Monster & Teeny

Three Kessinglands, two Melroses, two NicCamps, a HESFes and an Okehampton. The core group of all of the Home Ed camps we’ve attended have been roughly the same people although there have been omissions and additions along the way. Last week we went to our third Kessingland, our fifth Muddlepuddle camp. It’s over 3 years since we went to our first camp - Melrose 2005 but a lot of the faces were the same.

I took two very shy and quiet children to that first Melrose, and a nervous and not at all sure about all this Home Education malarkey husband. Last week I took two children who were happily at the centre of the group of children, their friends and a husband who not only could happily talk to anyone and everyone about Home Education but also has a household appliance named in his honour in at least two other households

It wasn’t my finest week, camp-wise. In the first 24 hours I found myself homeless having taken an uncampable-in tent with us, a single parent having sent A home to get a more suitable tent and severely visually impaired having sent him off without first taking my contact lenses out of the car! Whilst it was nice to feel I was doing massive amounts in making us a very politically correct camp I was not great at needing help from other people, much though I was touched at the amount that was offered and given.

However I have come home and read other people’s accounts of the week, looked at my own and others’ pictures of the week and talked to my children about how they found it and realised that weather, other issues both minor and major aside it was still a good week. The children got to run wild and free with their best friends in the world, mixing and mingling playmates effortlessly, crossing age, gender and happily welcoming new faces into their games. For them tenting in wild extremes of weather is an adventure and the addition of muddy puddles to jump in and encourage ducks is just an added bonus. Monster and Teeny enjoyed new levels of independance, loved playing on beaches, slipping on the muddy path to the toilets and waking up each morning for a whole week knowing all that stretched infront of them was another day of playing with their mates and not having to go to bed until really late having worn themselves out running around and spending the evening at the on site entertainment.

A and I got to spend lots of time chatting to friends too. True it wasn’t sitting outside tents while the sun set on yet another glorious June day, it was huddled inside tents while the rain lashed and the wind howled, or unpitching and walking across the field with yet another tent that had flooded out ready to re-pitch in a better spot. But there were still plenty of chances to socialise.

We had a Cabaret event - it was planned to be an evening event in a marquee but the marquee got blown down earlier in the week so it was moved to an afternoon event inside instead. The variety of children (and one grown up ) standing up to perform infront of the group was wonderful - we were treated to well over an hour of singing, dancing, joke telling, musical instrument playing, poetry, acting and collaborative efforts. From the teeniest toddler singing from behind their mother’s legs to the more polished and confident performances of the older children, every one was a triumph of achievement.

Within that camping field we had most sorts of home educators represented, from the curriculum followers to the automomous and everywhere inbetween but what the children all had in common was that magnificent sense of individuality, of self, of being their own person, defined only by themselves. I don’t think I had the ’so why do you home educate?’ conversation once all week, which I take as a sign of how we’ve moved on. I once considered us to be considering home education, then we were doing it ‘for now’, now we simply just do it and I couldn’t really envisage doing anything else. But weeks like that, where you are one of many rather than one out of many are good for the soul, good for confidence, good for feeling smug. Thanks to all who were there.