Education Everywhere

It has been a while since I blogged and the last couple of months have been really tough; grieving for my mum has been harder than I anticipated.

Home eduction, had, I thought, fallen to the way-side; however, this period of adjustment has helped me to understand even more that learning happens all the time.  As one astute home-ed mum pointed out to me when I was worrying about the lack of 'doing', "your children have just learnt how grief affects someone and that it is OK to grieve - this lesson they would never have got at school."  So for this blog, I have decided to simply list some of the things we have been up to.  No 'lessons', no agenda, simply being......

Learnt to care for a dog (this is Stella, we dog sat for my brother)

Learnt to share, care and roller-skate!

.....or how to be pulled along by a dog!

How the Tudors dressed and danced

Climbed trees

Care for another dog (this is CoCo who we dog sat)

The joys of a pint by the river....

How to carry out a postnatal visit.

Visiting the skate park

Plant and label the vegetable patch

All of this learning without really planning, and not a workbook in sight!  At the end of each day, I have started to ask the children what they have 'learnt' today... and I am loving how this is so revealing.  Noah told me yesterday that he learnt to share, make new friends, plan his day, load the dishwasher....  Lily learnt to negotiate pricing and what she can get for her money, how to work the new sat nav and that she enjoys being at home.

I am really enjoying them being at home now and would feel really sad if they chose to go back to school.  I want to continue doing this for as long as they want to.... as hard as it is, as fed-up as I feel sometimes, I love that I know my children; that I have learnt how to be more patient than I thought possible; that there is so much to see and do; that I don't have to go out in the rain for the school run, that reading aloud is as interesting to me as to them; that cuddles are priceless; that I can do this!

angela xx