Month: September 2006

Well, that was okay – I think!

The inspection today was not too bad 🙂
J chose a few things to take along and show them and we met at the library as planned, including Bob who was able to pop out of work for a bit 🙂 They started by asking J to read something from his favourite book (cross-sections) so he chose an incredibly complex description of some minute part of a submarine, read it flawlessly and then rabbited on about it for a while. Cue impressed looks, although the inspector still asked me “And does he understand what he reads?” 🙄 I felt like telling her to ask him!
Then the inspector basically spoke to me, while the EWO chatted to J (who was sitting on Bob’s lap), which was fun as it meant we were talking across each other… The EWO was lovely and basically just there to check J was happy, which she said he plainly was 😀 The inspector was okay, but terribly school-orientated; she basically went through the NC areas and asked about our provision and what exactly we were covering. Very concerned about socialisation too, which luckily is not a problem for us at all. She was only vaguely interested in anything less mainstream that we were doing and kept bringing things back to NC and how we needed to keep up with what school children J’s age would be doing, ready for when (if!) we put him back into school. Fortunately the EWO was interested in other stuff, since that was plainly what interested J the most, so we didn’t feel that our preparation had been all in vain.
The only concern raised was that J is not doing much writing (because he hates it and doesn’t need to do much just now anyway imo – we’ll cross that bridge when it actually matters!) and she wants us to start keeping a dated record so she can see his progression next time – hmmm.
Oh, and unfortunately the subject of brothers and sisters came up, so they now know we have another child of almost school age and a toddler and are expecting us to register K as HE as soon as he gets to compulsory school age so they can inspect him as well when we next meet, probably this time next year.
Oh yes – and we got in trouble with the librarian for holding our meeting in a completely empty room in a deserted library 🙄 She said we should be aware of issues of confidentiality (surely our problem rather than hers?) and that we should have booked to use the room. We’ll know next time, anyway!

Meme of three

I intensely dislike the word meme – it’s a pretentious alternative to idea as far as I can see, invented to make some people feel clever, and to spawn other pretentious words like “memepool”. Rant over – I was tagged by Jax, and I thought I’d do what I normally (OK, I’ve only done one other) do with these spread-the-love things: grudgingly do it, find it’s quite useful for me and then not pass it on. I started this ages ago, forgot about it, and now I want it done so I can properly forget about it.

1.Things that scare me:

  • George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld et al.
  • Government unquestioning belief in IT as panacea, such as in the ID card scheme in the UK.
  • Global warming.

2. People who make me laugh:

  • Katy.
  • My children.
  • Robin Williams.

3. Things I hate the most:

  • The stupidity and hence skewed priorities of the current US government, and their supporters.
  • My own failings.
  • Halva – I think I’d rather eat Oasis, which it resembles.

4. Things I don’t understand:

  • Bridge (the card game).
  • The attraction of golf.
  • Japanese.

5. Things I’m doing right now:

  • Listening to music thrown at me randomly by my computer.
  • Err, typing this.
  • Lots of really amazing chemistry that keeps my body functioning.

6. Things I want to do before I die:

  • Finish this list.
  • Live in a place where I have finished unpacking from the last time we moved.
  • Lots of other things.

7. Things I can do:

  • Tell a shaggy dog story involving a cute squid with a mustache.
  • Tell you meaning of the word “cran”.
  • Make my lower lip into two little horns and wiggle them a bit.

8. Ways to describe my personality:
This is v. hard to answer without sounding like you love yourself to bits or hate yourself. I give up!

9. Things I can’t do:

  • Put my ankles behind my ears.
  • Knit.
  • Solve differential equations.

10. Things I think you should listen to:

  • Your children (if you have any).
  • Your spouse / partner (if you have one).
  • God, however you interpret this. Failing that: Silence.

11. Things you should never listen to:

  • People who make you feel bad in order to make themselves feel better.
  • Jazz, if it’s the kind where you can’t tell if they’re playing the right notes or not.
  • That impulse to buy a pink fluffy toilet seat cover.

12. Things I’d like to learn:

  • How to play the sax, drums or piano.
  • How to speak German or French better.
  • How to fly a plane.

13. Favourite foods:
This is a bit too MySpace for me, so no answer.

14. Beverages I drink regularly:

  • Tea
  • Water
  • More water

15. Shows I watched as a kid:
Too many!

  • Bagpuss
  • Bod
  • Jackanory

Inspection!

Had a phone call from LEA person today wanting to rearrange the inspection they failed to do in July. There’s a window on Monday 18th September at 11am, apparently, which they’d like us to fill. She was a bit shirty about not coming to the house, but I managed to hold my ground and we’ve pencilled in a meeting at the local library – although she seemed doubtful that the inspector would agree to this (despite my pointing out that the inspector suggested it herself *sigh*) so will get back to me to confirm when she’s checked things out.
Probably just as well that it’s short notice this time, as it gives less time for worrying, but I hope there’ll be time over the weekend to make a few notes, assemble some resources etc. Assuming it’s the same inspector as last time I’m told she’s impressed by lots of activity and availability of resources 😉
The good thing about the day, time and place is that it is when Mustard Seeds is on and the library is next door to the church so I should be able to leave K and L there while J and I go to the meeting. It’s also just down the road from Bob’s office, so there’s a good chance he might make it too.

A very busy weekend

We had expected to be away on a HE camp this week, but it didn’t happen, which was probably no bad thing in the event, as the weekend was rather full anyway and Bob now has to go to Germany for a few days (which would have meant him leaving us at camp 😕 ). Instead we spent Saturday morning travelling to Horsham to visit an imaginary friend (from Hunnybeez and ukparents) who has just had #10. We handed over three frozen lasagnes (batch cooking doesn’t go far when there are that many mouths to feed every day!) and some new baby gifts and in return got lots of lovely newbaby cuddles 🙂
After that we continued down to the coast, arriving (starving) with just enough time to buy some chips, get lost, have a row, find the house we were aiming for but miss the people, eat some chips, thereby raising blood sugar enough to stop rowing 😉 , get lost again, find the hall and still make it to Monster’s party not too horribly late *phew!* 😆 Had a great time both there and afterwards, chatting, eating and generally relaxing. Thanks for having us, Nic and Ady – it was fab! L particularly enjoyed doing all the girly things she never gets to do at home, having two big brothers and a nude-faced mother. Her application of lipstick was enthusiastic to say the least!
On Sunday we thought we were setting out with plenty of time to get to West London for the second birthday party of the weekend, but ended up taking 4 hours to travel 80 miles 😯 Even worse was that the first 50 or so miles were at 60 most of the way so it was really a case of taking over 3 hours to travel 30 miles 🙁 We had expected to arrive with time to get some lunch on the way, but in fact found nowhere we could stop to eat and ended up finishing off the cold chips from Saturday…
The party was worth it though and the children very much enjoyed decorating t-shirts, making crowns, doing a treasure hunt, icing biscuits – and perhaps most of all reading stories on the settee and kicking a football around in the garden 🙂 Thanks Elizabeth and co – it was great and the sandwiches etc were all eaten within a few minutes of leaving London!

Tagged…

by Kath (a long time ago *blush* )

1) ONE HOMESCHOOLING BOOK YOU HAVE ENJOYED
I think John Holt (practically required reading for the Homerton BEd course many of my friends at Uni were doing) started me off on the HE path, but it was Free Range Education that finished the job 🙂
2) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULDN’T BE WITHOUT
Books (or the library, if I’m allowed, as that way we get books, tapes, internet access, video hire…) – our whole world revolves around them 😆
3) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER BOUGHT
Nothing so far…
4) ONE RESOURCE YOU ENJOYED LAST YEAR
I think both boys would put their Jolie Ronde French classes (although they started as after school club, so not really HE) fairly high on the list. Oh and their absolute favourite place is the Science Museum basement 🙂
5) ONE RESOURCE YOU WILL BE USING NEXT YEAR
Just starting out with Sonlight Core K plus Science – an attempt to get some structure into things, but not sure it’ll work as we never seem to have time to keep to a schedule! Also making a start on The Story of the World – book 2 as we’re going to join with a family who’ve already done book 1 to do some of the activities 😉
6) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUY
I would love to train as a Jolie Ronde teacher myself – could then have the materials to teach my children myself but also to offer classes to other HE families. I am a trained French teacher, but the J L materials and method really seem to work for younger children and it’s so much fun 🙂 Shame it’s so expensive to do the franchise 🙁
Otherwise, well, we invested in EH membership when we went to the Festival of History, as it was almost worth it just for that one event, and Bob’s parents have given us family NT membership as an early Christmas present… I keep seeing books I would love to buy, courses I know the boys would love to do and so on, but there’s nothing that really stands out just now. Maybe a round the world ticket for some hands-on geography :mrgreen:
8) ONE HOMESCHOOLING CATALOGUE YOU ENJOY READING
I’ve only looked at Halfmoonbooks and Sonlight; ordered from the former, got the latter second-hand 😉 TBH, I’m not really into catalogues, except ones with good pictures to tear out and use for collage :mrgreen:
9) ONE HOMESCHOOLING WEBSITE YOU USE REGULARLY
Not really homeschooling, but we probably spend most time on BBC schools. The children also love uptoten and I keep coming back to muddlepuddle (of course!) and educationsense

“You can’t see me!”

I remember playing hide and seek with my little sister and finding it hilarious when she sat in the middle of the floor with her eyes closed saying, “I can’t see you, so you can’t see me!” Now L is doing the same sort of thing. It started with her screwing her eyes tightly closed and chanting, “You can’t see me!” and has now developed further, as she sneaks up on us with her eyes closed, only opening them to create maximum impact as she pounces! 😆

Eeeek! Serious catching up to do!

I’m not even going to think about the rest of August, except to mention a few highlights.
These would have to include the christening of my friend’s twins (the ones I donated EBM to 🙂 ) which was the day after the Festival of History, the CHEF visit to Knebworth where Bob took K and L on the dinosaur trail and maze trip while J and I went round the house and did the Tudor treasure trail (and then did the dinosaurs too :mrgreen: ) and then we all met up at the amazing Fort Knebworth adventure playground, rode on the little train and had multiple turns on the very long slides 🙂 and a couple of African drama sessions. These were more music than drama, really, but definitely giving free rein to imagination and very play-based; both J and K loved them (and even L joined in where she could) and are very much looking forward to the remaining two sessions in the series.
Bob has already blogged about our stay with his parents, including various meets with other slingers and a few imaginary friends 🙂 so I guess that brings us to September 😉

September started with “our teenager” Alice coming to look after the children for a day. I had hoped to use this time for lots of sorting out, but then realised that I was preaching on Sunday (all age worship at our home church) as well as having the last of the children’s summer picnics (brunch on Saturday) to prepare for, so it was really a blessing that she was coming, but not quite in the way I’d hoped…
Saturday 2nd proved to be rather gloomy and drizzly, but there was nevertheless a small, hardy, group of us at the playground (not as many as we’d hoped, but definitely quality, if not quantity 😉 ) – the parents huddling under shelter with the food and Thermoses while the children, undeterred by the weather, played happily and were occasionally pinned down for long enough to be fed a bite of croissant or muffin 🙂
The service, despite my reservations and with help from both Bob and the children, went well. (Muses: perhaps I should start a separate blog for preaching – or perhaps that would just be another thing to fail to keep up to date! I guess at least I could just put the services in…) It was followed by coffee (and very tasty biscuits) and then a small group of us went to the Grad Pad for lunch – just making it in time before they stopped serving 🙂 It was great to have the chance to catch up with friends – and one of them was the man who had collected our Sonlight Core K books for us, so we drove home with those in the boot and spent the afternoon trying not to get too far ahead with the reading 😆

Monday was the first Mustard Seeds of the new academic year, and both J and K decided to stay for the whole session. As part of the story activity we started to learn a new poem about Creation, which I really need to get in writing, as my memory is currently appalling (sigh). On the off-chance that someone may recognise it and correect my errors, here it is (we’re adding to it each week, so this is last week plus today’s additions):
God said “Earth” and the world spun round,
God said “Day” and the light beamed down,
God said “Night” and the sky turned black,
God said “Land” and the sea rolled back.
God said ??? and a shoot pushed through,
God said “fin” and the first fish grew,
God said “wing” and the first bird soared,
God said “fur” and the jungle roared.

On Monday evening we went round to tea with J’s friend B and had a lovely relaxing time. Bob joined us after work and we stayed far too long (having made my apologies for missing a local preachers’ meeting :redface: ) but sometimes fun is more important than sleep, I find!
Tuesday again found Alice with us, this time taking K and L out for the morning so J and I could do some things together and then keeping all three occupied so I could get started on a bit of batch cooking. Having worn ourselves out on Tuesday, Wednesday was a quiet at home kind of day, curling up on the settee and reading, with the occasional foray onto the PC and lots of Duplo building 🙂
Thursday was the usual parents and tots (this week including Roman clay pot-making for the older HE children, and meeting a new HE family), followed by a toddle into town to buy birthday presents for the parties we were off to at the weekend. Also found some K’nex in a charity shop 🙂 Since school term has now started 3:15 found us at the school gates to pick up B and bring him home for tea. The children all played with K’nex for over an hour, which meant I could cook tea and also make flapjack and pound cake for Friday Club, as well as putting together a few lasagnes to freeze 🙂
Friday club has also started up again, this week with a nature walk which ended with each child choosing a tree to draw and paint. We’ll do the same walk again in a few months’ time to see what has changed and hopefully record the changes through the seasons. Must get some decent watercolours for this, as our cheap tray of paints is really not up to the job! We finished late, which meant a bit of a rushed picnic as we had arranged to meet another new HE family mid-afternoon…

Friday evening was spent getting ready for a busy weekend, including a moment of tragedy as Bob managed to break J’s Roman cup 🙁 J was heartbroken, but cheered up when he remembered that his auntie Polly is an archaeologist and has a birthday in September. His present to her is to be a 3D Roman cup jigsaw 😆