leaves the house tidier than when she arrived, even when her three children are with her.  Suburban dad built Rabbit’s new wardrobe, having dismantled the old one which we are fairly sure still had mould spores in it from our damp and mould saga of a couple of years ago.  Owl and Monkey also have a new wardrobe, which arrived on Friday, and Tiddler has their old one, so now it is technically possible to put all the clothes away at once there is no excuse…I will have to tackle the laundry mountain.  I have made considerable progress today, and the bottom of the laundry basket is in sight.  There’s a long way to go with the ironing basket though.  (Might have to invite R around again soon.)

So, overall, more ups than downs this weekend.  Even if, at the end of it, two of us are still unwell.  And counting…

Hama heaven and the MP who came to tea

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I recently ordered some more Hama beads and they arrived before we went away last week, but we didn’t have time to do it until we got back on Friday.  When I opened the parcel, the children were in Hama heaven, and it kept them quiet for about an hour.

  When I placed the order, I thought it would be enough to last a while, but they already have a list of certain colours they need, so I expect we’ll be back to order more soon.  It was a very peaceful way to spend an afternoon and it occupied the children very well while we talked to our MP (Tom Brake) who came to visit us.  We talked about my Select Committee appearance, and the issues around support for home education.  Owl then asked him how he was going to save our local hospital, and he explained about the campaign he is running.  We also talked about his role as Deputy Leader of the House of Commons and what that involves.  It was an interesting afternoon and a lot of learning went on (not just the children!)  The Hama beads kept the peace throughout the conversation, and I was very pleased with the results.
  Rabbit made the Maxi bead square by herself and then the butterfly with a lot of help from Supergirl and me.  Monkey made the house, the crossed arrow heads and the heart, and Owl made the pine tree with pine cones.  They had so many other ideas that they didn’t have time to complete, so I think they will use the beads as fast as I can buy them.  It looks like they will be on the Christmas lists this year.

Friday round up – 19th October 2012

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Another week has flown by.  Last Saturday, Tiddler went to Dramabuds, Owl went to football and the other two had a quiet morning at home.  I think they have all given up on ballet, for the moment at least, which is a bit sad but makes Saturday mornings easier.  In the afternoon all the boys had haircuts, and we did a bit of shopping.  On Sunday after church, the little ones went swimming with daddy, and the big ones stayed at home with me.  They hadn’t tidied their bedrooms despite being given ridiculous amounts of time to do it, so they weren’t allowed to go swimming.  Instead we spent the afternoon trying to sort out their enormous jumbled up Lego collection a bit, and we made some progress.  I think we’d probably need about a week with no interruptions to finish the job though.

Monday started off badly, with lots of small things going wrong, then it got better as the boys had their piano lessons, enjoyed themselves and had made lots of progress.  The day got dramatically worse with the scooter incident (in another post), and the rain which made us abandon the park as soon as we arrived.  However our friends came home with us, and the children had a lovely time, so it ended well.

From Tuesday to Thursday we were at my mum’s house, which was very restful.   On the first day Rabbit was ill again, but she recovered quite quickly.  The children played with Lego, cars, puzzles and games, decorated some teddy cutouts, drew pictures, listened to stories and made biscuits.  They also did a fair bit of Maths (time, times tables, doubling), English (handwriting, alphabetical order and using a dictionary, reading, a mind map for an Autumn poem) and Science (space, rocks and volcanoes).  Owl did a bit of History (the Bronze Age)  and some Latin.  We fitted in violin practice, Reading Eggs, Conquer Maths, Mathletics, Spellodrome and BBC Bitesize Science.  We had two trips to the swings at the village green, and they played in the garden.  They collected leaves and conkers, played Stuck in the mud, Grandmother’s footsteps, Hide and seek and What’s the time Mr Wolf?  On one of the trips to the green, a friend (an eight year old boy) came with us, and the children had a good time playing with him.

       

Today we came home, and I took Rabbit and Tiddler to Musicbox.  The big three did Reading Eggs and Mathletics, Maths, English, History and Geography, and studied the Lego Christmas catalogue in great detail.  We spent the afternoon peacefully Hama beading, while chatting to our MP who kindly came to visit us after he had to cancel an arrangement to meet with us on the day we went to Parliament for the Select Committee hearing.  Some excuse about having been made deputy leader of the House of Commons the day before, I believe.  This evening we went for supper at our local restaurant, which is very good, and properly child-friendly in an Italian way.  It was a very good end to the week.

How my children see me meme

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I suppose it’s only fair that I should join in, having laughed at appreciated the others so much.  This meme was started here and I was tagged by Merry.  This is what happened when I asked my children to draw me.  First I asked Tiddler, but he said “No, you draw me!”  So that was that.  Well, he is only two.  Then I asked Rabbit, and she said “Can I draw daddy?”  I managed to persuade her to draw me in the end.  It was touch and go.  She started several attempts and threw them away, so I thought she was going to give up but in the end she drew this.  She even asked me what colour I would like my dress to be.  I think I could live with looking like that.

By Rabbit (aged 4)

Monkey and Owl took it very seriously and spent a long time observing me carefully.  Which meant Supergirl had to start cooking the supper without me in the end as it was getting rather late and every time I tried to move one of them shouted “Stand still!”  They both drew me in the clothes I was actually wearing, which were (as always) jeans and a hooded sweatshirt.  I was impressed by their attention to detail.  Monkey asked me to take off my patterned slippers (too difficult to draw) so he could draw my socks instead.  I did try to explain artistic license, but he wasn’t interested.

By Monkey (aged 6)

When I told Owl the title of the meme, he said “How I see you is with Tiddler clinging to you, which happens quite a lot.”  Poor boy.  It made me want to go and cuddle him, but I wasn’t allowed to move.

By Owl (aged 8)

I’m tagging The Adequate Parent.

Support for Home Education

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At the beginning of September I was interviewed as a witness by the Select committee on Support for Home Education.  I wrote briefly about the day in this post, but intended to follow up with a more detailed summary of the session.  I thought I would be able to come back and write more about it after taking the time to process it, but what has happened really is that I have forgotten a lot of the detail.  I could watch it but I have no desire to see myself “on TV” so that’s out.  I could read the transcript – I have skimmed through it once, and really meant to come back to it, but it never rises to the top of my to-do list.  But I know that some people have expressed an interest in hearing more about it, and I really appreciate that, so I shall do my best.

In July I wrote a written submission in response to the Select committee’s call for evidence, after discussing the issues with other local home educators.  I went into a lot of detail on the first point, “the duties of local authorities with regard to home education”, because I believe that many LAs, mine included, don’t have a clear idea of what their duties are and tend to make it up as they go along.  I spent several enjoyable hours picking apart our LA’s website, highlighting areas where it misrepresents the law on home education, and fails to follow the Elective Home Education Guidelines for Local Authorities (2007.)  I then rather hastily put together the rest of the submission at the eleventh hour, but there must have been enough in it that was useful for them to consult me further.  Let’s just say that in exam terms I did enough revision the night before to scrape through.

The legal basis for home education in the UK is found in Section 7 of the Education Act (1996) which states that

“The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable ;

a) to his age, ability, and aptitude, and

b) to any special educational needs he may have,

either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.”

It is quite clear that the legal responsibility for the education of children rests with their parents.  They may or may not choose to use schools to deliver that education, but there is no legal requirement for them to do so.  The 2007 guidelines make it clear that “Parents are not required to register or seek approval from the local authority to educate their children at home.”  Many local authority websites directly contradict the law and mislead parents to such an extent that the widespread ignorance about the legality of home education is somewhat understandable.

I think most home educators would agree that innaccurate legal information on Local Authority websites is unacceptable.  The issues get more complex, though, when you look at the question of what, if any, support should be offered for home education.  There are many in the home ed community who are completely opposed to any form of registration, even if it is voluntary, and therefore do not want any support at all.  There are others who feel equally strongly that there should be financial and other support available to all families who wish to home educate.  I found it difficult to do anything other than sit on the fence on this issue, especially as I was trying to represent the views of our very diverse local home ed community, but I did find that being involved in the discussion helped to clarify my views a little.  While I believe that mandatory registration would be unacceptable, I think that there may be a case for voluntary registration to access support.  I know that some home educators believe it would ultimately lead to enforced registration, which is a serious concern.  However, I feel very strongly that the right to home educate should be available to all families.  I believe that single parents and families on low incomes should be able to make this choice freely, and it should not just be another form of private education for the privileged few.

One thing that came across clearly from the discussion was that there is a postcode lottery, with some LAs adhering to the law and providing useful support and others offering nothing but misleading information.  Although there are some examples of good practice, there is such a long history of negative attitudes from many LAs that it is doubtful that support could come from them and be welcomed by the wider home ed community.  One of the witnesses suggested that a neutral service provider such as the library service would be a better way of delivering support, and I really hope that this idea will be followed up.

The next session of the committee will take place this Wednesday morning, when some of the LAs will be giving oral evidence.  It should be interesting to watch, but if you are a home educator you may find this helpful to get you through the morning.  Enjoy!

Days like this

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We all get them from time to time.  Days when nothing seems to go right.  It’s been like that today, though it did get a bit better towards the end.  I’ll spare you the details.  Just the usual kind of things that go wrong when you have very little sleep and a lot of children, and it all seems too much.  I don’t know what it is about today, but I have lost count of the number of facebook posts I have read from people who have had a bad day.  I could have posted something similar, and in a certain mood I would have done.  But two things have put my day in perspective today.

This afternoon I was on the way to the park to meet a friend and her children, and all my children were on their scooters.  Maybe it was a bit ambitious, though I did have the buggy with me as well.  They were all being sensible and Tiddler was listening, doing what he was told and stopping when I asked him.  Then suddenly he lost control of his scooter.  He sped up at just the wrong moment as we were heading towards a road we had to cross, and the pavement sloped down sharply towards the corner.  As the other three were slowing down to stop, Tiddler sailed past and was clearly going to land in the road.  Although I had been right next to him, he was suddenly out of reach and there was nothing I could do to stop him.  I couldn’t see round the corner so I had no idea if there were any cars coming.  Thankfully there weren’t, but he fell off his scooter right in the middle of the road and it was maybe two or three seconds before I got to him.  It felt like a long time.  I was quite shaken up when I got to the park.  Almost as soon as we arrived, it started to rain, and we all came back to our house.  The day got better from that point because the children played together really well and I enjoyed my friend’s company.  But also because I knew it could have been a day that changed my life forever.  And because it wasn’t, the little things that had gone wrong didn’t seem so bad after all.

The second thing that has put my day in perspective is that today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day today.  All over the world, in every time zone, candles were lit at 7pm, in remembrance of babies who have died, and families who have been affected.  This is our candle.  It is not our story, but it is the story of many friends of mine.  Too many.  I am remembering.  I know how lucky I am.  I am thankful for what I have.

Friday round up – 12th October 2012

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At the end of last week, I thought we were more or less over the sickness bug, though that didn’t turn out to be the case.  On Friday we had another day at home with ill and recovering children, but as the day went on they all seemed to be fine and we had quite a nice time.  Owl, Monkey and Rabbit did a little more work on their Prehistory project, which we haven’t done anything with since before the summer.  We received a parcel from PlayMerrily which caused a lot of excitement, with boots for the little ones, a crystal science kit and a sewing kit.

Owl and I had a go at the crystal science kit, but it wasn’t that successful.  I was rather distracted, we were too hasty, I’m not sure what went wrong but we have some rather tiny crystals.  We need to wait until all the lovely green water evaporates off and then have another go I suppose.  I started the sewing kit with Rabbit, then she did some more knitting and we all continued making the pompoms we had started the day before.  Granny (my mum) was here too and the children had a lovely time playing with her.  Rabbit also painted a unicorn picture on a canvas that she had been given a while ago, and she and Monkey drew some pictures with chalk.

  

  

On Saturday, we took Supergirl to her au pair training day, and then visited my aunt as the training day was near her house.  We then had lunch in a pizza restaurant, and went for a walk.  It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and the children had a great time jumping in a really big muddy puddle, collecting leaves, picking brambles and rosehips and bug hunting (we took some ants home with us!)  We also found an interesting snail on a leaf,  saw some horses in the meadow, looked at some mushrooms and joined hands around a huge oak tree to see if we could reach round.  (We could, but only just.)  In the evening we visited Granny (my mother-in-law) and then went to the Harvest Supper at church.

On Sunday, we went to church, and Owl played his violin in the service.  We had a quiet afternoon at home doing housework while the children watched a DVD, then they did their music practice and bedroom tidying before Rabbit’s friend came round to play at the end of the day.

As the children had been fine at the weekend, we thought we were over the illness, but Rabbit was sick again on Monday night so we were back to cancelling some of our activities again.  We managed piano lessons and swimming lessons – even Rabbit swam as she was fine yesterday and hadn’t been sick for several days.  She did really well in her lesson, and swam unaided for the first time.  However, last night she was sick again so we have had another day at home today.

We have done lots of things at home this week, and I can probably only remember about half of them.  I played Stairs and Slides (a times tables version of snakes and ladders) with Owl and Monkey, and also Scrabble.  We have done some Maths work on money and time, English work on homophones and writing character descriptions, lots of Reading Eggs, and a Reading CD-Rom, music practice, hama beads and plenty of playing with trains, cars and Lego.  Monkey made a brilliant computer (with monitor, keyboard and mouse) out of Duplo.  Monkey has also been to Beavers and Owl has been to Cubs.

Owl spent a lot of yesterday experimenting with bits and pieces from various electricity kits and is trying to design a helicopter.  Monkey spent most of the day and part of the night writing long and very detailed wish lists, mainly Lego Ninjago with a few other things thrown in as well.

Today I went out with Monkey to the deli and local shops, and we collected some more leaves on the way back.  We also did the Maths and English activities that I mentioned in my last post.  In the afternoon Rabbit and Tiddler played in the garden, on the swings, blowing bubbles, drawing with chalk, and collecting leaves in buckets.  Owl made a kite from his flying science kit and then he and Monkey tried to fly it, and I then I had a go with Owl as well.  We just about got it flying but obviously need to take it out into a more open space sometime.  Then we all did some painting for an Autumn display, which was very successful, particularly as the children did it separately in between other activities (kite-flying, Reading Eggs and watching Cbeebies mainly) which made it nice and calm.  Tiddler was asleep and I didn’t wake him until everyone else had finished, which worked really well as I could then focus on him completely.  We printed with apples, potatoes, carrots and leaves, and painted some trees and various Autumn-coloured splodges which I’m sure I’ll be able to work into a display somehow.  It was fun anyway!

More Twinkling

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After I posted my review of Twinkl last night, we have had such a successful day today using some more of the resources that I thought I should write a follow-up post.

This morning Monkey played the clock game, matching written times to the times shown on the clocks, and Owl did it as well this afternoon.

Owl and Monkey have also both done some character description writing.  They chose to write about Lego Ninjago characters, and they enjoyed using the worksheets with suggested descriptive words to get them started.

This is Monkey’s description of Garmadon:

Garmadon is Sensei Wu’s brother, and their father was the creator of Ninjago and the first master of Spinjitzu.  Garmadon is evil and fierce and he rules an army of skeletons.  In year 2012 he got four arms.

And this is Owl’s description of Snappa.

Snappa is a fangpyre snake scout.  He is ugly, mean and evil, but in times of peace he is calm and friendly and tries to be a good friend.  But it’s hard to be nice when you are really a mean beast.  In times of war he is usually quite angry and he is not very popular among his tribe.  Snappa bites first and asks questions later.  He also gets mad at a drop of a snake’s scale.

(Owl would like me to point out that there are some additions and corrections in the text quoted here, because I took the photos earlier and they have continued to work on it.)

Look here for lots more lovely resources like these!

I think I should have said this on the post I wrote yesterday, but I will put it here anyway: I have been given a premium subscription to Twinkl to write this review.  All opinions are my own.