Home Ed Hijinks

Hi all,

Just a quick note that I think I am going to close this page soon and move across to instagram. For my friends on FB, this won’t affect you - my insta is linked to my FB so you will still see the posts just the same.

Anyone else, my name on instagram is currently the same. The reason I’m doing this is because FB doesn’t give me the option to make this page private to non followers and I’d prefer to be sure who is following me and seeing my posts for the boys safety. Hope that makes sense!

A Santa gift for Theo, he is BUZZING

Euan is not patient. He isn’t particularly resilient at times and he isn’t very often the type for small finicky tasks. He’s also not keen on new things so for him today, this is amazing - and he really enjoyed it. I’m making sure to heap on the praise in his little maths tasks and things like this to build his confidence

You see two kids on a rope swing.

I see two kids telling me it’s a Viking long ship and telling me they pillage things, are brutal and come from Scandinavia (and being kids…..amazing how many people think 12 is ‘grown up’. Secondary age kids still need play believe it or not)

News just in!

Euan has had a hard day today in his first official week of home ed….he read 2 chapters of his book, answered 16 maths questions and then this at Grant's Bakery, followed by a wander at the wonderful Forum Books (who will be taking all my money in future) and a wander round the Dilston Physic Garden while Theo was doing his herbalist group.

Euan is officially deregistered and I’ve had the confirmation as of today.

The truth of the matter is I don’t think he will go back and I guess it’s probably what he needs. I’m am still struggling with the choice though. He went in on Friday to say goodbye and got to ‘be the teacher’ and send his friends for their coats and give out merits and they had made him a gorgeous card. I feel like he is happy so I shouldn’t be unhappy - I know other than classroom learning, he won’t miss out on much, not even socialisation as loads goes on in home ed and he will keep in touch with his pals. I know we are still linked strongly to the school through the youngest, probably for the next 7 and a half years all being well.

I do also find change hard though, I know this and I know I need to reframe my thinking about getting him back and being able to enhance his learning beyond the restrictions of what the government allows in schools. I’m sure in the next week or two the sadness will pass and all will become the new normal.

In the meantime, he is loving his dad’s dart board so we are taking advantage of that to help with maths and both boys got to experience their first escape room. The plan is to get Theo’s project pushed on and then Euan wants to learn about the Earth so we will tackle all sorts together from continents to rivers and volcanoes and hopefully get a trip to Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh in.

We are also doing badge work - me for Rebel Badge Club and the boys enjoy working on their Pawprint badges. Euan did used to go to cubs but found it didn’t fit after a while. Theo does scouts but there’s never enough badges! I’m sure we will have more to share on that front soon!

Sometimes life throws a curveball and you just have to go with it.

I never intended to home ed Euan - that is, not until he finished primary school. He tells me this week he doesn’t want to return to school (or that’s how it stands right now). I know people will be thinking ‘well is that not what you wanted with the trial?’ and my answer to that would be no, not at all.

It’s not that Theo is the favourite or that Euan isn’t as smart or I don’t want to be around him. Home educating a primary age child can be magical and I wish his school was awful to make this choice easy! I would have happily home educated Theo from covid onward but it was the school that brought us back because as far as primary schools go, it is special and pretty epic (or has been for us). They haven’t failed my children like many who deregister their kids. In fact, they have helped them thrive and that was why Theo stayed until the end and it was beautiful to watch that whole chapter from finishing the EYFS curriculum before he was in reception, being the only year 1 with a line in the nativity and the year 2 with a solo, the struggles with his emotions and ASD to coming out the other side and finishing off with a lead role in the leaver’s show, banging SATS results and winning the talent show. He thrived academically from the off.

But that’s not Euan. Euan missed half of nursery and reception (two incredibly important years in school), he doesn’t like to be on the stage in front of people, he has fought to catch up to the expected standard and he struggles with the pace and his attention span. This week, those daily aches and pains and tears have been almost non existent. I know once he gets in to the classroom he does settle and he has a good core group of friends, he is valued and probably happy for lots of parts of school. He likes his teachers, likes the content of the projects taught and yet….

I always said once he became a middle child, he wouldn’t get middle child syndrome. He gets a lot of attention but still, Rory takes more and Theo gets the best of me during the day now. Theo is articulate and open with his emotions (and while meltdowns do occur still, they are much less). Euan is awaiting his assessment from CYPS, also incredibly highly functioning, very academically able but he is a little iceberg, doesn’t always easily express himself and is reaching that same difficult point that Theo hit with his ASD. His resilience is not strong much of the time.

It’s easy to say it’s not about what we want as parents - in actual fact, that is still very important. But what I want most of all is for Euan to know we hear him and we see him, that we are listening. I don’t want him to go every day and be resigned and think we do one thing for one child but expect him to just get on with things. I want him to see himself as I see him - a little fountain of dinosaur knowledge, that my life would be so much emptier without him and his ridiculous, funny ways and that he is as important as the brothers either side of him who often dominate my time.

Part of me hope he will go back and finish that chapter with his friends and see out primary but if he doesn’t, it’s because it’s not meant to be for him and I’ll hopefully empower him to make the right choice for him, whatever he decides.

Many people have said they didn’t have the choice and just had to get on with it but were miserable and a few have asked how I will cope. But 36 was a golden age because it was the age when I learned to listen to my own voice, not the others and 37 is better because now I’m braver and I know my own power.

This poem by Robert Frost came up on my feed this week and I couldn’t help but think how apt it is:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

(Photos of Euan home edding this week)

I talk about the positives on here loads but this week has been difficult - and not with Theo.

Euan is 8 and in Year 4. In my opinion, he goes to one of the best primary schools that could exist, he has a wonderful teacher, superb headteacher and deputy head, he has friends but since Covid (where he missed half of nursery and reception), he’s always found school a bit of a struggle, his attention is shaky (waiting on his assessment with CYPS) and for the past year, it has been up and down with lots of tears (usually mine 🤣🤣🫣).

From next week, he will trial home ed. He might go back to school and I’d be over the moon for him to do so…..but equally, he might not. Even if he stays at school, the fact that he is a square peg will remain but at least he will have tried both and know what he wants to do. It will be interesting to see if all the morning stomach pains, etc. disappear again.

Lots of people have asked how I’d manage but my reminder is this: I’m not recreating school here, I’m educating my child/children. When Euan was with us at the beach, he learned what erosion is, why it happens, the consequences etc. Theo also talked about it it. Not a text book was in sight and no thought of the curriculum! We do sit down and do some work (some families don’t do any formal) but it isn’t like school and we actually have to fight off social engagements as there are so many.

I didn’t send Theo because I didn’t think it was right for him and he agreed so the difficulty is, do I fight to keep Euan in school knowing it might not be the best for him, just because I have sentimentality over the school’s involvement with the boys and because I know how valued Euan is there and how much the school have gone above and beyond? I think the next week or so will be telling and that Euan needs to know his options so he can help inform that decision. I think he worries more about losing touch with his friends and teachers and that won’t be the case at all. Rory is still there (thankfully) and anyway, he may decide he isn’t missing out as much as he thinks he is and home ed is going to be there after year 6 anyway.

But don’t anyone ask about Rory….that kid is going to school til he’s 90 😑😂

(Disclaimer: school have not approved this trial, the EWO will probably hunt me down but sometimes you have to take the hit to find things out!)

Happy World Logic Day! We’ve celebrated by playing some games by our fave logic game creator, SmartGames UK SmartGames, and by having a go at my logic app, using the clues to complete the grid (one of my favourite types of logic game!).

We have number 2 with us today thanks to one of the millions of viruses doing the rounds so he has been helping.

And in other news, progress has been made on the project so I’m happier 🫣🤣

Today is our first proper day back at ‘the grind’ 🫣we used last week as a bit of a bounce back week but if truth be told, I’m still not fully fired up this week!

We love doing the project work but I find the difficult bit of overseeing it is pulling all the finalised bits of work together and getting it in the scrapbook. However, we are going to be getting back to it all tomorrow and will hopefully finish up by March so we can move on to some different things; baking, looking at subjects discretely rather than as a project, hiking, science experiments etc. I love a project but it can become consuming in someways and then takes away from the idea of home ed being low pressure. However, it’s all at our pace - I must remember that!!