Rounding up the year

I'm in the middle of writing up my notes about December 2010 for the Home Ed review I will then print out and send to the local authority home ed person.

As it came to 30th and 31st December I was sorely tempted to cram in a discussion about whatever topic causes me the most anxiety if I don't feel there are enough references to it over the year. I even thought that if I shoved it in somehow on the 1st or 2nd January 2011 I could lie and write it in for December and therefore use it to bump up my score as it were for 2010.

I did not do this!! I went off to the home ed pub meet up and confessed to it and had a laugh about my weakness and fears.

So if anyone else feels like this, you are not alone.

Draft

I am surprised and pleased by my efforts this evening. I decided to do a first draft of a monthly review, starting with October 2009. If it is useful I will be able to send a copy to the LA inspector as I like to deal in writing with the LA now. It is really to reassure myself and to allow me to spot any big gaps in provision.

I looked in my appointments diary, the weekly book of conversations/tv programmes/outings etc, a daily diary log looking at specific issues I want to track, my nature observations diary and this blog. It was only by looking in all these places that I found notes of most of what happened in October. So many items only appeared in one place.

What I had thought would be much less than one side of A4 will now fill it nicely. We have visited so many topics I have had to think of new headings. History needs a current affairs section. Maths leads on nicely into economics. There are so many entries for PHSE. Adult life needs separate Medical and Cooking sections, or should those go under science! Social leads on into pure fun, which definitely deserves a mention.

New words

I only know when my sons have picked up new words when they pronounce them wrongly. That means they have never heard someone say them. If they have picked up the pronounciation correctly then the only way I know is if I 'know' I have never heard them use the word before.

The other problem comes when they use a new word when I am not right there to hear it!! Then I won't ever know. It will never be documented on my weekly HE book of pride (only good things go in there) and worse, the LA will never know.

But the new words are picked up, learnt and used whether I observe the process or not. What is a home ed mum to do????? What is an LA inspector to do???????

Chuckle happily to ourselves about the mysterious and wonderful ways of growing up.

The Badman Review

Well I haven't read it yet. I will sit down when I feel strong and make notes as I go with a pad of A4 beside me.

Since I am known to our local Local Authority I have no anonymity to lose. This means I am able to use my real life name on emails and letters on behalf of those who are not known. This is a daunting responsibility.

There is a lot of discussion online about coming together to speak with one voice. So I will bide my time and see what campaign/s will come out of this. I only want to write one letter to my MP, and it had better be a short, effective one in tune with whatever approach we collectively agree on. Luckily I am new to all this and will just watch and wait from the sidelines.

Why do I Home Educate?

I have just realised that I ticked the wrong boxes on the form I looked at today while the EHE lady and I had our meeting. I should have said that I am now doing HE for philosophical reasons. That wasn't how we started, but that's where we are now.

Now I have quite a list of extras to mail to her as my follow up. Maybe I can look for that beautiful poem someone sent out on one of the lists I'm on. That would be a positive extra.

Maybe foolishly, I hope that by going through the experience of sharing how it is for us doing autonomous HE, one more person will begin to understand how it really works. Yet going through the process of trying to explain what we do is soul-destroying, confidence sapping and lonely.

When I was breastfeeding I was surprised by the ages of the other older children breastfeeding at La Leche League meetings. But I am so thankful they did, because in time I understood that those mothers just did what was right, regardless of my ignorant views. They knew I might one day understand, and that meeting their children's needs was more important than my opinion of them on that day. So I feel I am doing something similar.