Home Ed Meeting Day · Wednesday December 6, 2006 by Abbie
Ram was quite excited today, as it was our monthly home ed group meeting. But not so excited that I couldn’t read to him in bed for a while!
This book is giving us a bit of a picture of how home education worked in the 1940s. The three families we have met so far in the book all have home educated children, and have special needs too! In one family there is a girl who had polio and is in irons. She is being educated at home because going to school would be too difficult for her. She has a governess who also teaches another girl from the same street. They are together for company.
I know that people today often say that having a tutor or governess isn’t really home education, but it was for this sort of people that the 1946 Education Act included the words ‘education otherwise than at school’ which allow us to home educate today. And it is also interesting that the governess only ‘teaches’ in the morning! They are free in the afternoons.
The other family that has a child that is home educated has a boy that so far matches the description of Asperger’s! Interestingly, in both this family and the other families, they have other children that go to school. In this family they recognise that school is not right for every child in every situation. He seems to have ocasional lessons with various people, mainly for music.
Ram seems to like reading these old fashioned books where home educated children were part of everyday life.
But we were not in bed for long as we needed to get ready for the Home ed meeting. We had a bit of a festive theme today. We took the materials for making little drums to hang on a tree, and other brought other things for making decorations and cards. We also had mince pies and hot apple juice with spices. The kids all seemed to have a good time. There is nothing structured or organised about it, and the children can do the crafts, play their card games (I think it is called Magic) or run round outside. It was lovely to see so many children of different ages getting on well.
Ram seemed to enjoy it and one other mum actually said he seemed more relaxed this month. But I think he must have held himself together because he fell apart in the car on the way home! He was very angry, and couldn’t tell me why. He started talking about having to find another way to get his extream anger out because there was no one in the car he could kill!
I knew that this was only talk, and he has come along way in finding ways of expressing his anger. Using words is one way, and I know I have done a good job in teaching him to use words as a few years ago he would have been trying to hit me and I would have had to stop the car.
When we got back he carried one of the boxes into the house for me without me asking, but threw it down onto the floor, then turned to me and said in a very angry voice, ‘You didn’t expect me to do it nicely while I am so angry, did you!’
I knew that he was completely overloaded after spending three hours with so many people, but I also had a feeling that it might have to do with low blood sugar levels again, so I got him something to eat straight away. After watching Blue Peter he was ok again. I asked him what he had had to eat at the meeting and it was only a little cupcake!
It can be hard work sometimes being mum and keeping an eye on the calories, and being teacher and keeping an eye on the education! But at least I can tick the socialisation box for the month!
