A Learning Experience to Remember: August 2021-August 2022

We added to Sophia's herb garden after she went to bed and she thought a fairy had brought her new babies to care for. After she had watered them and checked their condition, she adopted the sage and carried round the garden. She was teaching it what it needed to do for photosynthesis to stay alive and explained why it had to stay in the plastic pot.  She was listening to it every so often, and was laughing, saying it was a very funny plant, an absolute joker. She sang it nursery rhymes whilst sat on the trampoline with it. She took it for scooter rides and introduced it to the local ladybugs and beetles. Now if that isn't demonstrating socialisation skills! Xander adopted one, and watered inside the kitchen! He then took it outside and gave it a lecture on needing water to grow. Kira sat in the sun holding her precious chives (we need to replace this one frequently as she eats them too fast). She gave it a dandelion for a decoration and was hugging them. It was lovely to see t...

Strangers will often guess my children are home educated.  It will be their polite manner, quiet confidence, how they carry themselves and ability to mix in with any group of children which tipped them off I'm later told.  I am congratulated on our children's deportment frequently.  I know we are good ambassadors for home education, which so often gets negative attention.  Yet I worry the same as any other parent in today's society.  The question parents face today is not what do we need to teach our children today regarding manners and etiquette?  Instead: What do we need to teach our children today regarding manners and etiquette which is least likely to result in them being verbally or physically abused by others. I'm finding it a murky minefield.  Is holding a door open offensive these days? No matter who you offer the sentiment too? Is it still encouraged to offer your seat up to your elder or someone who clearly would benefit from the seat? Shoul...

What do you do when only one child is well enough to eat breakfast but is feeling lonely?  You create a Cafe experience naturally.  I became a waitress in an instance conjuring up a table setting with a garden view. Kira's face was already lighting up.  I ushered her busily towards her chair and asked her to make her order for breakfast.... It was banana and chocolate smoothie with plain porridge.  Xander was standing by the French windows, giving the weather forecast and telling her about the rain cycle, while I was preparing the food.  She was cold so I draped her coat over her shoulders and said her wish was my command. She was chuckling happily by this point. I put on the tap, aimed it on to an upside plate and the spray looked like a fountain, which got a full belly laugh from her.  She then wanted to go to the bathroom, I officially escorted her there. Xander then was being naughty and closing the door on her, so I intervened and he went off to play u...

We have all had variations of a nasty cold and norovirus since the last week of March. Xander ended in hospital needing antibiotics for 48hrs, which threw the house into chaos. It's been a while since we've had a mad dash to the hospital. He broke a four month streak which was his current best.  We came home in a different month, Kira's birthday month.  Sophia immediately ran to get a pile of books the minute I got home and was unpacking in the kitchen. She read to me whilst I was whizzing things away, and spent a lot of time with Xander, and they were reading to each other. It was very sweet that Xander was waiting for Sophia to 'tell' him what the words were, despite the fact he can read it on his own. She was congratulating him for paying attention.  We have foregone a set learning timetable this past year due to the unpredictability of our days, weeks and months with Xander's health and it's been free and fluid, depending on their interest and mental hea...

  * Neuro diversity awareness/acceptance* Kira was always ultra sensory in terms of exploring her world via her mouth.  This is a hundred percent normal for every baby and it was hard to distinguish between what was considered acceptable and where the line was drawn that there was a deeper disorder.  Everything went in Kira's mouth to explore and make sense of it, however there is a point where most babies outgrow this phase. As a toddler she was still doing it to an intense level. She would eat paper, chew chunks out of her cot sides, chew crayons openly, but then we found out what she was doing in secret.  She started to look ill, she wasn't hungry, her pallor turned gray and she was showing signs of abdominal discomfort. The doctors couldn't shed any light. She was eating inedible substances in secret, once this was exposed she started to rapidly improve health wise but I was very aware that I was on my own with this issue (the gp just wasn't interested), I had to...

Fight or flight reaction - we all experience this.  However sometimes it can be a little more pronounced or triggered if you have sensory issues. Sophia used to take off and run at unexpected loud noises. A plane going overhead, a car back firing, a siren, noises we had no control over. This flight response is potentially dangerous no matter what environment you're in. Even at home when the door bell used to ring she would run in such a blind panic she'd just run into the wall or side of a table.  She has improved over the years with most noises (the fire alarm being the exception), but she can still be very jumpy when the microwave dings or the dishwasher ramps up noise wise. Noise cancelling earphones are an amazing invention, or even just having headphones on listening to music when you're out and about can make such a massive difference to someone's headspace, and increase their ability to remain safe and in control over their environment. You may know of an employe...

The phrase 'cough cough me, cough cough you' is rife in our household currently. The children have not been amused with their colds, the change in their voices and steady stream from their noses.  Interestingly for the first day both girls veered towards their sketch pads, over their amazon ipads. Sophia was drawing profusely, it made a refreshing change that whenever she made a mistake it didn't mean another page was added to half a tree on the school room floor.  Kira was very unhappy with her hoarse voice and took to writing notes to covey her displeasure. She wrote 'a good or a bad can happen' and 'bad day ever'.  Xander was his usual self in hospital, merely attached to a drip for precautionary antibiotics. He stated his wishes to the nurses in terms of his toys very firmly and they were lovely to oblige the little prince with Lego, cars, vans, an educational school bus, and role play tiny town. This kept his attention for hours, as did his education ap...

We firmly believe elective home education is the right choice for our family for a myriad of reasons.  However I am really excited that there does exist a small selected brand of schools which have been opened in the UK within the last decade, which really pique my interest.  The XP Trust has nine schools currently throughout the UK, a mix of primary and secondary free schools. It's logo is 'Above all, compassion'.  They imitate an innovative brand of High Tech High and Expeditionary Learning schools which have been very successful in the USA for the last two decades.  If we were to ever chose the schooling route at any point for our children, this is the umbrella school we would choose.  The aim of the education learning objective for the children is for them to be prepared for and successful in the modern world. They reject traditional forms of learning and lessons. They learn more organically and fluidly, with a lot more practical life experience injected int...

It was batch cook day!  The children had to do their little tradition of sitting in the stock pot to check they could still fit in (the size of it fascinates them). Mummy was the main pot wash, cleaning the pot out. Chef Daddy set up the kitchen for the chilli batch cook day. Sophia was sous chef by her Daddy's side. Kira and Xander were the official taste testers.  The arduous task of cooking 8kg of beef and pork mince began. Slowly the pot began to fill up, each cooked batch was added to the main stock pot from frying pans on the go. It is a right military maneuver. The taste testers had their bowls at the ready to check the cooked mince. Three bowls worth sealed their approval, while the chef was anxiously checking over his shoulder how much mince was left, after the onslaught, whilst opening a dozen tins of tomatoes and kidney beans ready to start the sauce. The frozen blocks of homemade chicken stock were at the ready, alongside the dozens of other ingredients.  Eigh...

Raising awareness of the Earth's preservation is a pivotal topic to teach your children and its one which I've found incredibly easy to address with the children. Initially we consistently enforced that the children tidy up after themselves inside the house. They have had a role to play in this area from the age of two. They are encouraged to not litter inside the home, throwing rubbish or wrappers on the floor is not acceptable. They are told to find a bin quick march. Now this lesson is continually in progress, they do need frequent reminding. Ironically they're quick enough to remind each other over the rule than follow it themselves. This lesson has been extended to outside the walls of the house, on a picnic or having a snack whilst going on a walk, they are taught and reminded to take their rubbish with them until a bin is present. They are far better at this and are very conscious not to harm the animals.  Xander will take it upon himself to pick up descarded recycli...

As a child I was mocked for reading classics out of choice. I was teased, and called a swot. Everyone else was reading Goosebumps, Horrible Histories and then Harry Potter broke on to the scene.  I steered clear of all those and was happy with my Chalet School, Mallory Towers, Jane Austen, Dickens and Oscar Wilde....Yes I was the book nerd who read the texts used in English literature classes for fun.  This proved very useful over the years, and I was soon asked to teach classes when my knowledge was proven to be greater than the teacher involved, and I held revision classes as well for my class mates.... I'm aware this isn't making my street cred go any higher.  I have always loved period/historical dramas, spending many happy an hour lost in that world, ranging from Dickens, Austen, Thomas Hardy, Oscar Wilde, the Bronte sisters.  Now everyone who is into period dramas such as myself will have entered the enduring argument of which is better, the books or the film/s...

I was handed a revelation the other day.  It stunned me for a couple of hours. Leighton was amused.  A home educating mum was asking for examples of fiction books she could use to normalise home educating to her child. Now there have been plenty of modern books written specifically with this aim in mind but I'm not acquainted with them, so I didn't weigh in. I was curious however to read a few responses.  The answers blew my mind.  What do the following titles have in common?  Railway Children - Edith Nesbit  Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett The Swiss Family Robinson - Johann David Wyss Eight cousins and Little Women - Louisa May Alcott Heidi - Johanna Spyri My family And Other Animals - Gerald Durrall   They were firm favourites of mine growing up between the age of 7-20 years old.  The main characters were home educated! How I have never seen that connection before is embarrassing considering how many hundreds of times I have read th...