Tuesday 28 September 2010

A few spare minutes (would be nice!)

I don't do blogs half as regularly as I would like. I simply do not have the time. When I sit down I am either feeding the baby, eating a meal or checking my emails/facebook: they are about the only times I sit down these days. When I do think about doing a new post I always feel there should be something important to report but I have been thinking and maybe I will just do short posts as often as I can otherwise weeks pass without me updating.

So today Primrose has been for her first lot of jabs. That was four hours ago and she is still not asleep - grumbling and shaking her legs about in her bouncer chair while watching C-beebies! The boys have high temperatures and runny noses :( Jacob has gone down for a nap and Finn is just chilling out on the sofa, but keeps pestering me for a go on the the c-beebies website. I should feel less stressed today as they are not on their full-form full-of-beans hyper moods, yet I feel on edge as Primrose won't settle and just wants me to pick her up all the time. In the meantime I am trying to do a mountain of washing (Finn wet the bed - the double ('big bed' as he calls it) last night just after I had put clean sheets on as well :( He goes to bed in our room and then Dave transfers him to his bed when we go to bed); tidy the kitchen; tidy-up toys and vacuum and countless other little things like nappy-changing and meal preparation. Then in the evening I am knitting (got loads to do - sister-in-law is due in a few weeks and have some birthdays and Christmas coming up so I want to do some gifts for my nieces). Well, Primrose has worked up to a proper cry now so I will have to leave it there. I will post some pics soo of the boys birthday party that we had last weekend!

Sunday 12 September 2010

My home-educating quest...

I finally feel we are making some progress towards being a home-educating family! A few weeks ago I met up with a lovely lady and her five children (ranging from 9 to 18 months!) that live locally to us and have been home-educating for about four years. I immediatedly got on very well with her and really felt like we were on the same wave-length, and her children were so polite and friendly. It really instilled confidence in me that home educating is a totally do-able option for us. The day after this I met up with my usual mum friends and another mum who I didn't know quite so well. As all the children are due to start school next year the conversation inevitably turned to schools and said mum who I don't know quite so well asked me which school my eldest was going to. Until the day before my usual response to this was that I was considering home-education but still applying for the local school; but this time I said that I am planning to home-educate (full stop and no mention of applying to a school!). The said mum, who is lovely btw, said, "How lovely and what made you think of doing that?" and "Are you qualified to do that?". Her response on the subject was very postive despite not knowing anything about it (she thought it was lovely that I wanted to educate my children myself but she thought I'd have to be a qualified teacher!) and it made me realise that a lot of peoples' views on home-educating may come across as negative simply because they don't know anything about it. I've been worrying about how I will justify myself to people that ask why I home-educate, but really I think there is no need to feel defensive about it. Some people will not get it and not agree - that is their opinion, but I think there is also a lot of people out there that just simply do not know anything about home-education and so when they ask questions I should answer them in an objective and not defensive manner.