Official Local Authority report

Here is a copy of the letter following up the visit made to us from the Local Authority.
If you are interested in the preceding post to put this in context you can find the link HERE Visit from Local Authority

Needless to say that we were happy with a lovely report!

Conquer Maths and The Solar System

This week has been a bit hit and miss because putting my back out and having raging toothache has left me feeling really ropey.

I think it proved that Barnaby really feeds off my enthusiasm about getting things done and is not of an age to be self sufficient in learning. That's not to say he hasn't done anything of course, just that me facilitating his learning or putting something under his nose if often the way it begins and without that he's been inclined to build a den, hide with his tablet or watch Dr Who on Netflix (not complaining, I love Dr Who). I am looking forward to being tip top again and getting back on track.

The early start of the solar system - can't  you tell?!

We've watched some educational programmes including lots of Deadly 60 (thank you Steve Backshall for cheering me up while feeling sorry for myself) and Scrapheap Challenge which just so happened to be in honour of Isambard Kingdom Brunel so that was following on from our learning last week.

Tuesday he enjoyed sports club and as well as enjoying that, he loves when sports club ends and all the kids disappear outside and run around playing their own games in the hedges and undergrowth behind the YMCA! Tuesday night was Beavers again and they went to Forest School in the junior school next door. We had his friend over for tea and they created him a world on Minecraft for when he comes to play. As I explained to Barnaby the best way to confirm that you know how to do something is to teach someone else. You'll soon see where your own level of understanding is!

Wednesday we missed Home Ed club due to some emergency dental treatment I needed so my Mum came and made sure he got through his list of chores before taking him to the park where he spent 2 hours running around with new friends.

We have activated our account on Conquer Maths - online Maths lessons.(http://www.conquermaths.com/)  It is similar to the Mathletics he was signed up to at school but with this he can work at his own place as often as he likes. There is a 'lesson' with a test at the end and awards and certificates to work towards. He seemed to be quite interested and it helps that it's not always me teaching him - it's an online Australian teacher explaining how to do the maths. I'm just there checking his comprehension. We were really lucky to secure a super discount for a one year subscription thanks to the efforts of another Home Edder  negotiating the reduced rate for us as a group. As you will know there is no help or funding for kid educated anywhere than at school (despite the fact we aren't costing the government £5000 per year per child) so I was thrilled to be getting this with a £60 discount and intend to really make the most of it. I thought it was quite telling Barnaby wanted to start with Year 1 lessons because he is "rubbish at Maths" but soon changed his mind because it was way too easy!

The other stuff we've been working on is our Earth project - we wanted to make a paper mache Earth - but this had taken us down the route of the solar system so we all started on the Sun and Mars (thankfully the real Sun came out and aided the drying on the washing line!) It allowed us to look again at countries, continents and also the core and mantle of the earth.

At the moment Barnaby is really reluctant to do any writing whatsoever. Not sure why. He is just choosing to do everything else but that. I've mentioned a couple of writing competitions I've heard about which he tried not to be interested in but I think he was, we will see if that is enough to get him to pick up a pen!

I've put in place a fun daily test - the day before I tell him 3 things I will randomly ask him the following day: definition of a riddle/4 times table/draw the Egyptian flag and then when he's doing something else entirely (in a shop/eating tea/on the loo!) I'll ask him the questions. Just a quick way of improving his learning and recall.

I've been doing some research and found some great online resources so am merrily building up a series of powerpoints and printables that will help us in the future. I am putting them all into a blog post to share with you all.

Got a hectic week coming up so probably won't post again til next Friday - but you never know!

Scrapheaps, Balloons and an Oboe!

Barnabys TV  programme of the moment is Scrapheap Challenge - talk about engrossed. He seems to have an inherited knowledge of 'how to make things work'. His Daddy, and his Grampy, well they are engineery type peeps. His Dad 'does' 'stuff' (you might notice I am not one of these engineery type peeps and thus can't elaborate any further on that statement. It's stuff. And he does it.) Barnaby is also going to be a doer of this stuff. His engineering gene is switching on in his brain.
I am led to believe this because he shouts at the telly 'TUT. They don't have enough traction on that. If they go up anything steeper they'll just slide back down' and 'TUT one chain will never cope. They need a second to take the weight'.
Lo and behold 30 seconds later the expert is telling them their traction is dodgy and they need a second chain.
I don't know how he knows it. Neither does he. I asked him. He's got no clue.
Personally I am just thrilled he's very nearly graduated from the 'how to take things apart' stage of his life. Clocks, kitchen timers, anything with a cable, buttons or a noise has been dissected by Barnaby. Hopefully now he'll learn he has to put things back together too!

The upside of this Scrapheap Challenge fascination is that he's asked if he and his Dad can work on a project together on the weekends he's staying with him. His actual request was that he got his own workshop built and furnished with any sharp or dangerous tools and one that make bright sparks when you use it. I'm not sure that's going to happen but I expect he'll be feeling pretty chuffed when he's built himself a Go Kart or something!


This weekend was all about friends and family - it was my birthday Friday so he had chance to see some of his school friends who had popped in, then he spent 3 hours playing hide and seek with a couple of friends from in our road. Saturday he went to Cattle Country for another friends birthday and thoroughly enjoyed himself, running around, wearing himself out and stuffing his face with food!

For my birthday I was given some helium balloons - not only did they prove that 39 year olds love them as much as 7 year olds but they can prompt a whole chat about different types of gas and then cause Barnaby to spend at least an hour and a half attaching them on to various objects: socks, toy army men, toys and teddy bears to see if the balloons would lift any of them. I asked him to guess in advance whether they would, and how many he thought it might take.

The kittens were not so thrilled with this game and guess what... 3 balloons aren't enough to send a cat skyward but is enough to terrify them so they fly upstairs with the balloons bobbing behind them. Who knew?!

Sunday we had a real treat - we went with our friends Vicky and Jemima to see another friend who was playing Oboe in the Gloucester Symphony Orchestra for their performance of Peter and the Wolf! We loved it! Not only did it allow Barnaby (handily in the front row) to learn the look and style of some of the different instruments that were being played but at the end they handed out instruments to all the kids who were lead by the conductor in a final piece of music. It was great - everyone enjoyed it and it's reiterated to Barnaby that he absolutely positively must become a drummer! I was more taken aback at how much effort it looks to play an Oboe! Well done Louise, I'd have passed out after about the 12th breath not from not enough puff!!

Sorry for no pics in this blog - my phone has broken so nothing to take them with!

We're all going on a Summer Holiday!

Well, ok, not *quite* a summer holiday, it's still a bit chilly! Here's what Barnaby has been up to of late:

Latest learning

Well we have been really engrossed in our Earth project this week, and all the offshoots from it.
Each morning we have watched 2 hours of Human Planet on TV and its been fascinating. When I was Barnabys age I wasn't in the least bit interested in that sort of thing but he really is intrigued to learn about the different ways of life and culture in far flung places he couldn't imagine til he saw it on telly. It opened his eyes to a boy of 11 who spends 6 days dangerously walking a frozen river in Tibet just to get to school, and a man who lives in an entire community floating on the ocean from man made items. He can dive under water for over 5 minutes to catch fish for his family. Was amazing to see how these people are adapting to this lifestyle to the point where his eyes actually work better in the water than they do on land.
We have downloaded google earth onto his tablet and he went to see various things from Sydney Opera House to Daddys house to the North Pole. We even found a tardis parked up in London (which I got totally over excited over!!)

Barnaby has decided he wants a bike so spent some time creating his new target chart. I got some squared paper to make it easier for him to draw a chart, counting 5's to where he wants to be. He's chosen the bike he wants to save for so we printed off a picture to stick on the top. Next job was to count up the money in his Tardis (spot the theme!) Money box and he's doing really well at the denominations and adding it all up. He's pleased he's got a third of the money he needs already.

We enjoyed farm club again, this month was chickens and eggs and all the kids collected fresh eggs then looked at them under a microscope. Then they checked some other eggs from the incubator to see if they could work out how many days growth they were and how long it'd be before they hatched. Have to say the kids guesses were better than the adults. Then we had a real treat because we saw the lamb they bottle fed last month who was in the pen with some more newborn lambs. It was amazing to see just how much he had grown in 4 short weeks!! If anyone wants to visit we go to St James City Farm in Tredworth, Gloucester. It is well worth going, they have loads of animals and a date and all the staff are very welcoming!

The last couple of days he's been den building with blankets, cushions and the lounge furniture. He spent 2 hours watching Netflix under the table this morning where I couldn't disturb him!

We've made plans for our forthcoming holiday, he's started writing his list of things to pack and started his first journal entry about when and where we are going and who he's going with. I've printed off some journal pages and seaside games to take with us.

He's been playing on Minecraft a little bit but not as much as I'd thought he might. When the weathers lovely he'd much rather be outside!

One day this week I was reading a book on Isambard Kingdom Brunel which I got out the library - its one of the things that I remember from my history lessons and still love a bit of Isambard to this day! Coincidentally, that afternoon there was a kids programme on called Absolute Genius with Dick and Dom. And it was all about Brunel! Perfect timing! I thoroughly enjoyed watching it and Barnaby was fascinated at seeing how he created the tunnels under the Thames and designed Clifton Suspension Bridge. Now I'm all excited that I might be able to take him to see Isambards legacies sooner than I imagined. Happily the tickets to the as Great Britain are annual passes so that will be money well spent I feel.

Sadly sports club was cancelled this week and we missed the Cheltenham home ed meet but we did get to the Gloucester one where he played some tennis, made some playdough something-or-others and ate some of Finns birthday cake. I met 2 more new Home Ed parents to the group which means I'm not the new girl anymore! Was lovely to meet them, and to chat to some long standing members I'd not met before. Always surprises me the number of teachers we have in our group who decided that home ed was their way forward too.

My phone broke while I was away last weekend so we managed to get Barnaby a second hand camera for a tenner which was a fab bargain. He's spent the last two days taking photos of anything that moves. Mainly me and the kittens! He loving learning how to use it, we are slowly going through the settings so he can see what they all do. It will mean we can document our adventures and our holiday too!

And that's about all to report for now. As always I'm sure there is loads more but I tend to forget it all!

Visit from the Local Authority 30.4.15

Hello everyone!
So today was the day.
D-Day.
*The* visit from the Local Authority.

I can't say that I was overly worried because I know the LA don't actually have any legal obligation towards myself and Barnaby. I think that the fact I was more worried over the state of the house than what he was going to say about home ed speaks volumes. Was up at 5am in a panic about cleaning (don't worry, I got over it and went back to sleep instead - quick whip round with the hoover had to suffice!) But there was an element of panic that he was going to waltz in, tell me I'd got it all wrong, I'd ruined Barnabys life and that he'd recommend I send him back to school immediately. Which I knew was nonsense, but y'know, it took me 6 attempts to pass my driving test. Me and 'assessments' never go well and despite the letter saying 'informal chat', you can't help but feel they are going to cart your kid into care because there is layer of dust on the top of the wardrobe.

He explained, as I knew, that he couldn't really give me any direct help or resources, but if necessary would advise me on any areas he thought might be a concern and then point me in the direction of local support.

I was quite honest and told him that although I've downloaded a curriculum to look at, I haven't bothered even looking at it yet. I am very vaguely working off a tick sheet of 'what your child should know at the end of Year 2' checklist. And when I say vaguely I mean I printed it off and it's somewhere..... somewhere.

Barnaby showed him some work, explained all the weekly learning topics on the lounge door, showed off his artwork which he was very impressed with. I smiled at his suggestion that some children tend to work best learning through project work rather than specific Maths/English/Science so I proceeded to tell him that that was exactly the way we work and gave him examples of how I'd plan a topic to incorporate all of the learning involved.
We showed him the garden diary, the earth topic, worksheets, drawing, and the Roll a Robot game which he was most impressed with!

He didn't once ask about socialisation, even though Barnaby is an only child of a single Mum and it'd be easy for us to be quite insular. I volunteered the info of all the social aspects we cover in a week and he could tell that Barnaby was having a busy and well rounded education. Which is great! This Mumma is ON IT!

After half an hour nattering Barnaby went and showed off his desk in the summerhouse.

The Parent Advisor (such is his title) had finished his notes and said he'd write to me in the week.... And I then proceeded to give him some advice on his sciatica. And that was about that.

As he was leaving he congratulated myself and Barnaby on being so happy and embracing all the possibilities and ideas that home education can bring, and how impressed he was at such a 'wonderfully vibrant and creative environment' Barnaby has to learn in!

Well, that's nice, isn't it?!

I was so pleased I didn't even mind that he didn't even go and appreciate that I had bleached the loo :)

That's that for another year then.

Sunshine and smiles 23.4.15

We have certainly been making the most of the beautiful sunshine of late, spending lots of time outside. 

There has been a wave of birthday parties for Barnaby which have involved cinemas, burgers, lots of running around and cake. For me it's meant being resident taxi driver - not that I mind. Although it comes to something when you can't plan in a social life because your Sons is so packed!!

Seems I have some sewing to do...

Up a tree!

Sunday saw the first of Barnabys Adventure Days with Beavers over at the Scout hut in Cranham. By all accounts he had a super day doing 'obstable' courses, archery, climbing trees and toasting marshmallows with all the boys. I am really pleased they have done this as it gives him chance to go and do 'boy stuff' (for the want of a better description) without me having to facilitate it. As Barnaby only sees his Dad every couple of weeks at the most, he has no male role model in his life. It's a tough thing for single Mums of boys because 'being a boy' is not really something we can teach them. Hence why I am so keen for him to continue Beavers. 

He's thrilled with his bronze award

 He came home from Cranham wondering how to magically be 13 overnight so he could be a scout, make use of their dorm room and lounge and own a mobile phone! Tuesday was another lovely night at Beavers because he got (a little late) his one year service badge, and bronze badge among others. He was super chuffed and I'm really glad he's still loving going. 

Tuesday was also sports club which resumed after Easter, although due to some confusion only 4 other kids turned up but they had a brilliant time, got stuck in, and he lost hockey 12-11. 

Education wise at home we have been :

• tending to the plants that we potted last Wednesday and writing his garden diary
• Starting our project which commenced on Earth Day (separate post coming up) which is covering maths, ICT, reading, writing, geography... etc etc etc
• Revisiting the 4 times tables
• Looking at the eruption of Vesuvius that wiped out Pompeii
• Working out angles and trajectory - we found a brilliant game online by accident. Sort of like Angry Birds but much more basic. The aim was to fire a cannon and make the ball land in the water. Each level got harder but was great for discussing maths terms; more than/less than/decrease/increase etc. Turns out Barnaby was really good at it and despite being given 10 attempts at each level, only needed an average of two. After all the high tech games on his tablet you'd have thought it wouldn't be enough to catch their attention but he was gripped for ages!
• Measurements - give a boy a tape measure and he's happy for HOURS. He's getting to grips with the differences between 3cm and 3m. He spent half a day measuring the fence, the decking, the patio, the summerhouse, the drive, the car, the rug..... and the cats, when they stayed still long enough!
• Learning about the general election and our political system
• Learning about St George who has kindly facilitated Maths, Art and English/Literacy without Barnaby even realising!

I have been busy looking at resources we can use at home and am going to blog on where I have found some of the items I have been using which might be useful for others to help with their kids.

Other than that life is just life, ticking over. He's getting good at putting the washing on, did a great job helping with the jet washing of the driveway and cleaning out the car. He's going to bed brilliantly which has always been a bit of a 'thing' with him - seems to have been a permanent pain in the arse about it but the last 2 months have just got better and better and he'll wander off and tuck himself in with a kitten and the radio blaring far too loudly. Seems to help him to settle though so not complaining.

Getting his workspace organised
all by himself!

Learning in the Summerhouse at his desk is really working for him. He loves sitting there at his desk feeling important and role playing games with me about working in an office. I've noticed when he's really knuckling down to work he insists on having the music on quite loud. I think this is his way of being able to concentrate on the tasks.   

We went back to school for the first time on Tuesday - having seen his teacher on her lunch break a few days before, it triggered a few 'what are they doing at school now' type questions  -  and I wondered if it would unsettle him or if he'd feel sad about not being with his school friends every day but apart from the nerves he felt going into the playground briefly he really wasn't bothered about it. I did tell him he'd been offered a place at the local juniors but he didn't want to take it so that was that. 

He's getting much better at telling the time so that practice is paying off. 

Answers on a postcard....

Oh, and Minecraft for his Xbox arrived today so I am absolutely baffled and perplexed by it so I think it's my turn to do some learning next! Minecraft appears to be huge in the Home Ed world for education purposes, I guess I'm about to see why! 

Daddys turn to look after Barnaby this weekend - that last one before his crazy work season kicks in until September so hopefully they will have lots of fun over the next few days! 

Connecting in the Countryside

Well today I wanted to put out the flags - I got my Son back.
He's been home since Friday but he only came back to me today. After visiting his Dads he is always a nightmare. The longer he goes for the longer it lasts and this time has been quite trying, mainly because of my guilt that I *should* be teaching him something every second of the day.
I shouldn't, of course I shouldn't. As adults we aren't switched onto learning for 10 hours a day so we can't expect kids to be either.
The difference this time was that 'attittude boy' reared his head and so days of being grumpy, uncooperative and downright refusing to do anything I mentioned (and I mean anything, not just learning things. Things like putting on shoes or brushing teeth) has been met with a torrent of outrage and disgust. Hence, at times, I've retreated to my conservatory with a coffee and ignored the fact he was on his 5th episode of House of Anubis whilst I was waiting for my cheery, happy, loving boy to return. And he has, properly today.
He showed signs yesterday (see the project garden post) but I knew he was back this morning when he actually spoke to me when he got up, ate all his porridge and even got dressed without me screaming like a fish wife.
Hooray. Happy days!

And it's been just that, a really happy day.
We've laughed, joked and talked. We've played.
We spent 3 hours in Crickley Hill Country Park where he climbed trees, made dens, created imaginary worlds and games, collected a trillion sticks and didn't once ask for something to eat. We couldn't have got a more different experience to the last few days if we'd tried.
The weather was glorious too and getting some valuable sunshine made me cheery.

We came home via Sainsburys where I somewhat extravagantly suggested stopping at the cafe for a late lunch. After buying his choice for tea (duck) we came home and spent a few hours in my summerhouse.

For those of you who don't know, I run a business called Dixie Dot Designs and sew from a summerhouse in the garden. We have cleared out my admin desk for Barnabys new home ed desk. I am hoping it means we can work alongside each other and I can sew while he learns, but I'll still be next to him to help.

He discovered the hole punch and after creating a lovely mess he realised the holes looked like a snail had eaten through a leaf. From here he used his garden diary to write about snails, glue the leaves he had created and then drew some snail pictures.
As I sat there watching him it was evident why he was getting nagged at school for taking so long to complete his work.
He took ages. He rubbed it out. He wanted to research. His brain was onto the next bit of work he could do about slugs before he completed the bit about snails. He took 3 minutes to select the right pen with which to write. He thought of 5 different ways to write his sentence before beginning.

There was no time for this at school. Even his teacher told me that. He had 5 minutes for that task and after that it was loss of playtime or lunchtime so he could complete it.

Sat there tonight, seeing him try his hardest to make neat letters with his handwriting, thinking carefully about how to spell words to get them right and not just spelling them phonetically, it just reaffirms my belief that you can't cram every child into a 'ten minute box'. Some tasks will take them 3 minutes, some 15. All kids are different.

And then, then, he made any of my doubts and worries and insecurities and wobbles disappear in an instant... Because he too had realised what I already knew.

"Blimey Mum, the more I look at that work, the more I think maybe I'm not totally rubbish. Maybe I'm not just thick after all".

And there it was.
I never used those words.
I never gave him that impression.
I never behaved negatively towards his work.

He, of his own accord, had decided that he wasn't as clever as his friends who could write faster. He doesn't have (maybe yet, maybe he never will have) a mind that concentrates solely on the task in hand. He thought his writing was rubbish. He thought he was 'thick'.

And in that moment I knew I was right to take him out a classroom environment when I did. He couldn't cope with the stress of feeling inadequate and now he's truly learning; that he is who he is and the only person he ever needs to compete against is himself. That way, he'll alway be the best he can be.

So for that, I thank my hole punch :)

Project: Garden (15.4.15)

Well Barnaby has been a bit disengaged since the Easter break, has to be said. He came back from his Dads totally exhausted and though he's now back into a sleep routine it's taken flipping long enough! Consequently I've had a few days of a stroppy, argumentative, rude shitbag to live with. Oh it's been a joy!

Today has been the first day he has shown much interest in doing something of his own accord without me cajoling him into it.
We have been playing a great game I bought last week called Brain Box. It's all about the world (they do other topics too) and simply each card has a country and various pics about that country - flags, food, animals, neighbouring countries/oceans etc. You just need to memorise it for 10 seconds (I changed to 30 so he had time to read difficult words) then by rolling a dice you read the correlating question on the back of the card ('what is the Capital city' or 'Does Afghanistan share a border with Pakistan', that kind of thing).

Well we thoroughly enjoyed that and he's asked to play again later. We have got a large map of the world to put up in his room so I'm going to get that out at the same time and find the countries we are looking at.
This is really helping me because my geography is diabolical, my knowledge on countries even worse so we are learning together!!

This afternoon, despite originally being excited about going to home ed meet (we haven't been in 3 weeks so I'm missing it!)  he did a sudden u-turn after lunch and asked if he could do some work at home so we started our new garden project. 

He has chosen a new exercise book to keep a garden diary and has noted down what we completed today:

Drainage holes made in pots
Blackberry and blueberry planted
Lavender and fuschia repotted
All fed and watered
200 solar lights put up

We took photos of the plants today on day 1 and he is going to document how they grow in his diary, take more photos and even measure how big they grow (from there we will have more data for me to use to teach graphs & charts with him)

So, I think that basically covers environmental studies, maths, science, writing and reading, ICT and whatever bracket 'hammering a screwdriver through a plastic plant pot' comes under :)

We've got his new library books to go through later on, more boats and ships to read up on. He had a good time at Beavers last night and is looking forward to their adventure day on Sunday. 

The next few days entail various activities including a trek through Crickley woods so we are both looking forward to that!

Easter 2015 - The whistle stop tour of Xbox and Periods

Well this is a whizz through the Easter break:

First thing to mention is that as one of those weirdo freak type people that home eds her kid, I don't have to run to a school schedule (Hurrah!). We do though. At least, we are at the moment. That is because all the normal people who school educate their kids are more available for me Barnaby to play with. So makes perfect sense to lie to my Son and declare 'no learning for a fortnight' and secretly snigger that he's not yet old enough to realise there's no on/off switch when it comes to learning, mwahahah! 

After all, it's not like school kids learn nothing when out of school now, is it?!

So, he *thinks* he's been on holiday but actually what he's done is:

• Played with his friends. Fallen out with his friends. Made friends with his friends. Made dens with his friends. Played football with his friends. Gone to the park with his friends.
• He's been to a castle. He's been to a farm.
• He's cooked dinner. 
• We've baked. 
• He's read every day. 
• He's learnt how to use a washing machine. 
• He's entered a drawing competition.
• He climbed Robinswood Hill. 
• He went to football club for 2 mornings and got a medal for scoring 4 goals. 
• He's learnt how to tell fibs about goal scoring.
• He achieved his goal of earning £25 for an Xbox 360, went and bought it off our lovely friend and said every day for a week 'I love my xbox, I love working hard and getting an xbox'.
• He watched Mummy get very frustrated attempting to untangle 40 miles of cables for the telly, DVD, wii, TV box, router, wireless flashing box type thing, and nearly watched his beloved xbox be flung across the lounge and he very definitely learnt not to ask me "Mummy. Are you actually cross at the xbox or is it because you are about to start bleeding from your foo?" 

Yes.
Actual words.
Bleeding foo.
Really?!

• Anyway he learnt not to ask that question entirely by the look I gave him and by nothing I actually said. :) The fact he's getting the gist of this so early in life will score him points with his future wife, I'm sure.
• He learnt that eating chocolate for breakfast got boring after the first day because, well, he doesn't really like chocolate.
• He went to his Dads for 4/5 days and spent time with his little sister who he loves and hates in equal measure. Which is just how it should be when you are 7. They went to her school holiday club trip to a farm and he learnt he could tell the leader he was allergic to sheep and pull the wool over her eyes (pun intended because I'm hilarious, obvs).
• He enquired about how the seeds got in his tentacles. I  broke the news to him that he isn't an octopus and they aren't called tentacles.
• He learnt that 'period' is probably a nicer thing to say than 'bleeding foo'.

Footie medal for winning the world cup. Yes. The Actual World Cup. 

So there you go. Holidays thoroughly enjoyed and nothing learnt whatsoever.  What a relief!

Nope, no natural colours or flavourings there....

Because sitting in a picnic
chair, playing harmonica
wearing a footie kit, watching
telly, in the lounge is *the*
thing to do over Easter