Tidy up!

I have spent this weekend rearranging the two shelving units in the living room and the dining room. Taking things from one room and putting them in another. Generally sorting out the shelves, getting rid of things that weren't played with. The main thing to do was to bring the books into the living room and take the games into the dining room as when we play a game we generally play it in there. I am so pleased with results. I even sorted out the hundred or so DVD's we have and got rid of some of them.

The bonus to this is my living room seems really warm and inviting, people like to sit in there and read and as the books are now in the living room it is inviting to go and snuggle up on the sofa to do some reading which is what we did tonight.
Jasmine sat here most of the day reading Harry Potter, with the lamp in the corner it is cosy.
These are my very full but organised shelves with craft things on, playdoh, games, maths manipulatives, writing stuff and general craft books. It was a big job and took me ages to do, but the results are so worth it, I know feel ready to go with our homeschool onwards and upwards we soar!!

Why do we have a living room?

Why we have a living room I don't know, it is really only used when someone wants to watch TV or play on the Wii, also if guests with children come round we sit in there. I tend not to sit in there.

Generally we gravitate to the kitchen and dining area. The dining room is small but warm and is just off the kitchen. People tend to sit at the breakfast bar where we have a laptop connected to the internet. My eldest sits in the dining room against the radiator with her pink laptop which you can see in the fist photo. Often I am found at the dining table, especially when writing or in the first picture I am weaving a scarf for Jasmine (it will take a while).

The piano and ugly harmonium (it is so going to go when I can persuade dh) are in the dining room, so sometimes somebody tinkers away on the piano. I have to make the living room more inviting to sit and read in so we feel we get some use out of this room as it is huge and not used.

The view into the dining room from the kitchen.
Jasmine likes to sit at the breakfast bar making her Klutz Fairy Fashion creations, she has hung some wool on the wall to hang up her fashion designs. I put a candle in that corner as it is fairly dark with the light on and she needs the light for doing the little details on her designs.
Stood looking into our kitchen, Jasmine hard at work.

Snapshot Of December

Snow

I asked Emily to take some photos whilst we still had snow in January!

A new day

Well today is our first day of home educating and I am a little nervous!

I think we got our wires crossed as Dave wanted me to sit with him each day and critique how the day went including showing what Theo had done. But I think to do that will put unnecessary pressure on the home ed process, so I declined his offer.

Dave is unsure about home ed and is talking about Theo's job opportunities, well I want him to experience being 5, there will be lots of time for job opportunities later in life. I have written a structure for our days so I know what things I would like to cover with Theo, it is very game and play based, Dave does not want me to wing it. I decided I have the structure but will also go with the flow if Theo is happy doing something, I will not drag him away from it, our learning involves the child and will be as much child led as possible.

Dave's argument is that homeschooled children never learn to be self disciplined and they all enter the Arts rather than any professional qualification. He has only known a handful of home educators so I don't know how he has reached this conclusion. Of the ones we know: 1 has gone into drama, 1 into singing/music, 1 into conservation, 1 off to Uni. Giving a 3:1 ratio of practical/Uni. Going to do some more research on this and ask in USA as they have a lot more homeschoolers.

J is off today still recovering from Swine Flu, so she can join in with our story reading and game playing. It is lovely to have then both at home and this morning has been very relaxed, it would have been even more lovely had we not had to do the 7 am college run for Emily. I feel so tired and it is only 8.50 am. early to bed tonight I think!

New Years Eve

Well I was a little nervous but I needn't have been!

On New Years Eve, I set off in the afternoon with nibbles and some new year print outs from Activity Village (fab site- thanks Lou) I had not driven to this house in Cambridge before, but knew whereabouts it was in Cambridge, I set my SatNav and off we went. It took 45 mins to get there, but that went really quickly.

I knew this home educator from a few years back when Jasmine was being home educated, we have kept in touch via email and phone. So we were amongst friends straight away. This was our first home ed meeting we have gone to since the beginning of 2008 as it was that year in June that Jasmine went to school.

I have to say it felt relaxed and so good to be back. It was so lovely to be in another home educators house, who had as many books as we have! There were 5 other families there, though I think not all of them were home educators but the majority were. I was pleased to see several aged 8 yr old girls who J went off with and happily played. Theo sat on my knee most of the time, he played with some of the toys that were there, but there was no pressure from anyone for him to have to go off and I think this helped him a lot, unlike preschool and school where he has been forced to leave me. In the last hour he ventured off looking for J and happily played near me, but was very relaxed and content.

We went to the home ed meeting to get a feel for how many children turn up to things and what ages, genders are there. There were no boys Theo's age, but there were some girls. Theo however gets on well with children older than him anyway. I was hoping the issue of socialisation would be resolved for me helping me to make the decision to pull Theo out of school this month. And I have to say it has helped me!

I will be applying this week for Theo to have 2 weeks authorised absence from school so we can try out home ed and go to some sessions in Cambridge, if this goes well, I will then de-register him from school. Not sure what J makes of this, but she knows when she chooses it she can come out too. I will see how she goes on then make the decision for her. Dave still not happy about Theo losing his place, he calls being in a class of 31 a 'prime place' and wants me to let Theo stay at school to complete the year before making a decision. I see no reason to wait.

Now where is that holiday form ......

update from old blog

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2009
Where we are

Well Jasmine is still in school and is telling me she wishes she had never gone. She will easily be ready to say goodbye to the whole experience by the end of the academic year if not before then. Theo is still officially in school, but I can pull him out in a day. I will send him back in Jan then if he asks to be home educated I am pulling him out.

Dave is unsure about the whole thing as when Theo is pulled out he loses he place and can probably never return to school. This is why I hesitated and have not pulled him out yet. At first this was a scary thought but now I have switched on my home ed head and am really cool with that. I see no reason when I pull him out for him to ever return to school. I think once we do it and Dave sees it is all right he will relax and be fine. He did ask me whether home education or private school would achieve the best for a child and I told him home ed can achieve whatever you set it out to achieve- he agreed with me on this.

I think God is setting the path for me. I had a home educator who lives 20 mins away from me contact me and tell me of two families who live less than 10 mins away who home ed. Then Dave's friend told us of a family who have just moved into his village who home ed. So straight away I know of 4 families who are local to us. I just hope some have children near my own children's age.

I have asked God if home ed is the path we are to gown down, then can He please provide opportunities for us and this seems to be happening- so I am very excited. I will be even more excited when I pull Theo out of school and we finally start travelling on the path that Jasmine will all to soon be joining us on.

On New Years Eve we are off to a home educators house for some seasonal fun. She is a Christian home educator. We are hoping to meet other home ed children and parents and put the feelers out ready for our new journey. It is a shame Dave can't come with us to see how nice the home education netwrok can be as he thinks it is really unfriendly and weird.

So that is where we are right now- tentatively getting ready for the journey...
Posted by Crunchyat 5:50 PM0 comments
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2009
Emotional Roller Coaster

Well we have been on an emotional roller coaster and I have to say choosing to take your child out of school is harder than never sending them.

I pulled J out, we did 2 days of home ed and had a great time. Then she saw her teacher who told her how everyone misses her and she hugged her tight and said goodbye and it was all too much for J who broke down that night and cried she missed her 'friends' So the next day we sent her back and am re-thinking when we will home educate.

T is coming out at Christmas, this is so the right decision for him. He is not happy there, he is not settled, he plays alone a lot of the time. He is shy and school won't make him less shy. He tells me how no one plays with him and he looks so forlorn every day when I drop him off. He is always happy when I pick him up but I think that is the relief of finally going home that adds a spring into his step. So I am asking the head on Monday for authorised absence for him for January so we can see how he settles in home ed, if she says no then I pull him out anyway.

I have made a decision to let J stay till the end of the year but do feel the novelty of school has worn off and she may find it hard when she sees T come home with me each day whilst she is in school. They are not really friends of hers at school, she never sees them outside of school (except a few of them who she saw out of school when she was home educated last time) I think it will be easier for her to leave as over the Summer she won't see her peers or become attached to a new teacher. She has a few months left before I home educate her.
Posted by Crunchyat 3:29 PM0 comments

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
Getting there

Well it is 12-31am and I can't sleep, too excited about home edding, need to find a way to quiet my mind and go to sleep LOL. For the past 2 nights J has been awake gone 11pm because she says she is so excited about coming home. I let her lie in bed and read to try to relax her, we all just can't wait.

Today I was telling J and T about the government and how they are trying to make home ed very hard to do. I spoke about leaving and moving where we can home educate. They were both very happy to move if it meant they did not have to go to school. T put on 2 rucksacks on his back and told me he was packed ready for the move LOL. They are taking it all in their stride and are ready to be at home, it is so lovely. I am getting my children back. They have been playing today so beautifully and I can see that J is getting her sparkle back that I noticed had gone from her for a while now.

I am still in the process of planning things, using my new copy of The Well Trained Mind for ideas of schedules and topics we can do. I need to come up with ideas of joint things we can do then decide what they can each do whilst I am giving the other some 1-1 tuition. Maths is a worry as J is a little behind in this (well she is in the middle set at school) I have settled on Galore Park maths book 1 that we will work through and check she understands things in before we move on to book 2. I also ordered their English book 3 for J to do.

For T his maths is going to be designed by me with lots of hands on manipulatives to do, I can even set him up with some tasks whilst I help J with hers. We have a lot of resources like rods and cubes and bears, I am going to order a sorting set with sorting bowls to have some fun with. I also need to order some triangular pencils but can't for the life of me think where I got them from or what make they are..... might have a look at Learning Resources...... Okay found some, the felts are Handhuggers and this sitesells the pencils, so will be ordering from them in the next few days.

Did I say I was excited!!!!!!
Posted by Crunchyat 12:31 AM0 comments

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2009
A new start

Finally after a year and a half, my lovely daughter is coming home from school. I think the novelty has worn off, she is tired with the children’s cliques and behaviour and is fed up of getting distracted in class. So at Christmas I am pulling J (9, daughter) and T (5, son)out of school. I am spending this time getting everything redy for them, planning up some timetable so hubbie can see we can do this. I need to get the de-registraion letter ready to go in to school in a few weeks. Hopefully the LA will leave me alone over the festive period so we can settle in to our homeschool life.
We have given our ’school’ a name and I am going to get J to draw up a picture to laminate it to stick up at home. I have joined EO, will also be joining HEAS to get more info. I am re-introducing myself on our local home ed list so we can go along to things that are on, we can make their Christmas party so we can meet some new children and some mums!
I am beyond excited, it is like Christmas has come early for me. I am finding it hard to sleep at night with the excitement of getting my children back- yeah!!!
Just need to decide if I am going to buy a maths curriculum or if I am going to use Rupp’s book for standards and work it out from there. Either way, I will be placing an order with Sonlight and using Galore Park for English. I have most of the resources I need, just need to get the maths sorted really.
Well world we are about to start a wonderful new exciting chapter!
Posted by Crunchyat 5:58 PM0 comments