Some thoughts on home education...

Some food for thought...

Each week:

450,000 children are bullied in school

Each year:

more than 360,000 children are injured in schools

at least 16 children commit suicide as a result of school bullying

an estimated 1 million children truant

more than 1 in 6 children leave school unable to read, write or add up

When I tell people that we home educate, they often say 'Wow! You're brave! '



When you look at statistics like this I wonder which parent is the braver - the one who keeps their child out of school or the one that doesn't?



As always, some interesting comments on this blog about the threat to home educators in the UK:

http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2009/03/maintaining-status-quo-is-out-of.html

Edward Scissorhands makes fishcakes...

Do you ever wonder why people don't make their own fishcakes?

I did, but I don't any more.

I mean, how difficult can it be?

Well, like the Cat in the Hat, looking at the pink bath ring and wondering how to get rid of it, it would seem to be very hard.

My kitchen looks like a bomb site, with shrapnel of potato, breadcrumbs and fish flesh on every surface. I have used pretty much every pan, bowl and utensil in the kitchen (even ones I didn't know I had) and they litter the sink, cooker and tops of cupboards, leaving a trail of greasy, fishy potato. The floor looks as if it's been subject to an attack by a snow machine (the blender got a bit out of control when making bread crumbs) and I'm trying hard to forget I cleaned the kitchen yesterday and that dh only mopped it a day or two ago.

All-in-all it's like some very bad chef's nightmare, a sort of Delia-Smith-meets-Edward-Scissorhands culinary graveyard.

And of course there are now platefuls of the unappreciated rejected greasy, disintegrating, home-made fishcakes looking all unloved and unwanted. Even the dog has given up after the third fishcake and bowl of cooked rice.

There are lessons to be learned today.

One of them is that however wonderful home-made and home-cooked food sounds, sometimes it's best to admit defeat, acknowledge that no Earth mother resides in this house, and go out and buy some frozen fishcakes. DIY is not all it's cracked up to be.

(And no, before you ask. I don't have photos. Even though I document the most banal bits of our daily life, some things are just TOO bad to photograph.)

Spacesuits, wet feet and that darned BLUE PETER BADGE

A bit of catch up blogging and some photos of our recent trips away.



A few weekends ago - while dh decorated the lounge - I went away with the kids to visit friends in Nottingham. We went via The National Space Centre at Leicester. Well worth a visit and good value as you can exchange your day ticket for a year's pass. Unfortunately, although the home educator's discounts are very good, we couldnt' make use of them AND have the year's pass, so we paid in full.

Ok, so we live quite a distance from Leicester, and I don't think we'll be having frequent visits to the centre, but it'll give us an excuse to go and see our friends again.

Ds1 being David Bailey (though I'm guessing David Bailey would have chosen a more attractive model to photograph)

And ds2, trying on a spacesuit for size. Hmm...perhaps black would be more slimming?

Here's ds2 (and ds1 below) exploring a local park, just over the county border.

One thing I can say about Nottinghamshire and its nearby counties is that they seem to have amazing areas for kids to play; both the formal playgrounds and the less-formal parks. This particular park had lots of man-made follies, huge earth mounds, tree trunks, little streams, a huge lake, and rocks placed perfectly to be climbed on and explored. And so much space!! What would our equivalent be around here? A dishevelled piece of 1970s play equipment (disabled because it's considered too dangerous to play on), some pathetic attempt to entertain teens, and some muddy dog-poo encrusted grass. Ok, ok, exaggerating maybe, but I can't help thinking that the people who design our local playgrounds obviously don't have any contact with children...

Anyway, rant over..here are some more photos of our outings when we were in Nottingham:

Crossing the stepping stones.

Unfortunately you can't see it in this photo, but at one point across the river the stones were under water. And yes, I did get wet feet!

Fab scenery! And ds2 posing.

As you can see the sun was shining, but that wind...brrrr...hence the coats.Yep, I could certainly tell we were Up North; there was a definite temperature difference for us soft southerners lol.

It seems the older I get, the less hardy I become.

And the best bit of all. Eating ice cream afterwards!

Well that was our trip to Nottingham. I have more photos which may appear on the blog at a later date, AND I still need to post about our weekend in London. But maybe that'll be tomorrow.

AND some FAB news!

Do you remember ages and ages ago ds1 sent in a letter to Blue Peter with copies of the animations he'd worked on? Well we hadn't heard and I just assumed as months had gone by that either they had lost the letter, or it just wasn't good enough to get a badge. Anyway today he was sent a Blue Peter Badge!!! Naturally he's well-chuffed. And I'm pleased too cos it gets him in free to loads of places (with a paying adult of course, but hey, still good news). Ds2 is feeling a bit put out though, so we'll have to come up with something for him to write about or do. Anyway, it shows it's worth doing these things. If you're interested in your child(ren) having a go see http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bluepeter/central/badges/

And you can see the long drawn-out process that it took us to actually getting the badge from these blog pages. Here are all the blog references to the Blue Peter badge, starting in March last year!!

http://the-chicken-shed.blogspot.com/2008/03/you-call-that-snow.html

http://the-chicken-shed.blogspot.com/2008/04/long-time-no-see.html

http://the-chicken-shed.blogspot.com/2008/04/back-in-action.html

http://the-chicken-shed.blogspot.com/2008/05/today-has-been-day-of-doing-very-little.html

http://the-chicken-shed.blogspot.com/2008/06/been-few-days-since-ive-written-on-blog.html

http://the-chicken-shed.blogspot.com/2008/06/as-we-were-coming-back-from-trip-to.html

Well, my laptop battery is dying so I'd best end this blog entry now. Will try and play more catch-up tomorrow.

The Water Cycle (minor Smug Home Educator Moment)

Well I'm feeling rather smug.

It's not often that we plan to do something educational and then actually do it. I'm one of those breeds of home educators who has lots of Grand Plans, of which only about 10% ever get started, and only about 1% approach the finish line.

But YES, I am proud to announce that we have done - more or less - The Water Cycle.

I got the kids (after some minor grumbling and rolling of eyes) to do a collage based on the water cycle. Here it is in progress:

It's still awaiting some labels on it - you know the stuff 'condensation', 'evaporation', 'precipitation', etc - but we'll skip past that little technicality and gloat in the success of actually getting the kids to do something that is almost finished. [Actually I have a good excuse why it isn't finished: it's because the house has been invaded by a decorating dh, and the conservatory table where we were working on our water cycle, is now covered with tins of paint and assorted tools and the floor of the conservatory is covered with all the stuff that doesn't have anywhere else to go].

And still on the theme of The Water Cycle, we also put together our Eco Dome which we bought half price in Argos. I have to mention the half price bit, cos even at half price it was expensive, so there's no way I'd have paid full price for this glorified bottle garden. Bottle garden? Well if you're as old as me, either you or your mother or your aunt would have been bought a bottle garden from Marks & Spencers, or BHS in the 1980s and you'll know what I mean. And if you're not as old as me I'm sure Google will let you know all about it if you just ask...

Anyway, this Eco Dome is packaged up as a sort of educational climate/water cycle project with lots of observations and measurments to take (er, no we haven't actually done that bit yet). It is a sort of enclosed plastic box, with lift-off see-through lid.It has several tiers which are meant to replicate the different growing environments - tropical, desert etc. There is a water reservoir at the top and the bottom, plus thermometer strip, windmill to show air currents and other stuff. Here it is in progress:

Assembling the windmill (the best bit of course)

The 'desert layer' is in

and the finished result below...



And here is ds1 potting up all the tiny plants we had going spare. A local garden centre was selling off the pot-bound plants for 20p each and we couldn't resist...

Another reason why we can't get to the conservatory table to finish our Water Cycle collage - we seem to have rather a lot of plants now...

p.s. Can't remember if I've posted this link to a fab page about The Water Cycle before http://www.geographyalltheway.com/year7_geography/flooding_rivers/water_cycle.htm

It's worth a look just for the absolutely wonderful little video it has.

Legal power to dictate exam content (article)

Yet another interesting article about the education system...

'Ed Balls seeks power to dictate what textbooks GCSE and A-level students must study'. The Guardian, Thursday 19 March 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk:80/uk/2009/mar/19/education-ed-balls-books

"The schools secretary, Ed Balls, is seeking a new legal power to dictate the basic content of every public exam in England, in a move that would give him or any future secretary of state the right to decide which books children must study at GCSE or A-level.

The law would allow the government to set "minimum requirements" for qualifications. One senior exam board source said it would give ministers "mind-boggling power" over exams if it got on to the statute books.

Opposition MPs will attempt today to remove from the apprenticeships, skills, children and learning bill the clause that gives the secretary of state control of basic qualifications content. Guidance published alongside the bill says it could be used to specify "which authors' works needed to be studied for someone to gain a GCSE in English".

Ministers insist the power would be exercised only as a last resort, to preserve the teaching of Shakespeare, for example, if there was a suggestion it should be scrapped from the curriculum.

The bill will break up the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority into Ofqual, an independent exams watchdog, and a smaller Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) responsible for qualification design. Announcing the move last year, Balls said it would protect the exam system from political interference, as Ofqual would be independent of ministers while the QCA is answerable to them.

But the contested clause, which has gone unnoticed in the sprawling bill until now, has raised concerns among exam boards and opposition MPs, who fear it will in fact strengthen ministers' ability to interfere with the exam system for political gain.

David Laws, the Liberal Democrat education spokesman, said: "What is taught in schools should not be dependent on the whim of some here today, gone tomorrow politician. And the idea of Ed Balls or Gordon Brown determining which parts of history children are taught, or which books and poems they should read, is a rather frightening one.

"This revelation simply serves to highlight that while the government is pretending to be creating a more independent system of qualifications, curriculum development and oversight, what is actually happening is that ministers are retaining huge powers to meddle in both what is taught and how standards are measured."

The parliamentary committee scrutinising the bill is due to debate the clause today. Ministers promise that the power would be used only in "exceptional" circumstances, and that the law makes it explicit they cannot interfere in grading, assessment or structure of exams.

In a letter to the Liberal Democrats, dated 14 March and seen by the Guardian, the schools minister, Sarah McCarthy-Fry, insisted the effect would be to limit their interference and protect the exam system. A memorandum of understanding is promised, to set out exactly when ministers could use the power.

However, exam boards fear that the measure is too broad. Bene't Steinberg, head of public affairs at Cambridge Assessment, the parent company of the exam board OCR, said: "Cambridge Assessment believes that teachers and academics are the best people to decide what goes into a qualification. However, if politicians must keep their hands on the levers of qualifications, this clause needs checks and balances. The government has explained that it will only use the power in exceptional circumstances and in line with a defined process. We don't see why that should not be put into the act and made law to protect future generations."

McCarthy-Fry said: "There is currently nothing in law to stop ministers intervening on anything in relation to qualifications so, by establishing an independent regulator of qualifications that is accountable to parliament, ministers are actually putting limits on the influence they can have.
"Ministers will rightly have no role in grading, assessments or standards. They will only use powers with regard to the curriculum in exceptional circumstances - for example, intervening to ensure Shakespeare remains a core part of what our children learn." "

The world from a child's eyes...

Conversation in back of car by ds1 (10yrs) and ds2 (7yrs).

Ds1: So what's that then? (pointing at the long package in the car)
Ds2: It's an atomic missile
Me: Er, no actually it's my weed supressant material for the allotment
Ds1: Do you know what atomic means?
Ds2: Er, yeah. It means...explosion.
Ds1: No it doesn't.
Ds2: It means radiation...
Ds1: Yup.
Ds2: ...that explodes the world
Ds1: No it doesn't explode the whole world. It just wipes it out.
Ds2: Oh.
Ds1: Like a really big fart.

Conversation in the bathroom, me and dd1 (age 5).

Dd: You know what I do when I'm having a bad dream?
Me: Uh?
Dd: I kill myself.
Me: Well that doesn't sound very nice.
Dd: Well you know it's only a dream Mummy.
Me:I guess so. So does it help?
Dd:Yes, but the trouble is that I just end up in another bad dream...