End Of An Era

Yesterday I was finally ready to give up on our home education group that I have been a member of for just over four years but the owner of for the past eighteen months. I handed the group over to another member who regularly organises events and craft activities for the children of the group.

It was a huge decision which was not reached lightly and I have to say that it is like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders and I can breathe in and out without feeling suffocated any longer for the first time in ages.

In our region of Tyne and Wear UK, there were two groups, the one I ran plus another one that was started almost two years after the original one began. In the time I have owned the group there has been nothing but trouble from the other camp who never seemed to get it right in terms of inclusion for everyone no matter what their financial status is or from what walk of life they came from. In our group we included everyone no matter what their social status, colour or creed.

All the back stabbing, bitching and general holier than though attitudes of some people plus the fact that since November attending ever event meant I was laid up in bed for almost two weeks with some sickly virus and on one occasion had to stay in hospital as well, all made for me feeling rather angry about being the owner of the group and I wanted out of the system of group mentality altogether.

This morning whilst clearing my bookmarks I see that the group has in fact been deleted. So it really is an end of an era as the group was just about to turn seven years old. I am not disappointed, I feel a little sorry for the handful of families who did not belong to any other online group or who may not now get support, but on the whole I think it is a good thing and our family will be able to be ourselves and be free which is after all the whole point of home educating in the first place for us. We like the being able to please ourselves lifestyle we have, for the kids to be able to mix well with their real friends, study what and when we like together, no time restraints. Plus all of this means that I will be able to focus more on my number six brain box of the family and hopefully have a stress free bug free pregnancy from now on until the baby is born at the end of June. 23 weeks 4 days and counting!

Bob The Builder - WHO ???

I have been trying to keep Ivan's interest in books of late and failing dismally. That was actually until about forty minutes ago. I had given him some new Bob The Builder books and was showing him the trucks and characters whilst reading out some of the text. He kept looking away from the book and I noticed he was looking at my pile of cookery books. I asked him whether he wanted to go and get one to look at. SUCCESS !!! Books that contain all sorts of yummy cakes and delicious deserts appear to have captured his attention and he is still there looking through the books with great interest. What is great is that he is calling out things with excitement that he can see in the pictures. I think we can safely call that a result :)

All of this has reminded me of a website that I got ages ago CAKE MATHS which I used with Lionel and Angelica a while ago to broach the subject of Fractions with her. I think children relate better to things that appeal to them as opposed to a workbook that looks dull for them to look at.

I am very pleased with Ivan actually enjoying these cookery books I really am. I have tried all sorts of books over the past two years with little success so this is brilliant. Now I feel a Freecycle post coming on for more cookery books !

The Last Week

During the last week so much has happened I dont really know where to begin.

Lets start with Joseph, the oldest kid:
still a kid to me at seventeen years old, Joseph is into all sorts. At the moment he is programming a website with an online friend of his. Each day he comes to me with a list of questions mostly aimed at html coding. I have been pretty vague in my replies largely because I want him to go away and look up the information on reference sites himself. I have actually bee amazed at what he is learning computer programming wise, the relationships between transferring files from macs to pc's and vice versa, and the overall gumption that he is throwing at this project. Good for you Joseph :)

Lionel age fifteen going on thirty:
this last week has seen Lionel ranging from acting like he is ten to moaning about the place like he is well into his late thirties. In between all that he has had some level hormones as well and has been concentrating on his guitar. He is in the process of writing a song with a distinct Spanish sounding rhythm to it. From what little I can hear when he is practising in his bedroom, it sounds good and really skilled for someone who only ever picked up a guitar at Christmas just gone. Lionel has also been working on his cartoon drawings and making animated flicker books with the younger children. One of them was of a weight lifter who had enormous weights which expanded with every lift, very amusing as the facial expressions were complete with beads of sweat flying off in all directions. Really imaginative.

Angelica our ten year old ballerina:
Well the last few days Angelica has not been very well and she has been coughing and sleeping a lot. But having said that she has been working hard on her writing skills writing stories and generally brushing up on comprehension. Art is featuring high on her agenda these days and she is still working on a flower project that she started last week as well as continually practising her dancing.

Imogen has been learning vowels this week. I think she has grasped the concept on a consonant and a vowel and the differences between the two now and is more confident in her writing as a result. Her reading is coming along in leaps and bounds too and she seems genuinely pleased with her progress which is fantastic to see.

Ivan has been focusing on numbers and art work this week. He has started to write some really cool sentences as well and is always so proud to show them off to me with a huge smile on his face.

It is difficult to write about what the kids do during their home education journey because each day starts around 6am and goes on until around 11pm most days for some of them. They are so active all of the time it wears me out. With the baby moving so much I feel like I am constantly doing aerobics getting up of this chair and keeping up with the kids. I will be glad when the warmer weather comes and I can take them out to do their work because then I can lay back on the grass or something and let them just be free instead of cooped up like they are at the moment as it has been raining every day for a week with only a few dry hours in between.

At least we have the back garden. The kids love doing their work out there. Ivan was intrigued and captured by his seed packets that arrived yesterday. He is bursting with excitement to actually plant them but it is slightly too soon for them just yet so he is having to learn a bit of patience as well just now. I am sure he will cope.

Kids and Art

We have been working on the children's creativity these past few days. It is half term here in Tyne & Wear so we have another boy who normally goes to school staying with us again as we have him every holiday. This means that with the unborn baby there are seven brains to contend with at the moment two of which have come down with some sort of stuffy nose virus today so are a little bit bunged up.

The oldest two Joseph and Lionel have been exploring more fully their manga drawing techniques this week. They have been following a course that I purchased online over a year ago. Only another few weeks to go until Easter time then after that they will submit work for a course completion certificate and award. I am really pleased that they have stuck with it for well over a year and feel quite proud of them. I remember in the early stages when the simplest technique would stump them but now they are drawing all kinds of action figures and scenes. Lionel has made up his own Anime which is rather good. When he lets me take some photographs I will post it on the web. Unfortunately he is very shy about showing off his work but may get a bit more confidence when he gets his certificate and award.

We have been doing a Paint What You See exercise with the others. It is working out well. Using different types of paint the children have already chosen their favourites to explore more fully. Angelica has taken to watercolours done in acrylics. Imogen and Ivan seem to like mixing powder forms of paint and exploring different thickness' to achieve different results.

All in all it has been exciting watching them explore and discover the various types of mediums for themselves. I hope that they do stick with nurturing their creative sides as that is very important I believe.

Also this week, yesterday we went to a Chinese New Year craft and celebration with our home education group. It was fun but we had to leave early. The kids never made anything which was a tad disappointing but they enjoyed looking at all the interesting objects and catching up with their friends.

Angelica has been working on her writing skills as well branching out into calligraphy styles. She is keen to master this art form of writing and is working hard at it. Lionel has been writing in Chinese for the New Year celebrations and Imogen and Ivan have been adding to the stories they had already started last week drawing pictures to go with them.

We hope to go rock pool exploring again this week possibly Thursday. The weather has been really bad though so we are playing that one by ear I think. Will post some pictures when I take them off the camera.

Against The Law

In a kind of weird twist yesterday, Ivan and I began discussing what sort of things were against the law. The afternoon was taken up with all sorts of activities relating to that subject with some surprising results.

Imogen was very good at drawing some scenes of things that are against the law. She drew a figure (man) putting some sweets into his pocket while a security guard was looking the other way near a sweet counter.

Angelica wrote a piece out about things that she thought were against the law. I was delighted to see her writing about the way some people use racist terms like "black ..... " and similar phrases that just seem to roll off the tongue. I asked her why she thought that using names like "black something" were against the law now and she went into this huge description of people making other people feel bad or belittled because of something physical about them or their appearance. This led to a huge debate between all the children about disabilities both physical and not so obvious.

I feel so proud that all of them knew about this subject. I couldnt work out what to put down in my "I can prove we actually educate the children" book to show the local education authority when they make their annual inspection here. This morning I filled it in and will be pleased to show this off.

Later today we will be doing some paintings to reflect our discussion on equality. The children have ideas some of which are surprising. Ivan is drawing black and white hands all jumbled up on the page. Imogen is doing a man with a guide dog jumping on the trampoline as she said "why shouldn't he" when I asked her why she came up with that. Angelica is writing more about why she thinks that some people 'have' to make other people feel bad to make themselves feel good. Lionel is showing pictures of different degrees of physical disability doing sporting events. He has been researching this today. Joseph who has Marfan Syndrome himself knows only too well about feeling bad and sad because of the way people look at him or speak towards him not with him, is doing a piece about equality at work. He has been looking at what facilities employers have to provide and what the law says about equality.

To think all of this came out as a subject to follow because Ivan said that he thought someone nicked a magazine from Tesco's yesterday. They hadnt, the lady had taken a freebie magazine but Ivan not knowing it was free to take was convinced she "nicked it". I am always amazed at my children's ability to just take a line or suggestion and run with it for two or three days. Last night we actually fell asleep discussing equality of various types but we all felt happy and the brains felt like they had achieved a lot.

Symmetry Fun

From A Magical Childhood website newsletter, I was sent some craft ideas for Valentines Day this Wednesday 14th February. One of them was about exploring Heart Symmetry by making a Heart Shaped Scrapbook and using painted hearts to teach about symmetry. Folding pieces of paper in half and showing the kids how to draw a half heart shape, cutting it out and unfolding it to form a heart. Giving them some small dishes of coloured paint and ask them to drop various blobs of it on the inside of the heart, then fold it shut again. When they open it up again, they'll have a pattern that is symmetrical -- the same on both sides. Talk about what else is symmetrical -- some shapes, our bodies, lots of trees.... and then ask them to find examples of things that are and are not symmetrical around the house or in magazines.

We had great fun with this this morning but no actual scrapbooks were completed yet as we got stuck into the painting and so the actual books will have to be put together once the paint is dry.

The finished book is going to look something like this

The instructions can be seen here Valentine's Heart Scrapbook

We also have begun exploring the Chocolate Curriculum

Valentine's Day is synonymous with chocolate. Did you know that chocolate has been around for over 2000 years? It didn't start out as a candy bar — it started out as a drink! What follows are some great links to websites where you can learn about the origins of chocolate, how it was used, when and where the first chocolate factory started and much more! You'll also find some sweet activities that your family can do to extend the learning.

Ivan is particularly taken with the chocolate based learning. We are having great fun.

Cookery Fun with Lynn B.

Today the three youngest brains, Angelica Imogen and Ivan went over to Lynn B's for a cookery lesson which lasted for most of the afternoon right through the evening and up until about 8pm!

Loads of fun, they made cheese pies, pasta salads, cake, biscuits and a lot of mess :)

This was Angelica's first time making short crust pastry from scratch and I think she managed it pretty well especially mastering someone else's kitchen scales. Ours in ancient, an old Tower one from the 1970's which was extremely advanced for its time as it has ounces and metric weights on it.

Also Lynn B. cooks on gas and we have electric. So all in all, with the new things to get used to, all the kids managed really really well.

There were six kids in total and I think that for a first attempt at teaching cookery, Lynn B. managed remarkably. All the kids gave her enormous cuddles when they were leaving with their various eddible goodies before we came home.

I tried each one and I have to say they were delicious!