Big has got a long way through learning Baa Baa Black sheep (also featured in Jibbidy F
) and Small has requested frequent readings of Helpful Little Mechanic (Little Stories S.)
There has been much computing, several brief interludes outside (in between the rain showers 😉 ) and I’ve had a couple of relatives on the phone discussing Easter. Hm, must plan buying presents. ‘cos somehow don’t think I’m going to fit in making them. Childcare has been knitted together for the next few weeks through copious use of managerial goodwill (an excellent supply of that outstanding atm, knew all that overtime would come in handy for something!) and reliance on a variety of friends.
TV only came on about 4ish, we seem to be weaning away from a reliance on it, which is encouraging. I think tomorrow I’ll put gentle feelers out towards a bit of reading and writing (in other words, I’ll remind Big about the competitions in the magazine I got her the other night 😆 ) I love watching them playdough actually – they’re very inventive with it. Must attempt to relocate camera to get pictorial record of all of this.
And I’ve been considering my position on the blogring. I know that as number 1 on the ring, for ppl who navigate from the hub, I’m the first port of call. For those of you who navigate with rss, you won’t even have noticed that I hibernated myself the other night, as it makes no difference to the ringbox on my blog itself. This means that unless I actively request someone remove the box, arriving at a blog some other way won’t tell you someone’s status on the ring (or indeed, well off the ring).
Why would I be considering my position? Well, if you’ve been reading carefully, you’ll note that we’ve been using that (dirty word) place called school for quite a few months now. Turns out that this particular school bears as little resemblance to a run of the mill state school as a classical homeschooler complete with desks does to someone just providing trampolines and haybales (to borrow from a stereotype or two). In fact, I’d go as far as saying that Mill Cottage Montessori is the way school should be – personalised child led education, in a calm yet welcoming atmosphere, with resources at easy reach at all times, and compromise a standard part of the vocabulary. Especially where Small is concerned – he really doesn’t run with the pack, and they have worked hard to get him happy again when he wasn’t after Melrose. (Which I think was mainly because he’d had a break from being dragged out of bed so early in the morning – he’s so not a morning person it’s untrue).
I wouldn’t want to use school full time – I still very much believe in home education. But in the situation we’re in at the moment, that isn’t a choice I have, finances require that one of us works if we ever do want to move (and boy do I want to move!) Mortgages require a salary, and a salary requires a job. So this is the best compromise I could come up with, and at the moment, I’m reasonably happy with it. More importantly, the children are happy with it, and to be honest, that counts for rather more than anyone else’s opinion.
But I don’t want the blogring to become a place where school isn’t mentioned, or to have a them and us mentality. Like it or not, school is a big part of reality for the vast majority of the population, and we do ourselves no favours by pretending we don’t know it exists. Sticking your fingers in your ears and going lalalalalala might be funny, but isn’t a long term strategy. For the families who have recently made difficult decisions about school, I know they are all trying to do the best for their children and the rest of the family. I don’t envy them the decision or the situation, but I do support them in their choices. The blogring is a community – you might join because of home ed, but changing your education path isn’t going to get you kicked out. (Both families concerned requested hibernation – I didn’t do it to them, and I wouldn’t do it to anyone else.)
So if we’re clear on all that, we can continue. 🙂 Actually, I’m not sure I’m at all clear, but I’m coming out of hibernation anyway!
Comments
31 responses to “To wrap up the rest of the day”
i think the schoolers should be unhibernated personally, as I think for potential home educators, hearing a succesful reintegration into school is an important story.
Also those with many years of succesful home ed, who choose to move due to diferent family circumstances again show that a flexible mindset and childcentredness does not preculde school.
come out of hibernation all of you!
or you could say, she says playing nothing but devils advocate, that the blogring encourages people to HE because it shows there is a strong community of HEers in existence, who aren’t only doing HE until school becomes a necessity/inevitable conclusion.
I’m not saying i think that, just putting acorss another POV. Does an HE blogring become weakened if it isn’t an HE blogring? Do YOU open yourself to difficulties if you do otherwise? If you have ex-HEers who now school (like Sarah, i don’t know which other person you are talking about!)can you really say no to the blog of a person who is passionately anti-HE and wants to join for “balance” – and on what grounds if you do? How about an ex-HEer who feels now very anti-HE because it went badly for them and rants and vents on a blogring blog?
What is the impact likely to be on a person who navigates to this ring, via MP since i still have a prominent link to it, and the first 6 random hits they happen to make are 6 people who have returned to school? Does it do much for the profile of HE and a positive look at HE as a viable option?
I’ve got no idea what has prompted this particular post though, but i feel mildly ranted at… are we being?
Merry, rants here are usually fairly clearly marked:
a) They mostly have my name on as author. (Jax mostly just rants at me).
b) Somewhere, usually near the beginning, but maybe several times, you will see one of these :rant:
Hurrah! I’m glad you are back Jax. And if schools weren’t generally so crap I reckon more of us would send our kids off happily. C’mon – it’s true!!! Sounds like the school you’ve found is good for you and yours and that IS the main thing. Deciding to homeschool when we all generally live alone in our households with just our partner and kids or alone and with kids is a tough call…even with a network.
There are so many positive aspects to home educating. I love being with my kids and home edding. However, if you have found a place for your kids to be and they are happy and it works for you then: GOOD ON YA, LUV!!
Just read other comments and think I should say..I’ve only just come to this ring so I don’t know the politics or the history. Would someone be so kind as to enlighten those of us who are recently here and tell us….well, for example…if we are going through a thing about he’ing, y’know..those days when you would quite happily send them off to school and then run away with yourself into the sunset…well…does it give the ring a good image if we grapple a bit with ourselves on our blogs..I mean…how far down the road can we go to school if situations, feelings etc dictate that we have to at least consider school?
To be honest…and you can all sharpen your claws now..it gives HE a bad image if the blogs on the ring are he’ing in a way that isn’t inspiring. That’s more likely to put people off he’ing. It’s more damaging to the image if there are a lot of people blogging about he’ing in a way that doesn’t compel you to read….but am I gonna get the elbow cos my posts are often brain numbingly boring and relate more to my ‘up-my-own-khyber musings’ than HE?
The reason why I decided to home educate was because of the ring. I found Merry’s site through surfing..read it thought: WOW! Saw the ring, checked out Jax’s: thought: WOW! What nice peeps. Then went to Lucy’s, again: WOW! Then went onto Sarah Seller’s..it was just amazing..everybody different. Met a whole bunch of great pioneers here. The fact that you took me on (when I’m obviously a liability!!)was very flattering. There are others recently added who bring great depth and variety. What I mean to say is: if you’d all been the same I’d have been put off homeeducating.
I bet there are loads of comments added while I wrote this. Looks like it’s going to be a long night. xxx
hmm, good point merry. i think starting the ring with a bunch of ex HE would be offputting.
i was presuming sarah and kris?
i think havig an offest, or on the ring hub keys is still a good idea.
flexi HE is often asked about, and I’m not sure that doing it means you are not HE-ing.
one alternative is to at the end of the blogring have an ex HE section where the link goes to where HE started/finished? I was thinking particularly of Sarah and her 3 years of fascinating blogs, which were instrumental in me HE-ing!
But also, flexible positioning on the ring perhaps, so the first 5 blogs are long standing HE-ers who post regularly?[and by that I mean enough not to be hibernated that often rather than daily! weekly/fortnightly should be fine for new recruits to see that things go on. Then do the rest about at random.
Oh yeah, Kris – rofl, i’ve not computed that one yet!
Elderfairy, i’m really only putting up a point for debate, rather than suggesting i actually feel it, but i’d be a long way from saying diversity is not good. Diversity IS good and the diversity on the ring is fab. And flexi-schooling is certainly part of HE. But is full time school? If the ring becomes increasingly inhabited by full-time school families, then really it becomes a ring for “parents who don’t believe all learning takes place in school” – or something.
I’m utterly in the dark as to what has prompted the post, but if i didn’t know jax i’d be mildly offended by the idea that HEers have their fingers in their ears and are going lalala as if school doesn’t exist. After all, the majority of HEers i know started off believing their kids WOULD go to school. I put a lot of thought into not sending my children to school; i’m not in fairyland after all. I work very hard to keep my children out, because i believe HE is best for my children. it affects all of our life; Max’s work, my work, our recreation. We aren’t just living out a pretend life until we default to school. This was a positive decision for us.
Anyway, that was a passionate response back, but not a rant back – so please don’t read it as a rant.
Oi, I am *not* tweaking ppl about on the ring every two minutes, it just wouldn’t work!
The two families using school (Sarah and Kris) are indeed hibernated atm, so while you can get to the ring from their blogs, you can’t get to their blogs through the ring. But if you get to their blogs a different way, like via rss or from some other set of links, you wouldn’t know that they weren’t active blogring members, so you might think that the blogring including ppl with all their kids in school while it doesn’t actually.
Merry, I wasn’t ranting at anyone, but this has been on my mind for a while, and I needed to talk about it.
So are you effectively asking the question – should blogs of people who school be on the ring? or should people who school have code on their blogs? or something else entirely.
Brain addled. Will go and read again 😉
I was very specifically asking and answering the question as to whether I should be on the ring. And my conclusion was yes. 🙂
Oh yes. Definitely. Unquestioningly.
Certainly.
Loon 😉
I think so yes, to your place on the ring Jax (and of course no i hadn’t noticed anyway, nor anyone else for that matter, only occasioanly ‘going round the ring’). Re those families with children in school on the ring. I thinkt here is a pertinent point there, even if Merry you were just playing devils advocate. More than likely soem other ring member wil choose school for soem reason in the future, at what point would the number of FWCIS get silly for a HE ring. Though hopefully we would never get to the point of needign to consider that.
Re Elderfairy’s comment: The blogring can do no more than refelct how HE is for people (or rather how they choose to write about it) – if a reader finds that it puts HE in a negative frmae, well so be it. If they read around it enough they will no doubt get a wide variety of views , experinces etc.
Specifically – Jax, your kids are at nursery/school 2 days a week; yes, I do think you should be on the blogring.
Generally – if I want to read about FWCIS (nice acronym Chris!), I can look at the other 99% of the internet/world/whatever. If I’m reading an HE blogring, I want to read about people actually home educating.
I’ve blogged privately and publicly and my feelings about being on the blogring are still very mixed – mainly becuase of what EF says about projecting an image of HE – I really don’t want to be a sodding example! I blog for myself 🙂
But I did decide to fairly recently rejoin the ring because I don’t think there’s anyone on it doing it precisely our way, and I thought if people are reading the blogring to get an idea of how people do it, it’s probably best that there are as many different stories as possible. I just don’t think sending your children to full-time school is simply another facet of home education though 🙂
i guess not. ok. i just like the bloggers!!!!
no fulltime schoolers prob a good idea
I suppose the logical viewpoint is to consider would a a formerly HE family who are now a fulltime FWCIS – who had had no contact witht he blogring be accepted – I would assume not
Given the circumstances, we forgive you 😉
I guess to determine whether people should be on the blogring or not you’d need to define the purpose of the blogring and as for pretty much each of us that is something different it becomes all but impossible.
To be utterly doing what it says on the tin everyone on the ring should be Home Educating Early Years Children so unless you are doing exactly that then I guess you shouldn’t be there. Which means everyone who flexischools like you do Jax most certainly should be there because that is an obvious facet of HE and one which many HE families consider and can make the excellent bridge between two worlds which is very desirable for some people and should be more documented as an option or at least a possibility.
I don’t actually click round the ring any more – mostly because I simply ran out of time to read about the life of that many people so I stopped and I now read a few blogs all of people I actually know IRL. The last time I clicked round I did think there was a pretty good mix of the complete autonomous, the very school at home and all the inbetweens. When I first started HE it was right at the start of the blogring (I used to be number 13 IIRC) and as a result of it I made some very good friends, was inspired to start and continue with HE, I got my blogging habit ;-)and in reading the blogs of people with varying approaches and seeing the successes of children older than mine documented along with such honest accounts of difficulties and concerns I developed my confidence in our own approach. But I left for a variety of reasons all of which I still would have concerns about now (which sounds all mysterious and dark so I’ll justify it by saying I decided I’d rather censor who read than what I wrote and didn’t want to hide details such as names, photos of the children, locations of places we visited and so on but felt uncomfortable knowing they were out there on the web but being linked to via a blogring which included 50 or so other blogs. Also I was never comfortable being marketed under the banner of a HE blog as it was far more the diary of a person who happened to also HE).
I think the blogring has several functions really – it fosters a sense of community, it is lovely to have people cheerleading or commiserating with you on your HE journey, it provides inspiration, ideas and advice and support. It also gives a fairly clear idea of what the joys and pitfalls of an HE life can be and as Chris said that is a good thing and if it puts someone off HE then the chances are that is for the right reasons as it paints a very accurate picture of what the difficulties can be which is far better than being all rosy and fairystory about it. It’s not an advert for Home Education, no one is trying to sell it or gain anything from convincing others to start doing it.
For some browsers it probably could be beneficial for people to categorise themselves into approach / ages of children / EP and arrange the blogs accordingly but as there are probably as many variations of those as there are people on the blogring I guess that’s never going to happen! 😉
Maybe we should have badges like the sonlight forums do now 😉
I think we thought about that at one point didn’t we?
*fingers firmly in ears* Lalalalala! I was hoping that this seriously could be my ‘coping with school’ strategy for a while at least, please don’t tell me school is real! 😉
I like keeping the blogring code on my page as I do get a lot of hits from people searching for educational type things. And I’m still holding out hope for being a genuine HEor again before too long, mind you the kids probably won’t fit into the Early Years category by then!
But as a FWCIS I’m staying hibernated. If there was a way to put my pages about home ed up on the ring instead of the blog I’d love to do that instead, Jax.
rofl sarah.
and yes, badges jax sound cool – but would be a bit of a pian.
also jax, how do I put the byline in the blog ring hub?
i have a badly spelled one on technorati, that I keep meaning to redo!
I know Helen, you have to login at the ringhub.
and I’ve been asking you for nearly a year to let me know the name and password!!!!!
Can I have a ‘past it’ badge? My kids are not early years though we still do things that would probably fit that age of education sometimes 🙂
I’m not convinced the early years label is a brilliant one for the ring, and it’s going to get less appropriate as we go. But I’m still working on an alternative…
Possibly asked me a year ago would be a bettter description ? 🙂
Yes, I was pndering the Early Years name Jax, sooner or later a a lot of us won’t be.
I am fast coming to the end of early years – one finished compulsory HE ( hee hee) in June and the rest, apart from the twins are all teenagers by November. So another title would be good.
Okay, best name out of a hat wins…my suggestion is Early Birds…no..hold on..yes!…Growing wild like a tree..no, that’s been done..er….Earlier To Bed (Cos we’re knackered)…Early Years…well, I guess it was good when it was. C’mon, yous all much more clever than me..is this really up for discussion or ave I lost it again????
Early years home ed – to Infinity and Beyond…. [do the action]
rofl @Helen
Up for discussion EF, though not guaranteeing I’ll take any suggestions on board!
Could it just go back to being Muddle Puddle?