Well it's definitely time to get back to blogging, and it's easier to carry on with this one rather than go to all the trouble of starting a new one! I need to start keeping a record of what we do as my children are now all home educated. Here they are on the morning everyone else went back to school.
I can't be bothered to type out yet again the reasons why, so here they are cut and pasted from one of the many many emails I typed to friends.
After much consideration we are not going to be sending our children back to school, we are going to be educating them at home, at least for a while as we see how it goes. Elizabeth is in the worst year of girls her school has seen for years apparently and is modifying her behaviour accordingly and turning bitchy, she has turned nice again over the summer.Thomas has struggled since the beginning of year 2, and again has become a much nicer boy for a few weeks off .... I can't face sending them back and getting two miserable kids back, I want to keep these two relatively pleasant people! They both thought carefully about it and we listened to their opinions, and they both decided to leave, Lib has one really nice friend we're going to try to keep in touch with, Thomas two 'sort of' friends we'll invite round every now and then and see if they come. Joanna is fine at school but is happy to come out, and to be honest it would be a huge relief not to do year 2 SATS again I found them really stressful for both me and whichever child was doing them, school xxx was awful it made sure the kids took them seriously, school xx xxxx was better and tried to disguise them but Thomas still felt the pressure.
It's nothing personal about school xx xxxx as far as schools go the head is fab and has been very accommodating and they treat us as individuals, it's just a school thing generally.
It's also a faith thing, which I didn't lay on thick with the friend I was emailing as she doesn't really have any. A Christian school wasn't an option, despite being Catholic our school wasn't really what I'd describe as 'Christian', for example my chidlren were taught evolution as absolute truth there. I would prefer my children to be given a chance to make up their own minds rather than being spoon fed an atheistic world view, which they would get in all state schools whether volutary aided by the church or not because they have to follow the National Curriculum (apart from a handful of rebels which are nowhere near here).
So far we're doing a mixture of structured and free play. We do some workooks in the mornings which they don't seem to mind, they then have a choice of some more work eg they pick a reading book or a subject book, then in the afternoons we do crafty things or go out.
The woman from the LEA came out to check us out, and is coming abck in seven weeks. We were all geared up to show her what we do but she didn't want to know - apparently the reason she came out so early is because some schools here in Sunderland are booting kids out that they don't like by persuading the parents to home educate! So if that had happened to us she'd get us into a different school. When I reassured her that I had liked our particular school but it was a lifestyle choice, she arranged to come back in november to seee what we're doing, when we've had a chance to get started.
We went to the Library today for the third time since we started. The older 2 are into Victorians and Ancient Egyptians so we got a load of stuff out, with loads of reading books for all four kids too. The big 2 are into Dahl right now, Jeremy Strong and of course Francesca Simon's 'Horrid Henry' (yuck! hey ho it's the printed word and they voluntarily engage with it!). Flossie is into Lauren Child's 'Charlie and Lola', she can't yet read independently my life will be much easier once she can but I'm trying to chill, she's not seven til March which is apparently when something matures in the brain and it gets much easier - and she's not that far off but lacks confidence. I toook out the 'Faraway Tree' by Enid Blyton to read to her, I figured it may engage her with something a bit meatier than the completely absolutely small and very annoying Lola. No offence Lola - we love you really, but a diet of nothing else is just too much!
We have also been on a woodland walk which is a regular gathering of other local home educators, done loads of cooking (it was always inportant to me that they grew up self sufficient but there was never time before) and visited 'Seven Stories' book museum in Newcastle.
I can't be bothered to type out yet again the reasons why, so here they are cut and pasted from one of the many many emails I typed to friends.
After much consideration we are not going to be sending our children back to school, we are going to be educating them at home, at least for a while as we see how it goes. Elizabeth is in the worst year of girls her school has seen for years apparently and is modifying her behaviour accordingly and turning bitchy, she has turned nice again over the summer.Thomas has struggled since the beginning of year 2, and again has become a much nicer boy for a few weeks off .... I can't face sending them back and getting two miserable kids back, I want to keep these two relatively pleasant people! They both thought carefully about it and we listened to their opinions, and they both decided to leave, Lib has one really nice friend we're going to try to keep in touch with, Thomas two 'sort of' friends we'll invite round every now and then and see if they come. Joanna is fine at school but is happy to come out, and to be honest it would be a huge relief not to do year 2 SATS again I found them really stressful for both me and whichever child was doing them, school xxx was awful it made sure the kids took them seriously, school xx xxxx was better and tried to disguise them but Thomas still felt the pressure.
It's nothing personal about school xx xxxx as far as schools go the head is fab and has been very accommodating and they treat us as individuals, it's just a school thing generally.
It's also a faith thing, which I didn't lay on thick with the friend I was emailing as she doesn't really have any. A Christian school wasn't an option, despite being Catholic our school wasn't really what I'd describe as 'Christian', for example my chidlren were taught evolution as absolute truth there. I would prefer my children to be given a chance to make up their own minds rather than being spoon fed an atheistic world view, which they would get in all state schools whether volutary aided by the church or not because they have to follow the National Curriculum (apart from a handful of rebels which are nowhere near here).
So far we're doing a mixture of structured and free play. We do some workooks in the mornings which they don't seem to mind, they then have a choice of some more work eg they pick a reading book or a subject book, then in the afternoons we do crafty things or go out.
The woman from the LEA came out to check us out, and is coming abck in seven weeks. We were all geared up to show her what we do but she didn't want to know - apparently the reason she came out so early is because some schools here in Sunderland are booting kids out that they don't like by persuading the parents to home educate! So if that had happened to us she'd get us into a different school. When I reassured her that I had liked our particular school but it was a lifestyle choice, she arranged to come back in november to seee what we're doing, when we've had a chance to get started.
We went to the Library today for the third time since we started. The older 2 are into Victorians and Ancient Egyptians so we got a load of stuff out, with loads of reading books for all four kids too. The big 2 are into Dahl right now, Jeremy Strong and of course Francesca Simon's 'Horrid Henry' (yuck! hey ho it's the printed word and they voluntarily engage with it!). Flossie is into Lauren Child's 'Charlie and Lola', she can't yet read independently my life will be much easier once she can but I'm trying to chill, she's not seven til March which is apparently when something matures in the brain and it gets much easier - and she's not that far off but lacks confidence. I toook out the 'Faraway Tree' by Enid Blyton to read to her, I figured it may engage her with something a bit meatier than the completely absolutely small and very annoying Lola. No offence Lola - we love you really, but a diet of nothing else is just too much!
We have also been on a woodland walk which is a regular gathering of other local home educators, done loads of cooking (it was always inportant to me that they grew up self sufficient but there was never time before) and visited 'Seven Stories' book museum in Newcastle.
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