A week of travel

Last week we did a lot of travelling; we travelled along the Amazon and searched for the Xanti, we visited  Panem and some of it's districts, we nipped to the living room and explored the female pelvis and we met with some 'wild things' in a far off distant land.

Our week started with a workshop I hosted entitled 'A Morning with a Midwife'; 12 home-ed children aged 9 - 15 spent the morning with me as we covered the physiology and anatomy of pregnancy, birth and the pelvis (you can read all about it here in my midwifery blog).  It was a really great morning and I enjoyed it so much that I will be offering it again in the not too distant future.....

and in different tones.

Sophie's current work...

Sophie has been continuing with her art GCSE; I am so amazed with how talented she is (I can just about draw a stick man) and it is so lovely to see her skills developing; we are planning some trips to support her studies, and she is really growing into her creativity which is so important.  A fellow home-ed mother sent a great link to a blog post about the importance of creativity, and whilst there are set pieces of work to do, and yes it is being 'evaluated', there is a lot of emphasis on personal growth.  Sophie is struggling a little with the required amount of work, but the great thing about home-ed is she is not trying to fit in 8 other GCSE's (and a life) at the same time!

Finally, after quite a few months, Noah and I finished our trip along the Amazon with 'Journey to the River Sea'.  We stopped reading this together for quite a while, and I'm not sure how and why that happened really: however, after talking to an experienced home educating mum about my frustration with not always getting done what we had set out to do, she shared with me a gem of knowledge:

  "if there is one thing I have realised along my only journey of home ed, it's that things are always changing.  And the one consistent thing that has made a real difference to their learning is reading, reading, reading.  Reading to my children opens so many worlds and introduces them to say many things and it forces me to sit with my child for a cuddle.  It is the one thing we never let slip".  

This sharing of such a simple key element to home ed was really enlightening for me (another letting go of expectations?) so I have sat and read with Noah and Lily (Sophie, at nearly 14 is not feeling the need quite so much) and finally Noah and I finished reading what turned out to be a beautifully written, exciting and wonderful book!  I researched some 'top children's books list' and the next book we are tackling is 'Treasure Island'.


The rest of our week was relatively quiet, and on Friday we had a DVD day.  Noah and I sat and watched 'Where The Wild Things Are'; this charming film was based on the classic book by Maurice Sendak and is one of our favourites.  The film we loved!  For me, I felt that the wild things were reflecting the emotions that Max was experiencing and unable to vocalise; it made Noah think a lot, but he mainly just enjoyed it for what is was.  Lily, being Asperger's, just saw it through her own eyes and couldn't see the 'point' of the film as it was so obviously just people dressed up; it is difficult for an 'Aspie' person to see things through someone else's eyes, and just by chance I came across the fab blog written by an Aspie adult who really helps explain how they 'see' things.  It really is a sweet family film and both Noah and I cried at the end.

Our evening choice of DVD was a little less gentle; The Hunger Games.  We had heard varying views on the suitability of this film, but we all really, really enjoyed it!  Yes, it was quite violent, but the story was more than just people killing each other (really) and inspired lots of debate between the family.  The next day we brought the book set and I nabbed the book version first, with the others queuing up to read it after I have finished.


Some weeks we get loads done, others a lot less; on the surface it can appear we aren't really doing much at all, but secretly we (all) our doing that thing of learning all the time.  Even if it is just about ourselves or the films we like.

Teaching is not a matter of making children learn; it is a matter of making sure you don’t get in their way.  David Gribble

angela x