LEGO Robotics: the end is in sight...perhaps

Since the summer my two boys, as part of their team, C14, have been working towards a Lego Robotics competition run by First Lego League. Before Christmas they successfully beat all the teams in their regional competition and are now headed towards the nationals on the 1st February.

It has been a long haul.

Not just for them, but for their mother, whose diesel expenditure has gone through the roof, ferrying them backwards and forwards to team meetings and who has shuffled filed carefully a years worth of bills and bank statements while sitting in Sainsbury's cafe waiting for meetings to finish. Lots of filing, interspersed with fretting about whether Sainsbury's really do enforce their 2-hour parking limit. I even went to the library and lent a man a stapler while I sat and pondered the mental health of the - obviously borderline insane - woman on reception. My life has been thrills and spills.

Of course I can't help being their mother. Making helpful comments about their project write-up - "How about you put a full-stop somewhere in that paragraph?" - have resulted in occasional bad feeling and frequent teen sulking. Despite this, the whole exercise has, I think, been productive, (even if it hasn't vastly improved their ability to punctuate a sentence). I now have children who are willing (and able) to give a presentation in front of people. I have children who have shown how nice they can be to other children - if only to score a few more marks from the judges for 'coopertition'. And yes, that is a real word, apparently trademarked now (will me using it here be infringement of copyright, I wonder?) And I truly think they have learned lots of other things, I'm just not exactly sure what those things are. Educational, life-enhancing stuff, I'm sure.

I wont post team photos up here, but here's the link to their website where, if you want to see Lego robots doing Lego robot things, you can see for yourself what they've been up to.

http://mindstormc14.weebly.com/



[Sometimes real life intrudes when I am writing, so I feel compelled to mention that I'm typing this to the background noise of dd yelling 'left paw' at an animated dog on her Nintendo ds. Apparently the dog now does handstands. I am trying to sound excited. Except that we have a real dog that doesn't even come when it is called. I can't help thinking that the world is getting very surreal. ]

"Everyone couldn't stop laughing..."

(This was ds1's verdict today on his first 2-hour IGCSE chemisty lesson with a group of home educated children.)

His other comment was something along the lines of:

The tutor gave us bags of chocolates. There were so many. We stuffed them in our pencil cases. She said she's going to bring some more next week.

Yep.

I reckon that woman has teenage boys just about sussed.

Bring chocolates AND make 'em laugh.

Sorted.

Ds2 had his first Spanish session today. A thumbs up from him.

Next week more chemistry for ds1, and ds2 starts his Arts Award.


It's all rather strange. After years of very much a DIY approach (i.e. we bumble along through most subjects/topics, working it out for ourselves) I finally get to hand over the responsibility, temporarily, for educating two of my children for an hour or so. Apart from the occasional activity the kids have done, this is pretty much a first for us.

I wonder, is this what it's like to send your child to school? Probably not. After all, I'm hardly abandoning them at the school gate to do god-knows-what while I bake cakes and work off the 2 stone I've put on through childbearing by gym and yoga classes. I've never had that experience, and though I hankered for it once, I certainly wouldn't swap our lives for that now.

No. This seems like the next stage. Up to this point we've done everything on a shoestring budget and mother-and-child-fuelled energy. This is the right time to be buying in the experience/expertise/skills that I either don't have, or don't have energy or enthusiasm for.

And if our weeks consist of a mix of fencing sessions, Capoeira, swimming, home ed group, Spanish, Art class, film-making, archaeology club, computer programming, warhammer/model-making, chess, geography and chemistry, plus the projects we'll continue to do at home...Well, that seems a pretty decent spread to me. Let's hope we all have the stamina to keep up the pace!
 
Meanwhile we await news of whether ds1 will get a place on a training session at a local archaeological museum on 'object identification'. The aim, after the training session, is to help out at regular sessions via his (usual) local archaeological group, classifying and photographing and cataloguing objects in the museum. And this is a big, very important museum.

We've been unable to find him volunteer work at the local museums, primarily because of his age (child protection, supervision, blah blah), but also because he is competing against the students from two universities in the city who naturally want CV-boosting experience. Given the choice between a 19-yr-old university archaeology/classics student and a 13 yr-old enthusiastic amateur in a hoodie it's obvious which the museum staff would choose.

So perhaps something will come of this. As long as nobody starts getting picky about his age, this could be just the ticket for him :)

And if not, hopefully ds1 will get a place on the 'big' dig they'll be doing in October - he's done test pits, but not a full scale dig yet, so if it comes together, this will be very exciting for him...

Fingers crossed.

How Children Learn

Amidst my turmoil about workbooks and curriculum, about what my children know compared with other children, there are times when I have to just stop and see what is in front of me. Oh yes, it's LEARNING! And this learning is happening now: like a secret underground volcano, all this stuff all bubbles to the surface. And I'm gobsmacked. How did the child know that? Where did that come from?

Of course we never get to see much of the learning that happens: a child can go from apparently knowing nothing, to knowing lots; from not understanding, to full comprehension.

Perhaps in a school environment, under a routine of externally-imposed one-size-fits-all learning, many of these moments get lost, drowned, smothered or distracted. Perhaps they happen and nobody but the child is there to notice. But in home education, especially when children are left to learn without interference or well-intentioned teaching, these teeny bits of magic are revealed. And if you're still enough and resist interfering, you can tiptoe up and witness wonderful things happening.

The biologist in me would say it's those neurons firing off, making connections, links, mapping the world of information and making sense of it when nothing much appears to be happening on the surface.

When learning happens and I can't see where it has come from I realise what John Holt was saying about autonomous learning. I see how learning is not a direct route from a to z, or a series of routes a to b, b to c, and so on. Often it is a random, higgledy-piggledy, unplanned journey. It is like one huge 3-dimensional jigsaw that doesn't always need all the pieces to make sense, and you don't have to start at the corners or the sides to make out the picture. And, besides, your picture will be different to everyone elses.

Today, I've been watching my 6 year old make sense of maths. I've never taught her maths. She has doodled her way through a few sticker maths books because she begged to, but I do no formal, schooly learning with her. I don't sit and count with her. I don't read counting books to her. We don't have posters of numbers on the walls. We've never practised adding up. I have no idea where her mathematical knowledge comes from, except that it has somehow evolved from her personal experience of the world and the problems she needs to solve. I find it difficult to step back. Maths makes me anxious. I hate people saying 'but maths will come naturally, in day-to-day activities'. I think ' Yes, but I dont' care what you say about your children, I need to see it happening, in MY children.' And it does happen. If I stop worrying and just be still for a moment.

Today dd wanted to find out how much money was in her money box. She emptied the piggy on the floor and spent an hour of counting out piles of tens and piles of pounds, coming to me with occasional questions:
'What comes after twenty?'
'How can I add these ones to these twos?'
'Do these make ten?'

She made a dog design on the floor with the piles of tens and pounds and, satisfied with her work, left them there for us all to trip over.

She never did find out how much was in her money box. By the time she'd got to that part, she'd built on whatever knowledge and experience she already had: her curiosity was satiated. The journey had been far more important than the end result.

Therein lies a lesson for all of us.

Ok, we're screwed...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/how-budget-affect-me/7846985/Budget-2010-middle-income-earners-lose-child-tax-credits.html

Middle Income Earners Lose Child Tax Credits

"Although the Chancellor mentioned only cuts in tax credits for those earning £40,000, a table at the back of the Budget information book showed that those earning over £30,000 with one child would receive no tax credits from April 2012, while those earning £25,000 would see their entitlement cut.

The move looks like a compromise between the Tory and Liberal Democrat policies. Both parties went into the election pledging reductions in tax credits, but the Lib Dems wanted to go much further, cutting all payments to families with a total income of more than £25,500.

The Budget table shows that a family earning £50,000 or more would currently receive £545 a year in tax credits if they have one child over the age of one. This amount will fall to zero next year, while a family earning between £25,000 and £40,000 will continue to receive the payment. However, in the financial year between April 2012 and 2013, families earning £30,000 and over will receive nothing, and those earning £25,000 will see their entitlement cut to £460 a year...

...Families will also see child benefit frozen for three years. The allowance is currently paid at a rate of £20.30 a week for the eldest child and £13.40 a week"


So let me get this right: the two payments that go directly to the carer of the child will now be frozen/reduced/cut. Well that's gonna do a lot to get rid of child poverty, isn't it?

The thing is, it isn't about how much the family earns, but how much of those earnings get to the children. And Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit get to the children.

Makes me wonder how many home edders will now have to put their kids in school and go back to work full time.

The 3 little pigs learn to survive like Bear Grylls while mother contemplates politics

It seems a while since I've blogged, but we've just spent the bank holiday weekend camping so I have a legitimate excuse.

In true form we timed our camping expedition perfectly for a change in the weather. In our family any weather that contains rain, sleet, wind and freezing temperatures is termed 'camping weather'. One develops these family phrases out of experience. I like to think that withstanding the English weather by going to bed fully dressed in a sleeping bag designed for temperatures of minus 10 degrees with a woolly hat on and two blankets is character building. I'm sure it will prove very handy if any of my children decide to become a hill farmer in the Outer Hebrides.

I've been thinking that camping is like the story of the three little pigs. Except that my children aren't pigs and none of them can be bothered to go round building houses (of sticks, straw or bricks). Actually camping is nothing like the story of the three little pigs. Except that when it's windy it's quite possible that your house will blow down. I suppose there is a very remote possibility that you might get eaten by a wolf (the only wolves I've seen are in a local wildlife park), but more likely you will be smothered by clouds of white fluff from a demented spaniel who goes by the name of Captain Jack Sparrow (or Jack for short).

Over the weekend while discussing with a small child where they could discreetly go for a wee by a canalside with no obvious trees and lots of passing walkers I realised that the word I was looking for in my last post was epiphany. One could say I had an epiphany about the word epiphany, but that would just sound trite.

Anyway, going back to the camping thing, I will post a few photos, perhaps tomorrow. No photos of tents blowing down or anything so exciting (Shame, could have sent the vids to 'You've been Framed' and earned back the cost of the weekend). Just lots of photos of the inside of the tent from the very small hole at the end of a sleeping bag and a pile of shivering blankets.

And so on to other thoughts for the day...the election. Who to vote for? The truth is, even at this late stage, I don't know. Labour have it in for home educators big time, so they wont get my vote (even though they did bring in Child Tax Credits which earns them a few brownie points). Nope, Labour have been real meanies and Ed Balls is a psychopath. What if Gordon Brown stepped down and Ed Balls ended up as the Prime Minister (I'm gonna have nightmares about that one).

And so...Lib Dems? Well Lib Dems appear to be in favour of registration for home edders, which is a no-no. Big big no-no. They're pretty level pegging in my constituency though, so I'd have to decide which of the devils I'd prefer.

And Conservatives, well. Although they seem to be pro-non-interference of home edders, who knows what they'd do if they were actually in power. And Cameron reminds me of far too many pratts (I'd use another word, but there may be children reading) that I met at Uni, most of whom were studying Politics, Economics or Estate Management. BRRRrrrrr. I shiver at the memory of it. And Conservatives were talking about reducing tax credits. If that means Child Tax Credits then I'm stuffed, seeing as they make up a large proportion of my income. I mean this is money that actually goes to the parent responsible for the care of the children. Not straight into the pockets of the main income earner who already has enough money to buy beer down the pub and doesn't really need any more. I like child tax credits because they go to me, not to my partner. I don't need to negotiate that money back again into my pocket and into the hands of my kids. So. No Child Tax Credits means children suffer. And for me it means that I'd have no adequate way of staying at home and home educating my children. I do do paid work and have always worked (honest guv, I'm not a scrounger), but I don't have enough hours outside of looking after/educating the children to earn enough to keep us fed, watered and sane.

So what is the alternative? Well I could decide not to vote. But then think of all those poor little suffragettes who did suffragette things so that I could get to vote (as you can tell we haven't got to suffragettes yet in our Home Ed history projects, but I know a thing or two about Ancient Greeks, and Charles Darwin if that's any use). Anyway, I always feel guilty about the suffragette votey thingy even if I don't know anything about it. I mean I'm a woman. Of course my sole purpose in life is to feel guilty. So the guiltometre is at full wack when I think about not voting. Gee thanks Emily Pankhurst, yet another thing to feel guilty about. So much for women's lib.

Or I could turn up and just spoil my ballot paper, which is one suggestion that has been mooted on a few home ed lists. If all parties are rubbish, or have policies that you disagree with (or just if none of them float your boat) then there is no real democratic choice, is there? Why feel you have to vote for someone, when you could just exert your democratic right to - er - go spoil a ballot paper.

At first I thought this was just pointless. I mean why go to all that effort to turn up at the right place on the right day (and finding the childcare to be able to do it) when all I'm going to do is scribble a cartoon of Chad with his nose poking over a wall and the text 'Wot no decent party to vote for' (or something else equally vapid). But someone said on one of the home ed lists that if you spoil your ballot paper these ballot papers HAVE to be counted. So in effect you are making your voice known (in a very quiet and non-influential whisper perhaps). Ah well. I suppose if someone really likes your cartoon there's always the remote chance that you might get to be the next Larson. And he must make a decent living even without Child Tax Credits.

So, what you YOU think?

Well there goes the diet then...

Being frugal is like being on a diet.



At first the diet goes well, a little weight is shifted, success seems on the horizon, you're feeling right chuffed with yourself.



And then the diet gets a bit boring and repetitive. A life of salad is dull. Perhaps you haven't lost quite as much weight as you'd like, progress is slow, friends stop telling you how wonderfully well you are doing and get fed up with you mentioning food all the time. They try and tempt you with takeaways and trifle.



And then, one day, you snap. You have the sudden urge to treat yourself, to reward yourself, to completely and totally pig out!

Well that's exactly what happens with frugality. And today we pigged out. Once in a while I just take the kids out, we have lunch out, we spend money we haven't really got (or that should be earmarked for something else) and then we go home, feeling like the kid who stole the chocolate cake at diet camp.

Money was burning a hole in the children's money boxes. Dd has been asking every day for around a week if she could spend some of her money. I don't think it's the money that interests her, just the process of going into a shop with her own money and buying something. She was getting desperate (and annoying).

So why not help her spend her pennies. And the boys were keen to break open the piggy banks too. So where could we go. Well how about that place with a toy shop and - er - the (shhh) wool shop.. [You didn't think the trip would be entirely altruistic do you?]

So after wandering round charity shops, chip shop, weird plastic and assorted junk shop, toy shop, pet food shop, and WOOL SHOP we came home with:

2 soft toy beanie dogs
1 hard plastic, extortionately-expensive dog
1 wind up furry mouse (possibly a rat?) that makes the dog bark
2 bags of sour Haribo sweets
1 pack of Pokemon cards
4 full bellies from greasy chips from very unhygenic chip shop (remind me not to go upstairs to the toilets in restaurants until AFTER I've eaten the meal - it's best not to know what you might be eating or where they chop the chips)
2 balls of black double knitting wool (for ds1's balaclava)
1 ball of furry skinny wool (for socks?)
1 sack of chicken mash
1 sack of chicken corn
and 1 of these:

Oops...how did that get there?!

Ok, so I forgot to mention the bike shop that was next to the pet shop. Saw the above item outside the shop and fell in bicycle love. Well as much as a committed non-cyclist can be attracted to something that you have to put energy into to get to move.

Ok, so it's a bit battered. But it fits in the car. And will probably fit even better once I've worked out how to fold it (erhum). Bet the guy in the shop enjoyed watching me as I tried to squeeze a fold-up bicycle in its non-folded-up state into the back of a people carrier on top of two sacks of chicken food, one large bag of just-bought tat and three small children. That should keep him going in laughs for a few weeks at the pub.

What is most amazing is that the bike fits me. I mean I can actually sit on it and reach the floor with my feet (Unlike my huge great hulking lump of iron on wheels that is currently residing in the garage - yeah one of those 1940s things that you expect to see a huge breadbasket on the front). And the wheels of this bike don't go round with almighty clunks and shudders that throw you off course(unlike my huge great hulking lump of iron on wheels...etc etc) and this bike is kinda cute (unlike my huge behind when I'm riding it...).

Anyway, I don't know why I'm here justifying my decision to break from the dieting regime. So, I confess, today I AM the kid that stole the chocolate cake at diet camp. But, life is just too short to not impulse-buy strange bicycles outside pet shops.

Frugal vs healthy...the battle goes on.

Some days I really hate food, which is rather unfortunate. I was speaking to a friend recently about how much the thought of food - the planning, buying, preparing and clearing up, as well as the ethical issues and guilt surrounding it - occupies so much of our waking hours.

I've been trying to have a frugal period. At the same time I've also started thinking about producing healthier food for the family. You would think that the two were agreeable. Unfortunately, despite the myth that it is cheaper to live on wholesome home cooking, there is no getting away from the evidence that faces me on food shopping trips; i.e. that it costs more to eat healthily than it does to eat processed and packaged food.

There are of course exceptions, but processed food - especially the supermarket value ranges - are cheaper than what it would cost me to buy the ingredients and make my own. It is of course in the interests of manufacturers and supermarkets to keep it this way. And it's not just about comparing the exact ingredients used in recipes vs the finished processed product, but also the expense of ingredients that never get used, or are mostly wasted. I've lost count of the number of aubergines destined to be ratatouille or mediterranean tart that have decomposed from the inside out on the top shelf of my fridge. And that jar of tahini, used once to make humous and now sat in my fridge (for about 2 or 3 years I think!). The cucumber fated to sludge instead of tzatziki (because the yoghurt went off before I got around to it).

Menu planning helps of course. But if like today I was looking for fresh coriander and fresh mint to make some lovely thing in a recipe book, then so much of it is wasted (unless of course I can think of a whole load of other recipes to use the same ingredients, but these will then require further ingredients that I will have to buy).

Hmmm.

While I'm on the subject I am keen to learn how to make bread that does not have a crust the thickness and hardness of the earth's mantle. I have tried different recipes, different methods, different oven temperatures and cooking periods. Once again today I have produced two loaves with dark brown rock hard criusts and overly-soft inners. If I am to ever progress to the role of Earth Mother I really must get this bread sorted.

Treasure maps, ds2 knits, and 'when is a school not a school?'

Well we seem to be regulars down at the sailing club. Each week I've been taking along an activity for the kids (and anyone else who turns up). It's usually just something I leave on the table, a little temptation for them to dip into if they wish. This week I took some old paper, all yellow-brown with age, and pens and paints, along with an atlas and a few books on pirates and explorers. It didn't take long for the kids to be painting treasure maps, rolling them up and setting off to the West Indes with their fellow pirates. Hmm..did I spot a bit of geography there...And no adult intervention at all...

It looks like there will be a regular nature group of some sorts at the sailing club: a monthly Saturday one for all children, and a weekly one for home ed kids to join in. There is so much conservation work to be done around the site - plenty of bramble clearance and apparently lots of plans for the woodland area - so we'll not be short of things to do. I think the only difficult thing will be trying to curb all that adult enthusiasm: we don't want to scare the kids away! Among the plans is a session to make some lanterns and have a torchlit procession around the lake for Halloween/Bonfire night. It sounds wonderful! A big project will be mapping the other, smaller, lake: the kids will have to go out on boards/boats to explore the unknown territory. I think they'll like that idea {g}.

Ds2 caught me knitting at the sailing club and wanted to have a go. He was making quite a good job of it, but got a bit bored after a few rows. Maybe I should teach him how to crochet? It grows much faster and it's not so easy to drop all your stitches!

Today the kids tried out an afternoon session at a local Montessori school which is opening up some of it's primary lessons to home educating families. Ds2 had a great time, primarily because he got to use some technology in the music session (always a bonus for techno-head like him). Ds1 wasn't quite so enthusiastic, but then even the shrug and a grunt in response to my questions was more than I was expecting. Thankfully they are in different groups for music, so they got a chance to do something independently. I guess this is one of the main problems with home educating kids that are close in age: they get to do pretty much everything together, whether they want to or not, and tend to get pretty sick of each other's company.

I think we'll be signing them up for this session for a term. I'd happily sign them up for a few sessions, but finances just don't make it feasible (I haven't yet worked out how I'm going to afford to send them for this one weekly session yet!). It's a bummer when such good opportunities arise and there just isn't the money around to make the most of them. I need to find a good money-making scheme.

Ds1 was funny as we were leaving the Montessori school.

Ds1:'Is this place a school?'
Me: 'Well kind of, but it's very different to a normal school'
Ds1:'Oh. So if I went here would that mean that I'm going to school?'
Me:'No, it's just like when you were going to piano lessons. You're just coming here for a few hours and you'll still be home educated'.
Ds1:'Oh that's alright then. I don't want to be a child that goes to school'.


Ds1 has decided he wants to buy a nintendo ds lite. I'm surprised cos he doesn't normally fall for peer pressure stuff, but this is definitely motivated more by his mates and fashion than his desire for technology. Now if it was ds2 hankering after a nintendo I could well understand it:given the choice he would be permanently plugged into his gameboy advance or the computer lol! So, ds1 has decided he is going to sell his ELC wooden castle and knights to make some money towards it. It'll be wonderful if he does sell it - not only will he make some money, but there'll be alot more space in their bedroom! Don't suppose anyone out there wants to buy a castle do they?

An Artist in the Family and our Successful Money Making Venture

Dd1 has suddenly taken to drawing. In fact she has taken to all sorts of craft and arty things, with a particular fascination for hama beads [If you want a taste of true multitasking, try ironing hama beads in a small crowded 1930s kitchen while trying to cook dinner, get ready to go to work, have 3 conversations with 3 children at the same time and deal with a puppy that wants to put his head in the oven]. Anyway, thought I'd showcase some of her work:

Butterfly and flower, made using a normal circular hama bead thingy.

She came up with the butterfly design on her own (not bad for a 4 yr old)

Lots of pictures of the dog. He even has toes!

Flowers and butterflies (seems to be a popular theme)

Today, my decluttering moved on a bit by teaming up with my sister to do a car boot sale. The car was full, and I mean absolutely and totally full! All the seats in the people carrier were down and we still had problems squeezing in the sacks and boxes - I could hardly see out my rearview mirror it was piled so high! It was a long day, around 6 hours, but we had a constant stream of customers right up to the end and with a bit of haggling we shifted a lot of stuff. We certainly came back with a lot less stuff than we went with and between us we made over £100 which was fantastic and well worth the effort - my share will pay for the fees for our camping holiday and half a tank of diesel to get us there!

The decluttering continues, but a bit like one of those plastic picture puzzles with shifting squares and only one space, I seem to be moving stuff from one room to another to another...I'm guessing that all the junk will end up in one room at the end (probably the loft or the garage!)
As you can see, that precious space I made on the shelves a few days ago has already been filled!



I don't think our family is ever going to be compatible with minimalist living!

Elderflower everything

Ds1 makes fairy cakes for his tuck shop

Today I was organised enough to take bags and scissors to local park as we walked the dog, so that I could pick elderflower with the kids. I was also organised enough to find and print off a recipe for elderflower cordial off the internet. I was even organised enough to check that we had citric acid in the cupboard and that the corner shop sold the lemons that we would need.

Unfortunately the tub on the shelf with 'citric acid' on the front that I naturally assumed WAS citric acid, turned out to be full of pepper seeds saved from several years ago. So, missing a vital ingredient, we now have several carrier bags full of stinky droopy elderflowers on the kitchen worktop, plus a trail of elderflower petals around the house. I'm just thankful that I remembered to take my hayfever tablets this morning - everything is covered in a fine dusting of yellow pollen!

Think I may have overdone it with the elderflower. There was so much in the park it felt almost criminal not to pick it. But the recipe only requires 20 sprigs for each batch, and if I make elderflower wine it's even smaller quantities. Not sure what I'm going to do with these carrier bags full! After I found I hadn't got the right ingredients for cordial I ended up putting together some ingredients for elderflower and rhubarb jam. These have to sit around in a bowl with some sugar for 24 hours, before boiling up and then sit around again and then boiling again (it seems) until it turns into jam. Hope it's going to be worth it after all that preparation. I'm used to just slapping some ingredients in a pan with a bit of apple and lots of sugar, boiling it till the stuff is erupting all over the cooker top like volcanic larva and then potting it up. I tend to lose interest if it becomes a more longterm project...

Rhubarb and Elderflower Jam (in progress)

The weather has been baking today and I know I shouldn't complain, but being a south facing garden it's unbearable to sit in it for long when the weather is so hot. When it's this hot only the lounge in our house is cool, everywhere else is very warm. Under the apple tree at the bottom of the garden is the only shade we have in the garden, but it's quite a trek to and fro especially when children always seem to need me or need me to do something as soon as I get to the bottom of the garden!!

It really feels like it might at last be summer.

Only one of my bean plants has come up so the wigwam line of 12 or more beanpoles at the bottom of the garden looks faintly ridiculous with nothing growing up it. I suspect slugs or one of the bean weavil species may be the culprits and if I'd been more organised I'd have planted some more beans in pots in the greenhouse. These beans are quite special so I like to grow some every year. They are called 'Cherokee Trail of Tears', and allegedly are the beans that the cherokees grew and took with them when they were driven off their lands. The pod is a purple/black colour which sadly turns green on cooking (not half as interesting looking) and the small beans when dried are also a deep purple. The plant also throws out some green bean pods (with white beans in) which I used to think were due to cross-pollination with another bean species. Apparently though this is perfectly normal. I still prefer the purple ones, but they're all very tasty! Sadly, it looks like it might just be runner beans this year.

I'm feeling the need to bring a bit more structure into our days over the next month or so. We've got some holiday (camping) planned which will give us a well-needed break, but in between I feel as if we need to get back on track a little with the home ed. We've dropped - mostly for financial reasons - pretty much all the groups, activities and workshops that the kids would normally go to. The cost of diesel and increasing price of food, plus extras like the car going wrong, me needing the chiropracter etc. have dug deep into our resources and there just isn't enough to go round. Fortunately ds1's piano lesson has been cancelled a few times so the extra money from that has come in handy!

It's been nice just to chill and have days to ourselves without rushing around, but not being out and about at groups and activities has left quite a gap in our days. Usually Spring and Summer heralds a whole lot of exciting outdoor stuff and we feel invigorated and energised after a long winter, but so far this year it just hasn't happened (for various reasons it's not been a great year for the family and I guess we're all feeling the fallout). I've tried to summon up the energy to compensate with trips to the park, bike rides, fishing, 'allomping' etc, but some days the bickering gets to all of us.

Roll on holiday time!!!!

Damp llamas, weird pigs, invisible guinea pigs and the Billy Goat Gruff family (not trip-trapping over the bridge)

I've been meaning to post for a while and even uploaded these photos several days ago, but somehow time seems to have flown past.

Well it's now Wednesday. Having spent Saturday night with a friend, taking along ds2 for a sleepover treat, we headed back home on the Sunday. Trying to make use of the gap between rain and - er - more rain we headed to a local garden centre/pick-your-own place that also offers a free 'farm park' and a reasonable playground. For once we actually remembered to bring a bag of carrots to feed the goats. The big greedy goat (think 'Big Billy Goat Gruff') got pretty much all the carrots and the little goats (think 'little billy goat gruff') hung back and didn't get much at all. No trip-trapping over a bridge though, it was just a case of sticking their necks through the fence and grabbing anything orange and crispy coming their way. Maybe I should suggest that they build a little bridge for them to trip-trap over - could be a good marketing ploy for the garden centre.

In one field there were a few llamas - actually I think they were alpacas, though I don't know what the difference is. Perhaps someone who reads this blog will be able to let me know? Anyway they were slightly soggy and sad looking animals that looked like they'd have much prefered to be anywhere other than a damp muddy English field.

The big guinea pig run - that's a big run, not a run for big guinea pigs - was empty as always, though there were bits of lettuce left out for them. I suppose the disadvantage of having a wonderful system of underground tunnels for the guinea pigs to run in is that they probably prefer to be underground running around than up on top being oggled by noisy kids. I'm sure it's been years since I've seen a guinea pig actually out and about in the run. Maybe there haven't actually been any guinea pigs in all that time and the owners leave lettuce out just to fool us passers by into thinking that we might possibly be lucky enough to spot one. There's something far more exciting about guinea pigs when they are evasive and you can't actually see them.

Then there were ducks and geese (I have a video of dd1 running around chasing some very angry looking geese which I'll try and upload). Anyone else with any sense at all would have been running in the opposite direction, but not my fearless daughter!

Er...are you sure that's a good idea?

And then there were the pigs. Weird looking pigs. I thought at first they looked weird because they were moulting, but then looking closer, I got the impression that this was what they always looked like. Sorry pigs, nothing personal, but you do look weird. Looks a bit like my tongue after drinking too much Stella (ok, perhaps that's too much information).

Weird pig

The farm park had had some work done on it since we had last been there. There had been a picnic area set up in a field and a woodland planted at the back. According to the notices this had been created in 2006. I guess on previous visits I must have got bored before getting to that field and dragged the kids back.

We took a stroll with the dog through the new woodland. It was basically a few trees planted in very straight rows which, in their current state looked nothing like a woodland. Perhaps in 20 years it might show some greater resemblance. Does woodland normally have straight rows of trees? I guess The New Forest does, but those are conifers, so they would look like they were planted in straight rows even if they weren't. Anyway, running through the woodland field was a stream with a lovely trip trappy bridge going over it (darn it, they should have parked the goats nearby, it would have been perfect!). My kids being my kids decided that it would be a good place to investigate and spent half an hour jumping over the water, exploring under the bridge (doing a spot of trip-trapping over it) and generally getting wet. Eventually the not-so-active-and-getting-increasingly-cold adults decided it was freezing and time to head to the playground and get some hot choc from the restaurant. I think the kids could have stayed paddling and poking for most of the day.

Pose nicely for the camera please

Ok, now you can fight over the stick again

'It's wet'

(er yeah, what did you expect?)

Do I look like a troll?

(more like a little gnome methinks)

And then started the great 'how can I get this as cheaply as possible' hunt. I must have been gone ages. Seeing the price of fruit juice (around £2.20 a glass) in the restaurant I bought a glass pint bottle of orange juice in their farm shop next door, plus some cakes from their bakery (55p each compared with £1.80 or more in the restaurant). Then I went back to the restaurant bought a coffee for dh and a hot choc for me, plus asked nicely for extra cups so that all the kids could share hot choc/orange juice.

Sigh! It's hard work this budgeting lark! Sometimes I long for the days when dh and I could go out for the day, buy lunch and drinks in a restaurant and not be worried about the cost (these were pre-kid days of course!).




DD1 feeding those hard sought-out bargain snacks to the sparrows.

A Home Educating Mum's Guide to a Quiet Mid-Life Crisis (wouldn't want to disturb anyone would we?)

Today Ds1 attended the first part of a First Aid course. As he frustratingly tells me, I gave him the choice as to whether to attend or not and when he said 'no' I said he had to go anyway. Well, he should consider himself lucky - at least I gave him the brief illusion of having a choice before I took it away from him. lol. Ah well...I figure my kids get lots of choice and freedoms, probably far more than many kids. Sometimes there are things that I think are important enough that I make the choice for them, and this was one of them.

Thankfully the car is still working after it's cam belt breakage and replacement. I did have my doubts last night when, on my way out to go to the home ed pub evening I found dh under the car tying the exhaust back on with wire. Oh joy. That's another thing that needs replacing (yet more money). So now the car sounds a bit like a tractor and everytime I put my foot hard on the accelerator it chucks out clouds of black smoke. I should be thankful for small mercies - at least it's not got bits dragging on the ground or anything too embarrassing.

Anyway, ds1 said the course was 'good', which is bloody marvellous compared to the response I was expecting, so we're off for part 2 tomorrow. This time we'll try and get there on time - a combination of poor organisational skills (me) and traffic (me again - I forgot about rush hour) led us to being late today. But, in true home ed style, there were people even later than us. It could have been worse.

Perhaps I should have just chilled out at that point, but we raced back home to drop dd1 off at preschool, spent an hour at the allotment (sowing carrots and planting out more sweetcorn) before racing back to pick up ds1 from the course at lunchtime. Then to the garage to get a quote for a new exhaust pipe.

I dread taking the car to the garage and as I pulled up there were 5 garage blokes barely out of their teens lurking outside the garage with nothing to do. When the garage bloke asked me 'what's the engine size?' I looked blank and shrugged 'haven't a clue'. I saw that look flick across his face, the 'oh god it's a woman driver' look. Oh joy. Thankfully he wandered off made a phone call and then returned to say that we wouldn't be able to get the exhaust pipe there. So back home we went before once more racing out to get dd1 from preschool and back home again in time for some friends to arrive. Then cooking a tea in a rush and me off to work, leaving the house a mess and nothing much achieved. I had planned to start thinking about what to do for ds2's birthday (only a week away), but like everything else lurking ominously on my whiteboard hanging by the door it just hasn't happened yet. Poor child, if I don't get something organised soon he's going to feel very neglected!

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Most of the home educators I know are currently going through a bit of a confidence crisis and I suppose I'm not much different. The daily domestic plod, the overwhelmingly untidy and dirty house, the increasing list of 'to do's, the constant bickering of siblings and the lack of achieving any goals (particularly home educating ones) makes us all have moments when we suspect perhaps school could offer something more. At least school would offer free childcare and we're all in desperate need for that!

Among my circle of friends most of us are having - and have been having for several years - something resembling a mid-life crisis. It's come to that time when we've all decided not to have any more children and we've all started asking the question 'so what's next then? What's in it for us?' Of course it hits us home educating mums hardest because in the midst of domesticity and the responsibility of full time caring and education, there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel - well not for another 10 or more years (by then we'll probably all be caring for our parents!) Other friends whose youngest children have now gone to school have started on their plans - retraining, doing voluntary work, working, going to the gym, spending time focusing on their needs after years of childcare - and I can't help but be a little envious. Ok, ok, I'm a lot envious!

And it affects us mums more than dads. Sadly I'm coming to realise that partners and husbands don't really care, because for them it makes no difference if we were home educating or not - they have their jobs, their careers, their status, their respect, their peers, their money, their social contact - and when they come home each evening it would make little difference to them whether their children had been at school all day or at home. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I suspect as long as the meal is on the table and the house doesn't look like a bomb's hit it [I fail on both of those] then they probably wouldn't notice either way.

So what to do about it? I'm yet to work it out. All I know is us home educating mums who have spent years meeting the needs of everyone else, are fast becoming so worn out, emotionally and physically knackered, that we're at risk of not being fit and healthy enough to meet their own needs and do all the things we'd love to even if we did have the time and money! That is even if we could actually remember what our needs are (most days I can't even remember what day it is lol) .What a sad state to be in!

Money is certainly an issue that crops up among home educators. How to make more, how to make the little we have go further, how to not mind when we're surrounded by people who can afford all those extras (tutors, music classes, resources, nice holidays, cleaners, childcare) that make home educating life that little bit easier. Ok, so perhaps 'surrounded' is a bit of an exaggeration, but you know what I mean. Some days you just don't want to be in the company of someone who can provide their kids with all the things you know you can't. Why is it that the people who say 'Money isn't everything' are usually the people who have lots of it! Money may certainly not be EVERYTHING, but there are times when it certainly makes life that little bit more comfortable {g}. Still if chiropracters cost only pennies to go to and we had a car that wasn't slowly falling apart, then finances might be slightly more secure lol.

Please please don't let the washing machine break down. Anything else, just not the washing machine.