Back again-and catching up. · Tuesday July 24, 2007 by Ann

I’m back again, I have blogged here for a month before, if you are new to the blog you can see my previous entries starting here

Since last I was here we have been very busy.

Lucy went to a week’s residential stay with the choir she sings with at Easter. They were singing all week and had a fabulous time and then played a couple of gigs on the way home. Whilst staying at Dunfield House the choir recorded a CD, details can be found on Stream of Sound
and the choir can be heard on their myspace

In May, Lucy and I went to a local home ed group holiday near to Monmouth, where we shared Biblins Youth Centre with about 34 other home educators-and some brave souls who camped there! It rained all week, but still we managed to do a fair old amount of canoeing and kayaking. Some adults laid a flour trail and we had a treasure hunt and there was also lots of walks, cycling and playing in the woods.

Despite the dreadful weather we had a wonderful time.
I think I will be saying that for every camp we went to!

In June we went to Peak Camp which is held in a very beautiful spot at Beresford Dale near to a village called Hartington We spent a week there with a crowd of home educating friends and had a good time. The weather was fabulous at the beginning of the week, with everyone passing the suntan cream but by midweek everything had changed to the weather we are beginning to expect for this summer.

We just about had time to wash all the mud off before we set of for HesFes 2007 part 1 As a family we love HesFes and this time, our whole family came, our three children plus my three stepchildren and my step grandchildren. We loved it from beginning to end-there is something for all ages every day.
And of course we enjoyed the music-but one of my highlights of the week was the children’s cabaret. Children get to put themselves down to perform if they want to. You end up with a wide cross section of people performing-from three year olds singing ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’, serious violin players, teenagers performing funny sketches and all sorts. It is fabulous!

Youngest daughter finally sang at the cabaret after four years of just watching-and got an enormous amount of support from the lovely audience. She did the same the following year and then last year the organisers gave her her own solo slot one of the evenings. The support she got from the crowd was fantastic and after that she started to appear in festivals elsewhere.
This year ‘Lucy’ sang again, but this time she had a solo spot and one with the band she sings with-and then they were asked to perform on Radio HesFes on the last night, which was broadcast live on the internet. Opportunities and support like this give confidence and change lives-it is now pretty certain that Lucy will make her living as a singer in some form or other.

And then the girls and I have just returned from the EO gathering here
A lovely campsite, where we pitched the tents in sheltered clearings in the woods-sheltered but muddy-and we were there all week last week so it got wetter and muddier as the week went by! Still it didn’t seem to dampen the girls enthusiasm though!

Apart from all of the trips away time has flown by at home. Alice quit FE college after they completely failed to provide her with the extra help for her specific learning difficulties- we were very disappointed with the level of support actually provided.
It seems that the college are well able to cope with David’s level of dyslexia, but seem to fail completely with anything more complex.
Still it has been lovely to have Alice at home again, with Lucy, dh and I. She has enjoyed the freedom to learn in your own way, that home education offers, again-as well as the freedom to come to camps!
Alice is reassessing her needs for the future and the choices available. Once again she is looking closely at the Open University, which is what Lucy will be using. They are both quite excited on looking up the choices of courses available.

David has completed his A levels at FE college now and we await the results in August. He has continued with his part time job throughout and intends now to get a full time job, move into a flat nearby with a friend, live a little and then consider going to university, when he has decided what course he would really like to study.

So it has been a very busy time -I have enjoyed all of the camps and gatherings, but they didn’t seem very relaxing!

Last post but will update after the Gathering. Musical gig.......and THE Consultation