Hibernating weather, but we got going eventually! · Friday January 12, 2007 by Ann

Well Alice was reassessed for Dyslexia today. (How organised is that-she had her first AS exam yesterday and the college assessed her today!) She returned home tonight to tell me-”guess what?-I am dyslexic!” Apparently her reading and spelling have improved, but there is not much change in her writing speed. I’ll be interested in the written report but I don’t expect it will tell me anything I didn’t know.

The rest of us had a slow start to the day, but then it is real hibernating weather.
There was another home ed meeting on today, swimming this time, where the local group hires the pool for an hour, but Lucy decided not to go as none of her friends appeared to be going this time-and also because her muscles are still aching from her first evening back at dancing for a while.

Instead we spent sometime watching UK History on TV-this time we watched the “200yr old house”. Women’s role in the home is a subject we have looked at before as Alice is very keen on women’s issues. The 200yr old house fits into this very well-as well as having a relevance to interior designs, which interest Lucy. It looks at the changing uses of the house and the roles of the people who inhabit it, through the ages. We had lots of discussion around this programme and will return to it I am sure, at a later date.

David spent the first part of the day revising and then went off out for an interview for a part time job-which he got! For so long he wouldn’t go out of the house on his own-not even to go to the local shop. Slowly slowly he has come out of himself, becoming independent a step at a time. The first time he applied for a Saturday job a couple of years ago, we were all gobsmacked as he went off and did so by himself. The acceptance of him by the home ed community, locally and nationally has been a big factor in this. We have travelled to many of the camps and gatherings and the children have made friends and regained the confidence lost in school. Now David has the confidence to attend college and go out and get himself a job in the popular pub in the town-the one where all the people he used to go to school with go to! I can hardly believe this day has come ;O))

Lucy and I got the maths work books out again at her request. Once more we had to go over old ground again and she was very frustrated. It seems the difficulties she used to have in remembering words still seems to be occurring with maths instructions. She clearly is developing an understanding in maths in real life-she manages her own money very well for example but still has real difficulty in remembering these rules when they apply to written maths. In the end I found the words that made sense to her-for now, but tomorrow I fear we may have to do it all again-if she requests it. I won’t be pushing it-I recall that she suddenly asked how to tell the time last year. I did the same as I had done over and over before and drew a line down the centre of the clock, writing ‘past’ on one side and ‘to’ on the other and i wrote the numbers on the side again, Suddenly she said “Oh I understand-why haven’t you explained like that before?” when I said I had she said she felt like someone had just switched her on and she understood now. She still can’t read digital clocks, but that’s okay, she has found a way to get a normal clock face displayed on the computer and on my mobile phone. I am sure at some point in the future she will suddenly ‘get’ digital displays.
In the meantime, we’ll be shopping tomorrow morning and I’ll get her to do the maths in that as reminder of what she can do.

Lucy and her friend Laura have arranged for Laura to come and stay for a few days. Lucy met Laura at one of the home ed camps in the Peak District a couple of years ago and they met again at HesFes last summer. They have stayed in touch ever since and
Laura came up to stay with several of Lucy’s other friends for Lucy’s birthday in October. This is the first time Laura has come up by train, so Lucy and I have to leave tomorrows meeting early in order to meet her train in Birmingham.

We cooked a home made soup together today, taking the opportunity to discuss the requirements for a balanced diet-and how that can be supplied with a vegan and vegetarian diet. A very satisfying lesson in so many ways!

We have spent some time today further discussing a Philosophy group the teenagers want to develop. This is something that interests Lucy and her friends and they are keen to enroll the help of some of the other parents to get them started. Hopefully tomorrow at the meeting we may get a date and time for the first session sorted.

Lucy and her friends at this home education group, were recently successful in getting £1500 worth of funding for their drama group. Last year they performed at a local towns street theatre-but it was all done on a shoe string, with the fabulous drama teacher giving her time completely for free. With the funding they have obtained, this year they are able to pay her, go and research the themes they would like to develop and buy materials for props and costumes, The youngsters are hopeful of purchase some sort of music system so they can be heard this time when performing in the same street as several other groups-this was a big problem last year. Tomorrows meeting should also give chance for them to decide on details-although i think we may have to arrange a separate meeting for that, as they may just be too busy enjoying the drama group to be getting themselves organised

Lucy and I have been reading the Tarot cards again tonight, using a guide book to help us-an unusual choice for a reading book perhaps-but that is what Lucy chose as something she is interested in, and therefore is motivated to read. david read comics and then fantasy books, Alice chose magazines. I am happy to use whatever they choose.

Lucy has sent a fair bit of time on her laptop again today, we were lucky enough to have be given an unexpected lump sum of money recently and we decided to spend it on laptops for the children. This has revolutionised things for all three of them.
Alice desperately needed it to keep up with college work-as she cannot bring her college laptop home. David is using it for college work too. All three use it to keep up with home ed friends via MSN. Lucy told me tonight that it has set her free ;o)

We have become involved with the wonderful Iris and Geoff
Harrison, founder members of EO, who are now active in setting up a charity to help dyslexic children and young people get computer hardware and software that they need. Hopefully the girls and I will be in a position to help others understand the difficulties so that we can raise funds for this charity. Through this charity we have been able to try out some of the software available and what we have already, is making a huge difference in giving the children independence in accessing information.
Lucy and I have spent some time today discussing what we would like for a “Statement of purpose” for this charity and what else we want from it. This is a huge learning curve as we have never been involved with anything like this before.

Still none of our home education journey has been as I expected it to be-but it has all been enjoyable, even when it has been a challenge!

Anxious-and taking it easy! Yesterday at the Home Ed group meeting and on learning to read.