Should be doing the packing! · Thursday February 8, 2007 by Ann
I actually blogged a long post last night, and then lost it before publishing it!
Yesterday was enjoyable but very tiring.
Took the older two to college and then went to the bank and post office to juggle money between accounts.
On my return I woke up Lucy and her friend to get then to eat and get ready for the HE meeting we run.
Just about got there in time, with everything except the milk and squash, which I discovered, I had left on the path at home! It didn’t get put into the car with everything else.
We have a meeting each month at a local activity centre. It used to be exclusively for guides and scouts and we couldn’t afford their prices, but they now have had to make themselves economically viable by opening up to other groups. We were very lucky in that the person they bought in, to over see this transition, just happened to be a home educating dad to two teens who lived on site!
The teens of course were confident, well spoken helpful and pleasant. They have made everyone in the centre very pro home ed!
We hire a group room for a general meeting and also have some sort of organised activity each month. So far we have had archery, orienteering, rock climbing, abseiling and the high ropes courses.
Yesterday we used the zip wire, which is the biggest in the country and next month we’ll be grass sledging ;o)
In the summer we hire the heated outdoor pool for the afternoon and have a BBQ afterwards.
Whilst we were there I organised to hire the venue for the EO regional workshop about the up and coming Government consultation on HE.
We also did an Encaustic Art activity and had painting and then indoor giant ‘Connect 4’ ‘jenga’ and giant chess. We have some footballs, rugby ball, skipping ropes etc from the Sainsbury sports voucher scheme.
Next month we are going to have a ‘Bring and Buy’ sale giving everyone a chance to off load some unwanted/unused resources and buy some more! We’ll also do the Hands up 4 Home Ed activity as Dawniy who is organising it will be coming to the meeting.
Lucy always helps me set up and tidy away and has the three hours in between to run around the 50 acres of lovely ground and hang out with her friends and do whatever organised activity we have.
We started this meeting to attract teens over this way. Often with home ed meetings there are younger children but no teenagers. It is a vicious circle in that, if there are no teens attending, no teens will come. And by the time they reach teenage most HE teenagers have had a go at every craft in the book, and literally have the T shirt, usually tie – dyed or hand printed!
So we felt it important to organise something that teens would be interested in. hence having an activity each month, that is suitable and attractive. Gradually the group has grown and we now have families with children of all ages attending.
Now we have a situation where as we have teens attending our meetings, we attract more teenagers to come.
I was so tired when we got home I completely forgot it was choir night for Lucy and happily allowed her to go off with Jane to meet Jane’s train home!
When I am tired my own dyslexia gets worse and my organisational abilities and short term memory can fall apart!
Lucy’s dyslexia means she never remembers what day it is and needs constant reminders of both the day and the activity that is planned. We discussed this and she has thought of a solution and found a ‘white board’ that we will use each evening to write the next days activity on and the things she will need to prepare for it.
For me, one of the big advantages of a diagnosis is that it has enabled us to accept the dyslexia, as being as real as my short sightedness and to be able to find our individual coping strategies.
Lucy was so tired when she after that, she went off to bed early after going on her laptop and ‘talking’ to her friends on MSN for a while.
Today we had a slow start. Lucy wanted to laze and read a magazine, a real achievement for someone with such severe dyslexia and she does it so often now. Lucy told me today that she still has a mental block about books and still feels “I can’t do that” when she looks at one. So we spent a while discussing that because she feels like that now, it doesn’t mean she always will. I reminded her how well she does now with reading and spelling on the pc and that she is reading all sorts of other things now.
We played card games this morning, a game that David taught me the other day, I can’t remember what he called it and also Crib. I spent a lot of time with my father playing card games when I was a child and I believe it helped with my mental maths no end.
Lucy has decided that she would like to learn more about Astrology but it is almost impossible to do living where we do-right next to the A38 and very, very close to the M42. There is so much light pollution. We talked about light pollution for a while and how it could be prevented and then we got out one of the many posters we have rolled up behind the settee. This one is an Astrology one and we looked at it for a while and decided to take it with us to Devon tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll be able to see more of the night sky there.
Lucy also commented that there is an Astrology workshop at HesFes this year, which she would like to attend, so went off to find her grandfathers binoculars.
We went shopping for food for the rest of the family, for the time we are away and for snacks for us to take with us.
On returning tonight, Lucy has gone back on her laptop and has been watching UK history before switching over for ‘Desperate housewives’ which she watched with Alice.
David and Alice both stayed over night with friends again last night
David was playing ‘fantasy role play’ games at his friends house again and Alice was out with a friend. They got up and went directly to college this morning.
Both have returned home this afternoon.
David went straight to bed to catch up on sleep and Alice has been reading her book before her saxophone teacher arrived. This has been the first sax lesson for a while as her teacher has been away. Alice decided she wanted to learn the saxophone and saved up the money to buy her own and we have funded the lessons.
David has done the same thing with the bass guitar and Lucy, of course, has singing lessons.
Alice and Lucy have decided to watch Jane Eyre now, now I have had it and am off to bed. I’ll have to get up and do my packing in the morning, before leaving to go to the EO gathering.
On the merits and legalities of home education. Last post but will update after the Gathering.
Hiya . Lana happened on your blog and we saw you writing about the hands up thing :o)
we were at the meeting yesterday doing the hands and looking at the bring and buy stuff – were you there? strange reading about myself lol – did we meet you? and if not hello again anyway :o)
dawniy x
— dawniy Mar 7, 05:36 pm #