2cool4schoolmedway

SNOW!

2012-02-08T17:53:00.000Z

Don't get excited! This is last year's snow fall but I hadn't posted it yet so figured you could have a look now.

Last weekend...

Some photos of outings (old and new)

2012-02-08T16:50:00.000Z

RCP

Love Music Hate Racism

Medway Happenings

British Museum

Chatham Dockyard

Titanic Exhibition

Saxon Shore Way

English Festival

Faversham Rec

Park

Picnibble

Park

Whitstable

Aveling & Porter Protest

Fort Pitt Arches

Two Sides Exhibition

Village Green Preservation Society gig in Rochester Castle gardens

Broadstairs

Sweeps Festival

Wedding Singer

Groovy Uncle video at Central Theatre

Groovy Uncle video in Rochester

Eyes All Around exhibition

Birthday boy!

Pool

Photo walk with Didi Bergman

Science Museum

Playing in a skip. As you do.

Park

Performance by Minx's drama group

Fireworks and Lava

2012-01-31T00:28:00.001Z

We did a bit of chemistry in the kitchen today - a couple of density demonstrations using water, oil, food colouring and salt. We plan to do proper experiments soon, changing the variables to see if we get the same results.

Fireworks...
1. Fill a jar with water.
2. Mix a few drops each of 3 different food colourings and a couple of tablespoons of sunflower or vegetable oil in a small cup.
3. Pour the oil slowly onto the water and watch the fireworks.

The small globules of food colouring, heavier than the oil, sink into the water where they disperse in inky wisps.

Lava in a cup...
1. Fill about 3/4 of a jar with water and mix in a few drops of red food colouring.
2. Slowly top it up with an inch or so of sunflower or vegetable oil.
3. Sprinkle a teaspoon of salt onto the oil and observe.

The salt, heavier than the oil and the water, sinks to the bottom of the jar, taking some of the oil with it. As the salt dissolves, the oil pops back up to the surface creating an effect similar to a lava lamp. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery power and I couldn't find my charger so there are no photos of the lava cup demonstration this time.

Weirdo also did a Brainpop quiz on compounds and mixtures, and learned about the kinds of plants used in various household items such as medicine, toothpaste, teas, food, toiletries and cosmetics. He googled some of these plants to find out what their medicinal properties are. He found out that eucalyptus is used to clean and deodorise, that Pinus Sylvestris, otherwise known as Scots Pine, is an anti-inflammatory, that ginger aids digestion, and that Pracaxi oil is derived from a nut and is used to condition hair.

All of this exploration came from our mythology project, believe it or not. A little while ago, while researching the legend of King Arthur, Weirdo found that potions containing plants were often used to cure all sorts of ailments, and together we typed up a recipe for a lung syrup. I figured we could expand on that a bit, so today we did just that.

Tree Tales - January

2012-01-30T00:00:00.002Z

We're starting a new project with a group of home educators and other friends. The idea is to choose a tree and watch how it changes throughout the year. I'm not great at tree recognition, so without their leaves, all trees look pretty much the same to me, making Winter the perfect time to start a project like this. I'm looking forward to finding out what kind of trees ours become.

I say "trees" because Weirdo couldn't settle on just the one. So we have a super gnarly tree and another one which splits into two trunks, that had a bird's nest in it.

I'm pretty sure this is a thrush. He was sat very high up in the windy branches.

On our way to the riverside we passed another tree with Chinese lanterns hanging from its branches - leftovers from the recent new year celebrations.

Radio Sunlight

2012-01-24T23:41:00.000Z

At the weekend, Phil took Weirdo to the Radio Sunlight studio where three local bands were recording live sessions - Stuart Turner and The Flat Earth Society, Los Salvadores and Crybaby Special. While Phil took photos of the action, and our friend Hannah filmed it, Weirdo had his own agenda. He taught radio DJ, Fizzer, how to sling webs like Spider-man, and musician, Joe Cottiss, the finer points of a game called Plants vs Zombies :-D

This is what Weirdo had to say about the day, "I went into the control room a few times and there was a massive Spider-man figure in there so I taught Fizzer how to sling webs properly. There was this massive desk with buttons and sliders all over it, and computers and speakers. It's really awesome because there's a live room here *holds hand like a spider*, and there are these window panels high on the wall here *does karate chops with other hand*, and outside the live room are stairs that go all the way up and around *swirly hands*, so you can look through the windows from upstairs and see the live room below. I could watch the bands from up there and play on the laptop. I played Plants vs Zombies and when I was on my own I put the zombie song on and sang along."

The Guardian

2012-01-04T14:39:00.002Z

Weirdo wrote this for a competition in The Guardian in association with Bloomsbury's 247 Tales site. The idea was to write a story entitled The Guardian in 247 words. This was a one off competition, but the 247 Tales site runs its own competition every month. It will be back in March.

The Guardian

Being chased by demons was normal for Jay and the hooded man who called himself the Guardian. Drenching the demons in water and firing a powerful lightning bolt ought to fry them all at once, but he couldn't do it alone. Even with his enormous powers Jay was unable to produce that much lightning. The Guardian knew instinctively what to do, and Jay concentrated with all his might. He felt a cool tingling sensation surging through him, pouring the power of water into his fingertips.

Jay's water and the Guardian's lightning fused on impact with their stalkers' skeletal faces. The demons fizzed and melted, and Jay felt his watermark etch itself fully into his fingertips.

Back at the dojo, Jay practised throwing firebolts at the training dummy. His firemark was etching itself more prominently into his fingers and he wondered if it was normal to master the elements so quickly. Air, Earth, Energy, Water, Fire – they were his to command. What was he being prepared for?

Jay's concentration broke as a small boy clattered into the room.

“I need a place to hide”, he stammered breathlessly.

“Catch!” called the Guardian.

The soft cloth almost slipped through Jay's fingers as he caught it – the Guardian's hood.

A momentary glimpse of the Guardian's face revealed a sad smile. Then he disappeared.

Jay took a deep breath, put on the hood, and held out his hand to the boy. “Come on, let's go!”

Christmas

2012-01-03T11:28:00.000Z

Apparently Weirdo didn't share my priority of getting a good photo before the presents were opened :)

Hope you all enjoyed your various celebrations. All the best for a promising new year xo

Minx's Trench

2012-01-02T16:41:00.000Z

Not technically HE since Minx is now at school, but this was done entirely at home so it counts! It was part of a history presentation about trenches in the first world war.

Minx was very experimental in her approach to this. Her first challenge was our lack of brown paint. We tried a few combinations of colours but despite the fact that all colours make brown or grey when mixed together, we couldn't find anything remotely approaching the colour of mud. So Minx decided she would use cocoa powder and PVA glue. This proved pretty effective. After she padded out her box to create a cross section of trench, she soaked a dishcloth in plaster and draped it over her structure (front trench, fire step, support trench), leaving it to dry. And because the cocoa powder worked a treat, she decided to continue along the food theme, creating ammunition crates out of painted sugar cubes and sandbags out of crushed up Weetabix and PVA. After a few coats of "paint", she added some strips of cork coaster for the duck boards. It was beginning to smell a bit, um... organic.

She added some toy soldiers and de-tinselled pipe-cleaners for barbed wire. The "mud" began to crack as it dried, and it looked pretty authentic.

Now as I said, the presentation was due at the end of last term, and as happened with her presentation the year before, the teacher didn't have time to get through the whole class. So Minx will do her presentation when she goes back to school. And this stinky little beauty has been in her locker for three weeks. Pheee-ew!

Kent, Swale and Medway Meet Up

2011-12-11T00:59:00.002Z

Last week we went along to the first session of a new fortnightly meet in Faversham, organised by one of our home ed chums. There were loads of kids there from babies to teens and lots of stuff for them to be getting on with.

There was circus skills equipment set up in the sports hall, along with goal posts and balls, and two table tennis tables. I impressed myself with my goal scoring skills, though the 9 year old goalie, a lad I'd met just once before, made some spectacular saves. One of the dads got roped into some "maths juggling". I didn't hang around to find out what that is ;-).

There was a kitchen for making the essential cuppa, and a lounge with a television, sofa and beanbags and a lovely Christmas tree. Someone had bought some toys in for the little ones, who played their own version of Twister.

There was an art room upstairs where a few of the older girls decorated some photo frames as Christmas presents. It was so well-stocked. I spent ages mooching through the cupboards and drawers, after we were invited to help ourselves. There was paint, glue guns, card and paper, beads, jewellery wire and findings, clay, wood blanks, fabrics, chalks, crayons, collage materials, potter's wheels, glass and ceramics pens and paints, stickers, engraving and embossing pens, just tonnes of stuff.

Also upstairs is a music room which we'll be able to access once we have a musician in tow. I spied plenty of instruments in there including a drum kit when I peeked through the little window in the door. There is also a games room with a pool table which we'll be able to access in the new year.

Back downstairs there were two more rooms for us to use. One had PCs and a playstation and a cupboard full of board games. The other had a Wii set up in the corner and a few chairs, but there was a mirrored wall in there just in case anyone fancied bursting into spontaneous dance.

It was a great first meet, and I was so busy catching up with friends, playing football, trying to juggle with silks, attempting to make a diabolo work, drinking tea, chomping biccies, trailing toddlers and rubbing myself with glitter that I totally failed to take any photographs.

I barely caught sight of Weirdo as he played happily with his friends. From what I did see, they played Sonic and Mario Olympics on the Wii, Little Big Planet 2 on the PlayStation, chatted loads, tried out the diabolos and spinning plates, and did a lot of drawings.

It took a couple of days to get over all the excitement, but we're looking forward to the next meet just before Christmas. Should be fun :-D

Shorne Woods

2011-12-05T01:10:00.000Z

We've only been to Shorne Woods twice ever. Not having a car often means we can't get to the types of places where you can go for a good walk. Oh, the irony. The first time we went to Shorne was with my lovely friend, Nicki, in July 2008. It was our first official day of home education, the day when all the other children were visiting their new classrooms and finding out who would be teaching them come September.

Back then, I had quite different ideas about what education is. I thought you could apply school hours and timetables to life at home. I thought it was best to focus on maths and literacy like they do in schools. We tried it that way, but it didn't really work for us. We've tried all sorts of approaches since, and that's the beauty of HE. It is flexible and no subject is off limits. And most of the time, we're learning without realising that's what we're doing. Sometimes Weirdo works late in the evening or early in the morning, or both, but he doesn't see it as working or as learning. He sees it as just being.

Although Minx has been back at school for well over a year now, it seemed fitting that she joined us for our second trip to Shorne. Her year was excused from school that day due to strike action, so we headed off to Higham on the train, and were picked up at the station by one of our HE friends.

Minx looking like she's just been dragged out of a river. All the kids had been working together to build a den.

This lot had more uses for sticks than you could shake a stick at :-)

It was all a bit much for Weirdo who needed to have a bit of a lie down :-D

We nipped into town for a bit of shopping on our way home, looking like a gaggle of muddy swamp monsters. Minx had mud everywhere so I sent her off to buy some trousers, while Weirdo chose to buy himself a fetching set of ear muffs.

We really mustn't leave it so long before we visit Shorne again.

Bat Boy

2011-11-14T20:07:00.002Z

Weirdo thinks he is a bat. He loves Batman and can draw him with his eyes shut. He watched the Brainpop video about bats, then scored 10 out of 10 on the accompanying quiz. Apparently my praise wasn't necessary. "What do you expect, mum? It was a quiz about my own kind" ;-)

Beardy took him to the Vines in Rochester over the summer for a bat walk and talk and I totally forgot about it. Weirdo was given a handheld bat detector to use and was very excited as you can probably tell by the video below.

More Remembering

2011-11-13T23:46:00.001Z

The wreath we made

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

From Laurence Binyon's poem For the Fallen, written in September 1914

We received an amazing resource pack from the Royal British Legion recently and it's formed the basis for our discussions about war and remembrance. There was a great DVD in the pack and we sat watching quietly as young men went to war, as today's brave soldiers battled on with their scars and disabilities, and we learned a whole lot about the great work that the British Legion does to support our troops and their families. We haven't even looked at the CD ROM that came in the pack yet, and there's plenty to read about, including how ethnic minorities have contributed to British forces in conflict over the last hundred years.

As far as I'm aware you can still order this year's pack at the Royal British Legion's website. The packs are available each year from September.

Beardy took some photos of the remembrance parades in Chatham and Rochester today...

Spooky Halloween

2011-11-13T22:56:00.001Z

So I've got it a bit the wrong way round posting Halloween after Guy Fawkes but I've only just taken the couple of photos I had off the camera. We were supposed to go to a party but I somehow managed to throw my back out so we missed out on all the fun. In the end the kids made some masks to freak out the trick or treaters and spent most of the evening to-ing and fro-ing to the door. By six, we'd completely run out of sweets.

My pet balloon kept a close eye on things...

And the cat in the pumpkin stayed toasty warm...

We all made some spiderweb paper cuts and stuck them on the wall above the lamp. I don't know who the guy on the right is though...

Maybe it's the ghost of Guy Fawkes 8-/

Guy Fawkes

2011-11-07T23:51:00.001Z

We've been learning about the Gunpowder Plot over the past few days with the aid of our good friend, The Doctor.

You can download the game here.

We watched a tv programme about Guy Fawkes and Robert Catesby, and read an old Horrible Histories magazine about The Slimy Stuarts - including the almost blown to smithereens, James I, who became the king of England when we ran out of Tudors :-D

I'm glad it's something that we remember and celebrate but, as is the case with Halloween, I also wonder if people actually know what they're celebrating. Essentially we're throwing a Catholic on a bonfire! We're celebrating a foiled plot, the survival of the King, the decline of Catholicism. Or are we really celebrating the life of the last man to enter parliament with honest intentions? The rebel in me would like to think so.

"More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives." - V for Vendetta

Anyway, that's enough political nonsense! Below are some photos the kids took of our local fireworks display.

Minx's photos...

Weirdo's photos...

Homemade Find It

2011-11-07T00:12:00.001Z

For each colour use 1 cup of rice, 2 teaspoons of rice vinegar, a few drops of food colouring. Squish it all together in a ziplock bag then leave it out to dry on some greaseproof paper.

Then scour the house for small objects to put in the bottle (we used an empty lemonade bottle) - marbles, buttons, paper clips, craft matchsticks, pompoms, small coins, etc. We photographed each item individually against black card and cropped each photo into squares and made a mosaic using Picnik.

Print out the sheet and laminate it so the items can be ticked off over and over again.

We added a bit more rice after this photo was taken.

Science Museum

2011-11-07T00:02:00.000Z

Titanic Exhibition at Chatham Dockyard

2011-11-06T23:54:00.000Z

King of the World

The Heart of the Ocean

necklace worn by Kate Winslet

in Titanic

Props from the film

Water damaged silver pocket watch which stopped working the moment it entered the ice cold North Atlantic Ocean during the Titanic's sinking in the early hours of Monday April 15th, 1912. Unfortunately we do not know who the pocket watch belonged to as the victim of the tragedy didn't have any identification when recovered by the cable ship - Mackay Bennett, the gentleman was buried at sea in a respectful service. We have the pocket watch on display in the exhibition as a tribute to all those who were lost and those who survived the Titanic tragedy.

"Nearer My God To Thee"

This Steiff bear belonged to William Young Moyes, Titanic's Senior Sixth Engineer. He had the bear with him on Titanic as his good luck charm. Unfortunately, William perished with all of his fellow engineering crew whilst desperately trying to keep the ship afloat as long as they could.

The Captain's Pen

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

Chatham Dockyard

2011-11-06T23:45:00.000Z

British Museum

2011-11-06T23:39:00.000Z

We went to the British Museum last month with some home ed chums. The place is vast. We managed a really good look around the Egyptian galleries, a wander through the Roman and Persian galleries, a quick squizz at the Japanese gallery (though the kids were more fascinated by the wheelchair/buggy lift) and a bit of a play outside in the sunshine. How quickly autumn has arrived.

Can't Get Arrested

2011-11-05T00:17:00.000Z

Earlier this year, Weirdo had a little cameo in a music video. You can spot him 55 seconds in, and then again with his partner in crime at 3:26. The song is by Groovy Uncle.

Viking Longship Collage

2011-11-04T01:47:00.000Z

Finished!

Sea - gold dimensional paint and pastels on black card.
Sky - watercolours.
Longship and shields - wood paper, sharpies and split pins.
Vikings - printed materials
Sail - fabric and pen.

Viking Longship and Buoyancy Investigation

2011-11-04T01:42:00.000Z

Weirdo made a longship from a juice carton, a straw, some card and masking tape. We used this tutorial.

It floats beautifully and has a working rudder. Weirdo completed a worksheet - weighed the boat, said how much water would be displaced, weighed some bricks, did some mental arithmetic and predicted how many bricks would capsize the ship.

It was so much fun squashing all the bricks in the boat, that Weirdo didn't even mind that his estimate was way off.

It took 20 bricks to topple it over.

All Caught up with Myself

2011-11-04T01:06:00.000Z

Now that I've caught up with myself, I'll post what we're actually up to. That's assuming I remember this blog is here. Minx has had two weeks off for half-term and goes back to school on Monday. Not looking forward to it at all. I miss her horribly when she's at school. I've had a horrendous few weeks with one little ailment after another so don't feel like I've given her the best holiday in the world.

A couple of things she's been involved in which I forgot to mention...

In the summer, she performed with her drama academy chums at Her Majesty's Theatre in that London. All that Glee stuff is not really my cup of tea but I enjoyed the show enormously, and Minx had a great day. She got a gig t-shirt and met Pauline Quirke backstage. Weirdo almost decided to join the drama academy himself when he saw his sister onstage, but wasn't entirely convinced.

Minx also contributed some photographic work to an exhibition entitled Eyes All Around which took place at The Brook Theatre gallery in May. Her photos were taken at the Aveling & Porter protests and were a series of abstracts based on the paintings of Peter Reeds.

So, we're back to work next week.

Filming Wheels

2011-10-24T23:35:00.000+01:00

Minx and Beardy went to Canterbury to film our friends, Wheels, who were performing at the bandstand in Dane John gardens.

Here is her video...

Film Maker

2011-10-24T23:28:00.000+01:00

With help from Steve Snaps and his time lapse photos, the awesome talents of local artist, Peter Reeds, and a bit of musical magic from the incomparable Didi Bergman, Minx made a video of the destruction of the Aveling & Porter building in Strood. The video was shown at a special exhibition at the Deaf Cat cafe in Rochester which marked the opening of their new premises.

Outside the Deaf Cat on the day the Aveling & Porter exhibition opened

Minx interviewing Peter Reeds about the A&P building.

Ice Skating

2011-10-24T23:14:00.000+01:00

It's such a shame it took us so long to find the home ed ice skating group. Minx had already decided on school by this time and would have given it all up for ice skating if she wasn't quite so sensible. She really persevered with it and made so much progress. You can't see from the photo but she had slid to a stop on one leg, no mean feat since she gets her sense of coordination from me.

BBC Turn Back Time

2011-10-24T23:06:00.001+01:00

The BBC Turn Back Time programme came to a high street near us and opened a pop-up shop. Weirdo had lots of fun cork sniffing! Yes, really. Each cork was stuffed in a box of dried goods and the idea was to figure out what it was from the smell. He did really well guessing all the herbs considering green stuff in his food makes him twitch. There was old furniture to sit on while you watched a slideshow of the changing high street, a local historian to chat to, lots of little information stands and hands-on exhibits and quizzes, and of course, a shop front. It wasn't long before Minx rolled her sleeves up, put a pinny on and became Mr Taylor's newest shop assistant.

He wanted his ancient Rolos arranged just so. I think he was sorry to see her go. He said she was dead good with money :-)

BBC Television Centre

2011-10-19T16:18:00.000+01:00

We all took a trip up to White City for a tour around BBC Television Centre. The first sight to greet us was the Prank Patrol van, and then the TARDIS. We were practically wetting ourselves by this time :-)

HESFES

2011-10-19T15:51:00.002+01:00

I've been going through all the old photos and don't have a clue why I haven't posted them on here, so here are some from HESFES 2009. It's a week long festival for home educators held every year in the summer. The location varies, but in 2009 it was near The Hop Farm, which isn't far from us. Minx loved it, but Weirdo was not keen on all the flying critters. I think it's fair to say that they were actually stalking him.

A huge backlog of photos 2009

2011-10-19T15:31:00.000+01:00

A few photographic highlights from 2009

Tidal Flow Exhibition Opening

Music Video for Groovy Uncle

Christmas Morning

Minx Interviews Local Artist Peter Reeds

Circus Skills

Minx Interviews Photographer and Musician, Rew Oates

Map Reading in Tunbridge Wells

Map Reading on a Steam Train

SNOW!!

BOING!!

WHEEEEEEEEE!!

Guildhall Museum, Rochester

Broadstairs

Gingerbread Man

Chatham Dockyard

Toys from the Past Workshop

Photo Walk

Faversham Creek

Circus Skills

Zoetrope at Guildhall Museum, Rochester

Sonic the Hedgehog

2011-10-19T10:22:00.000+01:00

Weirdo is a little Sonic obsessed. Mash it up with his love of Lego and we're onto a winning combination. He used a tutorial on YouTube, but even so, it looks pretty good. He's also been making his own Sonic comic which has 6 pages so far. He even made himself a little companion guide and stapled it together. It's filled with images of Robotnik's little pets so that he can draw them accurately. He really does think of everything :)

Think we might get a game or two for the Wii this Christmas, as he only has Sonic for his DS and I know he'd love to play Sonic with his dad :D

Vikings

2011-10-19T10:15:00.000+01:00

OK, so that didn't quite work out. I am trying to resuscitate this blog, honest! If I could have one extra hour in the day, I could sort it. Now, who do I talk to about that? ;)

We've had quite a busy month with park visits, cinema trips, outings with other home edders and museum visits. We're nearing the end of our Viking project, and will soon begin learning about local legends and other little mythologies from around the UK and Ireland.

Weirdo has attempted a little Danish, completed online quests, built a longship and conducted a buoyancy experiment with it, drawn some fabulous pictures, including one of a dragon which will be printed on fabric and made into a softie. He has made his own runes, a plaster cast warrior stone which he has carved runic symbols into, and coins from clay. He has watched videos about Viking life and he even sang the Horrible Histories Viking song at a party recently in a room full of adults - not a nerve in sight. We have read lots of myths together and he has read How to Train Your Dragon independently. We have watched the film of it together and discussed the differences between the book and the film. He's done some Viking maths and used his map skills to answer questions about Viking settlements. His final project is a multi-media collage - watercolours for the sunset, gold embossing paint and pastels for the sea, wood paper collage for the longship and shields, printed material for the Vikings, fabric for the sail. It should look fab when it's finished. It's been an interesting topic with loads of scope for cross-curricular activity.

Revival

2011-09-07T09:08:00.001+01:00

Right, that's it! I'm resuscitating this blog and there's nothing you can do to stop me!

After several memory fails I managed to log into this old blog, only to find two comments awaiting moderation. Two comments which had been there for eighteen months. Eighteen months! What have I been doing with myself? Apologies to the lovely mummynat for the huge delay in responding to her question. I would like to assure her that I haven't been eaten by the children.

So much has happened since then. Minx has been at school for a whole year and for the most part seems to be enjoying it. She struggles with the desire to fling a protractor at her maths teacher's "stupid smug face" and has inherited my aversion to sport, but is otherwise quite happy with her decision.

Weirdo is still happily bouncing along with HE. We have met some lovely local HE people with similar aged kids, which is great. Now the school holidays are over, we're planning on meeting them regularly for a bit of mad fun. We have also set up a blog for HE boys so they can talk to each other about Lego, Doctor Who, superheroes, etc.

Back soon. I mean it...

Radio Scilly

2009-11-12T23:35:00.000Z

The husband was interviewed on Radio Scilly last week about music and Medway Eyes. You can download the interview from the blog link above or stream it from the Medway Eyes website where you can also download the free 21 track album featuring some of Medway's finest musicians, and the free e-zine celebrating our first year. The e-zine features photos from dozens of local photographers, 3 exhibitions, a photo walk and several gigs. It's all wrapped up in our birthday bundle on the ME1 page. So download and enjoy!

Back 2 School

2009-11-05T00:22:00.002Z

Well, Minx passed the 11+ and we're all very proud of her. She did it under her own steam, working towards her own goal of going to grammar school. So she has made the decision to go back to school next year and while I'm happy to blurt that out here, I find myself wondering why I haven't told the family yet. Or more specifically, certain members of the family.

Not everyone liked it when we decided to home educate. Some thought the kids would get themselves a nice wedge haircut and a pair of lederhosen, and become social misfits. I confess myself disappointed as I find lederhosen rather intriguing. Perhaps I shall buy myself some. Anyhow, my reluctance to tell certain family members is bothering me. It's not that I care what they think. As far as I'm concerned they have no right to even comment. I see them once a year, speak to them on the phone occasionally and hear them scuttling away from my door anxious to get back in their cars and drive away before I get the chance to see who is hand-delivering birthday cards. They don't care about my kids any more than Ed Balls does. I just can't bear to see the smug grins on their faces. I will be forced into pointless conversations where they try to get me to admit that I was wrong and they were right all along, and I will end up foisting a walnut up somebody's nostrils and escorting the worst offender to A & E to have a satsuma surgically removed from their arsehole. And frankly, I can think of better ways to spend Christmas.

Lazy Mare

2009-10-04T01:50:00.003+01:00

God, I've been a lazy mare. As far as this blog goes, anyway.

So where are we at educationally?

Well Minx has decided to sit the 11 plus and go back to school only if she passes. This is a fairly recent decision which I'm not sure about, but it is her life and her choice. She's recently started going to a local home ed ice skating group and is doing fantastically well since she gets her sense of co-ordination from me. She's been doing loads of writing recently and is determined to publish her first book by Christmas.

Weirdo told me that under no circumstances would he go near a school again. He calls it the "S word" and it is the worst form of torture, apparently, the second being the "L word", or love as the rest of us call it. He finds it particularly icky when I tell him I love him. He still loves his cuddles though, and I only tell him I love him to wind him up :-) But since he winds me up by listening to jazz, I figure all's fair in the L word and war. He built an excellent Lego creation yesterday, based on a superhero character from his own comic. It's a kind of rabbit on a "bunnymobile" and as you push it along, the rabbit actually pedals. I have no idea how he did it, but it was bloody clever. Minx helped him to make the Lego rabbit a set of bunny ears out of pipe cleaners and to sew on a cape. I'll have to get some photos up on the website soon. Weirdo enjoyed a trip to a local museum recently with his dad so much that he wants to go back as soon as possible. He was inspired by the prison hulks to the point where he didn't shut up about it until tea time when a mouth full of broccoli proved not to be conducive to talking.

As for me, I'm knackered. I've been ignoring the horrendous Badman situation for a while to concentrate on the task of actually being with my kids, but also to work on another project. I've just finished that so now I can chill out a bit. Maybe sleep properly for a change.

The project I've just finished working on is for local artists collective, Medway Eyes (of which I am co-founder). It's an e-zine and 21 track compilation which can be downloaded for free from the Medway Eyes website.

Anyway, that'll do for now. Oh, and Terry Deary... don't you just love him?

Making Connections

2009-01-09T23:48:00.003Z

Originally posted on http://2cool4schoolmedway.co.uk/homeeducation_blog.html on 17/12/08

We met some other home edders yesterday. We went to see Treasure Island at The Brook Theatre in the morning and to an indoor play centre in the afternoon. One of the things that struck me was that, with the exception of my daughter and one other child, the whole group were boys. I could hazard a guess as to why this might be, and be fairly accurate too, but I won't be taking the leap right now. More information required, I think.

The kids had a great time. As we went to the play centre just after lunch, they had the place to themselves apart from a couple of toddlers, and spent a good few hours charging around and making up spy adventure games while the mums talked an awful lot.

The kids slept very well last night.

Lazy Day

2008-12-27T19:48:00.000Z

Originally posted on http://2cool4schoolmedway.co.uk/homeeducation_blog.html on 09/12/08

I felt that today was a bit of a lazy day as we're still getting over a cold but, on reflection, it was quite productive.

Weirdo started doing Hanjie puzzles the minute he rolled out of bed, did a bit of Lego building (he's been designing a Lego Santa complete with reindeer and sleigh and a Spiderman on a bike!). He read his Marvel annual and finished several drawings for his comic. I taught him how to scan the pictures, which he uploaded himself to a photo editing programme. Then he added speech bubbles and text to his pictures and worked on a design for the cover. He played a Raven game on CBBC, watched The Justice League, then built a human eyeball kit. Nice!

Minx spent much of the day configuring her new phone. Well, she calls it configuring, I call it fiddling. She started designing a sweet sauce to put on cakes, or cereals as an alternative to honey. She wants it to be custardy and jammy and in a stock cube type form so you can add it to milk and make delicious drinks. She also thought about ingredients to make a yummy salad dressing. She made us all lunch - yummy crumpets! She listened to some music while she jotted down some ideas for her mag.

My mum came for a visit in the afternoon and the kids gave her her birthday present, the Mamma Mia DVD. The visit mostly involved lots of excitable voices and cuddles and ended with my mum handing over a fiver for the Send a Cow project. Sweet! Then, we all watched a history channel programme about Mercury and Venus.

So that's maths, reading, art, ICT and science for Weirdo, and ICT, science, cookery, music and writing for Minx. Add to that the general buzz of conversation throughout the day. Add the bedtime reading. Not bad for a lazy day.

I typed up the blogs I'd been sitting on for days, worked on some publicity materials and talked to Weirdo about the tooth-rotting capabilities of fizzy drinks. When Beardy got home, we hashed over some plans for a new Medway Eyes project in the Spring, while the kids sat on him in a contented heap. I even managed an internet shop.

One very beautiful side effect of not spending the morning trying to drag screaming kids out of the house is that we now have the time and inclination for cuddles. One day last week we sat on the sofa watching TV. I had Weirdo on my lap with his Hanjie book and Minx tucked under my arm. We sat like that until half eleven. I remember thinking to myself, 'Now this is what I had kids for'.

Internet Safety

2008-12-27T19:41:00.000Z

Originally posted on http://2cool4schoolmedway.co.uk/homeeducation_blog.html on 03/12/08

A couple of days after we sent our reply to the inclusions team, we got an email from a lady at the council about internet safety asking whether we, as home educating parents, would be prepared to take a look at a website designed to promote internet safety. The website, Think U Know, offers a lot of tips, mostly common sense stuff really, but you'd be surprised how few people actually exhibit common sense these days. There are sections for various age groups and for parents/carers, with games and advice about cyber bullying and internet predators. Minx was all over it, but couldn't get any of the games to load despite having the most up-to-date version of Flash. We'll try again in a few days.

The lady who contacted us was a Child Exploitation Online Protection Unit Ambassador (CEOP) and I think the implication was that as there are no firm figures of home educated children, and as safety talks usually take place in schools, home edders would miss out on these and could, therefore, be a particularly vulnerable group. Internet safety classes for children and parents in schools during the day or in the evening could be made available to all parents, I guess. Most home educated families spend time in libraries, so making the information available there would be a start. I decided to interview Minx on the subject.

Mum: Did you have any talks about internet safety at school?

Minx: No. We had the stranger danger talk and fire safety.

Mum: What about the ICT teacher? Did she give you any safety tips?

Minx: To be honest, I don't think she knows any more about computers than I do.

Mum: OK, so if a friend sent you an email with an attachment what would you do?

Minx: I'd download the attachment then scan it with Norton.

Mum: And you would know how to do that?

(At this point, I am subjected to a withering look. From a 9 year old).

Mum: What if the email was from somebody you didn't know?

Minx: I'd ask you if you knew them. If you didn't, I'd delete the email and all its contents without opening it. And I'd block their emails if I could.

Mum: So if you got a dialogue box popping up, what would you do?

Minx: Pop ups are disabled.

Mum: Imagine pop ups weren't disabled. Then what?

Minx: If it was one I recognised from a programme we run, I'd ok it. If it was a grey one I'd click on the X. If it didn't go away, I'd open windows task manager and close it from there. (I didn't even know about this little gem!)

(We don't think Minx is old enough to use chat rooms or instant messaging but I asked her the following anyway)

Mum: If you were in a chat room what information is it safe to give out?

Minx: Nothing that is personal. Nothing that would identify me. I wouldn't give my real name, or address, or phone number.

Mum: What if someone asked you for photos of yourself or for your phone number?

Minx: I would ignore them. Or block them.

Mum: How would you do that?

Minx: I'd go to my account settings or to a help forum.

Mum: If someone you didn't know in real life wanted to be a friend online what would you do?

Minx: I wouldn't add them as a friend if I didn't know them. If they were related to a real life friend I might consider it.

Mum: So how come you know all this stuff then?

Minx: You and Dad. Well, mostly Dad. I probably know more than you do.

Mum: Thank you, Minx.

Minx: You're welcome : )

I guess we are lucky that Beardy has been an IT professional for so long. He is very knowledgeable about computer safety and such. What I think we have a tendency to forget, is that our children are growing up with this technology. Sometimes, I'm amazed at how much Minx knows - little shortcuts, buttons I didn't know existed, etc. Kids can learn their way around new technology very quickly when given the opportunity to do so. Beardy found this BBC article today:

"Pupils are using special websites to hack out of their school computer network while in the classroom."

I think it would definitely be a good idea to teach aspects of internet safety in schools, but judging by the frequency with which our next door neighbour pops round to ask advice about getting rid of viruses that his teenage daughter has let in, I'd say schools aren't quite there yet.

First Contact with LEA

2008-12-27T19:34:00.000Z

Originally posted on http://2cool4schoolmedway.co.uk/homeeducation_blog.html on 22/11/08

We recently received a letter from Medway Council's Inclusions Team about our decision to home educate. We weren't sure what the council's attitude would be towards home educators but we were left in no doubt once we'd read their letter. It was patronising, presumptuous and showed complete ignorance about home education. The council had taken it upon themselves to arrange an appointment for a stranger to visit our house, without our consent or any consultation whatsoever. Not a great start. The letter did not explain the reason for the visit, nor did the envelope contain the leaflet they claimed contained useful information.

They also sent us a questionnaire for each child. Frankly, they could have answered all of the questions on the first page themselves, using the information they already have on file - all of the questions except one. Next to the words "Reason for Home Educating", a dotted line of precisely eight centimetres was provided. I'm not joking. Eight centimetres. We couldn't even fit the cherry in that space, let alone the rest of the cake.

They asked for a timetable of subjects regularly taught and referred us to the National Curriculum. As if we want to drag our kids back down that path to boredom. As for timetables, there is no legal requirement to have one and we feel our children have been stifled enough without imposing strict regimes at home. If having a timetable will benefit them, we will use one, and encourage the children to fill it in themselves with activities of their choice. The inclusions team asked us how many hours of education we are providing each week, rather missing the point that learning is a natural experience and children don't need to be given prescribed times in which they may learn. They are not programmable robots set to learn between the hours of nine and three. We don't want to separate their education from everyday life because it just isn't necessary. In fact, it can be counter-productive.

My favourite question, no doubt designed to make us feel inferior, asked who would be teaching the children and if they were qualified teachers. I said it was my favourite question, what I meant was that it made me laugh.

They asked us what opportunities we are providing for the kids to mix with other children. The council knows how many other families there are home educating locally. They know it's perfectly possible for home educated kids to lead an active social life. The socialisation argument does seem to be a bit of a theme to those not familiar with home education. Schools are not the perfect social model, they are artificial environments for goodness sake.

They asked us about our library and education visits, perhaps not realising that our book collection puts most libraries to shame. We have educational visits every time we leave the house. Education happens anywhere. Everywhere. I do enjoy taking the kids to the library and letting them have a runabout outside on the green by the river. But soon, they won't be able to do that, because the same council is replacing the lovely green space with flats for yuppies.

Even the name of the department bothers me - Inclusions Team. It immediately implies that we are excluded, and that they are somehow trying to help us fit back in. We didn't fall out of the mainstream. We jumped out of our own accord. We didn't like it there. It didn't work for us. It's not us that need the help. In fact, if the council needs a little help writing a relevant questionnaire, they need only ask.