مقال عن الحية

كاتب وأم الذي تعمل مع التعليم المنزلي. أحب أن أقرأ موقعها الكتروني وهناك مقال عن الحية:

http://mysocalledlifeandotherlies.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/state-of-loss-and-choice.html

The exact spot

This afternoon H read out to me from the history section of the life in the UK book. We discussed all sorts of things between each sentence.

We had just moved the table out of the sunshine, so it was in the same place as all those years ago in this post about afternoons burning down old candles.

Summer holidays :)

I actually don't know what home education is

I have been making a few notes on what we do and discuss. It is exactly the same set of things as a couple of weeks ago before the transition to being back in a formal place of education.

So as a result I realise that although we have been home educating completely autonomously for 6.5 years, all the notes I took and typed up for the Local Authority are useless. They are not evidence for home ed occurring at all. Just for living in a family household with me.

So what is home ed then? The absence of a greater authority than the mother and father? No, because I have been hyper-aware of the presence and threat of the Local Authority over our lives. There has been a big cloud of disapproval, fear and misunderstanding following us around for all this time from family and acquaintances. At best, confusion and awe.

My presence and commitment? That could be it. When H was deregistered both times, he instantly developed this look of a flower turning towards me as if towards the sun.

Yet this time H has gone to a place of formal education he has not switched off psychologically as he did last time, 6 years ago.

I still don't feel I have put my finger on it yet. So what is autonomous home education? What is it about home education which makes it such, beyond the legal status? Is it purely a legal construct? No more than that? All that fear, over a nebulous contemporary human definition?

Help me out in the comments box.

---

It is Monday morning now and I think there are 2 parts to this: the legal framework and the parent/child bond of loyalty and trust. The most important of those is this bond. If anything gets between the parent and the child it causes damage to both sides, irrespective of the type of education. If choosing home ed is the way to get the poison out of the relationship, then so be it.

To make it easy: here are the home ed blogs I follow

The home ed blogs are not obvious on my sidebar. So I have listed them.

1 http://wondering-wanderers.blogspot.co.uk/ HE family living on Rum, a Scottish island
2 http://gaither.wordpress.com/ Analysis of research papers on home education, mainly in US
3 http://learnasafamily.blogspot.co.uk/ HE family, I met her online
4 http://yes-i-can-write.blogspot.co.uk/ HE adult in Canada
5 http://atomicshrimp.com/ HE family, written by the dad, about everything but home ed
6 http://the-chicken-shed.blogspot.co.uk/ HE family, I know the mother, local to me
7 http://livinglearningandlovingsimply.blogspot.co.uk/ HE family in US
8 http://boyschooling.blogspot.co.uk/ HE family in UK
9 http://pspirro.com/ HE family, but blog is not about home ed
10 http://gritsday.blogspot.co.uk/ HE family in UK, and HK
11 http://notstrictlyhomeed.blogspot.co.uk/ HE family in UK
12 http://www.cagefreefamily.com/ HE family in US
13 http://www.thehmmmschoolingmom.com/ HE family in US
14 http://daretoknowblog.blogspot.co.uk/ HE politics and campaigns
15 http://pro-lernen.ch/blog/ About home ed in Switzerland, written in German
16 http://benhewitt.net/ HE family in US, written by the father, lots of shooting and skinning
17 http://parasombra.wordpress.com/ HE family, I know the mother, UK


I also follow blogs which have a particularly accepting attitude and/or a careful use of language.

1 http://autism.typepad.com/autism/ Particularly accepting, Kristina Chew writes this one, US
2 http://sweetsky.net/ HE, not being updated, read the archive, AUS
3 http://mamauktalesfromwales.blogspot.co.uk/ HE, not being updated, read the archive, UK
4 http://outsidethewindows.blogspot.co.uk/ Important to read this, US
5 http://xkcd.com/ Hilarious

I have become a font of all knowledge all of a sudden

Today I quoted the line 'Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' in the car to H on the way to school. He asked me how I knew it. From having it read out at my school when I was 15 or so.

Two nights ago we had some intensive Periodic Table learning. He asked me what various initials meant and I got a good many right. He was most impressed with me. I was impressed with his new passion.

That poster of the Periodic Table has been up on our wall in the kitchen since the first days of home education, gathering grease and dust and making the place feel home educational. I carefully cleaned it off and gave it to him on his sofa. I shared my wisdom from the other sofa.

It's very gratifying to find that this one poster has finally come in handy. It seemed important to me to have it there on my wall as a statement.

Here's a tip on family life: have 2 sofas. That's it. How did we manage for 16 years with just one sofa in the sitting room? Smaller children fit with one mother all together on one I suppose, all under one duvet, using both ends.

Denise Levertov was home educated

Now I must read her.

This week's prompt on 52 sent me to one poem of hers, on Essex, which led to her biography. It is rather long, so I only skim read it, but I recognised and liked all the poets referred to.

The repetition of the words 'clear' and 'direct' jumped out at me too.

Encouragement for those who home educate

Yvonne Frost - puts in words things I don't put into words, but recognise immediately.

We Go With Him - general attitude of love and support.

Ask which personal bond you are committed to: the person telling you what to do and sharing their deepest fears at the same time, or the person who you are defending and protecting until it all becomes clear, which will take a while.

If you like, dive into your own interests to provide a world to balance the one of home education. That's what I have done and it is a great antidote to the overwhelming responsibilities.

Please support Home Education in Northern Ireland

There are proposals to change the law surrounding home education in Northern Ireland.

There is a consultation. I don't know whether people living outside Northern Ireland can submit responses to it.

There is a petition. I have signed it and shared it on Facebook.

Please consider writing to the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.

Make a link to HedNI, a national home education organisation, which aims to keep readers up to date with developments.

All the details are here:

http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/news-from-northern-ireland.html

Films with my son - rows

Our home education is taking another turn. We are watching early 60's films. La Dolce Vita so far.

I was shocked to see a screen re-run of one of my own horrendous rows. Earlier in the week I saw another film with some friends. Lo and behold, there was another fearsome row from my past.

I think I had assumed that such rows were somehow my fault and that I had to ensure they weren't provoked again. In fact they are warning signs and return every so often conveying a simple message.

3 more blogs - March

http://anthonywilsonpoetry.com/ Personal and reflective blog.

http://www.beyondtreasure.co.uk/ New blog, written by someone I know from a Facebook group on home education.

http://www.writeoutloud.net/ Found via the 52 Facebook group I am thrilled to be part of.

Crash course on Adnan Al-Sayegh

5 min film by Wooden Films, 2007, 'A passage to exile'.

Audio of short poems in Arabic spoken by Adnan Al-Sayegh and in English by his translator Stephen Watts.

Footage of the threat delivered to him in public at a Poetry Festival in Basra 2006.

Both English and Arabic typed versions are given on his Facebook page. To find it, do a search using his name.

The English lines up neatly with the Arabic. So a word on line 2 in the Arabic will be somewhere on line 2 of the English. I love translators who make it easy for learners. Or rather poets who keep ideas within the boundaries of a line.

.....

After reading a little of his writing I get the feeling that he breathes in events and breathes out the words to react to them. He seems to have no barriers which dam up and hold onto thoughts and feelings.

Yet is this true? What is still held back, frozen beneath the surface? In any case, living or rather getting older brings an endless series of events and changes to process. Why am I even asking that question?

...

I did some stressing about the seminar with Adnan Al-Sayegh I want to go to. My son H wisely and wittily said I should learn the Arabic phrase for 'I don't speak Arabic' just in case I get spoken to in Arabic and haven't a clue what I have been asked. How well he knows me. Does this count as home ed or just life late at night in our kitchen? They are the same thing.

لا أستطيع أن أتكلم العربية حتى الآن

Dictionary

I have had 2 successes with my Arabic dictionary today.

While waiting for T to come out of work I did some work and came across a word which had foxed me ages ago on Twitter. It was just there on the page close to what I was looking up. The fact I spotted it even though I hadn't been looking for it at all surprised me. It shows that learning happens in its own mysterious ways.

At home H and I were chatting. He flipped through the dictionary so I suggested he have a look at the English words. I said it was mainly in English to be honest. He read out some which were to do with splitting, distinguishing and dividing.

Home Education in the Netherlands

I have just heard that the Netherlands is considering banning home education. Please have a look at this English language website and sign the petition designed for us in the international community.

leidenhomelearners

It is so important for people in different countries to support each other. During year or so following the Badman report here I was so encouraged to read posts online from other countries far away. They gave tips on how to handle the situation and understanding words.

Wish List

I have 3 education wishes.

More books from the Writers Studio Craft Class reading list for me; access to the Tates in London for T; and access to good films for H.

***

The weather is hot today.

. يكون الطقس حار

The temperature is 28 degrees.

. درجة الحرارة ثمانية و عثرين

Getting home education into the conversation

I don't have to try, because when a person asks me "Do you work?" I say, "No, I'm home educating my younger son." It's nice that it is such an easy thing to say and that now I can chat a little bit about it before moving on to other topics.

***

I am reading a book.

. أنا أقرأ كتاب

The book is called 'The Silence and The Roar' (written) by Nihad Sirees.

 . ويسمى كتاب الصخب  و الصمت من نهاد سيرس

Playing chess

We are back to board games again. Mr and Mrs has been fun. Monopoly is never dull. Now it's scrabble with help from a laptop! and chess.

I think it is to do with the colder weather.

I try to lose quickly in order to get it over with as soon as possible, but get involved and then lengthen it out in order to win or lose as well as I can. This last game involved me spotting towards the end that both my bishops were on white squares. How did that happen? Was it set up wrongly, or did H move a piece while I had my back turned? Did I somehow move it there? Did the cat kick it?

Home Education

I hardly ever write about home education, but I'll try. Where are we? H is now 15. Umm, what else? I am working my way through my backlog of monthly home ed reviews. I want to type these out so I can send a year's worth, Jan to Dec 2012, to my contact at the Local Authority. Ideally I will be able to do this by early spring.

My current way of putting a tiny bit of structure into a 99.9% autonomous way of home ed life is: pick a subject heading and put on my daily household tick sheet. Then try to spot when this subject is touched on and if necessary do something deliberate to ensure a smidgen of whateveritis happens. The one I'm on at the moment is Art, so I am thinking of handing over my camera and asking H to take some photos with it. This has been going for several days now, so may be over soon too.

The reason for this new plan is that some of the months I am reviewing from 2012 have massive blanks where whole subject areas like Music, Geography or Physics simply didn't get discussed in my hearing or to my knowledge. The odd thing is that I can't remember when H didn't understand anything we chat about. He always knows what I mean. I have asked my mother in law if he has ever not understood a word she uses or followed her conversation. Maybe I could challenge her to tell him about things he can't possibly be au fait with and see what happens.

My top tip is to wait until the child in question is taller than you. At that point older relatives stop getting so aggressive and panicky. It is a good feeling. I'd like to have read that somewhere earlier on. I think they need to see that the child is obviously strong and chilled out. Nothing less than actual evidence will do. There seems to be an underlying suspicion that we can't bring up our own children. Maybe they had doubts about their own abilities and are projecting them furiously onto us?

A bit off topic, but I saw a mother shout fiercely at her little boy in the supermarket today. I felt a bit outraged etc, but by the time I had walked a few aisles further on I remembered that some of my worst parenting moments happened most publicly in the supermarkets in this very same town. Had things been different, she might have been the one passing by as I revealed my worst temper! In fact, who knows, she might have been one of the silent and understanding witnesses. No one ever tutted at me. We just give each other a wide berth when parenting gets too much around here. If there is a chance we give each other a rueful smile or an encouraging smile.

New ways of book buying

I'm surprised at myself, I now buy directly from publishers in a way I would never have imagined. I thought I would have a written think about the different ways I get to buy books:

1. I go to a local bookshop with a person in mind I want to buy a birthday present for. This is great as I stay focussed and just browse until I see something which appeals and is not something I had planned for.

In fact I do not plan what I will get as a present anyway. So I am the ideal bookshop browser, walking in and saying 'Enchant me, attract my eye with a great cover, appeal to me because I want to choose something right now!' Mainly I buy children's books from age 0 to age 7.

2. I used to go to a local bookshop with my son T at the beginning of each holiday or half term. He was at a stage of hoovering up books, so we'd come out with a stack.

Now he buys in Reading after school, so I am not involved, nor is the local bookshop, but life is like that. He chooses 20th century classics, so often he will show us what he has found and we will say, 'Oh, but we have that somewhere already!'

3. Our local W H Smiths is good for GCSE and AS level books I want to have around for home ed purposes.

There are no prices on the books!! I can't believe some of the prices, but cough up because it is for Home Education and I can't tell what will be most helpful. I also get the odd history book there for my own interest. I found a wonderful road map of the USA there too!

4. Oxfam branches have great book sections, Wallingford and Didcot. I don't go in unless I am willing to get something, but can't have anything in mind as the range is unpredictable.

Once there was the famous Whole Earth Catalogue. It is a marvellous book, I had no idea the 60's and 70's really were like that. I have a long term plan to volunteer there if I get the chance.

5. I go onto Amazon with a specific purpose. This evening it was Arabic Board Books, then morphed into Arabic Readers for Beginners. I found various things and added them to my wish list.

One evening when I am feeling generous and agree to buy a book or dvd for T or H I will add a couple of my wish list items to the basket. There is quite a delay between putting something in the wish list and buying it, but it is right there for that 'willing to buy' moment. Looking at my wish list shows what topics I was interested in over the past year. I enjoy browsing what other people have searched for. The suggestions broaden my knowledge too.

6. I read the poetry and other literary blogs on my side bar and click through to the publishers of books I am immediately attracted to. Either I buy the book online straight away or I forget about it.

I need a wish list which holds all these direct from the publisher books. One thing I could do to help myself would be to write a draft blog post with links to each of these publishers. Then I could just update the baskets each time. This is still not nearly as good as a single ongoing Amazon wish list.

7. I read the Waterstone's blog and access the basket there.

8.  Jessica Kingsley Publishers send me a printed catalogue every few months, so I buy from that if there is something I feel I would really benefit from, or borrow from the library or buy 2nd hand from Amazon.

9. I enjoy the Financial Times weekend book reviews, I cut my favourites out and stick them into my scrap book.

Coming up to my birthday or Christmas I look through and decide what to ask for.

10. I nearly forgot about the best source of all: the bibliography at the back of books I read. I photocopy them if I have to, or just mark them with buy, library, 2nd hand or have!

11. The list of other works by an author, split into Fiction and Non-fiction, at the front of each book. I am drawn to autobiographical works, so that helps me find them.

12. The village fete book tent in East Hagbourne and the half yearly book sale at North Moreton. How could I forget these?

Sorry for the long post, this is more for me than for any readers.

Charlotte Mason - Debussy - 3 Nocturnes

Part1/3 The Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sergiu Celibidache on YouTube, filmed in 1981.

Part 2/3 Ditto

Part 3/3 Ditto

This is another of the pieces for this term.

My response to the the Wales Consultation on Home Education

I am copying it below. The wording of each question has been omitted, but can be inferred from the answers. The last question, Q8, simply asks for any further comments, which I offer.

---

Registering and monitoring home-based education --- Wales 2012 consultation

I am a Home-Educating parent. I live in England.

Q1. Disagree, because I do not think a register should be kept, nor do I think that it should be a requirement for local authorities to register a parent who elects to home educate one or more of their children.

Q2. Disagree, because I do not think that parents should be required to register prior to or during home-educating one or more of their children.

Q3. Disagree, because I do not think the local authority should be required to be assessing the parents' suitability to home-educate one or more of their children.

Q4. Disagree, because I do not think a local authority should be required to undertake a face to face meeting with a parent who is home-educating one or more of their children.

Q5. Disagree, because I do not think a local authority should be required to hold meetings with a parent who is home-educating one or more of their children.

Q6. Disagree, because I do not think a local authority should be required to keep such a register of parents who are home educating one or more of their children. 

Q7. Disagree, because I do not think a local authority should be required to give or withhold permission to a parent to home-educate one or more of their children.

Q8.

This consultation appears to be written from the perspective of adults who have no direct experience of home-educating one or more of their children.

The consultation shows no evidence of any prior study of the experience of national and local authorities in other countries around the world. 

The consultation does not show evidence of care taken to work out the costings for these proposals.

The consultation does not ask for the views of home-educated children or schooled children.

The consultation ignores the parent's responsibility in law to ensure that the education and care of their children is suitable. It is not the local authority's responsibility. See ... [I missed it out, but then added a chunk of the relevant Act in a follow up email, though I'm sure they know it by heart now!]

The consultation assumes that the creation of a register, the withholding or allowing of permission to home educate, the face to face meetings and the annual monitoring meetings will achieve ends which are not clearly set out. 

The costs, in all senses, to achieve such a registering process have not been clearly set out.

There is no reading list showing evidence of a thoughtful, intelligent and compassionate approach to this matter. 

I suggest that all involved in this consultation read more widely, reflect on the circumstances which might cause them as individuals to choose home education for one or more of their children and take more account of the many dedicated adults who have given many years of their time to home-educating one or more of their children.

Good luck with all the reading!

[My full name]

22/11/2012

---

I hope my suggestions at Q8 are helpful to the officials charged with reading and analysing the replies, and act as a spur to some thoughtful reflections.

I can't say that I have yet had any new thoughts about home education as a result of this consultation process. Let's try:

I was surprised at how quickly I was able to write replies. Last time I did a similar reply it took me a lot more typing and retyping.

I was a bit annoyed with myself for leaving it until the last minute, perhaps this was because there was no replies counter showing the running total of replies sent in. This might have encouraged me to get involved earlier on.

I felt gratitude to the efforts of everyone who wrote and acted at the time of the Badman Review. I was aware that this was my turn to help out with a different geographical area.

I am aware that I think a future labour government in Westminster is likely and so further attempts to introduce licensing and monitoring are also likely. Being part of a 'counting of heads' at this point is a reminder to me of the process of coming together which is needed each time a suggestion is made which many people wish to challenge. I saw that Twitter is more of a force than during Badman. Otherwise, yahoo groups and blogs are effective communication networks just as at that time. I didn't use facebook much this time, but others may have.