tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59415835971675398932024-03-14T13:32:17.199+00:00Many Different DrumsHome educating and trying to keep up with the beats and rhythms of four different children, without losing track of my own....Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941583597167539893.post-42463253655258471232013-07-23T12:28:00.004+01:002013-07-23T13:48:50.891+01:00Letting go of screen time issues - mine!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Since it's been months since my last post, it's perhaps not surprising that our home ed approach has shifted. Again. Well, a family isn't a static thing, is it? We're growing and changing all the time, in many ways. And that's why home ed is great, since we have the freedom to respond to those changes whenever we need to.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One big thing that happened to our family recently was that I set the house alight. Seriously! Cooking chips. Just a couple of minutes with my eye off the ball and the kitchen was ablaze. No-one was hurt and the insurance covered everything, but the kitchen was so bad that we couldn't live in the house and the speed at which insurance companies work, or lack of it, meant that we lived a somewhat nomadic lifestyle for over 4 months, during which all rules were suspended!! Total autonomy was the order of the day and that included screens.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Prior to that I had been imposing screen limits with the view that it would encourage other interests, necessity being the mother of invention and all that. I was wrong, particularly where J was concerned. Instead of finding other ways to fill his time, he became obsessed with that part of the day when he could fire up the Xbox. If I'd said 4pm, then he would clock watch all day. If I said weekends only, he would calendar watch. For the rest of the time he developed an uncanny ability to wander from room to room for hours! Preventing him from doing the one thing he wanted most did not enable him to come up with other constructive ways to fill his time at all, it actively prevented it. He literally could not think of anything else to do.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And when he was in 'screens permitted time', that's all he would do, not wanting to waste a moment of it.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I had created an obsession!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Also, I found myself faced with an increasing number occasions when I would relax the rules 'just this once'.....</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>'Mum, my friend has texted me to ask me to play online with him now. He has to go out with his family in an hour. Can I start my screentime early?'</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>'Mum, I just need to go on Facebook to find out what time drama is starting this week.'</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Or times when I realised that my screen rules were subscribing to a specific set of values about what is and is not 'educational' and that this made no sense.....</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>'So, I'm allowed to check YouTube for a science clip, but not catch up with PewDiePie's'* new uploads?'</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">(* PewDiePie - 23 year old prolific YouTuber from Sweden with 10 million </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">subscribers, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">modelling </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a fantastic work ethic and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">self </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">motivated </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">way </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to earn money </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">who has, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">at the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> very </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">least, inspired </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">one of my children to learn </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">some Swedish)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I began to see that my controlling of 'screen time' was false and was cutting them off from the ways they access the world. It was also preventing those myriad connections that make self directed learning so effective. With the high tech lives we lead, the lines between 'constructive' and 'non-constructive' screen based activities are so blurred as to be unrecognisable. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And by even thinking about it in those terms, I realised, I was judging their activities based on my own personal view of what is and is not 'constructive'. I remembered Matt Groening, creator of The Simpons, saying how his mother had despaired at the amount of time he spent watching cartoons. I thought again of PewDiePie and the other YouTubers my children follow. I realised that you really cannot tell what learning is happening and what connections are being made. Only last week they were talking about the 1950s nuclear bomb tests in the USA, information they had apparently gleaned largely from the scene in 'Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull', a new 'Nuketown Map' they'd bought for one of their games and goodness knows where else. We certainly haven't had any 'lessons' about it. I don't doubt that to some extent they're also weighing up the probability of surviving such a blast by hiding in a refrigerator and have an appreciation of artistic licence! I look forward to future conversations :)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I was insulting my children to place my own value judgements on the way they spend their time.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So, we now have no limits to screens at all. It's clearly the right thing for our family at this time. To be honest, it's not such a big step for me really. I have always taken an interest in their gaming and other online activities, we share all kinds of things with each other. I'm a gamer myself, on the PC. I've just let go of the need I felt to limit certain activities and the fear that they'd be stuck in a darkened room shooting pixelled images for ever.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I needn't have worried. Lots of gaming goes on, with all the learning and socialising that entails. Xboxes are moved from bedrooms to the living room and back. Sometimes they play alone, sometimes with each other, sometimes online with others. The TV goes on and off. Phones are checked constantly, then forgotten. There's almost always a laptop in use somewhere.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Other activities at the moment include researching and creating comics, digital photography, learning the guitar, creating Minecraft maps, discovering more about the International Space Station and life in space, developing drawing techniques, investigating vegan recipes and more....all using screens.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Coincidentally, not long after making this change I came across Sandra Dodd's <a href="http://sandradodd.com/screentime" target="_blank">writings on screen time</a>, which includes the comment:</span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I think the problem is the idea of "screen time". </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Have you considered putting limits on paper time? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cloth time? </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Other-human time?</i> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This mirrored my recent thoughts exactly. As did this, in reply to someone who was asking for some advice about what would happen if she stopped limiting her son's iPod time:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Maybe he would play it all day for days. If he did, it would probably be partly because he loves it, and partly because you created a high value by limiting it. At the moment, you're training him to think about it all the time even when he's not playing it.</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Hmmm, sounded a lot like my experience with J and the Xbox!! And he recently confirmed my feelings, saying that he had felt obsessed when it was limited and that now he doesn't. Oh, and can he please learn to play the bass guitar?</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Guess we'll be turning to YouTube for some tutorials then!</span></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941583597167539893.post-31578196216796768582012-10-28T12:39:00.002+00:002013-05-28T08:00:57.188+01:00Bad Mummy Day<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I was supposed to come and write about what we've been up to over the last few weeks, but I've not managed to get my thoughts together on it. It has been, as it always is, a bit of whirl. I spend way too much time driving them all where they need to go. And way too much money on the fuel to do it. How on earth people think home educated children are hidden from view is a mystery to me. We're barely in the house some days. And tied to the kitchen table 9am to 3pm? Managing it from 9am to 3 minutes past is a victory sometimes.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">My fault in part, I suppose. Living in a small village stuck in the countryside was a fab idea when they were little. Now they're bigger it's rapidly losing its appeal. Especially since the shop has closed down and the bus service has been cut. Might seriously have to consider moving somewhere they can at least walk down the road and buy a pint of milk. Let alone get a part time job.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In between the driving there have been lots of activities though, either at the place we were driving to or back at home. Or even in the car sometimes. But you'll have to bear with me while I sort them out and find the photos I think I remembered to take. Instead I'll make you all feel better by confessing to being a bad parent today. Today I am letting them do whatever they like. Which means that one is still in bed and two have been playing the Xbox all morning. In their pyjamas. So there.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Well, really, it's exhausting being an inspirational educator all the time. At least, I assume it is. I don't think I manage it very often. When you have more than one child and they all like different things (very inconsiderate) and want to be inspired in different ways (downright rude) it's like spinning plates. It can look really impressive sometimes. Sometimes I can keep plates of many colours spinning for ages! But I can't keep it up forever. I'll lose concentration and they'll come crashing to the ground. Better that I pack them up from time to time and give them a rest.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And in the meantime they can inspire themselves. Even the Xbox can be a part of that. J was proudly showing me the World War I trench he's building on Minecraft.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So today I give myself permission to be a lazy parent!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941583597167539893.post-1418971810523445072012-10-16T09:59:00.002+01:002013-05-28T08:00:29.208+01:00Well, that was unexpected!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Just as you think you're getting used to the way it is, they go and move the goal posts don't they?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Last week the 'they' in question was A. Being the youngest, by the time she was 5 home education had become just a way of life for our family so sending her to school was not an option. Until she decided differently. Driven by curiosity she asked if she could go to the local village primary. Pros and cons were discussed, I tried not to take the request as a personal rejection of myself as a home educating mum (not easy I can tell you!) and A entered the school in Year 5. To those of you who have no idea what that means it's the penultimate year of primary school - so age 9!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">She fitted in immediately and did really well. She's the most motivated, driven, self starter of a child, in fact she was a joy to home educate. She had taught herself to read and write and was highly literate. She is also very easy going, sociable and happy to go along with whatever activities are happening. All those skills and characteristics meant that school was a doddle.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />Fast forward two years and after a very happy time at primary she was greatly looking forward to secondary school. We (including A herself) chose from the two that have a bus service from the village. Preparations were made, horrendously expensive school uniform purchased, bus pass applied for.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And all went well to start with. Lessons were fine, friends were being made, there was no trouble getting her up in the morning. A couple of minor hiccups - she got lost around the building a few times, missed the bus home once, but no major disasters.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And then the cracks started to show.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Right from the start the school had communicated its strict behaviour policy in no uncertain terms. No problem there, you think, it's unfortunately as it has to be. If you're going to choose to try and educate in bulk, hundreds of youths milling around the same institution for six hours a day, there has to be some crowd control. The thing was they just kept on and on about it - do this, don't do that, or this will happen. And A was really worried. Terrified that she'd forget her pencil case and get a detention. And detention these days, I have discovered, is immediate - 30 minutes after school on the same day. We were told that if that happened we'd be contacted during the day and - get this - we were not to make any family after school arrangements until after 3.00pm just in case!! Well, sod that!!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We brought this up in an early Parents' Evening. Well, A did in fact, so concerned was she. She asked her tutor what would happen if she genuinely forgot her pen. To give the tutors their due, they were very nice and tried to be reassuring. They said the rules were there so that pupils knew what was expected of them. That of course they understood that mistakes sometimes happen, that if a child who was normally well behaved just omitted to bring the right equipment one day they would loan them one.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It didn't help. The behaviour and punishment message was still being rammed home every day, in almost every lesson.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Then there was the grading. From the word go, the children were assessed and graded in every subject. And told what grade they should be aiming for. 'You're a 4b in English, we expect you to be a 5a by the end of this year'. She was even told what GCSE results she could expect based on her current grades!! Seriously, that's five years away! What did it for me especially was the Art grading. A was furnished with a list of achievements that would help her move up the grades, including such words of wisdom as 'colour within the lines'. I was dumbfounded. One trip around the Tate Modern shows that to be ridiculous. How can the children be creative with that kind of prescriptive attitude? Picasso wouldn't have done very well would he? 'Pablo, you really must try harder'!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">While I was incensed at the box ticking mentality, I wasn't that surprised that it existed. What I was surprised at was the way it was so transparent to the children. So not only are they being taught to the test, they know it's happening. They are not encouraged to experiment or to express themselves, they are encouraged to comply with a set of conditions in order to receive praise and the reward of a nice healthy GCSE pass. And this environment is supposed to breed artists? And scientists? And entrepreneurs?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Of course that wasn't what A was thinking, but she was feeling the pressure. So she made a 'pros and cons' list (wonder where she got that from!). There were a couple of pros - one or two teachers were interesting, one or two lessons were enjoyable, one or two friends had been made. Tellingly, her cons list was longer. Many more of the teachers were grumpy or shouty, many more of the lessons were boring. Science in particular apparently, although she was interested in the kind of science we were doing at home.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I did persuade her to try school for a bit longer. With all my reservations about the system, it was such a quick change of heart for her I wanted her to be sure she was making the right decision. It might have been that she just needed to spend a bit longer getting used to the new environment. She only stayed another week, though, by which time she was adamant. We deregistered her last Monday.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And so my goal posts have moved. I am faced with a new challenge. Because A is going to be very different to educate. Her motivation is still there, she is still that driven self-starter she always was. In fact she educates herself really. But she requires, almost demands to be inspired and challenged. I'm going to need to be on my toes. So far, though, so good. Last week she raided the bookshelves for the (pretty small) collection of text books we have acquired over the years. They're in almost perfect condition really, since they have largely been rejected by all three older children. And finally I am justified in keeping them! My hoarding mentality has a use!! She's working through the English exercises, asking for algebra and talking about Latin. And Polish. Hmmmm..........I can envisage a request for 13 GCSEs including Ancient Greek!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Yesterday afternoon we had a go at some monoprinting - a first for both of use. A said it was 'the best art lesson ever'. Not sure that 'lesson' was quite the word, since the afternoon consisted of watching a quick tutorial followed by an hour or so of experimenting, but I was happy nonetheless!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And it feels so right. It feels like the natural order has been restored. I don't know if it's because we've been home educating for so long, but the concept of school just seems so alien to me now. In fact, the last four and a bit weeks have given me a newfound respect for all you parents supporting your children at school. How you put up with that daily grind, and keep your sanity, is beyond me. And for the schooled students. How you manage to get an education with all those obstacles deserves a round of applause at the very least. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Next time someone discovers that we home educate and asks me 'I don't know how you do it!' I shall be asking the question right back!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941583597167539893.post-32564280211348360812012-10-05T12:14:00.000+01:002013-05-28T07:58:05.262+01:00Letting sleeping teens lie<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It's the usual morning dilemma. Shall I, or shall I not, go and wake the teens?!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Yesterday was an especially busy one. Thursdays always are. We have recently joined a home ed multi-sports group which B and J are really enjoying. The opportunity for some regular team sport couldn't be ignored, but it's an hour's drive from us. So that's a two hour round trip for me for two hours of sport for them. It's well worth it though, for me also as I get to chat with some home educating parents AND the chance to play with the SatNav facility on my new mobile phone in order to find the place! Just as well it's only every fortnight though as I wince to see the petrol gauge head downwards so quickly!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Thursday mornings start as normal - I'm up with A before she heads off to catch the school bus. I then get B and J up so there's time for them to fit something in before we leave for the sport session - yesterday I managed to persuade them to write up an experiment on yeast they'd done a few days ago, while I finished off some work for a client, started the online Tesco order, paid the mobile phone bill and so on. We head off at around 11.00.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">SatNav cool, sports enjoyed, chats agreeable!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Since I usually shop on a Friday, by Thursday we've normally run out of basics so it's a quick dash to pick up milk on the way home,which means we roll in at about 4.00. Chat with A who's just in from school, listen to her news, check if she has homework, try not to get annoyed with tales of the narrow minded educational demands she is subjected to on a daily basis ;)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Then it really gets busy!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Thursdays is the night that T, B and J all have various activities. In different towns. So the evening is pretty much a whirl of drop offs and pick ups for me, at the same time trying to work in things like dinner for everyone at different times to suit their schedule! Fortunately A is now old enough to be left at home so she enjoys a lovely evening in complete control of the TV remote and sitting in the comfy chair, chilling out while the rest of us whirl in and out of the house at speed! </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Their Dad comes over and takes care of J's football training transportation, which is a lifesaver really. I take B to her drama class, shoot back to sort out dinner for A and me. Keep an eye on the clock as I then have to leave to take T to football, straight to collect B and drop her back home. It's about 8.30 now so quick check that An is OK and back to collect T. Home at last by 9.30, another quick chat with A before I chivvy her off to bed as it's school tomorrow.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sit down while T and B sort their own food out. They're plenty big enough for that! J is staying with Dad tonight so he's taken care of. Remember to finish off Tesco order otherwise I'd be looking forward to a delivery of four pints of milk tomorrow - not for the first time I'm ashamed to say!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Relax in front of telly with a glass of wine :) </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">While finishing the Tesco order on my mobile (boy I do love that piece of technology!) I find a link to an article about Seth MacFarlane's forthcoming hosting of the Oscars and, more specifically, about the objections to this choice by a group in America called the PTC (Parents Televsion Council). MacFarlane, if you're not aware, is the creator of such shows as Family Guy and American Dad, renowned for being graphic and choosing controversial topics of humour! Knowing that they'll take an interest in this, I wave the article at Tom and Beth for a brief opportunity to raise the subjects of censorship, freedom of speech, personal and parental responsibility and so on. I decide not to start a 'conversation' though - this time it's enough just to leave it with them. Plus I'm tired and I'm not sure my brain would work very well!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">B and I catch up with something on the Sky planner and when it's finished I'm about to suggest bedtime when we notice that the next programme - 'The Boy Who Can't Forget'. Intrigued we keep the telly on and it is indeed a very interesting look at a young man who has the ability to recall a vast amount of his life, being able to tell you what he was doing on whatever day in the past you care to choose. This is right up our street, especially since I did my degree in Psychology and B took the same subject for GCSE last year. But it turned out to be educational for us in other ways too. I comment on the boy's unusual name, Aurelien, and B reminds me that it was the name of one of the sons in the French family she stayed with on an exchange trip with her drama group last year. The mother then appears on the screen and appears to have a French accent - that probably explains the choice of name then! A little later on B comments 'I think he's gay', at which point, right on cue, the programme introduces a new person as 'his boyfriend' and continues with the investigation. We were very impressed by the way his sexuality was not swept under the carpet with vague allusions to 'his friend', but neither was it given any disproportionate attention. It was just a fact, in the same way his having a sister, or a cat might have been. We applauded the production team!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The next programme which managed to catch our attention before we could get to the off switch was 'Embarrassing Bodies' which seemed to be largely about penises which bend. Well OK then! T appeared just at the right time (wrong time?!) to watch aswell. I'd not seen the programme before but it treated all the subjects in a professional, medical fashion so was pretty educational really. Although we couldn't quite work out what motivates people to actually be featured on the show!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When we finally fell into bed sometime past midnight our minds were well and truly full thanks to the impromptu learning opportunities that had been thrown our way by means of the box in the corner. There are many times that I feel like throwing it out of the window, such is the addictive nature of some of the tat that appears, but every now and then it does something to redeem itself. On reflection, last night turned into hours of learning which, in a school curriculum, might be planned and delivered as part of PHSE, but which I find just happens naturally in the course of our lives, unplanned and unforeseen and probably taken in a lot better as a result. We'd just stuffed a lot of it into a short space of time!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So yesterday turned out to be pretty full on as far as education is concerned. I'm not surprised the teens are tired! In which case I think a lie in is appropriate this morning. There's nothing magical about the hours between 9 and 3 which make them most appropriate for learning as I think yesterday demonstrates. It was also as good an example as I can think of recently of education being 'full time' and 'efficient'!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Letting them sleep also benefits me. Getting sufficient 'me time' can be one of the biggest challenges of home education and a couple of hours peace and quiet is not to be sniffed at.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Having said that, B could sleep for England if left alone so I'll go and shake her in a bit. As flexible as home education is, you do actually have to be awake for some of it to happen!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But, maybe, just one more cup of tea first??</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941583597167539893.post-63758058986284056182012-08-19T16:46:00.003+01:002013-05-28T07:54:49.185+01:00Home ed in the holidays........It really is a full time education!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So the end of term arrived and the summer holidays began. We've always followed term times a bit, even during the years that all four children were home educated. You can't get away from it completely - on the whole their drama classes and Scouts followed term times, plus their friends in the village all stopped school, of course. Even the home educators group we went to ran only during term time. So we followed suit.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What this meant for us was a relaxing of the 'full on' nature of home ed. If any structured activities had been going on, we stopped them completely. No workbooks, no projects. We didn't ever do huge amounts of structured stuff anyway so I'm not sure they noticed a great deal of difference in that respect, but I certainly did. I felt free of the pressure to provide any activities or experiences for them, like I had given myself permission to just let them be, going through their day from one thing to another completely aimlessly if they liked! Everything just got a bit more relaxed. Even the TV/Xbox/PC rules, although I still had to keep an eye on that or it could be screen based activities 24/7.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Now they're older it works roughly the same. No GCSE studies over the summer, no daily Conquer Maths topics. Everyone just gets on with their own things. It's a little different in that I now have to be even more aware of the amount of time spent in front of screens - as a rule teenagers are known to be somewhat addicted in that respect and mine are no exception. It's also a little different now A is at school. Whereas B, J and I need a little space from each other, A is now around during the day and wants things to join in with so a bit of balancing is required!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">On the whole it's been pretty laid back though. But don't think that means that no learning has been going on. It's obvious that it's happening all the time.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There was the Olympics of course. I LOVE the Olympics, always have, which is a bit ironic seeing as I never do any sport myself, but there you go! I declared that just for this once the TV was mine. For 16 days I was going to have the Olympics showing as I got on with work and other commitments and the rest of the family were welcome to drift in or out of it as they wished. It's only once every four years so I decided I was allowed to be selfish! As different children watched different bits we all learned about countries we'd not heard of, sports we didn't know, the diversity of nations, the rewards of hard work and commitment. We saw the first female competitor from Saudi Arabia and the first Paralympian to take part in the Olympics. We talked about cheating and drug taking, the disappointment faced by some competitors. We learned about the history of the games and recalled talking about Jesse Owens' success in the Berlin Olympics during the History GCSE studies. We watched the medal table change and talked about alternative ways of measuring a country's success, such as how many medals won per head of population. And all that just through chatting, no plan or structure required.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Recently we took a trip to Thorpe Park. We were fortunate enough to have received free tickets through a friend (wouldn't have paid the entrance fees even if we could afford it!). First lesson - handling disappointment, when the very ride that was most looked forward to wasn't working. With teenagers this is slightly easier than similar disappointments with toddlers, but it was touch and go for a bit! On the way around we all remarked how easy it is to spend an awful lot more money on top of the entrance fee, despite the fact that we'd brought a picnic so didn't need to buy food. A pound for this, a pound for that, £3.00 for a Fast Track ticket if you want to avoid the horrendous queues.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We also learned that the walk-in driers provided at the exit of the water rides (another £2.00 each) are rubbish and that it would have been a good idea to pack spare clothes!!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As T remarked, 'It's full of ways to take your money!' Too right - another lesson learned?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There were in fact two or three rides not working so all visitors were being given a free ticket to come back another day. 'Hmmm...', we thought, 'If they're so quick to forego the entrance fee, doesn't that tell you something about how much money they make on all the extras inside?'</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Having said all that, they really enjoyed the rides they went on and we'll probably make use of the free return tickets, and budget ahead to buy several Fast Track tickets for the most wanted rides, ignoring all the other money grabbing optional extras. After all, it's not about never spending your money, it's about being aware of the power of marketing, making informed choices and sticking to a budget. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Blimey, and I thought we were just going to a Theme Park!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When the children were younger, there were often days that went like this:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Child: 'I'm bored!'</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Me: 'How about we (insert activity here)?'</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Child: 'Nah...'</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Me: 'OK'</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Child: 'But I'm bored!'</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Me: 'What about (insert alternative activity)?'</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Child: 'Nah...'</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And so on. You get the picture. It's much the same now they're older, when I issue the 'Screens off' order! But years ago I learned a trick. Rather than try and suggest activities ad infinitum, I would just pick one and do it myself. I wouldn't invite them, but nine times out of ten they'd end up joining me anyway :)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Last week, unusually for me, I had an urge to paint. I'd seen instructions for a brightly coloured abstract that I thought even I could handle so I started to get the materials out.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> Hmm, I thought, I wonder if that trick still works now they're older...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A was with me like a shot. That's not much of a test though since she is always motivated to do pretty much anything and she had some unopened acrylics she was keen to use. More surprisingly was that J joined us and we spent three hours painting while listening to Frank Sinatra (who the older ones had heard of through Family Guy, lol!)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Despite a near disaster of me dripping blue paint all over my laptop keyboard (aarrgghh!) it all went pretty well. Here's J's geometric abstract:</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dN7kGXZXuQY/UDD_jBVtjmI/AAAAAAAAAOQ/6HupmbffZHA/s1600/20120819_152319.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dN7kGXZXuQY/UDD_jBVtjmI/AAAAAAAAAOQ/6HupmbffZHA/s320/20120819_152319.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And here's A's painting, inspired by one she saw for sale earlier in the week:</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IjzDziWnUus/UDD_l_Cor2I/AAAAAAAAAOc/lCTm_b4sZm4/s1600/20120819_152329.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IjzDziWnUus/UDD_l_Cor2I/AAAAAAAAAOc/lCTm_b4sZm4/s320/20120819_152329.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Both created from their own imaginations. I, however, have very little imagination and had to follow a set of instructions to produce this:</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DLBWy8o6NcE/UDD_gAM0HRI/AAAAAAAAAOI/1mcpOMiZbpI/s1600/20120819_152307.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DLBWy8o6NcE/UDD_gAM0HRI/AAAAAAAAAOI/1mcpOMiZbpI/s320/20120819_152307.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I was pretty pleased with it though :)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Last night it was just the girls and I. I'd bought a couple of steaks so we took advantage of the weather and had a mini barbecue, complete with a treat of wine for me and fizzy drinks for them. Oh, and a bit of ice cream! We ended up sitting outside until midnight. No-one wanted the TV, we just turned off the lights and watched the stars come out. We spotted a few constellations we recognised and the Milky Way and were pleased we lived in a rural area with very little light pollution. We saw the International Space Station pass overhead (we've been out space-station-watching a few times so we recognise it when we see it now!) and did a quick bit of research to find out who is in it right now and how long they are up there for. We realised that it's not that long ago that the idea of Americans and Russians working together up there would have been unheard of!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So there you have it. A selection of just a few of the ways in which our learning has continued this summer. No lesson plans, exercises or 'writing it up'. If you're home educating younger children and have been wondering how autonomous education works when they're older, I think it's kind of like that!! We're not a 100% autonomous family, at least two of my children struggle to motivate themselves all the time and need some guiding (and indeed appreciate it - so maybe that is kind of autonomous after all!) but a great deal of education happens just by us doing things and being together. And that's education for all of us, myself included.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941583597167539893.post-91754888279667719122012-06-17T22:50:00.000+01:002013-05-28T07:52:01.914+01:00And back to normality.....sort of<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It has been so long since my last post. We've had a few months of rather dramatic change in the family which have been distracting and taken most of my attention; in addition there were the dreaded IGCSEs which B sat during May! But things have calmed down a bit now and I hope to be able to drop in more often!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When I started this blog I intended to give some idea of what it's like to home educate. To go someway to answering the questions 'What do you do all day?' or 'How on earth do you get teenagers to do anything?' So I'll try and post more regularly about our everyday activities and hopefully you'll be able to build up a picture.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Since the IGCSEs exams were in May, they were the primary focus of our day for a good couple of months before that. B sat two - History and English Literature. This might not seem much, especially when you consider that in school children often sit many more than that, but it's a different ball game when you're going it alone. For a start, we began these in September, so only 8 months to cover the whole course instead of two years. It's perfectly do-able, but it does mean the workload for each subject is double that of a schooled child. Also, we found these two subjects to be particularly heavy in terms of the material that had to be covered. To top it all, we did these completely alone - no distance learning course, no tutors. So as well as learning the material we had to trawl through books, websites and past papers to work out how to answer the questions in the exam!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And that was the only bit we didn't like really. B did enjoy studying the material, largely because as a home educated student you get to pick the topics you actually want to do, instead of being restricted to the ones the teacher has chosen. So for English she chose Romeo & Juliet and Pride & Prejudice, partly because she was already familiar with both and had acted in a version of Romeo & Juliet a couple of years ago. There was also an Anthology of poems. It's been a while since I had to consider iambic pentameter, personification and dramatic irony and I have to admit it took a while to get the old cogs going!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">For History she chose The First World War; Development of a Dictatorship: Germany Between the Wars; Civil Rights in the USA; and Changes in Medicine. Again, being able to choose your topics was a big bonus.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So, interesting stuff. Not so interesting, though, was having to learn how to regurgitate it in just the right way to pass the exam and it was very hard to get B motivated and working in that way. So much so that she took a lot longer than she should have done covering the material and we were left with very little time to revise and do practice papers. So, for the weeks up to May our days were pretty much like this:</span>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Poor old J was left to his devices a lot of the time! He quite enjoyed this period of autonomy though. We recently invested in a subscription to Conquer Maths, an online course, and both B and J are enjoying taking themselves through it. So each day J would do a couple of topics of his Maths, followed by a page or two of his English workbook (amazing how happy he is to continue getting to grips with spelling and grammar now - and how pleased I am that leaving it until he was ready, no matter how late that seemed, was the right approach). Then he'd get on with whatever took his fancy - reading his book (currently 'I Am Number Four' by Pittacus Lore - a huge change from last Autumn when I blogged about his <a href="http://manydifferentdrums.blogspot.co.uk/2011_10_01_archive.html">learning to read</a>); working on his project (a book about the guns that appear in an Xbox game! Ah well, it was his project, not mine, and did after all involve research, history and writing!); baking (such as testing several different recipes for brownies to see how they differed and why - and which were the nicest!); or whatever else he felt like.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">At the same time I found myself without a car for three months, living as we do in a village with a pitiful bus service. We did use the buses though and they brought lots of new experiences, such as listening to the chatter of the regulars going to town on market day; catching the connecting train to Peterborough on a Saturday; trawling through timetables finding out where we could actually get to without a car. Hardly anywhere it turns out, or at least not if we wanted to get back home the same day! Cue discussion about the pros and cons of cars versus public transport and whether the government should perhaps do more to provide a viable alternative for those of us in the countryside!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Then there were all the 'normal' activities, such as caring for the animals, chores, television, football matches for J and drama classes (and a production) for B, all of which enrich us in many ways.</span>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">All in all this period of relative inactivity hasn't been as sparse in the educational department as I thought it would be. J has benefited from the downtime and is ready to forge ahead with some new projects. After a couple of weeks to recover from exams, Beth is also much more receptive to the idea of some forward thinking and planning. And I feel I've recharged my batteries and am ready to go :)</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941583597167539893.post-19999028813369435512012-03-07T11:58:00.001+00:002012-03-07T11:58:07.261+00:00Why a home educator is not a teacher<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It's Parents' Evening time. Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to it. Not having Parents' Evenings is one of the major bonuses of home educating your children as far as I'm concerned but since A decided to go to school I've not been able to avoid them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There's no reason I should fear them really. A's school is a friendly, small village primary, A herself is doing just fine there and her teacher is nice, so it's not as if a 15 minute chat is difficult. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It's just that, well, I can't bring myself to care very much! That sounds dreadful, so I feel some further explanation is required! It's not that I don't care about A's education or happiness, of course. It's just that I really have no interest in how many boxes she ticks or what her predicted SATs levels are. I've been responsible for her education all her life. In law I still am, as are all parents responsible for their children's education, even though I am currently delegating the 9-3 weekday learning experience to the local educational establishment. Legalities aside though, I still interact with her, I'm still aware of how she's progressing within said establishment and indeed how much she is learning outside of it! Home education doesn't stop just because a child goes to school ;) I know she's doing great and don't need to be told which of a certain set of relatively arbitrary criteria she is or is not meeting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I do appreciate the work that goes into these evenings. I appreciate the extra hours put in by the teachers and I also appreciate that it's not just about how well she's done at Maths this term. These evenings are an opportunity to hear how your child is perceived outside of the home (always fascinating - are they talking about the same child?!) and for teachers and parents to share any concerns, not just academic but personal. But even that seems as if she's being measured. 'Joins In Class Discussions?' - TICK! 'Willing To Answer Questions In Class?' - TICK! 'Polite And Helpful?' - TICK!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sitting there, I feel like a stranger in an unfamiliar country. I understand the language but it feels odd. The customs and attitudes don't sit well with me. As a home educator, I may be totally immersed in my children's education but never am I more certain that I am NOT a teacher than when I am in a Parents' Evening.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This was brought suddenly into focus at the last one. I remember the discussion was about Maths. It's probably A's weakest subject but there are no real problems. She's just not progressing as fast as she is in, say, English. Translation ....... there are a few boxes she hasn't ticked yet! When explaining her 'level' in the subject the teacher was talking about her abilities when she came into school in Year 5, where she is now and where they expect her to be by the end of Year 6. I'm paraphrasing, but the phrase used was something like 'We'll try to get her to Level 4'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It was a throw-away comment, unimportant really in the context of what was an excellent report overall. But on the way home the phrase was echoing in my mind uncomfortably until it dawned on me. The assumption behind it seems to be that the teacher is the main factor in improving a child's performance. The child's own thought processes are secondary, resulting from the hard work the teacher puts in. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I don't mean to suggest that any individual teacher has an inflated sense of his or her own importance, but that within the system the accepted model is 'teacher imparts knowledge to child'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In home education the emphasis is different. I think I am typical of home educating parents in feeling that it is primarily the child who drives their own learning. We may bring experiences to them, put things in their way, but it is their own engagement that is crucial. Some days I feel that I have very little to do with their education at all, I might as well be a clanging bell! It sounds like some kind of politically correct cliched job description, but the phrase 'Learning Facilitator' better describes how I see my role. And that's not all the time - sometimes I would do better to just leave them alone!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As home educators we're existing in a different paradigm of the whole learning process. One which writers like John Holt have recognised, studied and described so well. He summed it up so well in an article from <i>Growing Without Schooling</i> magazine from 1984 when he said "Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">No wonder I feel so out of touch in a classroom!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941583597167539893.post-58008260799816162352012-02-18T10:42:00.001+00:002012-02-18T10:44:46.694+00:00Film censorship - getting it wrong<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I've always thought of myself as quite conscientious when it comes to deciding whether or not to let my children watch a particular film or TV show or play a particular game. I'm not sure if I would say I'm strict (although the kids might disagree!) it's just that I've tried to make sure that they're not exposed to too much, too soon, before they have the maturity to handle it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I think I may have taken the decision making process to extremes sometimes, insisting on watching films myself first. Oh, those lost hours! Still, '8 Mile' (a 15 film which required viewing to see if my 13 year old could watch it) was surprisingly good.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Anyhow, we went as a family to the cinema a couple of days ago. Family activities aren't especially easy to arrange now, the age gaps seem huge and it's more difficult to find things that everyone wants to do. Cinema is normally a pretty safe bet (after the extensive discussions and disagreements over which film, of course), apart from the fact that although the three eldest are now teenagers (help me!!), the youngest is still only 10 so any movie rated 12A requires a decision as to whether it's suitable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I'm sure many of you with more than one child won't be surprised to hear that my level of conscientiousness, just like my parenting as a whole, has become, umm, shall we say become somewhat more relaxed over the years. That's not to say that I don't care now. It's more that I'm not so obsessive about it. I'm also aware that the family my current ten year old lives in, as the youngest of four, bears little resemblance to the family my eldest lived in when he was ten, despite the family members being the same. It's just birth order. Whilst T at that age was a member of a primary-school-and-younger aged family, A is being raised in a family of 'grown ups' and even with my attempts to extend her childhood as long as possible, it is bound to have an effect.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So because of this, and also I think partly because it's who she is, A is quite mature in what she can handle in terms of films. As she is approaching 11, I usually feel that a 12 rated film will be fine, so this time, it being a snap decision to go to the cinema, I didn't really pause to question it. I'd seen a trailer for the film we were seeing so it can't have jumped out at me as including anything to be wary of.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Unfortunately, it appears that this time I'd got it wrong and, although not distraught, A was a bit upset by parts of it. I was kicking myself for not researching more thoroughly in advance, but decided the best course of action was to acknowledge her feelings and open it all up by having us all talk about what we thought of the film. Getting it out helped and it even turned into a bit of a learning opportunity, as we discussed the responsibilities of the ratings committee. B and J were of the opinion that it should have been a 15, which ironically would have meant that J wouldn't have been able to see it either! I said I'd dock myself five Parent Points which the cheeky blighters agreed with and explained that these kind of decisions aren't always easy. They appeared to nod with understanding, so you never know, they might even take a 'No' decision without arguing in the future. I live in hope!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>How do you choose which films your children can see? Is it easier or harder as they get older? Do you ever get it wrong?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941583597167539893.post-86169151126357530462012-02-14T13:11:00.002+00:002012-02-14T13:11:58.886+00:00Weaning Teens from Screens - Progress (I think!!)<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I had a bit of a panic last week. I finally got around to contacting the school we've used previously for sitting GCSEs, only to find out that they are full this year and can't accommodate any external candidates. Given that I'd left it to the last minute, as usual, and the deadline for entering was fast approaching, this threw me somewhat! I was only aware of one other centre in Cambridgeshire, but that one is a bit of a drive for us and charges a bit more than I can afford, so I hastily began emailing around for some suggestions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">After a few hours I had a handful of places to try (gotta love the internet!!) including a state school just a few miles down the road. I wasn't hugely confident, given that on the whole state schools don't consider external candidates, but I gave it a shot and bingo! For some reason (I'm not sure why)they will only accept over 16s, but since B was 16 just a few days earlier we scraped in. How lucky! I can't think why they have this ruling but I'm not complaining! The charges are also very reasonable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So, panic over and I turned my mind to reviewing the situation I was talking about a few weeks ago. Have I managed to wean my teens from their seeming dependence on screen-based activities?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Well, our weekdays certainly have a more constructive feel to them. I've got them making a list each morning of things they want to achieve in the day (an idea I pinched from my friend Ross, thanks Ross!! See her blog here: <a href="http://rossmountney.wordpress.com/">http://rossmountney.wordpress.com/</a>). I've had them thinking about whether they need to prioritise anything (like GCSE studies, now we're committed to the exams!), but also to make sure that they have a mixture of activities in there. So, maybe start with The First World War followed by Pride and Prejudice and some Maths, but also throw in some baking, or photography, or walking the dog. I don't want them to think I expect them to list just academic activities. Neither do I expect them to follow their list in order, or complete everything by the end of the day. Things often take longer than we expect and life can throw a curve ball from time to time and our plans don't quite work out. But I am trying to get them to think about their days instead of just meander through them aimlessly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">How has this helped with the screen dependency? Well, the Xbox, Wii, computer games etc are not activities to appear in their planning! These are things they can do once they've been through their list (or had a fair stab at it anyway!). And it seems to be working. Prior to this, given the chance, they would just fritter the hours away on Minecraft. And if I banned screens until, say, 4.00pm, they would spend most of the day clock-watching and still achieving very little.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It's not a foolproof system. They're still a bit too keen to get to the screens and a bit too distraught if I declare them off limits for today. And we still have grey areas. "Can I go on Youtube, mum?" Well, that depends. Are you just looking at various films of cats falling off TVs or are you researching something? Are you just watching Minecraft videos to get around the fact that you can't play it right now, or have you actually started a project to film and commentate one of your own? But rather than simply laying down the law, I'm trying to get them to see the difference and monitor their own time. And that's not going to happen overnight is it, that's lifelong learning!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941583597167539893.post-14803047716849974172012-01-08T20:29:00.000+00:002012-01-09T14:34:09.016+00:00Weaning teenagers from screens!<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Well, hello again, and a (somewhat belated) Happy New Year to you all. Over a month since my last post, tut tut. I can partly explain this by the weeks of work put in just before Christmas to produce issue 5 of the home ed magazine I publish with my friend and colleage Lorena. Here it is:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I'm sure I'm allowed a quick plug on my own blog so here's the website <a href="http://www.educationoutsideschool.co.uk/">www.educationoutsideschool.co.uk</a>. Go and take a look - Issue 1 is free :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Anyway, this time of resolutions has had me thinking about what could stand a little change around here. We've got into a bit of a rut over the last couple of years really. The pressures of everyday life piled up and my mojo upped and left, taking with it much of my spark and motivation for home education!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Don't get me wrong, it's not that we've done nothing. Good old life learning has been put to the test and come up trumps. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We've cooked, decorated, </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">walked the dog and cared for the chickens. We've </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">learned from TV (thanks Horrible Histories!), laughed (thanks again, Horrible Histories!) and shopped on a budget. We've had trips out, near and far. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There have been all kinds of achievements, from football success to drama accomplishments, GCSEs passed, books read. The two eldest spent a week and half sailing on the Tall Ships Cruise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But I have become a bit concerned about the over reliance on screen based interests. All that above doesn't take up huge amounts of time and, all too often, the Xbox, computer, Wii or TV appear to be the default activities. The things everyone chooses to do when they first get up, or come in from wherever we've been, without much thought.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Now, I have nothing against gaming. Over the years I've seen proof of the learning that comes from them, often in the most unexpected ways. For example, T has an excellent knowledge of world flags from playing football games. And some months ago I was most surprised to learn that one of the Xbox games that I thought involved pretty much nothing more than as many hours of shooting as you could cope with actually followed battles and weapons of the Second World War with a great deal of accuracy and which we could then put into context.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">More recently they've taken to Minecraft which fascinates me because of its incredibly rough and simple graphics. I would have thought that these days nothing short of HD quality would impress, but it appears that the attraction of this game is in its substance, which it appears to have in spades, over style, and that impressed me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And I'm a fan of gaming myself. My particular favourites are Civilization IV, The Sims and Emperor and I have in the past spent a great deal of time on them. And that's the point really. No matter how educational, they can be very addictive. Very. It's easy to find that hours have gone past while you're trying to build the perfect house and there is no time left for anything else. And then the lure of going back to it the next day can be almost irresistible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And so I find that, if left to their own devices, probably three out of my four children will do little else. I've tested out the advice much touted that they will tire eventually and move on, but it just doesn't seem to happen. Maybe it's my fault, maybe I'm just not that good a motivator, but totally autonomous education in our house does seem to lack some variety!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Fortunately, as the New Year starts I find that my mojo has returned. I've managed to wade through a lot of the heavy stuff that was holding me down and I've gained some brain space to focus on the gaps in our home ed. And the first thing I'm tackling is the screen time! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">New Year, New Rules. No more Mister Nice Guy! Screen time now has to be earned. I've been getting my teens to think of other things they would like to do, interests they could be persuaded to pursue. I'm getting them to sit down with me each morning and set some goals for the day. These could involve some GCSE work or a bit of Maths on the BBC Bitesize website. Their list could include cleaning out the guinea pigs, trying out a new recipe or practicing a photography technique. We'll put some trips into the plan, with groups or as a family. And we'll make sure there's a lot of variety. But the gaming and undemanding TV will come last, to be used as a wind down instead of a reason to get out of bed!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But I'm going to need to be strong. It's all too easy, when the going gets tough, to give in to the pleas and bargains and let my guard down. There will be days when I'm feeling so overwhelmed having to juggle my own work and the household chores that I'll struggle to find the brain space to keep the education going too and it will be tempting to allow the Xbox 'just this once' to get a few hours of uninterrupted time!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So, I'm making my pledge here, in the hope that I'll then be more likely to stick to it! During term times and week days (we like the structure of taking weekends and school holidays off) gaming and 'TV surfing' is strictly limited, to be enjoyed only after periods of involvement in other activities of choice!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I'll be back to report how we're doing. I'd love to hear your views too - do you have self regulating children, or do you have to play the role of screen police too?!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941583597167539893.post-73077237563220173402011-12-05T10:20:00.001+00:002011-12-06T11:12:10.116+00:00What are these bloomin' GCSEs for??!!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I've been very lax at posting - over a month since my last. I've just been busy really, plus I decided from the start that I would only post when I had something to say. I'd rather this blog risked being a little sparse but was genuine rather than filling it with somewhat forced writings.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One of the reasons I've been busy is that B, who is approaching 16 years of age, is studying for GCSEs*. She's home educated so this is anything but straight forward! As those of you who are home educators know, we are on our own, financially and practically, and this includes taking exams. And it is very time consuming to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> research the whole process and work out exactly what we have to do. And that's all before doing any of the studying!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It really is a minefield, but, largely thanks to the support of other home educators on the </span><a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HE-Exams-GCSE-A_AS_Levels-OU-Others" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">HE Exams list</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, we found our way through. B passed two GCSEs last year, in Biology and Psychology. Yay!!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When it came to the studying we found ourselves presented with a different set of frustrations. Those of realising that learning and education are one thing, but passing exams is an entirely different matter, more related to how many facts you can hold in your memory and your ability to regurgitate those facts in the precise manner that the examiner wants to see.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">B has found this very annoying. She enjoyed her subjects last year and learned much from studying them. She still refers to them in the course of everyday life, whether it's because a hospital drama on TV mentions the structure of the heart, or our pets display some amusing Pavlovian conditioning. In terms of broadening her education it was a success.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But the educational bit didn't take that long. The majority of the time was spent committing as many of the facts as possible to memory and going through past papers trying to work out how to answer them to maximise marks. It seemed such a waste of time and threatened to ruin her enjoyment of the subjects.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And here we are, doing it all over again, this time with English Language, English Literature and History. Sigh. Me trying to make sure she has every opportunity to learn the subjects thoroughly and still enjoy them, her trying not to get frustrated at the knowledge that, while learning all about Martin Luther King is fascinating and well worth her time, the effort required in practicing answering questions in just the right way is not so much. Oh, and no putting your own spin on anything either. Just the standard answers required please :(</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But hey, maybe that's a lesson in itself. Sometimes you just have to buckle down and conform. Sometimes you just have to listen to 'the man'.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Or do you? Is it really necessary to have a clutch of GCSEs to be a success? Well, of course not. There are plenty of people, home educated and otherwise, that are making their way in the world without such restrictive qualifications. People with drive, ambition and talent are forging different paths. And I applaud them.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I know of quite a few home educated students that have gained places at college despite not holding the required number of GCSE passes, my own son being one of them, but this can depend on what you choose to study, how flexible the tutor is and what else you have to offer as proof of your abilities and commitment.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Unfortunately for her, B does not have a specific ambition right now. No particular interest she wants to pursue. She just doesn't know. Which is absolutely fine, there are a lot of us like that :) So, we've decided the thing to do is keep her options open. Realistically for us there is a choice of one college, and there are no guarantees that if she does decide to apply there they will be flexible about entrance requirements, so given that she is quite an academic person a few GCSEs can't do any harm. So we're back where we started, trying not to get too annoyed!!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But at least we know the score. At least, even in this, she has that element of choice. She knows what GCSEs are about, that they're not necessarily the only reflection of knowledge or skill, but that they can be useful keys to open doors. She's not on the conveyor belt of 10 GCSEs 'just because', with no analysis of the whys and wherefores, and that huge pressure of feeling that if you don't succeed then your future looks dim.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So, we may be in the midst of all this for a while yet, but I hope that even in choosing a conventional path for now, our unconventional home educating life helps us see the broader picture in which it fits.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>*Actually, because of coursework and, more recently, controlled assessment elements, standard GCSEs as taken in schools are incredibly difficult to arrange as a private candidate. So home educators normally do IGCSEs (International GCSEs) instead, since they usually have 100% exam route to qualification. But more about all that another time maybe!</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941583597167539893.post-28997882615896571842011-10-28T14:37:00.000+01:002011-11-02T11:29:50.883+00:00Getting there in our own time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
So, the new reading test in primary schools is apparently a 'waste of money' and experts are 'deeply concerned' about it, so much so that the UK Literacy Association and others have written an open letter to the Education Secretary to express their fears. (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-15491763">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-15491763</a>)</div>
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I can't help but feel concerned also at children as young as six being assessed for their reading abilities before they've had the chance to develop them. </div>
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Because, here's the thing. Why are we quite happy to accept that children will learn to walk or talk at different times, but that once they hit 'school age' they are expected to keep to some kind of predetermined timetable?</div>
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I'd like to share with you a photo.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBU8iJmB-oMFJBoEsRCTDyVTbNs2kUtn0Hf1oczN9guGfUqrgJSAeb8hyrlcVLtw91nJlGuFrPzuJ7aW4DBmNiRO7OYt_puizZrF88IoCTEoq1cuzJcuWe2J8EDwZdQVf8YdOScodWeHIB/s1600/Photo-0010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBU8iJmB-oMFJBoEsRCTDyVTbNs2kUtn0Hf1oczN9guGfUqrgJSAeb8hyrlcVLtw91nJlGuFrPzuJ7aW4DBmNiRO7OYt_puizZrF88IoCTEoq1cuzJcuWe2J8EDwZdQVf8YdOScodWeHIB/s320/Photo-0010.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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A very ordinary scene, but one which fills me with joy. This is my son reading a book at breakfast, something he has chosen to do every morning for the last few weeks, and something that at one point I wasn't sure would ever happen. Not the time of day, obviously, but the fact that he is choosing to read a book and is enjoying it.<br />
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Home educated from the age of 5 his learning to read was entirely down to me. Unfortunately, unlike both his older and younger sisters, books didn't hold much of an appeal. Running at breakneck speed and playing with mud were much more the activities of choice!<br />
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But, heh, that was OK. I'd done my research. I knew that typically boys were much more active and would come to reading later. So I waited. And waited. And waited some more. In the meantime he grew up in literate environment (well, it's hard not to, really, isn't it!). There were trips to the library, bedtime stories, shopping lists, signs to read, words on computer games that really needed to be deciphered. I bought a reading scheme. The Peter and Jane Ladybird books, chosen through the highly scientific method of 'Oh, I remember those and now I'm feeling all nostalgic!'. They were used a little, for a few weeks, before they lost their appeal. Apparently it was much more important to get back to Civilization IV on the PC and understand how to discuss trade terms with Mansa Musa :)<br />
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As the months and years went by I found that I could see how his reading was progressing, but whereas his younger sister had whizzed through the stages at the speed of light, he was crawling through at the speed of treacle. I tried to remain positive, but it wasn't easy. Not easy to resist comparing him with what his reading ability 'should be' and certainly not easy to resist 'encouraging' him.<br />
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But, you see, I was so afraid of putting him off books for life. Of turning reading into a chore, into something with targets and achievement expectations. His older brother was at school until the age of 8 and I could remember the battles over the reading homework. He has never enjoyed books and, although I can't say for sure it was due to those early pressures, it's hard not to assume a link.<br />
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Fortunately, in a family of four children there's always something else for me to be concerned with so I didn't have a chance to become fixated on the reading issue and it just trotted along. I kept filling the house with books, magazines, shop catalogues and the like and eventually I noticed evidence of someone other than girls reading. Encyclopedias were turning up in strange places. The sports pages of the paper disappeared. The books in the bathroom (a great idea!) were moved and changed and it wasn't me doing it.<br />
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And now, here we are, with a fully fledged book reader! How cool is that!<br />
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Given that he's 12 the books he's choosing to read would I'm sure be considered 'too young' for him, but I think I've seen enough evidence over the years to trust the process and I'm not going to start interfering now.<br />
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And, apart from throwing opportunities in the way, I've not had a great deal to do with it. Seems his learning to read wasn't ever down to me after all. It was just something that he was going to do in his own time. I am so happy that he's had the freedom to become a reader at his own pace, never having felt pressurised to perform, never having to feel he was slow or behind.<br />
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Now, I know that this approach in its entirety isn't going to work in school. I realise that having everyone in a class reading at different levels, and some hardly at all, is not going to make teaching the National Curriculum very easy. I appreciate that a lot of school work is based on everyone being able to read the instructions and churn out written material for OFSTED and Parents' Evenings. But I can't help but feel sad that the tick box culture is alive and kicking and threatening to make it so much harder for our children to develop an enjoyment of books. Is there no way we can perhaps start seriously considering the idea of adjusting the education system to suit children, instead of the other way around?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941583597167539893.post-28422996304766838852011-10-19T14:10:00.001+01:002011-10-19T14:10:33.932+01:00Not Pollock, but maybe Picasso??So, as you may have noticed, no Jackson Pollock-type images have appeared, despite my <a href="http://manydifferentdrums.blogspot.com/2011/10/thinking-about-art-under-fenlands-big.html">best laid plans</a>. It seems the interest waned pretty quickly and I was back to a familiar dilemma; whether to lead the activity onwards or let it be. The upside of the former is that, as long as I don't become too dictatorial over the whole thing (and there are no guarantees of that!) there is a chance we'd spend a couple of hours quite productively, J and B may well enjoy something they didn't expect to enjoy and we'd have a piece of artwork to show for it. Plus a pretty good blog topic! On the other hand, I was really hoping that at least one child would have been keen enough to have a go themselves. I get tired of feeling I have to initiate everything and one of the benefits of home education is that children have much more opportunity to develop the skills of self-reliance and self-motivation, rather than being spoon-fed an inflexible one-size-doesn't-fit-all national curriculum for hours.<br />
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It would be unfair of me to suggest that my lot are sitting around waiting for me to come and bestow my ladle of knowledge though. They do plenty of their own activities; photography and cooking are two current favourites. But these take up only a small portion of their non-academic time and in filling the rest of the day we seem to differ in our opinions of how much Xbox time can be considered reasonable!<br />
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So, I'm still on a quest to find soul-filling and enjoyable art and craft activities for teenagers. Not easy. Granted, I have only had a quick Google, but there seems to be an awful lot of bookmark, friendship bracelet and decorate-your-flip-flop type projects which elicit looks that seem to say 'Mum, we're not living in an Enid Blyton book. We're a lot more sophisticated these days and it's going to take more than that.' Sigh.<br />
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I did have a minor brainwave yesterday though which made use of about six months worth of Weekend Guardian magazines which have taken up residence in the living room. See, it wasn't clutter and I shouldn't have tidied them away, so there! We went through them and cut out random facial features then selected the most interesting combination of eyes, mouths and noses to create collages. They have a bit of the Picasso about them, don't you think??<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim7PdGvhq1lKRMgC2cuJcVECDETwtgZpn78moxOWA3faFOY4wn6QO90tmlsA3yW06V3BBKv-_Dx10Hws2-t2blllZT2Q20tjAhRpQi-xZ9wLv44QPAcy7YgAMcmhanZDC42Zv3yZ2hdFzo/s1600/Photo-0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim7PdGvhq1lKRMgC2cuJcVECDETwtgZpn78moxOWA3faFOY4wn6QO90tmlsA3yW06V3BBKv-_Dx10Hws2-t2blllZT2Q20tjAhRpQi-xZ9wLv44QPAcy7YgAMcmhanZDC42Zv3yZ2hdFzo/s320/Photo-0001.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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And the Jackson Pollock? I think I'm going to let that one go. I might drop the occasional hint though and see what happens :)</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941583597167539893.post-71036435969952249042011-10-15T16:03:00.001+01:002011-10-15T16:06:54.638+01:00If I Could Turn Back Time…… Ten Things I Would Tell My Past Self!<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Don’t we all have these feelings? There are certainly things
I wish I’d have done differently in life, times when I wish I could have
another shot.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In terms of home educating, if I could go back in time and
talk to my newly home educating self, I would tell me:</span></div>
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">You’ve made the decision to home educate so stop wavering
and worrying about it. Have the courage of your convictions.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Read more books. Read John Holt and Alan Thomas and John
Taylor Gatto and more. They will inspire you and help you achieve Number 1 sooner.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Stop trying a different approach every fortnight. Just stop,
watch, listen to your children and hear the beat of their drums*. Then tune
into them.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Stop spending money on so many ‘educational resources’. You’re
only doing it to make yourself feel better. Wait. Do Number 3. Then you’ll know
what’s worth buying. In the meantime, spend the money on something else. Like
chocolate.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Don’t worry about J learning to read. He will. And he’ll do
it despite, not because of, that reading scheme you just bought.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Don’t buy that reading scheme. It will largely remain on the
shelf for a few years, after which you’ll sell it on Ebay for a fraction of
what you paid for it. Way to go with the waste of money!</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Don’t worry about the housework. Instead, learn to get used
to the mess. It will be like this for years.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Play.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Get outside more. Find ways around the practicalities of
small children and go camping. Stop putting it off ‘until it’s easier’ or you’ll
miss out.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Relax</span>.</li>
</ol>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It hasn’t escaped my notice that they’re mostly about
relaxing and not worrying. Oh, and buying stuff that I think will help stop me
worrying. I suppose I must have been a bit of a worrier! I got there in the end
and I’m a lot more chilled now, but I still have those moments of concern,
particularly when we entered the realms of ‘to GCSE or not to GCSE’! Only now I
take these moments as an opportunity to review what I’m doing, a sort of ‘quality
control’. And I think to the future – what would my future self tell me now? I
suspect the list wouldn’t be that different from that above, so I try to
listen!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What would you tell your past self? Or, what do you think your future self would tell you?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>* Hence the title of this blog. Did you get that? You did? Oh. Of course you did. Sorry</i> :P</span></span><br />
<div>
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<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941583597167539893.post-54325582158674742052011-10-08T14:09:00.003+01:002011-10-15T11:32:05.566+01:00Thinking about art under Fenland's big skies<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Last year A decided she’d like to go to school for the first time. Having
never been before, she was curious and so at the age of 9 we found her a place
in the small village primary and she went straight into Year 5. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">She fitted in immediately, and I mean within minutes! It was like she’d
always been there. It does help that we live in a little village and have
remained a part of the community even after taking the older ones out of school
ten years ago (although I think everyone thought we were a bit strange - we
were certainly the only home educators in the village!)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">She had no consideration at all for me though. No sympathy that I now
had to join the thousands of other parents across the country, getting myself
up, dressed and organised of a morning. No understanding of how difficult this
was!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">However, I’m in the swing of it now (well, most days) and I have
discovered that there is an upside to these structured weekdays. Not only am I
getting myself a bit more organised, but walking to school every day is an
ideal opportunity to fit in some daily exercise.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Now, when it comes to physical activity you could say I am somewhat challenged. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy sport. Sport and I have had a happy relationship for many
years......... as long as there has been a TV screen between the activity and me. I see
no reason to ruin that relationship by actually taking part. But I know I should actually get some exercise from time to time and I've often heard that the best way to do
this is to find something you can fit into your daily routine, so you can keep
it up on a regular basis. And, hey, whaddya know, now I actually have a daily
routine, maybe I can fit something into it! So, the dog and I walk A to
school and instead of coming straight home we take our morning constitutional
along the river bank, where he can run and sniff and swim to his heart’s
content and I can pound the grass and think.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Because another upside of these early mornings is that I get an hour to
myself in the Cambridgeshire Fens, with all the space my mind needs. I mean, there’s
a reason why the Fens are said to have big skies – just look:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0hKeAXYtKtUGinByxqird0T_cGrp26AqcqA2POd1uoZXaibiKBNvHXm1ymXuwApuX7QQ-VNJWT0kIaiFQLGLwGi3_Y0DoSX9NcanA7EtBFcuNezpQkfdeWFINxQJwYGbgR2dRCZfstmak/s1600/fens2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0hKeAXYtKtUGinByxqird0T_cGrp26AqcqA2POd1uoZXaibiKBNvHXm1ymXuwApuX7QQ-VNJWT0kIaiFQLGLwGi3_Y0DoSX9NcanA7EtBFcuNezpQkfdeWFINxQJwYGbgR2dRCZfstmak/s320/fens2.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK6GbQISEfKdfyflcRKWhxFyQTROi7s2VflceaWpqH_VQOJJ3oC9o3VVCetNhYpAZiT3y7ZyzD7H0BqYObkv31T6tKZPBApK10a-7p4otzQuSf6FbFJAxrXLjxhnZFMjv8OwtPXMx84V4w/s1600/fens3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK6GbQISEfKdfyflcRKWhxFyQTROi7s2VflceaWpqH_VQOJJ3oC9o3VVCetNhYpAZiT3y7ZyzD7H0BqYObkv31T6tKZPBApK10a-7p4otzQuSf6FbFJAxrXLjxhnZFMjv8OwtPXMx84V4w/s320/fens3.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">On Thursday morning I spent the time thinking about art. More
specifically, how I can get some art appreciation into our lives.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I decided to talk about it upfront. “With these GCSEs and other formal
stuff we’re doing”, I said, “We’re in danger of getting really bogged down. I think
it would be nice if we made time for some creative activities, especially since we don’t
seem to have done much of that in recent months”. Nods of agreement, so I asked
them if they’d like to look at some of the great works of art. We could see which we like, take a
trip to London to the National Gallery and Tate Modern, maybe even try our hand
at creating some works of art. They seemed to think this wouldn't be a bad idea (a trip to London is always
popular!) and said they’d like to start by looking at Banksy.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So, yesterday morning we ditched the English and, armed with a few books
found in the library plus the good ol’ internet, we started with Banksy. Here is one of his we liked lots:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_eeJamlLlkjc_M6Q7rahGoFEQAbOjJjb_CHk2xQnKyWOzp8tgqJaT2MIPaahId6jU2UltJKq5GIIvtjYTqmz5sKgYr1TJz5H6WUaUzYue4J6-UJaVUVBRWTpY55B-LjeEDECcTCX-pJ9W/s1600/banksy11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_eeJamlLlkjc_M6Q7rahGoFEQAbOjJjb_CHk2xQnKyWOzp8tgqJaT2MIPaahId6jU2UltJKq5GIIvtjYTqmz5sKgYr1TJz5H6WUaUzYue4J6-UJaVUVBRWTpY55B-LjeEDECcTCX-pJ9W/s320/banksy11.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Then we moved backwards into more general 20th</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> Century art. We talked a
bit about different art movements, found some paintings we liked:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxzoiIlCb1Nuq_dddRv3ssZ9yvGkyNo9X9LRvh83L-5l9iVRGUFQia_IRwhAIfd8hDc_2wfPsmOjTUekH1POqjxHRjql1vjzIlGet6qkCNzKDIpCOQkhMmwWyNaKDnHNFzJw_ZMNMcplt3/s1600/Dali-Persistence-of-Time.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxzoiIlCb1Nuq_dddRv3ssZ9yvGkyNo9X9LRvh83L-5l9iVRGUFQia_IRwhAIfd8hDc_2wfPsmOjTUekH1POqjxHRjql1vjzIlGet6qkCNzKDIpCOQkhMmwWyNaKDnHNFzJw_ZMNMcplt3/s320/Dali-Persistence-of-Time.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Salvador Dali 'Persistance of Time'</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And some we didn’t really get!</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ0gXoyEFkaAtZNYsEEJ6vPbO0XXIs49EwO-VKhht9G5FcRamd5SbNS5RE5yrcfy-ghHdE5jj7bSj4vcPymkK5ooEAoVp5dHVear4SFsaqMwJDaAD9k02hr8JqeXOs1OugmPn1fRjIBvRE/s1600/malevich_black.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ0gXoyEFkaAtZNYsEEJ6vPbO0XXIs49EwO-VKhht9G5FcRamd5SbNS5RE5yrcfy-ghHdE5jj7bSj4vcPymkK5ooEAoVp5dHVear4SFsaqMwJDaAD9k02hr8JqeXOs1OugmPn1fRjIBvRE/s320/malevich_black.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Kasimir Malevich 'Black Square'</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I think what made the morning a success is that I hadn't planned it much. Apart from doing a bit of prior research so I could go quite quickly to some websites and images without faffing around, I tried to let the morning flow.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">J (very nearly 13 years old) has decided he wants to have a go at a
Jackson Pollock type creation, which sounds fab. Next week we plan to try out a
few of his techniques. We’re going to rig up a makeshift thingy (that's a technical term, I think you'll find) in the car port
from which to hang some of the old cans of paint we have in the garage and swing
them over some wallpaper fixed to the ground. I reckon that with a few splashes and blobs he’ll
be well on his way – I’ll be back next week to report!</span><br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941583597167539893.post-32724406854298300382011-10-01T12:19:00.001+01:002011-10-15T11:31:15.536+01:00Not planning a curriculum…..<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This week, B has been looking at George Orwell’s </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Animal Farm</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. She’s currently studying
English Language, English Literature and History, all of which she will be
taking as IGCSEs next summer, and so I put together a cross-disciplinary unit
early in our programme which uses this book to neatly tie together our study of
character, themes and WWII politics.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span>
<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Did I convince you? Hmmm, maybe not………, but it was worth a
try! Unfortunately I’m nowhere near that organised and I certainly don’t often have
that kind of joined up thinking!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">OK, what really happened was this. She is in fact studying
for those three exams, that bit’s true! We started about three weeks ago. Up to
now, I’ve not had to worry too much about English, particularly with the girls.
They are naturally drawn to words and language. All I’ve needed to do is throw
opportunities in their way and they’ve taught themselves. But formal English,
such as you need to acquire for the purposes of passing a GCSE, is a different
matter entirely. Composition, comprehension, themes, allegory, story, scene
setting, writing to argue and persuade……… it’s all kind of interlinked, there’s
no easy place to start, and you’re learning skills rather than facts. It’s just
so goddam qualitative! This is definitely a ‘buy a book’ subject, but I have to
wait until payday. So, in the meantime we randomly picked out ‘character development’
and I’m bumbling through trying to find free online resources for B to
practice on.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Turns out there’s quite a lot based around </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Animal Farm</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. It’s a short book, we have
a copy on the shelf and the language is quite straight forward, so a good basis
for an introduction, I thought.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It was about the time that we discovered that Mr Frederick,
the owner of the neighbouring farm, represents Adolf Hitler, that the penny
dropped that we were crossing into one of her History units, the Development of
Nazi Germany. I know, I know, I was a bit slow on the uptake there. I’ve been
busy, OK?!! But it did result in a digression into the political situation at
the time and an attempt from me to explain communism, socialism, dictatorships and
democracies (laughable, really! If anyone takes a sudden interest in politics
I’m gonna be in big trouble and will DEFINITELY need to go out and buy a book.
Or seven. Or find a tutor :( )<span id="goog_1145325096"></span><span id="goog_1145325097"></span> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It all worked out quite well in the end and, if I phrase it
like I did in the first paragraph, sounds almost impressive!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It got me thinking to how often this has happened over the
years. It’s not that I don’t ever plan anything, or initiate projects; I do.
While I would love to say that we have followed an autonomous path for a decade,
my children directing their own learning all the way, this hasn’t been the best
way for us. So, we’ve straddled the path between autonomy and structure,
veering one way and then the other, trying to respond to the different needs of
the child, the subject and the demands of daily life.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But I do believe that a lot of our best learning, all that
cross-disciplinary stuff, has happened by chance rather than by design. I’d notice it often when I wrote a report for
the Local Authority (note: there is no obligation for home educators to write a
report, it’s just something I’ve done a couple of times when I didn’t fancy a
home visit. There’s no obligation to have one of those either, but I’ll talk
about that another time!)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Where was I? Ah yes, reports. As usual, I’d have left my
homework to the last minute, so I’d spend a couple of days turning out folders
and boxes, scrabbling under beds and rifling through diaries trying to work out
what we’d been doing for the past 12 months. And as I pulled it all together
and started to sort all the activities and events, noticeable themes emerged.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Tudors is a good example. We’d watched something on TV,
I forget what, it was a few years ago. We’d also visited Burghley House, seen
portraits in the National Portrait Gallery, created our own portraits, visited
the tomb of Catherine of Aragon in Peterborough Cathedral, read about Henry
VIII and his wives (it’s all that beheading that makes it so fascinating!), cut
out some pictures and made a Tudor Dynasty family tree…..</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDYmMaFXsk4DfbT3wKkHwEB9vHV3DFJO0D8vO_QBUlsOq-387f_0EJuNyLB-q7_3QBTBFgnnxaPTHzXZsdnUHh8AbKdXoSeG4OmOTR212Dx9dPJcbIW2xiNxvE2FrRoLdreqbVfNg421-L/s1600/SP_A0143.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDYmMaFXsk4DfbT3wKkHwEB9vHV3DFJO0D8vO_QBUlsOq-387f_0EJuNyLB-q7_3QBTBFgnnxaPTHzXZsdnUHh8AbKdXoSeG4OmOTR212Dx9dPJcbIW2xiNxvE2FrRoLdreqbVfNg421-L/s1600/SP_A0143.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When put together it
sounded like a well-planned project, but it was far from it. In reality, it was a genuine interest that led
to us finding out more. Then, add to that some co-incidences (the trip to
Burghley House just happened to be organised by a local home educators’ group,
and we live near Peterborough and shop there and often used to take a walk
through the cathedral), during which the Tudor connections were noticed because
of the current interest. It didn’t all take place over any specific period; it
was more like drip feeding over many months. In fact, the Tudors seems a recurrent
theme and it’s still going on some years later.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This happens often in our house, and it works well,
particularly it seems with historical themes. Everyone learns and remembers
much more, because the whole thing arises out of a spontaneous interest rather
than being scheduled into Term 2 of Year 4, whether you like it or not. And, I
hope, we all retain the interest rather than having it taught out of us (as
long as I can resist the temptation to jump in with two great feet and turn
everything into an ‘educational experience’!)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And if it there’s one of us who isn’t quite as interested,
then that’s not a problem. It’s amazing how much you pick up passively, just
because it’s happening around you (I can vouch for that - my knowledge of
football has increased exponentially over the last twelve years, largely by
osmosis!) and, because we’re not sticking to a timetable, we can revisit it all
whenever we like.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">History is one of our most autonomous subjects, Geography
too. This is largely because I am appalling at both (just ask my long-suffering
friend Debbie, who has had the misfortune to be paired up with me for
Articulate and Pictionary on many occasions!), but also because I am painfully
aware how very easy it is to make them boring. ‘Right, children, today we are
going to study the Magna Carta, followed by rainfall across the continents’. I
can’t see that working, can you? So apart from the occasional project I’ve
planned when I’ve noticed a gap in our learning – I don’t think it would have
been very impressive if we’d got this far without the children finding out
about the two World Wars for example – I’ve pretty much left it to chance.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And as it turns out, chance can be a fine thing. By leading
an inquisitive sort of life and following whatever paths develop, a rich
curriculum can plan itself!</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941583597167539893.post-47755538286396081922011-09-18T17:05:00.000+01:002011-10-01T12:12:57.616+01:00Celebrating ten years of home education!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Z_2aSPJW0WXyn-aOGBmgZpHG6pbGAjRwEzY9Z7tsOPM0lyAGKOnFsuxvPrd3LNs4H-23mQ47dkLyaj1WXWZKy4XU7daUD0CTvOwp1Ilyo2FQlmmruYZbIrxdOSWGQmSBiCsN7S9fqpkG/s1600/hanabi060716DYsn137.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Z_2aSPJW0WXyn-aOGBmgZpHG6pbGAjRwEzY9Z7tsOPM0lyAGKOnFsuxvPrd3LNs4H-23mQ47dkLyaj1WXWZKy4XU7daUD0CTvOwp1Ilyo2FQlmmruYZbIrxdOSWGQmSBiCsN7S9fqpkG/s320/hanabi060716DYsn137.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Wow! Today we celebrate ten years of home educating! </span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />*sets off fireworks
and raises a glass*</span></i></span></h2>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And I thought a really good way to celebrate would be by entering the
blogosphere! As it says in the little ‘About Me’ section over there on the
right, it does feel a bit self-indulgent and I do feel a little uncomfortable
about the whole thing. I’m not altogether sure that anyone will be in the
slightest bit interested in what I have to say, and I’m not naturally one to
enjoy the limelight (unless I’ve had a bit too much to drink, then it’s a
totally different story!!).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">BUT, I am just so fascinated by the social networking revolution that’s
happening all around us and changing the way we interact and I want a piece of
it! Also, I have been helped so much through our decade of home education by so
many people that it’s about time I gave some back.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The internet has probably, no, definitely, been the single most
valuable resource to me throughout these home ed years. And I don’t just mean
that we can find out the gestation period of a guinea pig, how many moons
Saturn has, or which King George was The Mad One at a few mouse clicks BECAUSE
I HAVE TO KNOW RIGHT NOW MUM!!!! How you even more seasoned home edders managed
back in the good ol’ days of ‘let’s look that up when we’re next at the
library’ fills me with the utmost respect.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">No, I’m thinking about the fantabulous online home education network
that is there to support, encourage, discuss, help, make suggestions or just
hold virtual hands.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Whilst I have never once regretted home educating, I have on occasion
had questions, self-doubt and some pretty tough times and there you’ve all
been, thousands of you. Even if there was no quick answer to the problem I was
facing, simply knowing that there were others that had been there, or were
there with me, helped me keep my head above water until the rapids calmed. And
they always did :) </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So, that’s where I’m gonna be. One of those on the bank shouting
encouragement. Or, as is just as likely I suspect, up to my neck in the wet
stuff too!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I’ve been at this a pretty long while now and, with four <s>of the
little blighters</s> wonderful children, I have come across quite a range of
different, ummm, shall we say ‘challenges’!! But that’s life, right, whether
you’re home educating or not? And right alongside those challenges, and
sometimes because of them, there have been many, many moments of success, joy
and laughter.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So, now I’d like to share our continuing journey as well as memories of
the path we’ve travelled. I hope you enjoy your time here. I might even dare to
hope that from time to time it’s useful! Please, feel free to join in, comment
and add your own thoughts, but let’s keep it positive. I’m all up for discussion
and disagreement and I want to hear about different viewpoints that challenge
the way I’ve been doing things, but I’m planning for this space here to be as supportive as all those I’ve visited over
the years!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Right, back to the celebrations!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cheers! </span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1