Earlier this year, I hibernated this blog on the Early Years HE blogring, with this post as explanation. It’s time to come out again, and time for another explanation. In five working days time I won’t be working, and Big and Small will rejoin the ranks of home education offspring, so it seems only right to reinstate myself on the blogring hub and say hi, hopefully to readers old and new.
I love Montessori education, and especially the school that my children have been at for just over 3 years. I’ve spent a term as a Children’s House directress and a term in the Elementary classrom, I’ve qualified via NAMC as a Children’s House directress and I’m still thinking seriously about Elementary qualification. So why are we leaving? Well. There’s been a lot of other stuff happen this year. Most dramatically and unexpectedly, I lost my youngest sister in June. That was enough I think to knock me for six, and I’ve felt like I’ve been running on half empty, desperately trying to catch up ever since. Then a few weeks back, I had my third miscarriage in three years, and I really hit the bottom of the tank.
On top of that, I’ve been watching Small, and realising that home would be by far and away the best place for him. He finds school, even a small and very relaxed and accommodating school, almost impossible to cope with, in terms of the noise of the other children and the minimal routine he’s asked to comply with. This leads to screaming tantrums or explosions of temper – earlier this year he was violently aggressive, although now he’s more likely to dissolve in a sobbing heap. I don’t think that this is something he’s going to grow out of by being continually exposed to the group situations, I think it’s something he needs some time and space from, and then we’ll see. It’s not the education, he’s excelling there – he is the world’s most autonomously educated child going, having taught himself to read in the last few months with very little input from anyone else, except for us passing him books, or buying in Stile trays.
Big is torn. She loves her little group of friends, and is fantastic with the younger children, frequently helping with babies and toddlers in after school club and much loved by all the staff. But even she will thrive more in an environment where she can dictate her educational preferences – all group situation pretty much have to be compromises by their nature and it will do her good to be able to follow her interests more thoroughly.
And I am torn. It was not a difficult decision to make, when it came down to it, leaping out of IT and into Montessori education. It has been a difficult decision clambering out again, and most especially with nothing to go to. But I think it’s the right decision, this has been the toughest of a series of tough years, and I think I need to take some time out to myself. So obviously I’m signing up to do a maths degree, and I think I’ll dust off my 101 in 1001 days pledge and give myself some gentle direction, but other than that (and the obvious house moves and sales that are looming) I expect a couple of months of not looking for work.
After that, we’ll see where we are, and what we want to do next. We’ve been looking at areas of the country nearer to Tim’s roots, we’ve been up here for a decade and it seems fair to try somewhere else for a while. We’ve a holiday booked in January already, and another in February, and it’ll be Spring before we know it.
So, Small has two days left at school, Big has three and I have five. Then we’re coming home again. 😀
Leave a Reply