OKish · Tuesday September 11, 2007 by Lily
The college courses are very fast paced. Today went OK , he decided to not take his laptop in.
It is proving really helpful to have the audio books from Listening Books, who have recordings of most of the GCSE texts. When I rang to ask about R’s English books they said if they didn’t have them would I give them the title etc and they would try to get recordings made. They also have the study notes on tape. So R read the first chapter of “I’m the King of the Castle” and we listened to the tape together.
We’ve had to buy just 4 books and I bought study notes to go with them. Fortunately the Shakespeare is Macbeth, definitely not R’s favourite, he can’t understand why anyone would like all that gloom and murder, but we’ve seen it many times which should help.
He still has to get timing of trains sorted out and what free periods he has and can miss for travelling. He doesn’t think there is anyone he feels really comfortable with friendship-wise. I had anticipated a very varied group of students; there are only about 20 year 11s. He’d hoped to be one of the older ones but he isn’t. They are a mix of real year 11s (few), resits (most) and even older than that, all nationalities, very few white English.
He had a really shaky evening having a personal upset with a friendship. Just what we don’t need at this point in time.
The Big Day · Monday September 10, 2007 by Lily
Rupert’s first day at college went well really. I took him in, we had to leave home at 7am, it’ll be 6.30am Thurs and Fri and I stayed in Manchester all day so that he could meet me at lunch if he wished, which he did.He had double English that he’s going to find really difficult. He had Geography, that is a new subject for him, though obviously we’ve touched on some Geography and he thought that seemed interesting and he could cope with it, and French where they walked in and were given a past paper straight away. He did really well getting next to the highest mark, the highest going to someone resitting it. Physics he hasn’t had yet and is a bit anxious about.
We travelled home together on the train. It’s a 70 mile round trip. If he can be taken to the larger station 4 miles away, there is a choice of trains every half hour, but if he can’t (I don’t drive) the trains only stop every 2 hours at our town station. Either way it is possible but he’ll have some early starts and late arrivals home as Dh has had to go back to work to pay for college and so some days there will be no option but to use the town station.
The day before the BIG day! · Sunday September 9, 2007 by Lily
R spent all day with his girl-friend. She is of a sympathetic nature and I think today her inner strength was stretched to the limit as R spilled out his worries about college.
Dh and I were stretched financially as R’s laptop that we had from the Communication Aid Project along with software has reached the end of it’s life, so we went out and bought another for college.
I spent the rest of the day setting it up, which stretched my computer ability to the limit. Dh actually drew the short straw as he helped ds1 to prepare for the DIY installation of a new bathroom at their house, or rather the replacement of the old one.
Helping Day · Saturday September 8, 2007 by Lily
Today, R went to the district Scout campsite to help at the annual Cub Fun Day. It is important to us that he does things like this when a general request goes out. I may seem old fashioned but most senior members of the Scouting Movement give up their time voluntarily to the boys (and girls) and for R to be able to give back a little of what he has taken out is part of what Scouting is all about.
Another lovely day · Friday September 7, 2007 by Lily
This morning, we watched a GCSE Physical Geography video. So far this week we have also watched a GCSE Physics video. We finished at 11.30am and walked across to our granddaughter’s school. She is doing half days for her first week. It felt really strange being in a playground, waiting, for the first time in 7 years.
We came back via the park. This was a little bit of nostalgia. For 7 years R has taken piano lessons on Tuesdays; he now walks over to his teacher’s house by himself, but I used to walk him there and back and he would have a play on this park sometimes; he would also feed the ducks on the river so we did this today as well with our granddaughter. I have tried to fit in a few “old-times” events this week, on Monday we went for a walk we used to take in our early days of HE along the canal.
Aren’t I soft!
Special Trip · Thursday September 6, 2007 by Lily
One of our greatest joys of home education has been being able to enjoy a plethora of daytime excursions. As a real treat I booked for us to go to london to see Billy Elliot today. This was possible because my dh is retired rail staff and I found a cheap deal.
It was wonderful, something to remember for ever.
Induction Meeting · Wednesday September 5, 2007 by Lily
We went to Manchester really early for the meeting so that Rupert could bus spot during the afternoon, and then met up about an hour before the meeting was due to commence as I was very tired. After announcing our arrival, we went upstairs and were greeted by the principal and year head who invited us to have a chat about R. We had a most useful discussion about R’s dyslexia…..he’ll be able to use a laptop in class and possibly in exams, he’ll be seen by the special needs person who will keep tabs on things etc. Following that we went into the meeting where the youngsters were told about the few rules and how their college day/year would be structured.
It felt really strange to be doing this after 7 years of HE, but the college isn’t at all schooly, the staff and students are on first name terms and the students can go out into Manchester during their breaks. Hopefully, as R isn’t doing a full timetable he’ll be able to go in later in the day or leave early on some days of the week as he has a long way to travel to college.
Now we are 16 · Tuesday September 4, 2007 by Lily
Rupert was 16 towards the end of July. I hadn’t realized the day marking his compulsory school leaving age had passed. I had a letter from the LA saying they wouldn’t contact us again and wishing him well. Phew, we got there!
What he’s achieved in paper qualifications so far are CLAIT, 2 GCSEs at B Grade (ICT and Maths) a Grade 3 piano and a Grade 5 Violin.
Maths was a huge achievement for R. It was his demon. At school he yo-yoed between top and bottom set and he has spent all his home ed years saying “I hate Maths,” so dh, who is an excellent mathematician, (I’m not!) took him to an evening class and “held his hand” through the course; they both are proud possessers of the top grade possible for the Intermediate Tier. R now DOESN’T hate Maths!
Summer was satisfying and busy. We had a lovely week in Paris, then we took Rupert and his friend to Brownsea Island to celebrate the Centenary of Scouting on 1st August at the New Centenary Camp for 4 days, stopping off en route at Cheltenham for their Sunrise Ceremony, where they were proudly introduced to the assembled district members of the movement. They had a fantastic 4 days, and were even invested on the beach on 2nd August. We did a really complicated turn around that involved driving down to Poole Harbour from Cheshire, me taking the friend home on the train and turning round to get the next train to Folkestone where dh and ds had driven in the car, doing much bus-spotting on the way. We stayed there the night and returned to France for 10 days. It helps having a French side to the family by ds1’s marriage.
On our return home, R went immediately to Ireland with his friend’s family where he spent a lovely week.
Last weekend he went sea kayaking with Scouts.
So, where have our 7 years of HE taken us? By way of many wonderful, unforgetable experiences and opportunities and yes tears, frustrations and worries too, we have decided that R will take 4 more GCSEs at an Independent College starting next week. Science and Technology are where his interests lie and with a MFL (French) thrown in these are not subjects that can really be bypassed if he is going to do A Levels or a BTEC. He will study English, French, Physics and Geography.
The last 2 years have been very difficult and we have been overloaded. Dh has, along with his sister, had to keep his mother afloat, completely dependant as she was upon them for everything and living so far away on the South Coast; we have 3 grandchildren, 2 were emergency caesareans and 1 premature, and my health has taken a dive and I need a major op. Dh retired slightly early to help cope. Right now he is doing a little work to help pay the college fees. Granny, after her fall and broken hip was never able to return home, she is much weaker physically and mentally but is now receiving excellent care in a nursing home in Gloucestershire and we celebrated her 90th birthday with her in July.
Today is our elder granddaughter’s first day at school, that feels weird, and tomorrow is Rupert’s Induction Meeting at college.
Rupert is anxious. I am anxious. He’s trying to organise his life in the way a dyslexic person needs to. I’m panicking about all that we haven’t done and keep trying to entice him to watch GCSE Bitesize recordings. So far we’ve managed to watch GCSE Physics. I have obtained audio-tapes of all his English books, at least the texts I know about, from Calibre and Listening Books. We have the books but they are as yet unread. Geography is uncharted territory! Well, R knows the UK well with his love of public transport and we hope he will enjoy the subject, English is going to be difficult I suspect, Physics dh is going to help with and I’m going to oversee the rest in particular French that I love learning myself and have done several classes in with R. I don’t see HE ending as such. The support we give will change but still be there.
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Nearly the end of my turn · Monday September 3, 2007 by Ann
It’s been a quiet weekend-offspring wise.
Our children have all been off on their travels again
;o)
David has been in Sheffield with home ed friends, since Saturday and Alice and Lucy went up to another home ed friend’s birthday party in Staffs, after Alice finished work on Saturday.
Lucy returned last night as she begins a sailing course today, but Alice stayed another night with their friends.
David and Alice will return today as they both are working tomorrow.
Alice has had some good news-the owners of the shop she works in have offered her as many hours as she can work, from now until Christmas. I spoke to the owners over the weekend and they were so full of praise for Alice.
When she originally went and asked about a job a year ago, they told me that she “stood out head and shoulders above all other applicants-and we get a lot of teenage girls coming in and asking about jobs” They tell me that she is confident and articulate and there is ‘something about her’. The owners are confident enough in Alice’s abilities to let her run the shop on her own, knowing that she will deal with everything that happens professionally.
They also tell me that they know she won’t be working for them long term as she has so much potential and will obviously be university material, but they want her as long as possible.
Tom and I know how confident and helpful Alice can be, and of course many home educated parents will recognise the description of a home educated teenager-but it is lovely to hear others singing her praises!
So Alice has decided to work for them until Christmas, around being home educated-she is looking at this OU course to start with.
The voice recognition software has been ordered for Alice by Speaks Volumes so she is feeling much more confident about being able to write essays and complete assignments, despite her severe dysgraphia
David did well with his A level results, he has now decided to get himself a full time job and do one further A level at evening class around working. He is considering moving out and sharing a flat with a friend and then will later decide whether he wants to go to University or not. David knows that learning is lifelong, and he has the choice to enter Uni as a mature student as his older half brother Thomas did, so successfully.
And Lucy prepares to start her home ed year again.
There are lots of exciting things in the pipeline for Lucy. Today she starts a sailing course, which I will blog about later, her singing lessons continue, the band she sings with have a couple of gigs coming up, and she starts ballet classes at Birmingham DanceXchange this weekend.
There is a philosophy debating group starting a weekly meeting for home ed teens, we’ll be attending workshops and activities-there is one coming up in October about the Gunpowder plot, which will fit in with her interests with democracy and Government in this country.
We are off this month to visit Ragley Hall with our local HE group, where we will also meet up with a Canadian HE family, who are travelling around this area and want to meet up with other like minded folks.
We are deciding which events to go to locally in the Heritage Open Days
We have been told we have been successful in getting the tickets we wanted for the free film sittings with the National Schools Film Week
And of course our local group meetings will restart so we’ll be ice skating, kayaking, playing rugby regularly as well as getting into all sorts of crafts and workshops.
Lucy and I organise a meeting monthly at Blackwell Adventure which is very close to where we live. We have a main meeting for everyone and then there is always some sort of organised activity for the over 8’s. In the past we have done rock climbing, abseiling, grass sledging, and the zip wire, to name but a few.
And the group will be looking into getting funding for activities as we did this year for a drama course for the group, which culminated in some of the teenagers performing in the Malvern Street Theatre and at Hereford’s World Environment Day event.
Pictures of the last rehearsal and then the performance at Malvern Street Theatre can be found courtesy of a friend and with permission of the performers here: Time for Time
This the second time the group performed at the Street Theatre and it was great to see how much they have grown in confidence- they were very professional and put on a couple of great performances and had lots of positive comments from passers by.
Time was chosen as a theme as it interested all of the performers and crew. -It looked at how we as a people are rushing through our lives without regard to the environment or to the harm we do to it and other people. The words were very powerful.
The youngsters involved are now very keen to look at what other fundings are available and youngsters who have so far just looked on, have decided to join in next time
;o)
I have no time left now-Alice has just come downstairs to get ready for sailing-I’ll be back to blog a little more of that later!
Well we have been sailing with Youth Afloat -and had a great time. The weather was lovely-but not really windy enough! This morning they did some work off the water practicing knots and then in looking at the mechanics of how the boats go together and work. We had lunch and then they went out on the water. They had to row to begin with but they went all the way around the lake and then enough wind picked up for them to sail back.
The day ended with them all jumping into the lake!
Another day thoroughly enjoyed by all-Lucy is looking forward to the next session next week.
Lucy and I had lunch together at the cafe over looking the lake and watched the birds feeding their young-and intend to look up more info about the species we saw now we are home.
She also had some questions about the definition of more words and some about the meaning of the words behind one of the songs in Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat.
So all in all we have already covered a wide range of subjects that Lucy is interested in today- I am often surprised at the range of things she asks about and a large part of our educational provision is based on this type of conversation-which will lead onto more study and thought in areas she is interested in.
I’m happy to be spending time with her as I have with the other two, helping her enjoy her education and develop her love of learning things that she is interested in.
I expect I’ll be here again in the future sometime to discuss this further-until then someone else will be taking over from tomorrow and I hope they enjoy blogging about their lives too.
Reading materials-and resumption of Home ed meetings · Friday August 31, 2007 by Ann
We have been down the caravan for a few days again-making the most of this last bit of summer-whilst it lasts, but confess we are looking forward to having the pool to ourselves again after Monday! We took step grand daughter Nancy with us, Laura, a home ed friend of Lucy’s who is staying here for a couple of weeks, Lucy’s cousins, Madeline and Claire and a close friend and her two small children. We have had lots of fun-the children have been in the pool for simply hours and we have been for long walks up and down the river. Yesterday we picked loads of blackberries and found an apple tree on common land, that I have never noticed before and we scrumped some apples. Then of course, all of the children made blackberry and apple crumble-good job we picked lots of fruit!
Tomorrow Lucy has a singing lesson and then Lucy and Laura will be travelling with Alice up to a home ed friend’s fancy dress birthday party. Lucy and Laura have sewn their own costumes and tomorrow have to shop for the last few bits they need to complete their outfits and for a present for their friend, before meeting Alice from work. Then they will all travel up to Staffordshire for the party together, staying overnight.
David has gone off to Sheffield for the weekend, staying with other HE friends. I’ll probably blog again after they all get back.
This next bit was prompted by a none home friend asking questions and I have been meaning to post about it again for ages-but just got distracted.
After Lucy was diagnosed with such severe dyslexia (whilst still at school) we tried all of the recommended routes of reading materials and tried many reading schemes (including Toe by Toe and Reading reflex) as she simply could not read a word aged 8+.
Each time we ended up with her panicking and crying hysterically-even if I out the timer on to do just two minutes of reading work.
Luckily we found out about home education not long after that initial diagnosis-and it was such a relief to find out about it. I think I have said before that as David and Alice had such difficulty in the middle school, it was clear that Lucy simply would not cope there as her difficulties were so much more severe than theirs.
As David was expressing that he no longer wanted his life anymore, and Alice beginning to mix with the ‘wrong’ crowd as she struggle I was frantically searching for alternatives-thank goodness, somewhere I had heard the term “Education Otherwise” and that is what I put into the search engine-as I explored the results, I knew I had found the answer-and the rest is history.
Someone asked me recently, what reading materials we had used, if Lucy was so upset by the dyslexia reading schemes.
The answer of course is -just about everything else that Lucy has been interested in! For a long, long time, I (and her dad and anyone else willing to help) have read whatever she wanted, out loud to her. We took all of the pressure off her, allowing a love of words and of stories to develop. We have commented before on the use of the Calibre Audio Library
and Lucy also chose all sorts of glossy magazines, a tarot card book, Barrington Stokes books , television pages in magazines-and lately newspapers.
Overwhelmingly though the best resource has been the computer-she looks up songs she wants to learn, listens to them and then googles for the lyrics. She is on MSN, My Space and Bebo- and wants to be able to read and write there without any help from us-and now she has got there.
Most days she can read really well indeed-and we are now seeing gigantic leaps forward in her independence in all aspects of life. I found her tackling the latest Harry Potter book the other day.
I’m finding it difficult to blog about ‘educational items’ -it is so difficult to define what is educational-maybe it is because it has been the summer holidays-and so our routine home ed meetings, activities and workshops have not been happening-but despite this I am constantly interested in what she seems to have learned over the last few weeks.
I have just booked for us to go to a free National Schools Film Week showing -we have chosen a film about the situation in South Africa in the 80’s. The film will be introduced by someone from Amnesty International and there will be a discussion about the film afterwards.
On the same day as I booked this viewing, there was the unveiling of the Nelson Mandela statue in Parliament Square. Lucy stunned me with the amount of information she knew about South Africa and Apartheid-and about Amnesty International. It didn’t stop her asking many more questions though! She also requested that the next time we go off to London to watch a musical, (travelling as always by Megabus ) that we go to Parliament Square to see this statue. She also asked a load of questions about Abraham Lincoln, whose statue also graces the same square, according to the news broadcast. This of course prompted a lot of interest in slavery and the Union of states and then the US civil war.
And so our home education goes on. We are almost at the end of our second go at blogging here. After I blog about Lucy’s first sailing lesson on Monday it will be someone else’s turn to take over.
Lucy has almost decided on which OU course to apply for, she has decided to return to choir and to start ballet classes at Birmingham Dance Xchange. She now wants guitar lessons and is talking about piano lessons (where will I put a piano???). Besides sailing, we are also looking forward to a resumption of drama classes, and all the other home ed meetings -including team games and the philosophy debates.
