Our home education week began with taking my husband to work as his car had its MOT. As it happens he works not far from a big park which is (usually) always very busy and there was just no-one there (the odd one or two children did turn up eventually). I was really shocked about how much rubbish was everywhere (there were people cleaning it up). Then we went to the shops – we bought some white tops for tie dye, some to wear for the Confetti fields and clothes to make a costume for the Medieval Festival
We then nipped to Tesco (who had lots more free fruit choices than usual) and it was a lovely day so we headed over to meet other home educators for a picnic. There they saw people they had met before and new ones. They were shown a photo of someone’s child as a girl and now as a boy – explaining that they didn’t feel that they were a girl and so they were now living as a boy. Then we had to pick my husband back up from work (who then had to collect his car) and fit in The Sensory Seeker’s swimming lesson, having dinner and getting the teen from a very late event he had to stay after school for.
On Tuesday the boys did some Maths and English before making a Viking long ship boat out of LEGO. We talked about if we could upscale it and how.
The 10 year old had worked hard so asked if he could watch YouTube videos (he opted for ones on anorexia and gender identification). We then went to a secondary school open day and the teen’s sports day. The evening ended with a family barbeque at my husband’s work – which meant that the 10 year old missed swimming and myself running. There were lots of activities for everyone to do (sports and games) – and obviously lots of other children to play with (mainly they played football and shot each other with water guns).
I woke up on Wednesday to find that the 10 year old had already done two hours reading (and that was not because I woke up really late either). They then cracked on with more maths on the computer before playing with LEGO. Then it was off to home ed sports and I took the 10 year old to McDonalds for cooling drinks (he did some work and I sorted my accounts) whilst his brother was at Explore learning. Whilst the 10 year old had his 11+ session at Explore Learning I worked on more accounts at Costa and did shopping for my husband’s nan afterwards and took it to her.
Thursday saw more reading, 11+ catch up, LEGO and generally just playing together. I bought them a Fortnite magazine to share and they were reading that too. It occurred to me that my opinions on education have changed so much in a short time. I used to worry about The Sensory Seeker just catching up with his peers and now I think it is more important that he develops at his own pace; and remembered that play is actually really key to learning. That the key things I want to focus on is the boys learning to get along together, be nice, share, be kind etc.
In the afternoon we were invited to the Hilton Puckrup Hall for the launch of Coopers Restaurant – and that we could use the pool facilities beforehand.
Friday we headed to the Confetti fields – the boys loved using my camera and I got them to sit and draw them. I explained that it was observational drawing and that it was open to their interpretation. They told me that they were no good at drawing and I said to just enjoy it – that no-one was going to judge them or say it was no good. We then headed to a park nearby before going to Explore Learning.
Saturday we did Parkrun and it was really hot. My new time was only a few minutes quicker than the week before (but this time I hadn’t been drinking the night before). It actually made me poorly. But then I headed off to do Pretty Muddy. I then had a sleep and we went to my friend’s for a barbeque.
Sunday we headed for London to watch Incredibles 2 and went to the Science Museum. We split in two so that the 10 year old could read and The Sensory Seeker and the Teen could move on. There was even a workshop where we got to make bacteria.
