Week Five of Home Education – The One Where things Felt More Difficult

There was definitely something about this week. I do not know whether it was because a family The Sensory Seeker has become attached to went on holiday (thus causing him change), the fact I had so much to do, less structure or what but he was most definitely more hard work and more reluctant to work. It was the first time when I really felt `oh my! What have I done?!’ and had to stop myself from saying the words `do you want to go back to school?’

On the Monday morning the boys started with filling in their puzzle books before we headed off to Wetherspoons to have breakfast with the ladies who had run the half marathon at the weekend. This gave the boys plenty of opportunity to talk to other adults, and as it was such a lovely sunny day we ate it in the gardens. We then raced off to try out a new creative group which was advertised as being for young children but older ones were welcome. When we arrived though they were far too young. As we were over that way anyway and it was a nice day we went to the park. Again the stares – to the point where I thought a toddler was going to fall off the climbing frame because the guy who was meant to be looking after him was too busy looking at my boys! I was super impressed with their attempts to do the monkey bars both ways (they go upwards) and the 10 year old worked out that they needed to be able to pull themselves up more to achieve it. This was then followed by a trip to soft play where we made new friends. It was also one of the boys’ birthdays and his mom had bought cake! We were super excited to see that our `This is Rocket Science book’ (by Emma Vanstone) had arrived (ISBN 978-1-62414-524-751999). After school hour’s one of the 10 year old’s friends called for him and they went to the park. It is nice to see that his true friends still keep in touch. But said friend came running to our house telling me that our son had hurt himself and it resulted in a trip to minor injuries (whilst hubby also took The Sensory Seeker to his swimming lesson).

On Tuesday the 10 year old searched for things to protect his hair falling into the fire for when we go to forest school. We were going to go rock climbing but had to change our plans as his leg hurt (and later his swimming lesson). I tried to get The Sensory Seeker to work in his English Essentials book and so did his brother but he really couldn’t focus. To help the boys with their writing I got them to think about what they would do if they won the lottery. The 10 year old cooked lunch (reheating pasties and a sausage roll in the oven) and after school hours the boys went to Explore Learning. In the evening The Sensory Seeker made pizza for dinner with his dad. I had bought a base and he added the sauce, cheese and toppings. Then I went to running club.

Wednesday I still had SO much to do and so the 10 year old helped by looking at my `to do’ list on the board. He helped discover things about our upcoming holiday – including information we needed to know about driving in parts of Europe. Both boys then enjoyed their puzzle books and playing LEGO. The Sensory Seeker enjoyed Home Ed Sports group whilst the 10 year old did more of his puzzle book and looked through his vocab flash cards as his leg still hurt. They both finished the day with their Explore Learning sessions. I got to see Deadpool 2 with my husband – it was really good.

Some of the children who are Home Educated have special needs and I was never aware of how much the boys did not know about different conditions until now. One of them has Tourette’s and I have to admit I didn’t know that much about it. I was told about a programme that was on recently called My F***ing Tourette’s Family and how it was an accurate representation (well as far as TV shows go). So that is how Thursday began. It was really good because in it the family went to the same place we are planning to go to on our holiday (and tied in well with the work the 10 year old did yesterday). I still had mountains of stuff to do and the boys read books and played LEGO in the morning. In the afternoon we went to Forest school where the boys had fun starting fires and we learnt how to make dandelion jam. The boys bought home some bamboo and the 10 year old decided to make straws from them as an alternative to plastic. Later they went to a Creative writing workshop at Explore Learning.

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Friday was more holiday planning and we spent lots of time learning to do cross stitch. I was impressed with how well The Sensory Seeker picked it up – even better than his older brother. Although the pack we bought wasn’t to scale and so it became very confusing, they got the basic idea of things. The Sensory Seeker then wanted to make lunch and found great delight in the fact that he could make his sandwich with both Nutella and Lemon Curd. He and his brother thought the sandwiches tasted amazing and he loved experimenting. The 10 year old then made banana fairy cakes. We went for a bit of a walk and the boys played a bit of Fortnite. There was a division workshop at Explore Learning and then went to a local pub for dinner (which has an outside play area). We had also had some bad news about my husband.

Saturday we decided to forget the Royal Wedding and the football (neither of which interests us) and took one of the 10 year old’s friends from his previous school to Chessington World of Adventures. We really enjoyed the revamp of Bubbleworks in to the new Gruffalo Ride and the new Tiger Rock Log Flume. Being Merlin Annual Pass Holders meant we saved so much – with his friend being able to use a Share the Fun Voucher and us all having discount off the Pizza and Pasta place. The friend then stayed for a sleepover. Sunday we were pretty pooped and had more holiday planning to do whilst the boys played computer games.