Our Story So Far

We are having a heat wave!!! An honest to goodness heat wave!! Temperatures have been in the 80’s for almost a week. I’ve been melting-but I refuse to complain!! I’m enjoying the sun and the heat from whatever shady spot I can grab. The kids and their friend Jenna had some fun in her pool today and then our sprinkler. Yeah-an actual summer!!! And the kids are having a blast!

The kids were asked to do a small dancing display again with their Irish dancing school. It was at a small beer festival about 40 minutes away-so we said yes as it sounded like fun for all of us. Michael & I are slowly getting to know some of the other parents and can have someone to chat with in the garden, and the kids all had a great time dancing on and off the stage. It’s never a bad way to spend a sunny afternoon having a drink in a garden while chatting to new friends, with the added bonus of getting to watch our children perform.

Nothing was done of extraordinary skill or achievement-but while looking through the photos Michael and I both noticed the same thing. Not all the photos are great as it’s just a small camera and not great with action shots-but in these few photos, see if you spot what we spotted.

Did you spot it? Hazel is always, always looking at the audience. She is so confident of her footwork, and even on a new stage never looks down to see where she is. She smiles a good portion of the time-depending on how much she needs to concentrate. Sometimes her smiles are dazzling, none of that phony stage smiling. And when she dances–all eyes are on her–she just radiates joy when she dances. There is something that comes alive in her when she is on stage-and it’s a wonderful thing to watch. I don’t have a clue where it comes from-but I’m really glad she has it!!

Yes-Kieran loves to perform and has no fear on stage-he still needs to concentrate quite a bit while he’s dancing. He does get the loudest applause-as he does try the hardest!!

Or just another good reason for the Ed Balls of the UK to clean up the real mess?

Schools ‘need not expel under-7s’

Yes, it’s true; we had a whole weekend devoted to Michael. Well, mostly Michael and a bit of Hazel.

Last year we didn’t really do Father’s Day properly. The kids had wanted to take Michael for a hill walk and a picnic, but we put it off as we had guests that week. Then we had such horrible weather last summer that it got put off for ages. And to add to the difficulties of making it a real celebration on the actual day again this year, the kids were signed up to do a feis on Fathers Day this year. So to redress last year’s situation, and not to repeat it, the kids and I came up with a plan. We would celebrate a little bit each day of the weekend.

We baked banana and blueberry muffins on Thursday so that we could start the celebrations as soon as Michael came home from work on Friday. (Was supposed to be a ½ day, but work intervened.) When he got home the first thing he saw (after I told him to go back in the living room and look for something!) was this banner.

Hazel had come up with this idea, all on her own, and designed each letter. I was surprised at how well they came out. A clever use of the zillion Hama beads we still have. Then the children gave Michael his first present-a box of mint chocolates. I do think one of these days I’m going to have to redress this giving of a gift that ‘must’ be shared with them.

Saturday morning had them in bright and early with the next batch of gifts. We bought him two shirts for golf and a bright red golf umbrella. I wanted to make sure he could be seen. Then Hazel & Kieran gave him a recorder. Wonder if he’ll ever use it? Then we had a very relaxed morning-which I guess was a treat for me as well! When we finally decided to get up, we made a quick trip to the supermarket and then the rest of the day was spent on the garden. The kids played and we worked. It’s been hard work, but it’s really great to see the progress, and hopefully we’ll soon be done with the hard work, and just get down to the ‘maintaining’ bit.

Sunday we were all up by 6:50am, which was good as the alarm was set for 7am. The kids came charging in with the last of the gifts for Michael. A couple of weeks ago I took them to one of those paint-your-own pottery shops and they each painted Michael a mug. They are ever so proud of them. We’d been looking for a mug for him for ages but couldn’t find any we liked, so we decided to do our own. I took the kids to the shop to choose a style of mug and then we came home so they could work on their designs. We managed to have them painted and in the house with 6 days to spare-so I was happy that I didn’t procrastinate on getting back to the shop. I had no idea it was going to take a week to get them glazed.

We all quickly showered and dressed and were driving south by 8:10am to get to the feis. It was the 1st proper feis for the kids, and Hazel was really excited. We had only put Kieran down for one dance to compete in, basically because if we were going to be there, he might as well participate. But when I got the schedule during the week I realized his dance wasn’t going to be till the afternoon. I just assumed they’d be in age order and would start with the youngest. When I mentioned this to Kieran I said it would be his decision to stay or not, but he didn’t have to decide till the day. He had never been overly keen on it, and so I knew he’d decide not to stay-especially as that meant when Hazel was done we’d go to a National Trust garden.

When we were in line to get her number, just as we were told someone else had picked it up, her teacher showed up. She was great with Hazel and did a quick run through, and she stayed with Hazel’s group the whole time. The teacher did run over to the next stage once in awhile, but never when one of her girls in Hazel’s age group were dancing. I think there were 4 other girls from her other class and Hazel all competing in the same group. We had seen them all in a practice session the weekend before-and we would have been surprised if Hazel placed as well as the other 4-especially 2 who were very good.

When the girls first lined up before it all started I was watching Hazel and she looked so nervous. I went up to her to see what was wrong; as Hazel loves to perform I knew it couldn’t have been stage fright. She just looked at me and said ‘What am I supposed to do? Which dance?’ I should have known-she didn’t know the feis routine and how she would know where/when/what she was supposed to do. I explained the first dance would be the reel, etc… and then asked the girl in front of her to help her through the first dance. The girl was very nice (and the best dancer of the lot!) and she guided Hazel through the procession process. Once Hazel got through the first dance-there was no stopping her. She placed: 7th, 5th, 4th, 5th and then 3rd. Mind you-I think the first 12 always get a placement medal-so if you’re not in a huge group, you will get a medal just for dancing. There are ‘dances’ and then ‘trophy dances’. This basically means you can dance the reel-and everyone gets a medal. If you dance the ‘trophy reel’, then trophies are given to the top four dancers. She did 3 different dances, but placed 4th in the trophy reel, and won 3rd for the slip jig. She now wants to enter every feis possible to have the biggest trophy display ever. I think we’ve created a monster! But a cute and talented one!

After Hazel danced we had our picnic lunch so Kieran could decide what he wanted to do. He decided he rather go than wait another 3 hours to do a dance he wasn’t all that bothered to do.

Off we went then for Michaels Father’s Day treat. We went to Mottisfont Abbey so I could see the rose garden. Ok-he likes it to-but I really wanted to see the garden and it’s normally at its best in June.

We had a lovely walk round while Hazel and Kieran played photographers. When we finished with the rose garden we stopped for a drink and a treat. The kids absolutely loved the rose ice cream-and want to go back for more.

Photos by Hazel:

Photos by Kieran:

(I feel in love with this rose- Graham Thomas–wonderful colour & scent.)

It was a lovely wander round, and then we just came home for a nice evening of gardening. Hazel had a successful day, and I believe Michael had a good weekend.

I was actually left stumped for a few minutes when Kieran and I found this little creature outside today. It wasn’t until it did one of its famous moves that I remembered about inch worms. I hadn’t seen an inch worm in well over a decade-if not two. I’ve only seen green ones before, I had no idea they could be brown.

Here is a photo of ‘the move’, but as we’re in the UK, I had to use a metric ruler.

On page 72 of Mr. Badman’s report he has written:

“Under Section 437(1) of the Education Act 1996, local authorities shall intervene if it appears that parents are not providing a suitable education.”

Then he quotes the law:

“If it appears to a local education authority that a child of compulsory school age in their area is not receiving suitable education, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise, they shall serve notice in writing on the parent requiring him to satisfy them within the period specified in the notice that the child is receiving such education.”

My question regarding this is: If a parent takes their child knowingly and willingly, without making any complaints in writing, to a school that is a known failing school-are they not then failing in their LEGAL obligation to make sure their children receive a suitable education? A failing school cannot be said to be giving any child a suitable education, can it? What is the LEA doing about all these parents who are not fulfilling their legal responsibilities?

According to the Ofsted Spring Term 2009 data, as of April 3, 2009, there are:

1. 140 primary schools currently subjected to special measures
2. 56 secondary schools currently subjected to special measures
3. 136 primary schools requiring significant improvement
4. 59 secondary schools requiring significant improvement.

That is a total of 391 schools here in England that are currently not even reaching a satisfactory rating. This means that at the current time there are 391 schools not providing a ’suitable’ education. If each school has a minimum of 150 pupils, that means there are roughly about 59,000 schooled children not receiving a suitable education.

So I ask you—has the LEA served written notice to all of those parents yet?

I don’t see anywhere where that law applies only to home educating parents. Do you?

If their system is so diabolical-why are they spending so much time and money chasing those of us who have never abdicated our responsibility for our children’s education?

People in the UK have been totally brainwashed and have gone Health and Safety overboard. I thought this ad was awful when I first saw it-just because it was a bad ad in my mind. But I cannot believe that people have complained because of ‘health and safety’ issues. Folks-it’s just an ad!!! (I believe the government may secretly love articles like this.)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8104658.stm

Mind you-I’m all for safety measures and recommend bike helmets. It doesn’t appear from the article that anyone complained about the lack of a bicycle helmet-probably as that’s not a legal requirement here in the UK. I bet a helmet, rather than a yellow vest, would be more effective at preventing a possible injury in case of an accident, or simply in case of a fall.

But honestly, if I see another yellow reflective vest on someone out for a walk in the daytime I’ll scream. I couldn’t believe it a few weeks ago when I saw some teachers walking down the street with some children during the daytime. It wasn’t so much that they were out (surprising as that is!)-but that they all had on safety vests-in the daytime! Even the teachers! I could just see the scorn and contempt any of my teachers would have had for our principal if she suggested they wore those while we were out on a day trip to NYC!! Come on folks-just teach them to keep their eyes open, check both directions before crossing the road, not to dash into traffic, and just about every single one of them will be fine. Teach them the right things, let them get out into the real world once in awhile, and they won’t need a safety vest on them to walk ¼ of a mile down the road.

Before I completely forget what we’ve been up to the past two weeks-I’d better blog it. As I’m sure most of you can tell-I’ve been slightly distracted this past week.

There have been just a couple of out of the ordinary events. The kids and I went to the second art group last Thursday. Have to say-yet another good get together. This time Degas was the artist, and ‘The Little Dancer’ was our inspiration. The children all tried to do a quick sketch of our little model in her ballet outfit. The object was to make them realize that what they saw the first minute would not be the same a minute later-even using the same model. It stressed how an artist has to sketch quickly, especially while using a live model.

Then my greatest fear-clay!! As many of you will know-the kids have previously banned me from helping them with clay before. I of course had no clue what to do-and we fumbled with it a bit. Then I watched another mom actually shape the ballerina out of the whole piece of clay. I was telling the kids to make arms and legs and we’d attach it all. Kieran decided very early on to do it his own way-he made a gingerbread man. He didn’t want a ballerina, nor did he want to sit there if he could finish quickly and go back to the park. Yeah-one problem solved. But Hazel liked what she saw the other kids doing (yes, many with good mom’s who knew what they were doing!) so I offered to help. We followed what we saw someone else do-and I think we were both pleased with our final result. I actually think I’d try it again.

Afterwards the kids and I went to the lake and had a picnic lunch.

Friday we all headed into London for another event at the Royal Institute of Science. Michael and I were looking forward to a full day in the city, as we didn’t have to be back early for anything that day. We took an earlier train and went to one of the parks for lunch. Kieran was very slow to eat his lunch, so not like him. But he wasn’t complaining and looked fine. We then head off for the lecture.

We got there early so we could have a tea break before the lecture. A few minutes later H & K saw one of the boys from our local group, and went to see if his sister was there. She wasn’t and the kids came back. Two minutes later I couldn’t find my glasses. To be honest-I was mostly worried about my sunglasses, the reading ones could float away and I wouldn’t care. But I love my sunglasses. And the thought of going on the underground without them would be too much. I have dry eyes-and it’s painful to go on the subway without them. Hazel and I dash off to the ladies room to see if they were there. Just as we were rushing out of the ladies and back to the guys, someone walked past. I said a quick hello as I ‘knew’ this person-but my mind was on other things. Then she calls my name and I realized, yes-I ‘know’ her, but we’d never met in person before! (Honestly-I’m not normally so rude-but I do love these glasses! I should have bought 2 pairs!)) So I said a very quick hello to Michelle at the Ladies door before restarting my search. Michael had found them-yeah!

Anyway-with minutes to spare we took our seats. It was the lowest turn out for an event there yet. The talk wasn’t too my liking, I did feel that the man tried hard-but it just didn’t seem to pass much info on. It also didn’t help that Kieran, very uncharacteristically, was squirming and yawning very dramatically. Have to admit-I got slightly annoyed. I decided to have him sit on my lap and he’d have to stop his squirming. (I know-cruel mom-his punishment is to put him on my lap for a cuddle!) The second I pulled him onto my lap I knew it wasn’t going to end well-he was rather hot.

Poor kid had an upset tummy. Michael got him to the bathroom, but not the toilet on time. The cleaning woman was great and made a huge fuss over the poor boy. He’s never been ill while we were out before. Hazel has been sick twice on car rides when she was little (and planes) but the last time was about 4 years ago. I have to say-my kids are great-and only do that in public when their dad’s around! The first time Hazel ever got sick and when I called my mom to tell her about it-she was more concerned over how I handled it!! I don’t deal with it at all!

Within a few minutes of being outside he seemed perfectly fine. I think it must have been the train ride-he was reading a very tiny magazine print for most of the journey. He’s never had motion sickness, and can read fine in the car-maybe next time on the train we’ll just chat!

We decided not to risk it though, and came right home afterwards. This was fine by me, as I had wanted to do some gardening anyway. Saturday morning the kids went for an extra Irish dance lesson-and then they played outside most of the day. Michael and I wasted most of the afternoon on discussions, but got busy for the evening. (I think I have more plans/ideas than we can actually ever accomplish-so spare a thought for my ever-patient husband!) Sunday was a very busy day-and lots of work was achieved. We planted more plants in my ‘new’ front border and redid another border. Michael also built the ‘cage’ for the raspberries-so hopefully we’ll get more than the birds this year. Our blueberries are looking amazing this year-I might actually be able to make something with them this year. Last year the kids ate them the second they ripened, we barely got a punnet. This year we should get a few punnets!

This week has passed fairly event free. I’ve spent far too much time on the internet trying to get to grips with the results of the farce of a home education review the government commissioned. I have actually read just about all of the Education Act (69 pages of legalese) and the Human Rights Act and countless other documents. I have a rudimentary knowledge on the parliamentary system-which I’ve been improving on all week.

I did turn the computer off for the daytime yesterday so the kids and I could run some ‘errands’ and spend time together. I felt as if I’d neglected them on Monday. I explained what was going on-and they have decided we should move to New Jersey. (I might have influenced that decision!) Sometimes I think I should censor what is going on-but mostly I feel they should have an understanding of what’s going on. You hate to worry them, but you can’t hide things from them either. I bet Mr. Badman (his real name!) has no idea, nor cares, how many children he has truly upset.

I was fairly dismayed when I went back to read my response to Lord Lucas’s blog to Hazel. I saw the title of his newest post: “How to asses Home Education”. I was slightly flabbergasted to say the least.

My response:

“But why does there need to be an assessment to begin with? If we are responsible, by law, for our children’s education, then why do we need to be assessed?

EO does not represent all home educators.”

His response:

“Elizabeth: Well ‘assess’ may be the wrong word, but it’s clear that the LA has a responsibility under the education acts let alone the Human Rights act to make sure that children are being educated – not that they’ve been very good at it. As for EO, yes, understood: but then you have to find some other mechanism of agreeing – within government’s timeframes – proposals for how the interface between government and home educators should work: government is not capable of resolving disputes between home educators, and if all you do is produce a host of different ideas then government will find them easy to neglect.”

My newest response:

“Lord Lucas,

In response to your response.

It does not actually say in the Educational Act that the LEA has ‘to make sure that children are being educated.’ It only says in 437(1) that “If it APPEARS to a local education authority that a child of compulsory school age in their area is not receiving suitable education, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise, they shall …” Nowhere does it actually say they had to check or had the right to inspect us.

The Human Rights Act only says we have the right to an education; it does not give the State the authority to make sure one is carried out. The Human Rights Act specifically assigns all responsibility to the parents, and that the State should RESPECT our rights.

ARTICLE 2 RIGHT TO EDUCATION
No person shall be denied the right to education. In the exercise of any functions which it assumes in relation to education and to teaching, the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.

So basically-I do not need the EO to speak for me-I just need our government to respect and obey the law. Just as we are doing.”

I’m beginning to think it is going to be much harder to get this point over to the public if we need to work this hard to convince someone who is supposed to be on our side. What we are doing is covered by both British and European law, which both clearly say that as the parents we have full and total legal responsibility to decide what type of education our children receive.

Lord Lucas has asked for responses to the Badman Home Ed review. This was my letter:

Dear Lord Lucas,

Thank you for showing your support to the Home Education community. As I’m sure you are aware-we are not a cohesive community. We have all come to home educate our children for a huge variety of reasons.

We chose to home educate our children before they were born, and it had nothing to do with the current UK school system. We have not been ‘forced’ to home educate-it is a way of life that we have freely chosen to live. As a child I enjoyed school and can’t think of any ‘bad’ events-but I always felt I could learn more at my own pace, and if I followed my interests. We educate our children at home as we feel it is providing them a loving and stable environment where they are free to explore the world at their own pace. I have two very clever and extremely happy children. I have nothing to hide-but I want the sanctity of my home life to remain as it is and I do not want my rights to do so taken away.

I see this report as eroding away the civil liberties of not just home educators, but all families. If they want to talk to my children alone without a family representative-then they will have to apply that law to all families in the country. I’m sure no one thinks, or can prove, that child abuse in the home only happens Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:30am and 3:30pm.

Why do I need to submit a 12 month plan-are they planning on extending the school year? If they actually learned anything about home education during the review-they would have realized our children do learn year round. They are with their ‘educational facilitators’ 24/7. Learning does not occur during school hours only. To say you cannot learn without going to school is absurd. That would mean no one would learn anything from the day they are born till they entered school, and that you couldn’t possibly learn anything when you left school.

Why do they think our children are hidden? I’m sure every museum throughout the country will vouch that they have booked numerous home education outings. Our children are the ones that are enjoying all the wonderful things the UK has on offer. We are out and about every day. Our children interact with all walks of life. They have private and group lessons, they join in the Scouts movements, they see the shop clerks, run errands with their parents, go to home education group functions, and numerous other events throughout the year.

We are not hiding our children; we are not abusing our children. We are taking full responsibility for our children’s happiness, their well being and their educational provisions, as is our legal right. I have never, and will never, abdicate this responsibility to the State. The State does not love and cherish my children-only we, as their parents, can ensure they have a safe and happy life-not some unseen bureaucracy.