Catching up · Wednesday January 17, 2007 by Ann

Catching up after a couple of days without blogging.

Today is the sixth anniversary of the children leaving school after deregistration!! ;o) We have never looked back or had any regrets, not once. This has bought freedom from bullying and a return to self confidence and self belief for our children. Happy people live in our house!

On Sunday we had an early start, taking a friend to the airport, so there was a warm cosy feel to coming home with the newspapers and having a brunch together.
We have found increasingly that our teenagers are engaged with news and current events, because they talk to us and are around when we watch the news and read the papers. They are interested in national and international politics and often put forward their views on a variety of subjects. the three of them are very vocal on their thoughts about the idea of raising the end of compulsory education age to eighteen!

Alice has her radio alarm set to radio 4 and loves it. She picked up this whilst sailing on the boat that summer. She will often come down to us to air some views about something she has heard discussed wanting to take the subject further or to shape her thoughts on why she agrees/disagrees with the topic. Alice will then often pick up on corresponding articles on the internet or in the newspapers.

Because they have been home educated for the last six years, they have been here whenever there has been an election and have discussed with us political beliefs and ideals. We have discussed Parish Council elections, County Council elections and General Elections. They understand the role of each level of government, as we have answered their questions with interest.
David’s 18th birthday actually fell on the day of the last General election-so he was very engaged with the whole process, taking an active interest in the beliefs of the different parties and questioning representatives when they turned up on our doorstep.
We spent his birthday celebrating with family and friends-the home ed crowd were coming and going all afternoon, taking a trip to the local poll station for him to vote (where they had noted his birthday and joined in with a chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ when they realised who he was!) We went out for a family meal and then came home to watch the results of the elections. Tom and I left him to watch through the night as it got far too late for us.

Anyway, on Sunday after reading the paper and brunching together, Toms brother Richard arrived. He is emigrating at the end of the month to the Philippines and he bought over some family things he wants to leave with us. We got the world map out again and discussed how far he was going, the time zones and the weather over there to decide again, when would be the best time to go and visit.

Tom and Richard gave Lucy and her friend Laura, a lift to a friend’s house where they were going for a birthday sleepover. Apparently as part of the birthday celebrations, they went for a hike up one of the local hills, where they picnicked together. they had all dressed up for the event-so had then to do a lot of running around to keep warm.
The overnight stay turned into two and they have been on long walks with a bunch of their friends, horse riding and had loads of time to play games.

This meant Monday night turned out to be a free night for Tom and myself as the other two were away from home too! Alice stayed over with a friend she has met at college and David went to play ‘Fantasy role play’ games overnight with some of his home ed friends.
When we first started to home educate, one of the assumptions of others is that we would never have free time to ourselves. As the children have got older, this has been even less of an issue for us. They have had no constraints of having to get up early for school, so it hasn’t mattered if they have stayed up late with friends or not. We have spent a fair bit of time going to home ed camps and gatherings and the children have made lots of friends locally and nationally. We have found that this has meant that they have started to travel independently to go and stay with their friends for a few days at a time, or their friends come here to stay, as Laura has done this week.
It is unusual for all three of them to be out of the house at the same time – I am not sure I like the resulting peace and quiet at all although Tom and I quickly went out for a few hours together.

Everyone returned home yesterday, David and Alice had gone straight to college for their first lesson of the day and returned here afterwards. Lucy and Laura were picked up in time for Lucy’s opticians appointment. Then Lucy went onto choir practice again, Alice arranged her next saxophone lesson and David got on with his revising. Then we had dinner together and entertained my old friend from my nurse training days, who is up from Brighton for a visit.

Today will be quite busy again. We have decided to go to the cinema this morning with Lucy and Laura. All tickets before midday are £3 and using a mobile phone deal, we will be get two of us in for the price of one -so four people for £6, into a cinema that will probably be empty of other people. Using ameinities like this when they are free from crowds and much cheaper is another advantage of being out of the school system

Lucy and Laura are going for a bike ride this afternoon if the weather holds-although not seeming to be educational at first, they will of course notice what is happening around them, so the changing seasons, the natural world and what new houses have been built since last Lucy went down that lane, will bring in social studies and local politics into the conversation when they get back no doubt.
Yesterday on looking for something in answer to an enquiry from a member of our local group, I found this;
Organic Structure
I thought it was a brilliant piece and it describes exactly why and how we educate our children too!

Lucy will have her usual three hours of dance classes and rehearsals tonight and then after picking her up I’ll be dashing to Birmingham airport to pick up my mother who returns tonight after a holiday in Egypt-I can feel a whole lot of interest in the Egyptians coming on…...........

Yesterday at the Home Ed group meeting and on learning to read. Fantasy Games-Warhammer and Role playing.