Week Commencing 16th January.

Monday:
Monthly Forest School.  The day starts at 5am.  No day should start at 5am, it's simply rude.
The journey is OK, bit faffy with a replacement bus, but manageable.  Rye is excited we are going on an adventure together; the knee has kept me mostly housebound.  I've invited Rose Howey's Canadian guest to come with us too, and it's nice to have another adult present.

While walking from the train station to the centre, I feel a tearing sensation in my calf, which hurts like the beejeebus.

Forest School starts, I hobble to the cafe, feeling sorry for myself and  I buy a slice of cake.  Raw eating be damned.   J follows one of the walks around the forest, while she's gone I crochet, drink coffee and slowly eat the massive slice of  Red Velvet cake.  It's ok, nothing to write home about.

At lunch time I arrange with a fellow home edding mum to get a lift to the station, which eases the worry about trying to walk back.

Rye is happy as Larry.  Friends, both old and new to play with, and at Forest School they are building bird feeders, and using tools.  The fresh air, seeing different people, the adventure is clearly doing him good.  We have been rather like hermits because of my injured knee.

Tuesday:
Quiet day.  Yesterday was exhausting and we both sleep way longer than normal.  My calf is wince inducing painful, and it feels like it can't take my full weight.  I'm hobbling worst than ever.  Much later in the evening I realise I forgot about taking Rye to the Black-e for Circus Skills.

Wednesday:
Today we are going to Manchester Science and Technology Museum for an explosions workshop.  The workshop is shorter than I imagined, nonetheless, Rye enjoys it.  A friend gave us a lift into Manchester and because she has to leave, we do not stay long.

 Thursday:
Ah, creative writing, I'm thankful we host this activity.  My calf is feeling much stronger, still I'm nervous of going too far.  Today in creative writing the kids are drawing and describing the characters for a story.   Rye is being obtuse, he wants to do his own thing.  I feel frustrated and annoyed, he's been attending creative writing long enough now, to know the deal - and I'm tired of his need to show off and try and be clever with me in front of his peers.  I'm also exasperated by how much he allows H to wind him up.  She's critiquing his drawings and he's whining at her to stop looking.  Eventually, he does the task - it's a bit like trying to bleed a stone and I can't decide if he's truly not understood what describing the character means or if he's being extra obtuse.

After creative writing, our friend gives us a lift to Trampolining.  Rye, when I suggested the activity was hardly enthusiastic.  "I know how to trampoline, we have one in the garden." he cockily says to me.  I insist, and clearly, mother does know best, because he has a whale of a time and wants to go again.

Friday:
Lots of playing and hanging out with our new members.  K is a young father as well as enjoying video games, electronics etc.  He and Rye have hit it off, and Rye spends most of his time talking about what he and K are going to do, and the robot they are going to build.   Electronic appliances are suddenly not safe in the house as Rye is desperate to take them all to pieces for parts for his robot.
The evening comes and we go out, with our guest to the World Museum.  There's a stargazing and astronomy event on - the sky is beautifully clear and we are looking forward to it.  When we arrive, there is a long queue.  After about ten minutes, staff from the museum begin to come outside, they are clearly looking at the long queue which is getting longer and longer.  Eventually, the director of the museum comes out and apologies profusely but suggests people go home because interest has far exceeded their expectations and inside there are really long queues too for each of the activities.   Reluctantly we leave, I physically can't stand in queues all evening on the off chance we might get to use the telescopes, so we go home.

At home my American housemate is making pizza and the Presidential Inauguration is being projected.   I don't really want to watch it.  I cannot fathom how on earth he managed to win, and it all leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.  I quietly leave after showing my face for a wee while.

Saturday:
Early start, I'm babysitting for a friend.  Rye is grumpy and being controlling.  I suspect he's still processing the altercation we had last night which resulted in me sending him to bed.  I make a mental note to talk to him about it, once the girls are picked up by their dad at lunch time.

Irritatingly, the short amount of walking I did last night, for the aborted World Museum visit has caused my calf to be exceedingly painful and tight again.  I guess I really have hurt the calf after all.

Feeling sorry for myself I make microwave flourless brownie (quite tasty) and share it with Rye, adding black cherry pie filling and custard too.  Later I allow Rye to talk me into a takeaway, which I thoroughly regret after stuffing my face.  Oh well, on wards and up wards.

Sunday:
Chilled day  mooching around doing very little.  It is also very, very cold.  Rye is pestering his new friend, a young dad who has moved into the house with his small family.  Its a case of instant hero worship, Rye of course doesn't know when to back off, so we have a wee chat.  Honestly, I'm not sure he's really taken on board the conversation - probably one of those that has to be repeated very often before it sinks in.
Once it's dark, I project  a couple of episodes of Librarians for us to watch, and then bed for Rye; hilariously, he tries to order me to let him watch another episode.  It's ten to ten though, so not a chance in hell.

July 1, 2, 3

Hello!  Busy bees here at Rose Howey.
I've started up a science club again, and an outisde organisation is coming into the house to do creative writing with the kids and other home ed kids.  Its great!

Rose Howey has also started a new venture:  The Rose Howey Cooperative Gallery, in conjunction with the Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool.  We are hosting our first exhibition on Friday - July 1, 2, 3 :D  It's all about the artists' political desires, expressions and inspirations.  I'm creating a piece to display too, using freeform crochet as my medium.  If you're in Liverpool and would like to come along to the exhibition, leave me a comment and I'll let you know the address.

Woooooosh...

that's the sound of me blowing the dust off my blog.

Lots of catching up to do, eh.

Life is busy, Rye is growing up far too fast, and I have even more grey hair!

Life has been dominated by setting up a creative space for me to work in, home education and life in a commune.

Once I have finished sorting through my supplies and yarn I will post photos of my new space.  I'm very pleased with it, and the view from my desk is stunning!  (This view is actually from where I sit to drink my morning coffee, but I can see it too from my desk)

Home Education - well, as there is wont to be, I wobbled viciously and fell into the trap of trying to teach and impose learning on Rye.  Unmitigated disaster!  Thank the Gods, I realised the error of my ways and backed off.  This includes the near constant arguments and frustrations over screen time, and the re-realisation that my job is to provide Rye with opportunities - or to use the unschooling term, to "strew".  

That led me to acceptance of Rye's screen time, which, I have to say, is a huge issue for me.  Personally, I don't see how Minecraft, at least the way Rye uses it, is educational, and it feels weak to tell myself that Rye implementing things he's learned about the game from you tube videos in his "world" is "learning".

 I chaff at the hours he wants to spend watching said videos, or playing minecraft and other games, when I feel he should be outside playing, exploring his environment, climbing trees, helping in the garden and with the animals, going on adventures with his friends, riding his bike.  And when he's not doing that, exploring the wide range of books available to him, asking me to make amazing creative structures with him, play educational board games, explore scientific themes and do experiments, exploring the amazing art galleries and museums available to him...

Well, actually, it's not that he isn't, it's that I feel he should be doing MORE.  And I realised this has come from a place of fear.  Fear that his reading will never become fluent, or his handwriting legible and beautiful, fear that he will not have sufficient knowledge, learning, lifeskills... (it's not like he's living in a socially conscious co-operative, where we are all involved in social change...oh wait...)   This led to the cognizance that for some daft reason I've been expecting Rye to be pretty much like me.

Pratt!

How has it taken me so long to get my head around the fact we are different, he experiences things differently to me.  I loathe, detest and despise computer games, horrible time eating, soul gobbling machinations of wastefulness.  My son finds them wonderful, imagination stretching vehicles of fun, he and his friends pour over their screens, cackling at whatever  building they have just blown up, or zombies mowed down by increasingly upgraded vehicles...  shudder  and through his own investigation he's also watched numerous you tube videos on the solar system, on various scientific laws, animals that capture his interest...and yeah ok, a lot of spoof rubbish that has  me rolling my eyes.  But that is all ok.  I've just been a tad dim of late.

He's not a big fan of reading - um, yeah, partly because I pushed a bit too hard to try and "teach" him to read - yet he doesn't refuse to have a book read to him, and he often pops on an audio book to listen to while playing in his room, or at bedtime...so who am I to say he doesn't love books - he simply chooses to experience them in a different way.  In fact as I sit here typing, it occurs to me that Rye even enjoys reading to me - when, and it's a biggy, when I back off and let him decide when he's had enough - rather than insisting his finish the book...  yeah, I know, lost my way rather significantly!

So, back to blogging, I think it will help me to keep centered and to truly see the learning that is happening around me... for instance, today, sat in the cafe having breakfast and we started talking about forces and motion...ok I'll allow that my son's mind does rather perplex me at times;

"Mum, babies are a force when they come out..."  um, not quite, son.  How talking about "tug of war" as an example of forces - both balanced and unequal, led to that gem, I have no idea.  He did know the Earth is a big magnet, that magnetism is another type of force and gravity is a pulling force, so I shan't worry too much.

I'll be blogging about other areas of our/my life too.  My blog would not be my blog without crochet posts, baking, juices...so yeah I'm back.... besides, Rye is growing up so fast, and these days I'm lucky to get more than a couple photos for the entire month.

Lets have a look at what I have for March;

We made a kite from willow sticks, plastic bag and my crochet cotton for the Fly Kites Not Drones international event on the Equinox.

Eating snacks after Sports for Fun, where he played hockey, basketball and badminton.

Pizza Hut after a workshop at the World Museum on Spiders and Scorpions and other creepy crawlies, and afterwards he insisted on going and looking around the World Museum's bug section.
And last week, we visited the Maritime Museum and he participated in a workshop on Endangered animals and smuggling, which he really enjoyed, and again afterwards he wanted to look around the museum.

Today we have, as I mentioned, discussed Forces and Motion, and we've watched a few you tube videos on Newtons Laws of Motion, watched some cool experiments and decided which ones we want to do ourselves, we've been shopping and Rye decided to use some of his pocket money to buy a water gun, and by the sound of it, he's now on Minecraft.

Autonomous, interested led learning is back on the agenda!  We are back!

Yay!

Do I, or don't I?

So the Lib Dem candidate has responded to my email on her home ed response, and she's replied saying I write a powerful email and she would like to meet with me to discuss my concerns and issues around home tutoring, and has given me her mobile number.

Hmmm, not sure whether to go for it or not.

Have a think tomorrow, I am very, very tired today - lovely day but with some very frazzled parts!

NOT in a vaccum.

So, in a bid to inform myself a bit more on the various candidates standing here in Folkestone, I wrote to them all asking a series of questions on issues that I personally find concerning these included:

• Home Ed and compulsory registration.
• Lone parents and the coercian of such parents into work when their children are still very young.
• EYFS in general, and pertaining specifically to childminders.
• Green issues and animal welfare
• Demonisation of young people - here in Folkstone there is an initiative in which young people in group of 2 or more are dispersed!!!!  I am incredulous that this is even legal!

So far, I've now had 3 responses.

The Lib Dem candidate is a local lady, who is passionate about the area, and in the main I quite liked her responses.  I was however, very disappointed that she supports compulsory registration for child protection reasons, and seemed to be implying that Home Ed children lack the ability to "manage" situations with people they do not get on with.  I have responded, and using this week alone, as an example of the children and other people we mix with; today for instance, birthday party of one of the Home Ed lads.  Tomorrow, swimming and then back to Sarah's for tea.  Thursday Brockhill Park - add in the toddler groups, kids Rye plays with on the beach and in parks - or sometimes not when they run off because they dont' want to play with him... well, I think he's getting a pretty good grounding in how to "manage" difficult situations.  I find it bizzarre this assumption that home ed kids live in a vaccum.

I also challenged her view that registration is necessary for child protection reasons.  I believe my response was along the lines of; "please clarify how registration will prevent adults hell bent on abusing children?"  Being in school does not necessarily protect children from abusive adults, so I really do fail to see how a registration scheme will do this for home ed kids..... noting too, that the Badman Report did not find any supportive evidence of abuse being rife in the community - indeed he even asked the Select Committee for more time to try to dig up more evidence.

I also had a response from the UK Independent Party.  I don't really know a lot about this party - except they focus on immigration as apparently being the root of all our ills.  I wasn't overly impressed, the candidate zoned in to my queries about lone parents and made a few wrong assumptions; and tried the "I am kindred, I am a lone parent too", stance.  Along with a plea for votes because otherwise the party will disappear.  Hmm, not compelling reasons for me to vote for them.

And the third response is from the Green Party Candidate.  I am pleasantly suprised.  While brief, she was succint and further clarified after a second email to her, that the Green Party does support Home Education and this is specifically mentioned in their manifesto.  I had had looked last night but not seen this, shall have to read it again when I'm not so tired.  I liked her response to my concerns on the demonisation of young people - naturally, as expected, her response to green issues was fab.  Support of lone parents, belief that EYFS is too intrusive and so forth.. and talk of a citizen income for parents raising children.  Where the money for this will come from, I have no idea.... it's just nice to read something a bit different, and oh, how lovely would it be to have a party in power that isn't just another shade of the main two.

Occurs to me a hung parliament could potentially give the Green Party quite a lot of power, should they receive a fair few seats, as the 3 main parties vied to get the votes they needed for various policies etc.  So, after pretty much deciding Lib Dems were the best of a bad bunch... I am seriously considering voting Green; and it does appear to be a party that most reflects my own beliefs on issues.  I have voted Green before, but only in local elections, never in a General.

As for the home ed issue, well, yes of course, it is very, very dear to me - but so are other issues too, and while I did seriously consider voting Tory at one point, now the election is nearly upon us, I simply cannot, the Tories are appalling on lone parents, they want to scrap the Sure Start scheme, which frankly, is fab; sure there are niggles - but on the whole, those centres offer valuable support.

It is all so darn complicated, ain't it.

Edited to add:  I've just been nodded in the direction of the section on Home Ed in the Green Party Manifesto.... sigh, they clearly support registration and seem to be going down the route of dictating how we should educate our children, which could make unschooling very difficult indeed.  Damn - I refuse to be a single issue voter; but at the same time, I don't want to shoot myself and other unschoolers in the foot by voting for a party that potentially will make it near on impossible for us continue in such a vein.