So thanks for finding my blog. Here is the story so far (I promise I won't normally ramble on so much ;-) )
I'm married to Kennie, and we have 5 kids, aged 14 - 14 months. We have been married for 16 years, somewhat against the odds. Kennie’s parents neglected and physically abused him and his 2 sisters when they were very small. They were taken into care when Kennie was 5, and being Catholics, were placed in a childrens home run by nuns. He and his sister were placed with various families, but never staying longer than 6 months before being returned back to the home. They were finally permanently fostered by a wealthy family when he was 11. While his younger sister flourished, Kennie never managed to settle, and got into trouble from time to time, but never found the love and stability he craved. He ran away aged 16, and spent the next 5 years in London, sleeping rough, in hostels, and he became an alcoholic. I am the daughter of a teenage single parent. My mother brought me up on her own till I was 11. Then everything changed when her boyfriend moved in with us. Let’s just say he wasn’t nice to me. When I was 14, my brother was born, and my mum and her boyfriend split up. My mum had always wanted a son, and it showed. I became a typical, rebellious teen, and mum couldn’t handle it, and put me into care. I stayed about a year, dealing with far more crap than a 14 year old should have to before I ran away. I ended up homeless in London, committed crimes, dabbled in drugs and spent a fair amount of time in prison. Kennie and I met in a homeless persons day centre when I was 19 and he was 21. We got together 2 days later and married 3 months after that, on 15th November 1991. On our wedding day, one of the guests commented how ‘they won’t last 6 months, what with their backgrounds’. And here we are 5 kids and 16 years later, still going strong! We’ve had some major ups and downs, but we’re still here!
I'm now catching up on my mis-spent youth by studying with the Open University, and I'm also on the Executive Committee of the Open University Students Association as Vice President Communications. No doubt I will be sharing the joy of that in these pages!
Home-educating our children was something we’d thought about for a long time, and after J(14) and C(13) had had awful times at secondary school, and K(11) was also having hassles at primary, we decided to take the plunge. I spent a few months researching home-ed, joining groups, looking at the differing styles, and have (for now) plumped for a structured style, loosely based on the national curriculum, but with a lot of flexibility. We didn’t really have lessons for the first week, we spent some time thinking about how to set up our living space and how to structure our days. I want them to feel they have a say in their education, and how it happens, so this was just the start of that. I can’t say I wasn't scared. Their future literally is in my hands now. I’ve really had doubts about my abilities to teach them effectively. I know I’ve done the right thing taking them out of school, the difference in them is amazing, but am I equipped to do the rest? I’ve spent a lot of time researching the various methods of home-edding, and downloading resources, lesson plans, guidelines, everything! I’ve found loads and loads of websites with free resources, websites that you need to subscribe to, websites that are impossible to navigate, loads. It’s amazing what you can find when you want to! But still the doubts remain…
So that's us. Watch this space, or don't, whatever takes your fancy...!
