Home-School Halls

Been too busy...

PurpleFlitty — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:00:00 +0000

One of the problems when you take sole responsibility for home education your children is that when you have other commitments, something has to give. And this is what's happened with the lessons the last few days. I am active in the Open University Students Association, and it is the busiest time of the year, as we have just had our Annual Conference. For details, see my OUSA blog here

So as a result we have done little on the education front. Today has been mostly reading and dancing (P E right?). I think I'll be spending most the afternoons and weekend planning lessons for next week. I have meetings in the mornings this week, then I'm off for another weekend meeting on the 9th. At least if the lessons are planned properly, Kennie can guide them through it.

A good day - and a rant.

PurpleFlitty — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:49:00 +0000

It's been a really good day so far. I managed to get up at 7.50, which is a bloomin miracle for me! As a result, we got through a lot of work, and the kids seemed to really enjoy it. Maths, Literature, Science, Latin and Plutarch. Well done them girls!

I'm not happy with the Plutarch though. Even I have trouble understanding it, so I'm going to look for a more modern translation.As I was reading it to them, I could see them getting more and more perplexed by the language and sentence structure. I ended up reading it all again, stopping every couple of sentences or so to ask if they understood and paraphrasing it so they could! I think it's a great idea, just don't like the archaic language used.

Sometimes it's hard to get to grips with the Charlotte Mason curriculum. For one thing I'm not a christian (we have no religious beliefs), so I don't do the whole praying and devotion thing. I agree with the broad aims of a CM education, and the Ambleside Online website is a fabulous resource, but I don't see the need to use texts in the archaic (and in my opinion) elitist translations. I appreciate that many of the texts they link to are from the Gutenberg Project; out of copyright and therefore old, but I get the distinct impression that some people think these old texts are intrinsically better just because they use more words, and words that have fallen out of common use. Well I don't agree! I am aware of the dangers of dumbing down, and I do agree that children should be able to read books that haven't been sanitized (fairy tales should be scary - that's the point!!), BUT that doesn't mean we can't read a good, up to date version in modern English! Possibly my only exception would be Shakespeare, but there are so many study guides available that studying the original should be too difficult!

I'm still looking for resources for helping us with art appreciation. I just haven't a clue where to start. I wish I still had my course books for the O U course A103, as they had a great introduction into art history, and of course I can't remember any of it now!

I went to N's house on Saturday, and her bookshelf was crammed full of great books that she said I could borrow. When I got home, I realised I'd forgotten to pick any of them up! Ah well, another excuse to visit her, I think ;-)

One happy mama!

PurpleFlitty — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:31:00 +0000

Well the test results are out, and they all did really well! Most of the mistakes were simple errors, like not reading the question properly. J & K have progressed to Academic level, and C has moved to Express. I will review it every time they take a test, but it's all going well so far.

I've also managed to download nearly 1000 Latin sound files, just simple pronunciation guides. This was from Wheelock's, where you can download the lot, or listen online. So we are all set for Latin starting on Monday.

We haven't got round to making the cards yet. I thought I could let them do that while I'm in the bath later, and let Kennie deal with the mess and tantrums ;-))

The restricted telly has been working well. Today was the first time anyone moaned about it being off, and even then it lasted 5 minutes before they went off an did something else. Long may it continue! I think it will be on a lot at the weekend, as I won't be around and Kennie is as much of a telly addict as the kids!

The delegate paperwork for Conference arrived today. I haven't started panicking yet, though I know this time next week I will be as it will be half hour away from me giving the election address and answering questions at Hustings. Arrghh what have I let myself in for???

The Big Test!

PurpleFlitty — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:07:00 +0000

Today is the big maths test. I fed F to sleep so we would have some peace, then I gave them the tests. I've printed out all 3 levels and told them it's all part of the same test, so hopefully this way I will be able to see whether they need to move up a level or stay where they are.

This afternoon we are going to do arts & crafts; making birthday cards for W. He's 2 tomorrow, so I'm off to his house with F and M. All the kids can play and eat cake, while N and I sit around eating and gossiping :-) I haven't seen her for a while and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm so glad she's moved closer!

I found an interesting website yesterday called Textkit, it's a resource for learning Latin (and Ancient Greek). It's not all singing and dancing stuff, but it is free, and I'm sure I can make some use of it. It has a user forum, so I am investigating the whole site.

I shall update later on the results of the test and with photos of the birthday cards.

Maths, Latin and damn elections!

PurpleFlitty — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:14:00 +0000

Another late morning, so another half-day wasted. I'm going to have to set the alarm I think, and get up regardless of how much sleep I have had. It doesn't help when F feeds all night long. I reckon if I get up early, I'll end up going to bed early, and we should get back into some sort of routine.

We only really managed to get Maths done today, though that went really well, and we finished the whole unit. They grasped Venn diagrams straight away, and had a laugh doing it too! Tomorrow is the test (scary!!), and I reckon they'll all do really well. I'm going to get them to do 30 minutes reading from their set books this evening, even though technically the 'term' doesn't start till Monday. We have lost a lot of time over the last couple of months and I don't want to spring a full timetable on them on Monday! I still haven't done anything about the music study or Plutarch, but I'm sure I'll get that sorted over the weekend.

I have been fruitlessly searching for a cheap (or even free!) Latin curriculum. There are some available, but are drier than burnt toast, and can't even hold my attention, let alone the kids! I did find one, Lively Latin, that looks perfect, but it is slightly out of my budget right now. It's a bargain at approx £30, but as I haven't been able to access any money from my bank for 3 weeks now due to them stopping my overdraft, I just can't afford it.

On an O U S A note, the election is now in full swing (well as full as it can get!). My hustings questions came through last night, and not one is specific to the remit of Deputy President. Does this mean that no-one submitted questions for me or that they were all too full of abuse to be allowed? Either way I'm worried!

So what have we done today?

PurpleFlitty — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:57:00 +0000

Today we managed to do lessons 2 & 3 of logic, the girls seemed to have grasped this really quickly. We move on to Venn Diagrams tomorrow, and I hope we can make enough progress to have the test on Friday. I think J will move up to Academic level after the test. C might too, if she doesn't rush the work. K is doing really well, seeing as I've actually put her at a level above what she would be doing at school. I hope she doesn't feel discouraged if she sees the other 2 moving up a level though. I asked K to do some narration, about her maths work, and she explained it really well.

Later on I will be reading 'The Owl and The Pussycat'; they have all taken to hearing the poems, so I think I will do this over breakfast, so M gets to hear them too.

K has spent some time making models with the modeling clay, and M has been taking photos of everything. I'm thinking of getting him is own camera, so he can snap away.

I'm not managing to stick to the schedule at all. I'm really struggling to get up in the mornings, and as a result, half the day is wasted. I don't think it helps that M is on his hols at the moment, so the usual routine is a bit out of whack. Kennie and I agreed to start limiting the amount of time the telly is on. The kids are obsessed by it, and we think that we can bring more out of them by not having that distraction. So far it is working, they haven't really noticed and are merrily getting on with things that they wouldn't normally do!

What do I write?

PurpleFlitty — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:55:00 +0000

So it's coming up to that time of year again, the annual jolly (ha!) that is OUSA Conference! As V P Comms I need to write an annual report of what I have done during my term of office. Only problem is, when I think back, I can't bloody remember! I've spent a lot of time in Matters, does that count? I argued a lot with the O U over the newsletters. I edit O U Student (OUSA's part of Sesame magazine). It doesn't seem a lot does it? Yet I'm always busy! How does that work? It looks like my annual report will be a little on the short side. I'm sure I've done more than that, but can I remember? My old age is getting to me, I swear.....

The Story So Far....

PurpleFlitty — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:08:00 +0000

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...!