Peace restored.

I'm feeling much more at harmony with the world today having played, visited the art gallery and museum and being surrounded by other home educating families.

This afternoon we read "The Jolly Postman" (again) as E is really taken
with this book at the moment. So much so, he wanted to have a Jolly Postman display in his writing corner. So we found a banner on the web to print off and we have begun to stick up his "work" - so far a map of the Jolly Postman's route and a dot to dot of cinderella's castle. He has also made some stick puppets of all the characters from the book to play with. We've printed off lots of letter and postcard templates and E is very busy writing letters to all and sundry, all beautifully signed with his name at the end.

Oh, and of course, we've played pirates today too ;)

A different rhythm

It's been an interesting week of changes this week. We started our new flexi school arrangement.

It's funny because today a friend I don't know very well tagged me in a face book post today about amazing people and how she considered me one of those people, for, amongst other things (and I am trying to be humble, honest lol) home educating. Well, after my epic fail at getting Elijah to school for his two days on time this week, I consider that actually parents that send their children to school every day, on time, to the rhythm of someone else's agenda are better parents than me! I. Just. Couldn't. Do. It. All. The. Time.

It's not like I haven't tried really hard, it just seems like something is against me. Like traffic, sleeping babies, stropping teenagers etc etc. so I must confess, I for one have not found this transition easy.

How about the boy then? Well, we arrived, we were greeted and introduced to the routine that is expected and I stayed for around half an hour to make sure he was happy before I left. He looked quite anxious and pale but he was joining in with circle time on the carpet and so I left. When I collected him at 3pm he looked even more anxious and even paler if that's possible for my already fairly translucent, golden haired boy, but he claimed to have had a lovely time. He did PE and some work on the computer and played outside and threw his carrots on the floor at lunch time.

Mid week we went to our lovely Playbox Theatre session for home educated children and whilst the children were being educated in all things of a dramatic persuasion we parents chatted. There are a number of us who flexi school and I was keen to learn how it worked for others. Issues such as "homework" and the associated "homework diary" have already cropped up and I was relieved to discover that other flexi school parents think these are redundant notions also.

Roll on to today and it's our second day of flexi schooling (did I mention we were late, again?) and this time my over tired, pale, golden haired boy did not want to go. I must admit that I half don't want it to work. There, I've said it! I selfishly want to keep my boy all to myself without anyone else ruining him. But of course, I have 5 boys, including an even smaller youngling. I have to remind myself that flexi schooling was about giving everybody a chance to do separate things and being able to let the littlest one finish his time at toddler groups and the like where school aged children are not welcome. The idea was "its the best of both worlds".

So, as a compromise (read, bribe) I suggested I would collect him at lunch time today as he was very tired. Bless him, he was so deeply asleep when I woke him at 7.20am that it was no wonder the school run was doomed to fail. On collection at lunch time however, he did seem to have perked up somewhat and I was glad that he was happier about the experience. Today in the homework bag was a new shiny pot containing 44 laminated phonemes and a note from Miss explaining that it wasn't necessary for us to record every single book we read together in the "reading record", just the "school books", despite her previous note that we should record every time we read together ;)

So tomorrow is a home ed day. We've switched off the alarm. And we shall learn to the beat of our natural rhythm. Where we can play pirates in our pyjamas, read a hundred books because no one is counting, go to the art gallery whenever we get there and go home again when we've finished. Its been a tough week, but I'm hoping we'll catch hold of this new rhythm soon.

3rd January

Gentle day back into some vague semblance of routine. Actually, that's not true. It's nearly midnight and Elijah is still up. I read some research today which suggested that children who lack fixed time routines for meal times and bed times don't do as well at school. I figured we have fixed meal times pretty much and don't go to school so two out if three ain't bad!

We went to a birthday party today and had a lovely time. The parents were "music together" teachers so the activity at the party was great. Lots of singing, dancing and playing musical instruments as part of a group of around 15 kids and as many adults again. Elijah didn't really participate, he had found a car building kit of a certain little shiny red sports car affectionately known as lightning and the queen in my house, so he took himself off to do that in typical "construction mad" style. Barnaby, however, was enthralled with the whole thing. Perhaps I should consider signing up for a music course with him.

The boys made cards themselves to give to their birthday friend and Elijah's writing is really coming on. He is keen to copy as much as he can when he doesn't know the spelling himself. I noticed too that Barnaby's pencil grip is looking very sophisticated these days too for a 21 month old. :)

Christmas 2011

We had a peaceful Christmas at home with everybody in relatively good health compared to previous years. Connor was home from uni and I've got used to him being around again. It is surprising how the family dynamic shifts when there's one less boy in the house. ;)

New Year, New Blog!

As the new year rolls in and change is abreast in our household, my new year resolution is to blog better. I really want this to be a great record of the things we do whilst my youngest boys are still young!

From next week Elijah is going to be flexi schooling two days a week at a small village school where there are currently only 40 children in total. He will be part of a class of 18. As ususal I still constantly question whether I am doing the best thing for them, but as my wise hubby says, if it doesnt work out then we will go back to home educating full time.

I think my motivation for this change hasm been largely to do with Barnaby. As Elijah is getting older Im finding that we are less welcome at the normal pre school toddler groups and activities, plus the little two boys are beginning to fight a bit more (all normal as I recall from the bigger boys childhood!) so I figured a bit of "Barnaby and me" time would be good for him - either at home or at toddler groups. So there is the rationale behind my thinking.

We have already got into "back to school" mode this week - Elijah has been keen to work through a new work book he got for christmas (cruel parent, I know!) and he is loving his leap pad writer. We have also set up a desk and a "writing" area for all of his "school work" so that he can dip in whenever he chooses. So far............he's loving it!