After our walk round the park today the kids made the observation that the trees looked bare and sad without any colour,
so after our long walk round the park and after Oliver conquered his fear and actually went over the bridge that he usually avoids
and their usual splash though puddles and roll down the hill
We decided to do some pictures with brighter trees and Louby made a field with sheep because they had their usual ride on the tractor at the Garden Centre and we had a conversation on the way back about sheep and farmers.
We had some great fun with colour mixing
Hoorah for laminate flooring where any mess can be easily mopped up
I recently read a blog about looking back on the home ed years entitled 'what will you see when you look back?', It gave me a boost in keeping up and actually making blog posts for this blog. As you can see I've gone from one post a year then down to 6 months and now I try daily to do entries. I am quite sure I will start to lapse and end up going back to weeks or even months again before I post at some point, but for now I am feeling motivated to keep up on the entries.
It made me feel a bit sad that I didn't keep up on the entries last year, we had such a packed year and did some wonderful things but I suppose it's not the end of the world as we will have many more fun times in the years to come.
When my older children where growing up I took a lot of photos of the things we did together and we can look back with fond memories of Xmases and birthdays and day trips and holidays and other special occasions, and it brings back fond memories, but there is a lot that photos can't tell the story of, where as writing a blog or keeping a journal you can capture the emotions in the event, opinions, you can see development happening, it is a learning journey you are in the experience of life captured in the moment and there are always those moments when you don't have a camera at the ready for those occasions that seem mundane and run of the mill but are in fact fond memories you vaguely keep tucked somewhere in the back of your mind.
Hopefully I will be able to look back on this blog in ten years time with the kids and marvel at our journey.
The kids are really keen on foreign languages, they have had a habit of saying hello in different languages in a morning as I have said in a previous post.
I am trying to keep their interest and today the kids came up with the idea of a puppet show, to show case their language learning skills, so alongside the lapbook that we created, (which I have left hanging around for them to peruse through and we will expand as they learn different words and phrases). they came up with different names for their puppets and started the show.
They really enjoyed it even though they where thrown off a little bit having to add names into the mix but they had fun.
I have been looking at some learning language programs and have found the Muzzy program from early learning advantage, they also have some online learning resources. This looks good as it has DVD's, books included along with the 12 months subscription of the online resources.
There is also Dino Lingo which looks similar to the Muzzy program, it has DVD's, Books and flashcards amongst the other resources they offer.
I have also found the BBC programs that offer numerous languages, one I have book marked is Chinese these are free through the BBC sites, there are loads of different languages they provide access too, all covering the basics through different methods.
If you know of any sites please feel free to leave me some recommendations.
Working as a home educating parent can be difficult at times, as I have to do the majority of my work in an evening and throughout the night when the kids are asleep. I am often dropping by the time 6pm comes and don't feel like working despite having to push on and get it done.
My work at the moment consist of basically hanging on to anything that brings me an income, mainly from my ebay store which at the best of times can be difficult with unpredictable sales and then I do a few Tax Returns.
I love going to the auctions which is where I get the majority of my stock from.for my ebay store. The items I buy can be hit and miss, over the years I have experimented with all sorts of stuff from clothing, to household items to toys and games to collectables.
I seem to always be drawn back to clothing mainly, despite me knowing clothing does sell, but slowly and at very cheap prices which quite often can lead to a loss rather than a profit which is not quite the the aim of the game, usually due to selling fees and postage costs being so high. You have to ensure you price items at approximately 3 x what you buy them for to even start making any kind of profit on anything. I can't see me becoming rich any time soon but it does pay a small amount.
What was once a place for great prices and some fantastic bargains but has slowly become a place for high street stores to sell their returns and damaged goods.
Ebay has been an addiction for me for many years, I started just buying a few bits here and there which slowly became a place to get rid of no longer wanted items to actually sourcing things to buy with the sole purpose of selling on Ebay and now I sell other people's stuff on there also.
I have been a registered business for quite a few years now but rarely make any profit but it does pay for the kids clothes and now some educational stuff which I buy from the auction's in bulk and re sell them meaning I can get the kids stuff relatively cheap if not free sometimes.
I have maintained a good rating on there and spent a good year as a top rated seller until I came across a client who has very poor dispatch times which has decimated my top rated seller status, which to an ebayer is devastating.
Despite my constant nagging and demands of a more timely delivery they seem to not hear me, their product is amazing and I love the product and most people are very happy with their purchase when they get it apart form the odd few who have some kind of hickup and the odd defective one gets through which we happily replace.
I can't actually believe how many of these thing sell, it is by far the best product I have ever come across to sell on ebay, I feel lucky for them finding me to produce the labels and correspond with customers, but their customer service skills are something to be desired, they rarely answer my emails if I query a customers order, because as usual they haven't dispatched it 3 days after the estimated delivery date. This lead to customers getting very angry and usually quite rude towards me, which I can understand but I feel powerless to do anything about.
My ethos is, especially on ebay, is to get the item out on time, I understand if demand is far more than they expected and have supply issues but if they communicate that to me that would save lots of hassle as I can suspend sales untill they do get the stock, I cant understand why they don't increase their staff levels to cope with the demand so they can produce more and get them out on time, but they are only interested in getting the sales even without having a product to dispatch and don't seem to care about the fact people do not want to wait 3 weeks for their order, no matter how great that product is.
To me they will be a victim of their own success if they do not pull their socks up and at the moment that is how I feel about my side of things, I promote the item and get the sales but that is no good if they can't fulfil the order in good time, it drives me nut and it will be the end of my ebay career.
The income I get from doing those labels is fabulous and I can think of nothing else where I can earn that kind of money for the work I do and doing it at a time that suits me which is usually the last thing I do before going to bed. I spend anything from 3 to 6 hours a night doing the labels and corresponding with customers and couriers and then I spend some time promoting the products in various places to boost sales, I love the work it's great but at the same time it is killing my long term prospect on ebay.
My time at this rate is in short supply on ebay as I am quite sure they will ban me at the rate these items are getting delivered in. I have given it some time, 12 months to be exact, and had to think is it worth the short term money gain to get myself banned from ebay due to their care less attitude.
Ebay has been a life line for me for years and is more so now than ever due to home edding the twins, it's a great opportunity for me to keep being independent and keep working.
I can take the kids with me to the post office when I do the post office run which the kids love as they get to have a treat of a packet of crisps which has come to be a bit of a routine, if they have been good of course they get crisps, then when I go to collect things from the auctions the kids love that too because they get to chat away with the workers who have become quite used to seeing the kids around and the kids love seeing what goodies are going in the boot.
Its convenient for me to do ebay without it impacting on the kids education during the day, and I will be shattered if continuing with this particular client ends up in me losing my income opportunity.
My other source of income is Tax Returns which is not going to well to be honest, I cut my work right down after having the twins and have ended up not having very many clients left. I have shot myself in the foot really.
I have not advertised that work for 4 years and my client list has dwindled down to nothing really, I have the odd Tax return to do for some long term clients and I have picked a few up from word of mouth, but the income from that generally goes on the software and other running costs, so its not even an income really.
I am sat on a good opportunity to continue doing the Tax Returns as the money is good and I enjoy the work but there is something holding me back that I can't quite put my finger on.
I am sat on the brink of a crisis as far as work is concerned, home ed is not a cheap option to schooling, you still need materials and supplies and the outings and educational trips and they need to go to the clubs which are not really an option when you home ed, they need the interaction and to spend some regular time away from me for an hour or two for many reason.
Work is a big issue when you home ed, unless you claim disability benefit or have a partner that works, it is very difficult.
Not working is an option for some but not for me, the thought of having to have occasions where there is no food on the table scares me to death, and I have seen many a parent in that situation not working go through that.
Money is not the be all and end all, but it helps make life that little bit more bearable and having to worry about buying a pair of shoes or having occasions where there is no food on the table or worrying about turning the heating on is something I find not an easy thought.
I don't earn much as it is but we manage of what I do earn, we are not extravagant and I never have been, I have just always worked, so the crisis I find myself in now makes me pretty nervous, I really have no idea where I go from here where work is concerned.
Some of the home ed mums are so talented I feel green with envy, their artistic talents are in abundance in the home ed world, and many make a small living from small craft businesses. I have never been artistic in any way shape or form but am regretting not nurturing that side of me now, as that kind of talent would have come in very handy.
There are a few that are childminders too, something I would have loved to have done if it wasn't for all the red tape you have to jump through to actually get there.
My mum was a child minder and I loved having all the other kids around, but that was a long time ago and things are very different now in the child minding world.
I remember on many occasions kids coming on our camping trips with us when their parents couldn't get the time off work for whatever reason, it was like having extended family around. Things are very different now and child minding is more of an extension to nursery schools and education based rather than family nurturing time, so I don't think that kind of set up is something for me, although a very convenient profession for home ed parents.
I know it's time for me to start making some serious plans and deciding where I am going right now as I feel quite directionless.
The direction I am going in is an insecure one and I am not sure how comfortable I am with that, never before have I felt so nervous about being out of work.
There are a lot of debates over on the home ed facebook boards and quite often they can get very heated, wow betide anyone that has a difference of opinion to the majority.
You generally find the popular people get lots of backup in their attacks on anyone who holds any kind of different view, far from being a debate they usually end up in bitter insults and attempts to belittle the other person using usually very wrong assumptions about who that person who dares to have a difference of opinion is.
The debates usually hold the same tone and generally you will find people very uninterested in someone else's viewpoint and just need their view heard and agreed with. Rather than questioning those opposing views and understanding how those views have been formed by the other party, there is usually no attempt to take any notice of the other persons views, other than to mock and usually twist quite successfully what the other person has said, and the other person with those opposing views spends their time defending themselves from insults and vile vitriol.
You can compare these people to bullies and boy there are a lot of bullies in the home ed world that I have come across over the past few years.
Its their way or no way, they seem to be so stuck in their opinions and views and would never be capable of seeing that people form views according to their experiences and information provided. This usually means that people tend to hang on to what they have heard or read, rather than researching facts and figures for themselves.
Facts and figures are an interesting and vital part of any debate, and usually give a good debate credibility and can give great new insight into a formed opinion. On these boards you generally find it's, 'I read this' and 'someone said that', or 'I know someone who experienced this', it's never anything concrete, it's generally based on opinion and boy those opinions are strong.
Many of these debates come form an anti school system kind of angle or religion.
These appear to be some of the apparent reasons why many home ed their children, which is fair enough and in my opinion very valid reasons.
Lots of issues crop up within the topics of school, time and time again. Bullying and how this is handled perpetrated by both teachers and students, is a particularly common and many people have been affected badly by these experiences, although most people agree so there is I suppose not much to debate, there is a clear issue in schools that needs addressing, should parents have to be pulling their kids out of school to save their child from bullying from other students or teachers? should a child even have to face that kind of thing in the first place? some say it is character building, I strongly suspect those are the people who have never experienced being bullied.
Today's bullying goes beyond name calling in the playground, there is literally psychical and mental battery going on in most of these cases, and should this really be accepted the way as it is as character building?. Since joining the home ed world I have been shocked at the amount of children that have been pulled from school through bullying, it is pretty astounding.
Other issues to be commonly debated are the school system itself, holidays, fines, longer days, longer hours, more testing, generally improving standards, uniform policies or breaches of them, regulations on what food they can eat etc etc etc.
I can see where Gove is coming from but he is slightly out of touch with the average Joe.
Our school system does need to be producing better results but adding more restrictive rules and regulations is that really the way to go?, instead of being inclusive to parents he is alienating them, to me he has got things slightly wrong, it's like he has listened to the Ken Robinsons video but not quite listened at the same time.
Economics has changed and education really does clearly need to change to reflect that change, the problem I see is that it has changed too slowly and now trying to play catch up is not going to be pleasant to a nation that does not like or welcome change very easily.
The very fact that there are far more children in the education system is making the one size fits all model far more outdated and is leading to alienation!..
The fine balance between family life and work/school life is on a knifes edge, people demand more from the system than it is currently providing, Ken Robinson said in the above video at around 8 minute mark 'every generation has to rediscover democracy' this certainly rings true in this instance in the current climate.
Oh the religion,creation vs evolution debate, well what can I say about the religious debates but wow. You generally find in religious debates that anyone who is Religious will at some point be on the receiving end of some pretty vile insults.
For an evolutionist a Creationist in the most part is someone to be stomped upon and ridiculed in these forums.
,
You get very few evolutionists in these groups that stay respectful in an evolution vs creation debate, The ones who are usually respectful and refrain from vitriol are the ones that are in between, those that have an evolutionist view but are also on the fence about Creation, when you get to the bottom of most of the vitriol from evolutionists it is usually found that they have had some devastating experience that has coloured their view and evolution can now be the only possible option.
I had a fantastic debate recently on the evolution vs creation debate and despite being sworn at a couple of times by a couple of people not really even taking part in the debate, it was amazing, I learnt so much and it gave me some great and invaluable insight that I never even imagined.
I learnt a lot and took away more than I have ever done in any debate ever, it prompted me to do research for myself to understand some of the points put forwards and I discovered angles I never knew even existed, there are some pretty educated people on that topic in those forums, the debate went on for a few days and a new forum was created out of it.
I was even pointed in the direction of an upcoming debate by Billy Nye the science guy and Ken Ham which is being live streamed today, the video if you are reading this way after the event is over, can still be found here Bill Nye and Ken Ham Creation Vs Evolution Debate.
So I know that respectful debate is possible in these forums and people can get so much out of it and as an educational forum what better place is there to learn new facts and see things from different angles.....
The best thing has to be not having to rush about in the morning to get uniforms on or p.e kits found or homework finished.
We can mosey out of bed at any time we fancy and eat breakfast discussing the brain or talking French or doing maths with the cheerios, taking our time and not having to worry about being somewhere, we can negotiate our day and take time to discuss the previous nights dreams.
Getting dressed is never a chore and often pyjamas stay on until lunchtime until we decide to venture down to the park or have a home ed meet to go to, or some other planned event.
I look out of the window on cold wet mornings and see the poor kids being drenched by the rain running to get to school and think to myself, thank goodness we don't have to go out in that and then sit in wet clothes for hours on end..
I'm not a fan of wet weather, although the kids love nothing better than to get their wellies on and splash through a few puddles, which we do on regular occasions.
Our life is spent in a relaxed manner, using most moments in the day to learn something new, it may be a word or a phrase that the kids question, which leads to a you tube video for an explanation or a worksheet or a day trip out, the day is our own to do with what we please.
Life tends to just flow in this house, learning opportunities crop up all the time, the kids had a fight and Oliver whacked Louby right in the head with a toy causing her some discomfort, so we ended up watching a video all about the brain, and doing a small project on how to keep it healthy.
A great resource I found for this was some old but effective videos.
Being at home most of the time means their learning day is much longer than it would be if they went to school, if they decide they want computer time they choose how long they are on there for, some days it can be for 15 minutes and they lose interest quickly, but when they are grasping something they can be on there for up to 4 hours at a time constantly working through their maths or English computer programmes and I have to literally drag them off for a food break.
Education at home means that whatever is interesting them at the time I can grab onto and go with that, if they are in a mood for reading they can read, which becomes something they just love doing rather than being forced to do it at a time that does not suit them, if they feel in the mood for some art we do some art, if they feel like just playing together they play together acting out and role playing their new learned skill in whatever it is that has taken their attention.
Opportunities for learning at a time and a subject that is interesting to them makes learning effortless in this house, we have time to discuss the things they are learning and they surprise me quite often with things I had no idea they had learnt, they question all the time about different things.
They are very much conditioned to direct their own learning and I just ensure that is facilitated, they take great pride in learning new things in a way that suits them and being at home most of the time gives them the opportunity to follow their own learning pattern.
One thing I find with home education and working from home and just generally being at home a lot is that there is always a mess.
My house is usually messy and I spend a lot of time telling the kids to put things away.
Fortunately most of the mess is confined to their bedroom, which I generally make a point of getting them (or more me in reality) to go through their room at least once a week, putting toys away and their general clutter and filth they like to collect, so that I can mop and change beds and clean the filth away.
This mostly turns into a day or two battle where by it will get a lot worse before it gets better.
This is the state they get their room into on regular occasions.
This mess believe it or not was pristine only two days ago.
I got into a routine of making them clear away their toys before coming down for breakfast which didn't work as sometimes they would not even get breakfast after waking at 7am until almost 11am with the mess still strewn all over the floor.
Oliver has taken to throwing things everywhere whenever he gets upset over something so we can spend a couple of hours tidying away and then me cleaning the grot, only for Oliver a few hours later to arrange things back to the way they where, and he also takes great delight in ripping wallpaper off and digging holes in my plaster.
This isn't a recent problem this is something that has gone on for such a long time it just seems monotonous now.
I have tried all different approaches including more storage boxes which they have plenty of and putting laundry baskets in their room a rubbish bin and taking their TV away when it gets ridiculously messy, none of which work.
They took to going in my room and emptying everything on the floor so I now have a lock on my room as that is one space that is mine and I like that tidy and I still have their clothes in my room as they like to dispense them all over the floor if they are situated in their room.
They like to empty my kitchen cupboards and fridge of anything they fancy so these cannot be left unlocked but on the odd occasion I do forget to lock them they are straight in there and they usually end up with syrup all over the bedroom or jam.
They do this with such cunning you never hear them doing it and I can never pinpoint when they did it, I only know that they have done it.
"Why don't you watch them" I hear you cry, well I do most of the time I always have my eyes and ears on where they are but sometimes they are so quiet and so sneaky they just get past me very easily.
Its awful living with those locks everywhere but I have no other choice, I had the usual child locks which they easily learnt to just pull off and then I upgraded to baby dan locks which are magnetic and you cant see them on the outside, but unfortunately they where easily gotten into, and then I tried luggage locks which they found they could snap easily without much effort, so I resorted to chains and combination locks that do not look very attractive but they are certainly very effective.
I tried many methods to stop this steeling including leaving lots of fruit out on the table for them to eat between meals just in case they where doing it out of hunger, but they just resorted to grinding banana into my floor and I would find rotten pieces of fruit round the house all the time, they just take them because they are there not because they want to eat them.
If they see something they want whatever that is they take it.
Our education shelf was looking stocked up the other day when I arranged it with pride with board games, and other educational games and things to do with an educational twist.
Two days later there is not much in the way of games left, they didn't want to wait and play one game at a time they wanted to take the lot and then throw them all over their bedroom floor when they discover they have no clue without direction what to do with them.
This is a regular occasion, whenever I buy something new that I see that I think will come in handy they always manage to destroy it before it can be used in any useful way, if they see it they want it and will take it whatever that may be.
This is the worste part of our home life at the moment and it has been this way for a very long time.
I try every method know to man to stop this behaviour but it continues and the way they are when it has been done afterwards leads me to believe they are actually taking great pleasure out of the distrss it causes me.
I have tried to just let these things slide and not take any notice but I have to live here and it is me they are steeling from. What else can I do, I have to buy resources whenever they are available as I do not have an endless pot of money to buy things when needed, I have to do it whenever I see them and if I can afford them at the time.
I stopped buying treats like cake and biscuits as they just steel them and don't wait for the appropriate time to have them, I lock everything away all the time and it isn't pleasant.
The word no does not mean very much to these twins, they don't care too much what the consequences are, if they want it they will take it. regardless.
I have tried punishing the bedroom mess with taking things away, for instance if we are due out on a trip or to one of their clubs then they don't go if the room is disastrous, but they don't seem to care less and we end up going nowhere and sometimes this will go on for weeks, so that method does not work either.
I have tried taking something of theirs whenever they steel something, or if they break something I break something of theirs but do they care...nope. that does not work either.
I am at a loss with their destruction and steeling tenancies and am not sure where this is taking us, I just know I am tired of it and have been tired of it for some time but what can I do, I feel powerless and know I have to just sit through it until they decide to stop. In the meantime quality of life is decreased and is not as it should be.
I have even thought about sending them to school lol.. yes school, only so that I get a few hours of tidy in my house, not for any educational value, that probably isn't the best way to think about school as a free baby sitter for a few hours break. I am happy to say it was only a fleeting thought...
I look back on these paragraphs and can see we are very fortunate that these are our main and only problems with being at home a lot, although they seem severe and do get me down, the rest of the time is harmonious.
They enjoy helping me to cook they are very good eating their food, they have never had issues with food, they are fabulous and fall over each other when it comes to clearing away after mealtime, they love filling the dishwasher or helping me put washing in.
They are great at brushing teeth and getting washed and dressed, they are fabulous at helping me tidy downstairs, they spend most of their days singing and dancing and generally being curious about something, questions are a part of everyday life here and most of the time is spent doing something.
Boredom was one of the things I worried about, how would we fill our days but this is easily achieved, there is not one part of the day when there is nothing to do, for me this is easy I have study and work and the twins education and well being to care for, so I never have a dull moment and the twins have that much in the way of imagination their days are spent using it and creating something be that a game or a painting or drawing or playing role play games or reading or watching a film, or numerous other activities they get up to, there is very rarely a moment when the words I am bored ever enter our vocabulary.
So why is this mess such an issue and why does it occur, this is an easy one to answer, the twins are challenging me, they do naughty things knowing full well their actions are not going to end well, I have spoken to many twin mums and found this is very common behaviour with twins and the only obvious answer to this issue is to send them to school and put them in a different environment away from the environment they are being challenging in, obviously this is not an option for us with home educating so it is something I will have to just deal with and wait until they grow out of it, in the meantime, if I can keep it contained to their room life is not as bad as it could be, if it was the whole house it would be unbearable.
I did a personality test the other day and it basically states I am very unstructured and a partner who is structured would suit me to the ground as although I make an excellent parent my children would need more structure which I could get help with from the right partner.
This got me to thinking about my unstructured approach to life, I have always struggled with routine and planning which in the most part has not affected me to any degree, I have managed to work my life around my personality in that I am self employed and work when I want to and even my study despite having deadlines, it is Open University so I manage that easily as I can study when I want to (when procrastination does not hit home).
Although I do have routines that are inherent to our day to day lives such as the kids clubs which are ballet and Drama group there isn't much else that I can say is routine in our lives.
Every day is a wait and see situation, whatever pops up is what happens that day.
I have to say I have made a slight effort towards the back end of last year when I booked a pantomime in August and a show for next April 2014, which was being rather ambitious for me as booking ahead so far for anything gives me chills just thinking about it, all the what if's pop up and usually something does get in the way of the planned event and plans then have to be changed which I find infuriating.
The Pantomime was relatively successful in that we actually did get there but plans did have to be changed as some of our party could not make the event so I had to find a stand in for the tickets and gave them to a friend who was at a loose end that night, so fortunately the tickets did not go to waste, although the April tickets have had a bit of a beating as I have to find a new owner for the rather expensive tickets as again the other party cannot attend, so although relatively not ruined plans but definitely not as planned.
I have booked and arranged a group event again for April which is a few months away and again very ambitious of me considering the catastrophes that could occur between now and then, being in the driving seat does make me nervous and I am keeping my fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly, but check back in April and you will find out if all was well or not!...
The kids don't appear to be affected in any way with my lack of routine, they have their own in that they get up at certain times, and do the routine things like brushing teeth, getting dressed, making a mess, etc...They have breakfast, lunch and dinner around the same times every day and they do their few hours of work on the computer each day, all be it various times of the day but it is a routine that they do every day none the less.
Whenever we do have to be somewhere we always or I should say I always struggle to get there on time and have panic attacks at the thought of going somewhere where it is imperative to be there at a certain time and it can be pretty much guaranteed we will be late, I have been like that since childhood, always the last one in class, always getting dressed down in work for being late, friends always expect me half hour later than planned or they tell me a time half hour before the actual meeting time (yes they have me to a tee)
Doctors appointments, dentist appointments, optician appointments fill me with dread, just imagine if my two went to school, I would be bankrupt with the fines they give out now for being late to school.
No amount of trying can get me to change this habit, and trust me I try to be on time but it really is something I have never mastered.
I am comfortable with our unstructured life and the chaos that sometimes brings but I do wonder what benefits could the kids receive if we where to become more structured in our approach.. that is something I will ponder....
See this post is a good example it started of as structure vs none structure but ended up as describing my routines or lack of... no matter how hard I try to be structured it just does not work..
I was greeted with good morning in seven different languages this morning!..
Baffled was I to find that my little angels could say good morning in more than the usual grunt that I normally receive, I jumped on this opportunity and we spent the morning creating a simple lapbook with the seven different versions of good morning and the flags of those countries, we expanded on that by learning 'My name is..' in those different languages.
I came across a great site that covers many different languages and also has audio so you can hear the pronunciation, it's a great little site with the basics of many different languages called Omniglot
After quizzing the kids for some time about where they learnt how to say good morning in these different languages they informed me that it was something on their Innotab, a little storybook that introduces them to languages in a fun way.
Of course the search is on now for some specific language innotab games.
Well it has come to that time of year again where I start a new module in my OU studies.. Well two in actual fact this time.
My official start date is 1st Feb for both courses, D203 Power, dissent, equality: understanding contemporary politics & DD206 The Uses of Social Science.
After skimming through the books and looking through the web resources my panic that I could feel building at the thought of covering two 60 point modules has slightly dissipated.
I managed to cover the full weeks material for both courses in just 24 hours, so this gives me plenty of time to look back over the material and make some notes.
I have ordered the how to write essays for sociology which should hopefully arrive in the not to distant future as I am well aware of my poor writing skills and this does really hold me back, studying the how to write essay book might go long way to improving that.
The forums, oh the forums, something I find very intimidating is a must on both courses this year as participation makes up some of the marks and along with the fact I cannot get to the tutorials.
I introduced myself meekly amongst the confident students who all seemed like they had already licked the course with their Political knowledge seeping through. In fact one works for Government working on Policies so it kind of baffles me slightly why they would want to take a step back and do a course like this, but as I have found out some of the degree modules require you to do modules that seem really pointless, an evil necessity may be.
I am starting of a lot more confident than I thought and I even managed to steel some study time whilst the kids where at their weekly Stage Coach Class, which was far better than wandering around Asda killing time which is what I usually do whilst they are doing their drama.
Anyway, so far, so good, no panics and a sense of relief that the material is manageable and I feel I will enjoy these modules.
To join in on the celebrations of the Chinese New Year we embarked on a contemporary approach.
A great time to introduce the kids to some contemporary Art, although I strongly suspect that it completely went over their heads, but never the less I enjoyed the gallery and they enjoyed making the mess.
We ventured to the Centre For Chinese Contemporary Art in Manchester for the New Year - Horse Workshop, where they made some horses cut out of paper.
The gallery was a fantastic place and the kids left their very own piece of contemprary art for everyone to admire.
The Gallery was an amazing space the staff where very friendly and took pleasure in explaining the installations.
The kids found them interesting, they where mesmerised with one particular contraption and spent more than 20 minutes gazing into the abyss with some fellow home ed friends.
Oliver found the TV's somewhat confusing and just looked puzzled.
They even managed to bag a lantern from the streets of Manchester which was being lined with them, thanks to a nice workman who agreed to let us have one 'as soon as his boss disappeared'. As Manchester is a cultural city I decided to expand on the contemporary theme and we went through the centre to look at the different contemporary art themes going on.
To compliment our trip to the Centre For Chinese Contemporary Art we watched a youtube video on the story of the Chinese Zodiac
In addition to all that we did some maths worksheets in the horse theme, played snap with some home made animal card, worked out a horse themed maze and lots of other things which all ended up in our Chinese New Year of the Horse work book.
This was all going to be topped of with a trip to the Chinese New Year Parade in Manchester China Town but the weather was so awful we decided to stay at home warm and dry and make the Parade a priority for next year.
All in all we had lots of fun for the Chinese New Year of the Horse.
Lots has been happening in the past 6 months of me being here last, and I have improved as I have got to six months before posting instead of a full year.
Our autonomous journey has taken a change to the more structured route. I know a lot of people prefer the autonomous rout but it seems my love of paper and books has rubbed off on the kids in the same way it does me, we can see what we are achieving.
They both have their own files for maths and English and it's great to look back on some of their work, the improvements in their handwriting and their accuracy at the task in hand can all be seen and a clear improvement is lovely to see and look back on.
These books are conduced in conjunction with Maths Seeds and Reading Eggs which they both find challenging and they enjoy doing.
Both of the kids ask for 'paper work' as they call it, mainly because they see me doing paperwork for my work and also when I am studying.
They both love doing lap books, our favourite lap book so far has been the Harry Potter lap book. It contains lots of fun and games, including a recipe section which we have done some great cooking exercises and can expand on, telling the time, snakes and ladders for number work, chess which was a bit ambitious but it will come in handy in the future and lots of other goodies in there to come back to. We even created our own card game of snap with letters with some great rules that we devised. Our word search went down well Oliver was very keen on this and has done quite a few more since.
We even ended the lap book project with a visit to the Harry potter Studio Tour.
Another Lap book we created was to accompany our visit to the
Halle Orchestra Rumble in the Jungle
Our study area is looking like a study area now with our shelves containing all our bits and pieces for aiding in their learning journey.
My favourite buy for educational purposes has got to be the shower curtain
Oliver can pick out where we live on the map and we have many a discussion in the bathroom about the world we live in.
There is oodles more we have been up to but yet again too much to share here in this one post, so I guess this means I really should keep on top of this blog and try to get on here more often.. Maybe I can make it before 6 months is up...
Wow it's been almost a year since I last posted here, blogging is something I will have to get used to, but writing is definitely not one of my strong points.
You will find plenty of spelling mistakes and lots of bad grammar in this blog, but hopefully it will improve in time, well I certainly hope so.
It is quite intimidating writing a blog for the first time, especially when I read so many great blogs.
My writing style has something to be desired, as putting thoughts onto paper is not an easy thing for me to do. I even avoid writing shopping lists, how people keep 'to do lists' is beyond me.
Writing is something I tend to avoid through fear, but have found over the past year with doing my degree, that it is something I cannot avoid, but having tutors to criticise my writing has helped me improve slightly, well I am back again so that tells me something even though it has taken almost a year.
What a year it has been, plenty of learning curves, happiness, laughter and tears along the way.
Home education is coming along nicely, we have experimented with the autonomous route and also the structured route, making connections with other home educators and generally having lots of fun preparing for our home education future, much of the time has been spent with me de-schooling myself.
It appears to have worked when I evaluate the past year, the kids are coming along and are beginning to shine.
They are both getting to grips with numbers Oliver is doing particularly well with adding up, only today he put a sum together himself with no prompting, adding 2 + 3 in a conversation about how many hats he would like (yes he is a boy with a hat fetish) and how many he already has, he said 'I already have two but if I get three more I will have five'.. I was a bit taken back because adding up is something we just do as part of everyday conversations and actions, 'like we all have six eyes how many would we have together if one of us covered over our eyes', or 'there are four apples how many would there be if two where taken away', we usually just have fun with things like that and the kids really enjoy it.
This is the autonomous route that is proving to be effective, we often expand on conversations, for example we where speaking about tomatoes and how things grow, so we popped off to the local garden center and bought some carrots and strawberries along with some tomatoes and started to grow our own, they have been able to see for themselves how food is made and where it comes from, before it hits the supermarket, they like to always point out where milk comes from or honey and take a keen interest in the food they are eating, Oliver is particularly interested in farmers shooting or killing things at the minute and we try to expand on this, it is my job to string things together for them like explaining the need for food and why farmers kill animals, explaining about the circle of life, expanding on this by watching nature programmes, we have visited blackpool zoo this year to see the animals up close, which leads us onto dinosaurs etc... planned visits out will include a working farm and maybe some cheese making lessons.
So yes the autonomous route is working for us but we also need some structure thrown in, which for me is unusual because I am one that normally hates structure or so I thought, but I obviously need it as much as I think the kids do. At the minute it isn't too important but over the next year I want to experiment with some structure as when they are five, it is really the start of our home ed journey as it will then be compulsory for them to have a full time education, which judging by the last year will be far more than a full time education than school can provide, as we never shut down, every second of the day is a learning opportunity in some form or other.
Our structured approach will consist of reading in an afternoon which is the time they usually want to start doing computer work, they love to watch the you tube videos or play on some educational learning site or read and listen to books on Oxford owl, amongst other great free e book sites.
Afternoons is usually the time they like to sit down with mum and have some computer time so it looks like computer time will be structured times for maths and english work on the computer, we have found oodles and oodles of great sites to utilise so finding resources will definately not be a problem, there is usually something that is interesting for them to do. I will share what we find in the home ed resources tab so check back often and you might find something useful to you.
Olivia is the harder one to please, she gets bored very easily, whereas Oliver has lots of patience, Olivia is the one who needs more coaching and encouragement, so computer work may require a different computer set up than the one we already have, and investing in something for each of them is probably a good idea. They both have innotabs with their own things on but unfortunately they are very limiting and something a bit more suitable will be needed, which will go on their xmas list.
They are both very interested in music so I purchased a keyboard for them and we tend to have bursts of interest on that, along with their drum kit, so I will make some structured time for music and probably upgrade to a piano in the next 12 months, I have been having a look and the digital pianos are a great option. It is just luck that I can read music from my days of playing in the brass band, I wasn't great but I can get by, and teaching the kids will improve my music skills too.
They have started at Stagecoach Theatre Arts School on a Saturday and they have both really enjoyed going, the difference in them is quite astounding in the short time they have been going, they had their first end of term play and both played munchkins, which did create some tension as Oliver wanted to be the tin man and Olivia wanted to be Dorothy but they both made fantastic munchkins in the end.
Oliver is showing an interest in football so I am on the look out for a football team for him to follow through with his interest, as it is something I have never been interested in I have some learning of my own to do in the football arena, he has mentioned it a couple of times, along with that we live near a great tennis court which we pass regularly so tennis is definitely on the agenda for future reference.
Saint Johns Ambulance is on the cards as soon as they reach five also, so I have no worries about socialisation for them, there will be plenty for them to join in with along with the home ed groups that are springing up in abundance in our area.
They are naturally learning about the world around them discovering not everyone is the same, they are starting to learn French and I have signed us all up for a Spanish course, which hasn't made it out of the box yet, but it will in time, they quite often greet me in the mornings with 'bonjour' and make up gobbleby gook and say they are speaking Spanish, we are currently learning how to count to ten in French and some basic words which is almost always done at the breakfast table, to their great delight, so they have an understanding now that people are different and speak different languages, they have even had a history lesson on Nelson Mandela and the importance he played in different colour and race, through their inquisitiveness in asking who Nelson Mandela is, I tend to seize the moment and turn it into a lesson.
I find explaining the best way I can in simple language they understand and showing examples and definitely you tube videos and on-line resources re-enforces the lessons, and a few days of discussions when they are thinking about things and asking questions. I have to think quickly and find the best opportunity in the moment.
We are currently involved in collecting donations of clothing and brick a brack to sell on ebay to raise funds for Syria Relief and that has helped them to think about other children not being so lucky, they are gently being introduced to a world that is not so rosey, but with some small effort you can make a difference.
Life is interesting and fun and every day is packed with new experiences and I will try not to be so lazy and make sure I find some time to update this blog, we have all learnt so much and done so much in the past year and it is a shame I can only touch on a tiny bit of our adventures and learning exeriences from over the past year here in this post, but I will leave you with a lesson I learnt today which is.
When you buy something make sure it is what you actually think it is:-
I bought some modelling dough, well when I say I bought some modelling dough, I bought 25 tubs of it, not 25 small tubs of modelling dough as I thought, but 25 large tubs of modelling dough.
But look on the bright side it will take us a while to use it all up.
So I will leave you with a little song that keeps running round my head:-
Till next time peeps (which might be another year knowing me) - Always look on the bright side of life!..
which at the best of times can be difficult with unpredictable sales and then I do a few Tax Returns.
