Spring is here!

Since I last blogged what has happened?

- My eldest boy is now 4 and a half and due to start school in September - yet we are still planning to home educate. Since the beginning of March he has been reading three letter words. He knew all the alphabet and the phonetic sounds so I thought I would try him out with a few easy words such as "sat" "cat" etc. and he totally surprised me by sounding them out and reading them. We try and do a few new words and have story time every afternoon. This is not always easy though as his little brother is a handful and we have recently got a playstation 3 which the 4-year old is becoming obsessed with. He has already completed Little Big Planet 2 and also loves the sonic racing game. I tried to hold off letting him get into computer games but I think as long as the time they have on it is limited and they don't play any age inappropriate games then I can't see how it is a bad thing. The only way I think it is bad is when he gets so obsessed with it that he wakes up really early in the morning to go and play it before I get up and turn it off and then talks about it all day and keeps asking if it is 5 o'clock yet (as that is when he is allowed to play it). It is starting to bother me a bit but I figure as long as he still has time doing other things and still does some "school work" then I'm not too worried.

- My 2-year old is a real terrible two now. Every day is a battle with him and some days it gets me down. We had an incident with him swallowing lavender oil a few weeks back and had to spend the night in hospital. Luckily he was fine but things like that are just a daily occurrence and it makes life difficult.

- My 9-month old is now crawling and tring to pull herself onto her feet which has made me think, "where has my baby gone?"!

Today the weather has been like summer and so they have been in the garden which has helped as some days it is difficult as the boys have too much pent up energy when they are in the house too long.

We made a simnel cake and the boys had their tumble tots and gym bobs classes. I've also crystalised some primrose flowers ready for Prim's Christening on sunday. I'm making her cake and plan to put the flowers on top. Having everyone round to our house after so we are hoping the weather stays nice!

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Home Ed Group

For the last two weeks we have been atending a home education group. It meets up at a village hall approximately 20 miles from where we live every thursday. We met some lovely families there and it really did instill a lot of confidence in me that home education is something that can work - and hopefully work for us. I am becoming a lot more confident about telling people when I used to dread the subject arising. That said I do still go for the easy option when I speak to some people. My four-year old is due to start school in september and as he is fairly tall and nearly 4 and a half now we get asked practically on a daily basis by anyone from a tumble tots instructor to the library assistant to the local vicar (we had him round the other evening to arrange the baby's Christening) questions such as, "Do you go to school now Finn?", "When do you start school", "Do you go to nursery?". A lot of the time I still reply, "He is due to start school in September" and "No he isn't at nursery as he does a lot of other activities: tumble tots, tennis and swimming". It just seems easier to say that rather than tell them we plan to home school which will inevitably lead on to more questions. That said, I bumped into a mum from my mums and tots group who I hadn't seen in around three years today: she asked if Finn was at pre-school and what school I had chosen for him. I told her that he didn't do pre-school and told her the school choices that we made last year and then said, "but I plan to home-educate him - at least for the first year anyway". So now I am getting more confident in telling people but adding that we may just do it as a trial for the first year. I don't really think that will be the case - I want to home educate for as long as it works for us all - and I guess I'm hoping it will work and that they will never go to school unless they want to. But the truth is I really don't know how it is going to work for us. At the moment it works quite well. I think Finn will be quite academic: he has a brilliant memory and is always happy to learn and some days it is difficult to get him away from the TV and sit and do some "school work" but once I have his attention he will happily sit and do writing, sums, practice reading, drawing etc. for a good hour. He also loves stories at bedtime and is currently having The Magic Faraway Tree books being read to him (usually by daddy) at bedtime. He is happy to lie and listen and imagine it all in his mind as there are only a few sketches in the book. He loves books and knows all the alphabet now (and most of the phonetic sounds) so I'm sure when the time is right he will start to read. I have no idea how home education will work for my other two though. Jacob is very energetic and has a very short attention span - he is only 2 so this is quite normal - but I just cannot imagine him ever sitting down and listening to me teach him anything as he has always been very independent (baby-led weaned as has never let me feed him) and totally different to his big brother. That said he picked up potty training a lot quicker than his big brother I think mainly due to observing his big brother use the toilet. So hopefully he will follow suit and want to learn things like his brother.

Anyway, we went along to this group and it was lovely to meet lots of other families that home educate. The only problem was that it lasts all day and it was just a bit too long for me and my three. Most of the other children are a fair bit older and all the activites that are set up each week are largely for over sevens. This meant that my two boys spent the whole day playing with toy cars in the baby area and then making paper aeroplanes with some of the other young children. They had fun but the session was just too long for them when that was all there was for them to do. So we've decided that we will go back to this group when they are a bit older and can actually take part in some of the activities. In may we will find out if Finn has got into his first choice school and I'm dreading it as it will be time to decide. The thing is we have decided but I don't want getting this form throught the post to change my mind and make me doubt if I am doing the best thing. It is so difficult to know as a parent if you are doing the right thing though when all other parents around you are sending their kids to school. Do you follow the pack or be brave and dare to do something different because you believe it is (hopefully) the best for your child?

Home Schooling :)

In the last few weeks I have finally come to the conclusion that as of September I will home school my 4-year old.

I haven't heard about whether he has been accepted into the schools that we chose last year (when I still hadn't decided), and now I actually feel like I don't want to know. I always said to my husband that if he only got into our third choice school then we should definitely home school - yet if he were to get into our first choice then I was worried that I'd feel confused again as to what was the best thing to do. However, the last few days have appeared to bolster my plan to home school, at least in my mind anyway. One thing that occured this week was when my 4-year old went to his tennis class. He goes there with around a dozen other children ranging from age 4-8, and two of his friends that he has known since they were babies (from a mums and tots group). Well, he has always got on very well with these two friends, but this week he came home and told me that they had been running away from him saying, "we're not playing with you". It made me feel so sad for him but told him that they were just being silly and that he should try and ignore it. Incidentally these two children go to the same small pre-school (linked to the small village school that is our first choice) and seem to largely just play with eachother when they go to pre-school, which is why I think they were being like that with my son. I think that maybe they are so used to playing with just eachother that they don't want to include anyone else and I think that is possibly an example of the institutionalisation that can take place within school environments - which laughs in the face of those who believe that their children are attending school in order to socialise.

We also went to one of my son's friend's birthday party this week. It was a nice party held at the local leisure centre with a room of soft play and there were over a dozen four-year olds there and younger siblings. What I found interesting to observe was the way all the four-year old boys were very hyperactive and almost veering on the violent with one another. I remember my brother and his friends being like this when they were around seven years old and I think it is quite normal but I didn't realise that four-year old were like this because my son isn't. His "best friend" (in his words) is three weeks younger than him and one of the children that we've known since he was a newborn from the mums and tots group. They get on very well but what I'm observing more and more is how they play lovely with the train track or cars but then said friend wants to play wrestling or pretend guns and my son just wants to carry on with the trains and cars and doesn't seem to "get" the fighting games. I wonder if it is something that occurs more if the child goes to nursery or pre-school. I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing as they are only play fighting but I just found it interseting to note that my son is the only one that doesn't go to a nursery or pre-school and he was the only one not "fighting" at this party. And that is not to say that he is not sociable as he is a real chatterbox and not at all shy. I think it is actually a great thing though that he doesn't just follow the pack and engage in the play fighting just because that is what everyone else is doing. I'm good friends with his friend's mum and she said to me at the party that she's always telling people about her friend who has three children who are so happy and well-behaved and and how we are planning to home school - which she says she thinks is a wonderful thing to do ("you're so patient and just a natural, unlike me," she said). I felt really surprised that she thought that about me as I don't think I'm anymore patient than anyone else really and I never thought my children were that well-behaved ("you should see us at home", I said!). But it was nice to hear someone say that about us.

Anyway, these were just a few things that have been on my mind and have helped me to believe more and more that we are doing the right thing by deciding to home school. So...watch this space!