Our Story So Far

This was taken today at Kieran’s lesson. Kieran has had a total of 7.5 hours of tuition, and this is the 4th song he’s learned. He only started learning this one last week. So, not perfect, but not too bad!

If you haven’t been to Kew–this is what you’ve been missing!

(Not a very busy month and very few photos!)

1st April: Art Group

The kids are still enjoying art group. I honestly can’t remember who this artist was (don’t yell at me!) But the kids had fun creating their own interpretations.

4th of April: Bank Holiday trip North!

We decided to drive up north to say hello to Michael’s family for the Easter long weekend. On the Monday we went to Quarry Bank Mill with his parents. It’s a National Trust sight well worth the visit. The Mill is informative and they have live demonstrations all day, and in the Apprentice House (no photos allowed) they gave a guided tour. I forgot I had the camera with me till the very end anyway! Oh well-here are the kids playing with a water wheel.

 The find of the weekend-we found a closer book shop to visit on the way home! We love a bookstore out in Buxton, but they’ve opened a twin shop outside Chester-so we spent a wonderful 2 hours or so browsing in Bookstore at Oakmere. Even I came away with quite a few books.

8th of April: Hedgehog Hugh

One thing I have learned about lectures is, it is best to go to one by someone immersed in the topic they are discussing. When I saw one entitled: How Hedgehogs Can Save the World, a talk by Hugh Warwick, I just knew it would be entertaining. And it was! I love when people are passionate about something, it makes it just that bit more enjoyable for all. Then on the Sunday while watching a BBC show-who was on it, Hugh! Kieran nearly jumped off the couch he was so excited! Then about an hour later it turns out Hugh is friends with one of my Facebook Home Ed friends! Truly is a small world!

Most notable, non photographed event of the month has been Hazel’s new flute teacher. Which she was, at first, none too pleased with me about!

I have been slightly dissatisfied with the current flute/recorder situation for awhile now-I’ve had a few concerns. Firstly-I never liked her attitude towards Kieran-he was definitely a second class student when she was teaching them both. Secondly-I was getting a bit tired of the silly songs Hazel was learning-there was no stretching her in terms of what she could play. The teacher followed a set of books for each and every student-and didn’t vary her teaching for the different students. Thirdly-I was frustrated that there weren’t any opportunities for Hazel to play what she had learned. I don’t see the point of just practicing each week and going to class-I wanted to find a group she could partake in. Fourthly-Kieran has put the recorder away for now- he’s too in love with his guitar! And lastly-I was tired of the 23 mile trip each way.

But I had no idea how hard it was to find a flute teacher! I tried every internet link I could find-and then gave up. Then I had a brainstorm at the end of March-I contacted the woman who used to own the Monkey Music franchise we went to! We had met a few times and chatted on the phone in the past. Plus-they had devised an older childrens class a few years ago-and my two were invited to participate in their experiment-so I knew she’d remember us.

And boy-was that not the best email I’ve sent in a long time! Not only did she know a teacher-her daughter was one of his students and has gotten to grade 5 with him, and has never complained once in all the years. And-get this—he runs two flute choirs!!! And-he’s two miles away, and would do school-hour lessons!! All we had to do was have a lesson to see if we liked him. Well-if I liked him, because Hazel hates change, and this was the last thing she wanted to do!

Of course, the day I phoned him, I could tell he didn’t believe a word I was saying. I was explaining her learning style, her sense of timing and that she could definitely pay attention for as long as she wanted-he was convinced most kids her age could barley last a ½ hour. Then we had the taster lesson. I think she rather surprised him. So much so-I basically mentioned that I told him she picked things up quickly–and he admitted to not believing me. He immediately offered her a place in his junior choir for the summer term. So far-it’s been a huge hit-even though she was quite annoyed with me for a week! Michael took her to her second lesson-and said he was impressed as well. The quality of her playing has improved dramatically already-and she is enjoying the new challenges. He loves her musicality, timing and that he never has to repeat anything. She’s been to two choir sessions already-and is eagerly waiting the next one.

Other things of note in April:

Kieran’s super cool guitar teacher also runs ‘Rock School’ during the holidays. It’s run by himself and members from his school and lots of different bands that come and help out for the few days to teach the kids. That week the band members from the Crave came. The kids that come are of all ability levels, his students or not, and they get put into groups and all learn about 3 songs in 3 days to play for a concert. Knowing Kieran was on the young end of the spectrum-we decided to let him have a go. Of course he wouldn’t let me leave-so I stayed with him. In his group were two of the teens from the teen band, two other guitarists and a 9 year old drummer. The drummer was taught by CJ the drummer for the Crave. If there was ever a naturally wonderful teacher-that guy is it! The kids played three songs-2 of which Kieran knew slightly. So his teacher, or another teacher from the school, played next to Kieran and he followed their lead-and he gave it his all! He certainly outplayed the two 11 years olds in the group. He would have had all the songs down pat if he decided to go back the next two days!. But-he never worked so hard in his life! He decided he needed ‘about 5 more lessons before coming back-he needed to get faster at switching chords.’ I thought he came to the right conclusion-and will sign him up for one of the summer Rock School sessions!

So other than the next post about Kew-the months have been fairly samish. The kids are progressing at home with their studies, reading away, playing their music with vigour, we’ve been gardening-and even I’ve managed to finish a few books this month!

18th of March: Brownies learn to Jig

Hazel decided a while back that she wanted to earn her dancing badge for Brownies. (This was part and parcel of doing more activities other than reading!) She decided not to just to perform-but took over the whole session. She performed three dances on her own, taught all the girls a few steps, brought colouring in sheets for everyone and then played a few dancing games to play with the steps she taught the girls. Michael went with her for the evening to play Mr. DJ. I think he really enjoyed doing this with Hazel.

20th of March: Rocking with the Crave

As I mentioned earlier, Kieran has started guitar lessons. I think I’ve found the best teacher ever for Kieran-and Kieran is loving it! Leo, the teacher, is probably one of the most enthusiastic teachers I’ve ever met. He just teaches all his students the chords in any way that makes sense for the student, to whatever music the students like. We’ve seen the results-he has a 6 year old student who won a national competition and a young group of 12yr oldish kids playing in a band-and hats off to them, they’re good!
Anyway-the young teen band were playing in a venue in town with an up & coming rock band called the Crave. We went. Yes, my two were in a bar till after midnight listening to both bands. Kieran was in second heaven, though Hazel would have enjoyed it better with ear plugs. The kids managed to stay near the front while the young band was playing-but half way through they wanted to be away from the noise a bit. We found some seats near the back-where the Crave were hanging out. That’s when Kieran met the Crave. He had fun, and they really were all really good with him, and did spend time chatting with him as well. When the Crave played their set, we decided to go outside to the smoking area. This had two main advantages-the kids had front row seats, and the noise was considerable less! Have to say-we all enjoyed our 1st rock concert together!

His 1st concert t-shirt! And the 1st time he’s gotten in past midnight from a bar!

23rd of March: Can you spot something new?

Most notable, non-photographed, events of the month to this point have been: We went to a lecture on the Galapagos Islands, which both kids enjoyed. We met up with two other HE families there so all the kids sat together. I was pleased to see that one of them wriggles about, while listening and not making any noise, as much as Kieran!

The other big event I don’t have any photos for is a show we saw. We went to see Essence of Ireland on the 31st. It was a show of many parts-it had some Irish dancing, some more modern dancing, Irish music from all eras and from all over the world, great music-and a real sing-a-long atmosphere that we all joined in with. It’s not Riverdance, it’s not the best variety show of all time-but it was a really enjoyable, fun packed evening! And that just about sums up March!

“Safeguarding the vulnerable – strengthening the powers of local authorities and others with regards to registration, inspection and intervention will mean effective systems are in place to protect those that most need it. The Bill will introduce a new home educators’ registration system and take new powers for Secretaries of State to intervene in youth offending teams that are failing and potentially putting young people and their communities at risk.”   http://tinyurl.com/yaywqu8

To say that the above statement has not angered me right down to the very core of my being would be the most major understatement of the past few months. 

Many things have angered me during this process:

• The ineptness and audacity of the Badman report.
• The insinuations that our children aren’t safe.
• The complete ignorance this country has about home education.
• The complete lack of concern the public has shown for the possibility that parents  may need CRB checks to be with their children. 
• The complete lack of help in fighting this from my husbands family.
• That 2 family members lied about signing a petition.  Um—if they had even bothered to read it they would have realized all names are visible.  (And no-they weren’t directly asked to sign it, it was a general request sent out on Facebook.)
• The amount of time away from my children this has caused.
• That I’ve had to listen to stupid comments like:

“I am reasonably happy with the education my children receive…”

I’m sorry—but no one should be ‘reasonably happy’ with their children’s education.  Other than providing them with a loving family, a good education is essential in life.  Our children deserve the very best, we should be ‘overjoyed’ with their education, not ‘reasonably happy’.

“…the recent events will have taught Hazel and Kieran a great deal about politics.”

If anyone is so thick to believe we have looked at this as a wonderful opportunity to teach our children about politics you are stupider than Balls and Badman.  I did not ‘choose’ to have our way of life threatened, because the government is failing to provide a decent education to children in schools and that they, and most of the population, cannot think outside the box. 

BUT: to say MY children and all the home educating children in this country are ‘vulnerable’ is just a step too far.  These children are not vulnerable.  They are not the ones fobbed off to nurseries and schools from six-weeks of age.  They are not the ones receiving an ‘OK’ education.  They are not the Baby P’s and Khyra Ishaq’s of this world.  No—our children are not the vulnerable or the ones failed by the State.  How dare the State try to hide their failings by trying to make decent families their scapegoats?

No state education will ever match the quality of education a child who is loved and who is allowed to explore the world in whatever direction they want will receive.  Our children are not force fed an education—they are actively pursuing one—and doing so at their own free will.

I’m sorry, but you have crossed the line of decency Mr. Balls.  How dare you class home educated children in with the truly vulnerable.  Not one study has ever proved anything other than that:

Home educated children are SAFER, HAPPIER and ACHIEVING MORE than any group of schooled children.  Those are the facts—and you will be made to face up to it. 

You cannot victimize decent, honest and loving people like this.  You will not get away with this. We will fight you every step of the way.

            I will never apply for your license to educate my children. 

            I will never have a CRB check to be with my children.

No LA will ever speak to my children or evaluate their education.

You may have crossed the line, but you will not get any further.

We had a great day at the protest rally! I managed to have a few words with Lord Lucas, and then Michael and I had a very good meeting with our MP. We were very fortunate to pass on a copy of the Right to Reply document created by Claire B. and her dedicated helpers.

I have to say all the children at the rally were positive and upbeat. I don’t think Parliament has ever had that many children, not in school uniforms, at one time. The kids did us all proud today!

I’d like to thank Claire B. and all of the other organizers and many helpers for a great gathering.

I’ll leave you with photos for now, but will be back with a proper blog tomorrow! (Michael was our main photographer for a change!)

Lord Lucas just after receiving the document from Claire B.

Today was the first time I went out to protest against an issue that I’m passionate about and personally affected by. The Badman review will have such an awful impact on so many decent families, that it’s just not possible to sit by and watch what happens. I’ve heard time and time again from home educating parents that the recommendations, if they become law, won’t affect them because: “they aren’t the people the government is after”. Well-neither are we. We are educated people and have a nice, clean, stable home life. We have two very intelligent, talented, sociable, polite and extremely happy children. No, we have nothing to fear from home visits. Other than the loss of our family’s privacy-which is, so far, a right protected under UK and European law for all families. Not just for those who choose school.

I can not, and will not, sit idly by and let these recommendations pass.

I will not let inspectors in my home and they will never talk to my children without one of us with them.  Never.

If that is going to happen in my home-it’ll have to be law for every family in the country. Every child who’s school is failing-their parents are going to be inspected. The law states that the parents are responsible, so no matter whom you delegate the ‘teaching’ to; the parent is legally responsible to make sure the child receives a suitable education. The children in failing schools are not receiving a suitable education.

I will not ‘apply’ to home educate my children on a first off basis, never mind a yearly basis.

As the parent I am the one responsible, by law, to ensure my children receive an education. I, as the parent, am the only one who will decide who will do this, and how it will be done. I will not seek the government’s permission to educate my children at home. As their parent, I need no one’s permission to be with them. If this is the case-the government will need to grant every parent in the country yearly permission to be with their own children. If I’m not to be trusted with my children between the hours of 9am and 3pm, what makes them safe after 3pm?

I will not supply an educational approach and our goals for a twelve month period. I will not do that for one day.

Firstly, as I, the parent, am the only one responsible for this, I do not need to have what we do approved by anyone but ourselves. I am not working for the government, therefore I owe them nothing. And if we are forced to do it for 12 months, then every parent in the land will have to supply an educational approach and plans for all the days the children are out of school.

Hasn’t Mr. Badman even noticed that there isn’t a 12 month school year here in the UK? Or maybe that’s what’s in the plans. I can just hear all those awful parents shouting for joy over that one. You know those parents, the ones who can’t wait for the school holidays to be over, those who dread the time spent with their children when school is out. Those who think we are ’strange’ or ‘brave’ for wanting to be with our children on a daily basis. I wonder why it’s not considered mental cruelty in this country for parents to say they can’t wait to get rid of their kids and send them to school. Hearing that cannot make those children feel wanted or loved. Maybe it’s those families who should be inspected?

No thanks, Government. I do not want, nor need, any support from you.

Like my parents, and the parents for thousands of generations before hand, I will raise my children as I see fit. I will do so with their well-being and happiness at the centre of all we do. I will make sure they are able to face the world when they are young adults. They will know the things they need to survive-and I can do it without reporting in to you every year.

My children will know joy and freedom, they will enjoy their childhood. My children will know how to read, to write, and to communicate with those around them. They will know how to do the maths they need to survive, and more. They will know the history of their people, their country and their world. They will understand the science that is around them, and they will learn to explore and question all they see. They will be actively engaged in doing what they can to preserve and protect our natural world. They will be able to read a map and find their way home from wherever in the world they have gone off to explore. They will learn to enjoy the cultural pursuits the world has to offer. They will explore dance, artworks and music in a variety of ways. They will know how to source, grow and prepare healthy food. And mostly, they will know what it is to come from a loving environment, which is already providing them with these foundations so that when it comes time for them to face the world on their own, they will be secure, happy and confident adults, ready and willing to take on the challenges of the world.

And thanks to you Mr. Badman and your report, my children have learned that their government, like all governments, is fallible. They’ve learned about our parliamentary process. They’ve learned about what being a citizen is, and the importance of being an active citizen. And no, though you may have given us an opportunity to do it for real and not in a mock situation, I did not need your help to teach my children about these issues. But it is thanks to you, that my 6 & 7 year old have had to go to the streets to protect their way of life.

(OK-the pictures show the real deal-we very happily and excitedly went off to do our civic duty! You didn’t really think we were going to teach them to stage guerrilla warfare on the streets of Oxford? Peaceful, happy people do peaceful, happy protesting!! But active citizens we will always be! And what’s wrong with following a demonstration with a picnic?*)

Being us, no trip to Oxford is without a long visit to the bookstore. Here’s Kieran reading Gulliver’s Travels when we got home!

*The UK Home Educators participated in about 40 ’Not Back to School Picnics’ nationwide to protest against the Badman Proposals. Our insipration came from this group of wonderful home educators: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecpjngSC0-I

Jax has asked UK Home Educators to write a little bit about why and how they home educate. I don’t think I’ve ever blogged it really-but it’s been a fairly simple process for us: I told Michael that we were doing it before Hazel was born! Ok-it was that simple in some respects, but it’s something I knew I would do if I ever had children.

“Everything in life is an aspect of education, even if we don’t immediately grasp the lesson.” Author unknown

I read that quote over 30 years ago and I still have the original piece of paper I wrote it on. I don’t remember exactly what book it was-but my mom probably still has it. It was possibly an Irish author-the letter ‘M’ rings a bell-but it’s about someone learning to be a ‘wizard’ or some such thing. Anyway, when I read that, I knew that education took place everywhere and all the time, but education happened when ‘You’ were doing the living, the seeking of new information. You can’t ‘be educated’, you can only gain education and that the gaining of education was only possible through personal experience and exploration. A teacher standing in front of a room full of children spouting out facts wasn’t education, it was a mild form of brainwashing, as the only things you would be able to recall in the long-run were the bits you wanted to.

Yes-eleven years old may be young to be thinking about what kind of education any future children would have-but that’s when the idea was cemented in my mind. I’d also always loved the ‘old fashioned’ stories of the children who were educated at home, or those that had a private tutor or mentor, that just seemed the perfect way to learn. Everything would be centred on their interests and abilities. OK, maybe all the tutors in books weren’t ideal, but the idea was the ideal. It just always seemed, that those home educated in their youth seemed far brighter than we were.

I have always loved learning. I love the whole process of being challenged, finding some new tidbit of information that I never heard of before. I love it! School did not kill my enthusiasm for learning, but then again, I didn’t let it. I knew early enough that there were better ways to learn, more fascinating stories to read, and a zillion historical things to learn that the teachers would never cover in a 45 minutes a day history class. So I did what I was told, and I bided my time, just like any other prisoner.

The main things I dislike about school:
1. Group teaching: You cannot teach thirty children all at the same time-and keep it at a pace where everyone can thrive. You will either slow students up, or you will rush past them and leave them struggling in the dust. That is not conducive to learning, nor fair to any of the children involved.
2. Lack of personal tailoring: it is far easier to understand a topic if you have some personal interest in the topic. Yes, there are some things vital to learn to survive, but generally these types of skills have traditionally been taught by the families.
3. Rote memorization: Honestly, how brain numbing is that? I really don’t think any other method of teaching could sap the joy of learning any quicker than rote memorization. Memorization tasks are mundane-and teach children the wrong way to learn. They only teach one to cram for a test, and no more. My sister and I perfected the art of memorizing a monthly poem every month for 3 years-by starting 1st thing in the morning the day we had to recite it!
4. The loss of individuality: I can understand why they need to kill that as early on as they can, but as the end results are generally nothing but destructive, how can it be condoned?
5. Reading lists: I cannot bear anyone telling me what to read! I hated reading lists like the plaque! Reading has always been such a personal thing for me, and I have always balked at anyone telling me which book to read! (A minor point-but one that still irks me to no end!)
6. Waste of time: No one can possibly believe that ¼ of all school days aren’t wasted on waiting for the next lesson to start, for the teacher to re-explain things, and for the kids to get ready. All the lining up and waiting for people used to drive me nuts!
7. The enforced imprisonment: both physically and mentally. You had to sit, stand, move when and where you were told to. You were also told what you will learn, what you will think about at that moment and you were not even given the freedom of your thoughts.

I didn’t lose that freedom completely-for I retained my mental freedom. I would sit and stand when told-but I would think about what I wanted to. I learned to ‘turn-off’ to the teachers and would escape into my day-dream world. I would bring in my own books to read during other lessons, hiding them behind the text books. Trust me-I can day-dream away any discussion I want to! I still have a tendency to doing that if I’m not interested in a conversation! Even Albert Einstein raved about the wonders of an active imagination! (And yes-I did pass all my classes!)

And no–I don’t think I’ve been robbed of my individuality. I’ve always known who I was and what I wanted to do. What I was robbed of was the chance to learn what would have really mattered to me. If my learning had been tailored to my needs/desires, I know I would have actually learned more. I would have spent much longer on the topics, and not just tried to touch on everything. I felt we came out of school as the ‘Students of all topics, the masters of none’.

And these are the main reasons why our children will not go to school. Hazel and Kieran will be given the freedom, yes with limits, to learn when, where and what they want to. Do they have the choice of school or home? No-as I see no benefits educationally for anyone to go to school. And as that is the supposed purpose of schools, and as I feel they fail in that at every step along the way-they do not have that choice. That is our decision, and as we are the parents-only we will make that decision. Especially as school would affect how we live as a family. I will not let school interfere with our home life.

This leads me to the second part of Jax’s question: How do we home educate?

As to ‘how we home educate’, there isn’t really a ‘how’ answer. We have handled this pretty much the same way we have handled the raising of our children. We are doing what feels right at the time for the children and us. I think parents in our society have lost the natural instinct to care for their children. I just do not understand these ‘how to raise/teach a child’ books-as it really should just come naturally. Can you imagine if all the other animals knew that we had to read books on how to take care of our young and how to teach them the things they need to learn to survive? We’d be the laughing-stock of the animal kingdom.

We have heard of the different ‘educational methods and philosophies’, but we haven’t looked into any of them. It goes back to my hatred of being told what to think-I do not want some face-less author telling me how to teach/raise my children. I don’t even want to be ‘influenced’ by their words-so will not read them. I like my thoughts to be my own!

Michael and I don’t even really have a philosophy of our own other than to respond to the children’s needs, interests and desires. I refuse to put a ‘label’ to what we do-as it is such an integral part of our family life, that it isn’t really a ’separate compartment’. It’s just what we do.

But I know people want to know the ‘how did you teach them to read, write, etc’… Writing came when they were both about 4-when they came to me to show them how to write something. I would only show them what they asked-but did over the course of time make sure they were doing it correctly by giving them practice sheets to do. Their styles and ’standards’ are different-which is to be expected as they are different people.

Reading also came as and when each child asked. We would read out what ever word they were interested in, and after they’d really showed a serious interest in the words around them I showed them a fairly simply example of how words were a group of letters connected to make a new sound. I wrote out a list of about 60 3-letter short vowel words like this: m-a-t; j-u-g. I had taught the kids the letter names, not sounds as is common practice today. I figured it worked for us, so would work for them! Then with the list I explained the sounds the letters make-and it just clicked with them. Within a few weeks of that ‘click’-both were well on their way to becoming serious readers. Hazel devours books, mostly fiction, while Kieran loves to study encyclopaedia style books, as well as fiction. I refuse to ‘test’ them on their reading comprehension with anything they’ve read, I do that occasionally with worksheets on topics they are interested in.

Maths has really been a case of real life experience, aided by the help of workbooks. I have never ‘tested’ their knowledge on this; we have never quizzed them to make sure they know the ‘fact families’. But I do know they comprehend how to work out the problems and that they will know which function to use to work out a problem.

And all other ‘topics’ such as history, cultural, geography and science, they just happen as and when the topics come up. A discussion on history can be started by almost any conversation, or book they read. We were driving to a farm on my birthday, and Michael and I were talking about some politics when Hazel asked if we were ‘nationalists’. Had no clue she knew the word-but she learned it by reading an American Girl book about the American Revolutionary war. This obviously lead us to discuss that war and the difference between the ‘loyalists’ and ‘nationalist’. And as this is a ‘family’ discussion, we are all involved, so both children are participating and learning.

Michael is mathematical and loves the scientific world, where as I love literature, history and social studies-and neither of us turn down an opportunity to expand our knowledge. I love to visit historical places, and he likes scientific lectures, etc… So we don’t ‘teach’ these to our children, we bring them along so they can experience the same things we are. I’ll bring them on a geological outing with my class, we take them to historical places that I want to see, and we take them to scientific lectures for adults. Do they understand it all? Of course not! I don’t even understand it all-but we are learning bits at a time, and enjoying the process. Are we dragging our children-no. They love it and know no other life. As it’s just what we do! I would visit museums and places of historical interest before I had children, and Michael wouldn’t know what to do with himself if he couldn’t learn something new every week.

Will we get more ’structured’ as the kids get older? Possibly, but I have no idea what the future holds. For now-we do a mix of math workbooks; a few special topics they are interested in to work on sentence structure & comprehension; and hand-writing practice when we get round to it-but mostly we are trying to instil in them: the joy of learning, to seek out answers to their questions, to question what they’ve learned and hoping they will realize that learning is a part of everything they do. Because:

“Everything in life is an aspect of education, even if we don’t immediately grasp the lesson.” Author unknown