Monster & Teeny

It’s been a while since I was last here. I do keep another, far more regularly updated blog which is more of a diary type of account of stuff we get up to, I tend to keep this one for more HE specific ramblings, but is so often the case with HE I find it tricky to seperate it from the rest of life, so this blog gets neglected rather.

We had a good summer, with camps, camping, a few socialising with friends occassions and a break from the regular activities that we enjoy but hamper our freedom somewhat so it’s always nice to take a break from. Sadly the weather was far from on our side this summer, making me all the more thankful that we were able to enjoy a wonderful March and April with days on end spent on the beach, and are able to enjoy the clear crisp autumn days at the park in the sunshine when everyone else is back at school. The summer almost seemed to end the weekend of Monster’s birthday party really with the weather turning colder that very week. His party was a lovely celebration, very fitting for him and another memory to add to his catalogue of happy childhood times. It was blogged about elsewhere so I won’t go into great detail but it was planned mostly by Monster himself, with a Doctor Who theme. We had Doctor Who food, music, decor and games with a lifesize dalek and tardis adorning the party hall, plenty of dressed up party attendees, a tardis and a dalek cake and tardis goody bags for all the guests. We had a houseful that night too, with 24 of us sitting down on the lounge floor (as you know we don’t have a table, but if we did we still wouldn’t have accomodated that sort of number ) for fish and chips. For Monster it was a wonderful weekend surrounded by friends, loving being the host and the centre of attention, enjoying the payoff of his creative planning and ideas, facilitated by me.

We’re now back into our weekly ‘regime’ of Magical Monday’s Home Ed group followed by Beavers for Monster on a Monday, Swimming lessons for Monster on a Tuesday and Badgers for Monster on a Wednesday. Teeny will start Badgers alongside Monster when she turns 5 in December and will also start Rainbows on a Friday after Christmas too, leaving Thursday as the only evening we don’t have someplace to be around 5pm.

I’ve been doing lots of thinking and reading and researching followed by a bit more thinking and just checking in with myself really that I am happy with the path we are following, both in terms of being right for our family as a whole and all the members of the family individually and in terms of educational provision and holistic wellbeing. Teeny would have started school this month and we are in a very different place to when Monster would have started school with all sorts of life changes happening in the last couple of years. I’ve been reading widely, the most important in terms of Home Education has to have been And The Skylark Sings With Me, which I mentioned i a previous blogpost and have since finished reading and exchange emails with the author. I found it a thought provoking, challenging, inspiring and uplifting read, giving a boost to my confidence and renewed enthusiasm for what we do and how we do it. A period of talking to lots of people about Home Ed, which always seems to be a ‘hot topic’ at ‘back to school’ time each year coupled with the twin leaps of having a school age youngest child and a 7 year old oldest child (which just somehow seemed really rather grown up!) had me pondering all sorts of things. A bit of soul searching and chatting to friends put me back on track again and had me realising anew just how wonderful and individual Monster and Teeny are, and what great examples of autonomy and HE generally they are, and why it is totally right for us to be doing what we’re doing. I’m currently reading ‘Punished By Rewards’  which I’m finding equally enlightening and by coincidence am reading alongside The Female Eunuch which is managing to be equally startling and potentially life changing, albeit for different reasons. Also jostling for space on the bookshelves here currently are various books about self building, eco builds and self sufficiency. Having said earlier how much we’ve changed in the last two years I am very confident that the next two years will see yet more life changing stuff here.

I imagine I’ll be back sooner rather than later to blog further on some of my conclusions about various things, but for now we’re getting used to getting back in the swing of things and enjoying the changing of the season.