Twenty-Ten

Today has been a day of washing clothes, tidying up and packing in preparation for our holiday next week. We’ve looked up a few spanish words which the children have been practicing on each other. They are really interested in new words and aren’t at all self-conscious about trying them. We had a shopping trip for last bits and the only thing we seem to be short of now is underwear.

We recieved delivery of more e-bay parcels but otherwise did very little in the morning.

In the afternoon we met up with a couple of friends from home-ed group. It’s the third time in a seven days that we’ve seen them and it’s really interesting watching the friendships develop. There doesn’t seem to be any specific pairings and they play in every combination possible. Potatoe printing was laid on followed by lovely home made scones and then some outdoor play involving bicycles, trikes and scooters. It was an excellent afternoon.

Was a two year old day. We met up with both our friends with two year olds who are likely to be home educated. Our host naturally falls into nursery nurse position and fairly quickly had all the children organised around a table for painting. I drank coffee and got a grilling from an elderly relative about the usual stuff (qualifications needed to home educate, what if a child is gifted, GCSEs, what if your child never learns to read, how to know what to teach etc) plus a comment about how the government will really have to start monitoring it properly as it’s getting so popular  which had me speachless for long enough that she must have assumed that I agree. I waffled on quite a lot and I’m not sure I actually offered her any reassurance when in hindsight I could have probably answered every question by explaining that a home educated child can rejoin the school system at any time and will catch up fairly quickly. After the painting play-doh was offered, lunch and drinks were provided and our artwork bagged up for us to take home with us.

We visited Mum for a second lunch (yes, my children really do eat two lunches, and usually two breakfasts as well) and then went on to the library to admire a display by a local home educated child and of course, to choose an armful of books.

We started reading My Naughty Little Sister by Dorothy Edwards which I remember my Mum reading to me. It’s a lot simpler to follow than some of our recent ones but just as interesting. The narrater often asks questions like "Do you know what she did?" and Ms R always answers which is quite amusing, I’m not sure if she thinks I’m asking them or is just so caught up in the story. We also re-read Six Dinner Sid by Inga Moore as Master Rs choice.