Actually, just at this minute, reading some of the things written about Home Educators by Badman and Co, i feel more like it is the end of the world as i know it – but until they actually come and take my children, i am going to carry on as best i can

The second half of October went very quickly – we did several educational things, we had “half term” and 2 gym competitions and we were pretty much all ill. So in the ways of most normal families, something and nothing got done, lots of people achieved lots and had lots of positive experiences and when things were not so good we hunkered down and pulled ourselves through. Credit to the kids actually, who have grown into a set of children who can occupy themselves, take care of each other responsibly and get on with educating themselves in the midst of imperfect conditions.

We have had 2 or possibly 3 science/latin/music/french/craft days where the kids have done chemistry, sewed, fimo-ed played music and played together plus languages etc. Each session quite different but pleasing in a general sense i think.

We’ve had 2 days with Zoe and co where we have done Celtic/old world based craft and learning, plus some science.

This was making up a celtic game in fimo – there is no record of the rules, so they variously made up their own rules (as the book suggested) to come up with a game to fit the pattern of the board and pieces we know were used.

On another day we did natural dyeing, sing vinegar and salt for fixatives and tree berries, red and brown onion skins, nettles and walnut shells.

The kids tie dyed with marbles and various threads, bands and elastics.

The results were extremely successful, though i forgot to take a photo! We are going to sew them into some form of wall hanging thing. They had a lot of fun doing it but the house smelled a lot – nettles smell of fish!!!!

Maddy and Amelie did a club gym competition and did very well. Maddy got Bronze on floor and 4th overall and Amelie got Gold on floor and Bronze overall.

Fran went to the County Rec competition the next day and although she perhaps didn’t have her best day, she did get Bronze on Vault so goes to Ipswich to do that at the regional final.

Blurry but i like it. She was a bit disappointed not to get placed on her floor (and did something daft on bars too!) but it was an interesting learning experience overall.

However, her big thrill was to be moved into the General Squad just before the competition which has been top of her things to achieve since she joined as a learner 18 months ago. It does signal the end of recreational fun gym, which i think she will miss (so she is keeping one session of that too) but will work her hard and teach her attention to detail which i think will be good for her. MUCH harder though and she did look a bit poleaxed after the first session, not least for getting given 20 press ups for standing with her arms folded!

Then i got poorly and since then life has been kind of basic but they’ve got on with their work and our timetable/tick lists seem to be working okay.

Various other things have happened, aside from all the normal boring stuff. Josie has been learning words from letter cards…

And we got some lovely puppet making kits from Crafty Kids in stock and spent some happy days making them. REALLY good value kits in my opinion; the kits need a decent paint job so it can’t be rushed, putting them together is simple but needs the child to work on plan following and they puppet beautifully (designed by a professional puppeteer who i met and is brilliant) so they are still getting played with now.

The knight turned out well and Maddy also made him a cereal packet castle with left over paint.

Maddy’s blue-tac cat – how cute?

Maddy also looked up molecules and tried making them with geomags!