EOS Mag Issue 4 - Mar/Apr 2011

www.educationoutsideschool.co.uk1

EOSEducation Outside School

No More MonkeysSome thoughts on motherhood guilt

Make Every Day your‘World Book Day’

Learning to Readand WriteOne Family’s Experience

Join the OPAL ClimateSurveyFree gift for taking part!

PlusActivities, Project Ideas andmore!

Patch of PuddlesLife as a home educating family

Work and HEPart One of our new series!


Contact Details:

Education Outside School MagazineMiller's Rest,High Road,Gorefield,PE13 4PJ

If you’d like to submit an article, pleaseemail:[email protected]

If you’d like to advertise, please email:[email protected]

To contact the Editors, please email:[email protected]

EDITORIAL POLICYThe editors have the final say in deciding if contributionsare printed and in which issue. There will sometimes be aneed for editing contributions, for reasons of space orotherwise.

COPYRIGHTAll attempts have been made to find copyright ownersand are acknowledged if found; if you think yours hasbeen breached please email us.

DISCLAIMER

Education Outside School is an independent publication,not allied with any home education group or organisation.Any opinions expressed in this magazine are those of thecontributors and not necessarily those of the editors. Allcontributions (including advertisements) have beenaccepted in good faith and have not been in any wayendorsed by EOS, which cannot be held responsible forthe consequences of responding to any of them.

CONTENTSWelcome 3

Letters and News 4

The BIG Question 5

Patch of Puddles 6Life as a Home Educating FamilyBy Merry Raymond

The Big Project 8

No More Monkeys 10Some thoughts on motherhood guiltBy Paula Cleary

Make Every Day your ‘World Book Day’ 12By Yvonne Frost

The Census and Family History 14By Annabel Haylett

Children’s Pages 15

Learning to Read and Write 20Our Family’s ExperienceBy Karen Rodgers

OPAL Climate Survey 23By Simon Norman of the Field Studies CouncilPLUS FREE GIFT OFFER

Spring-time? 25By Richard L.Jones

HE and Working? 26

Woods as a Classroom 28By Alison Kirkman of the Woodland Trust

Home Education Guidance 30The legal stuff!

Websites and Groups 31

http://www.facebook.com/people/EducationOutside-SchoolMagazine/100000159345604


Welcome to Education Outside School Magazine!

Meet the Editors

has four children agedfrom nine to 17 and has beenhome educating for nine years.She will happily talk abouthome education to anyonewho’ll listen!

She swings from anautonomous approach tostructure, depending on thechild, the subject and howeveryone is feeling. She is nowgetting used to mainstreameducation again, supportingher youngest daughter in herdecision to give school a tryand her oldest son at college.

has a son aged sevenand a daughter aged one.

She decided to home educatefrom the start, and so hasspent a few years researchingdifferent methods and is nowunschooling. They arecurrently thinking of gettingchickens if anyone has anyadvice!

You can contact us via theemail addresses on page 2!!

Welcome

To our fourth issue - we are so pleased to be here!

This issue is a little later than planned and for that we can only blame ourbusy home ed lives - you know how it can be. But with the sun finally startingto shine through, we are here at last, full of ideas for the longer days thatare fast approaching.

Spring is always a time of change and growth and our ‘Big Project’ this timefeatures on that. If you don’t already ‘grow your own’, why not make thisyear your first time? It doesn’t matter if you have next to no knowledgeabout gardening, or if you have a postage stamp type of garden, or evenjust a window box, much can be achieved and enjoyed by planting a fewseeds. Have a look at the ideas on page 8 to start you off.

Now that the warmer weather seems to be approaching it could be time toget out and about. The Woodland Trust are keen to reach all families andwanted to join with EOS to promote their new initiative of the ‘visitwoods’programme to home educating families.

Also, Simon Norman of the Field Studies Council was pleased to be involvedwith EOS and to make a special offer to our readers - see the OPAL ClimateSurvey on page 23.

We also introduce our new columnist Merry in her Patch of Puddles. Manyof you may know Merry from her blog, her online craft business or as thefounder of the EarlyYearsHE list - we are pleased to welcome her.

A typical challenge faced by many HE parents is the loss of one income. Inresponse to this, many successfully manage to set up their own business,and we’re sure that many of you would like to know how they did it! In thisissue we feature the first of our series on ‘HE and Working’ and hope tobring many success stories, hints and tips to inspire you.

We hope you’ll find all these and much more to interest you as you lookthrough.

We are still receiving requests for a printed version of EOS and this is stillour aim. To this end, this issue is the first we are charging for. We thank allof you for your support thus far and feel sure you can appreciate this move.We very much hope it will be a step along the way to our fully fledged printedpublication in the not too distant future!

Best wishes

Jane and Lorena

EducationOutside SchoolMagazine@EOSmagazine

http://www.facebook.com/people/EducationOutside-SchoolMagazine/100000159345604


Letters and News

Dear EOS...

Home EducatedChildren meet Expert

Children from the Cambridge Home EducatingCommunity met in Arbury with scientist, teacher

and author Dr William Hirst to learn about the scienceof the body.

Flute orFrench Horn?

Local home -educating families had the chance overhalf-term to try out a range of instruments beforedeciding which one to learn. Brass, woodwind, harp,string andpercussion playerscame together toplay theirinstruments and tooffer parents andchildren the chanceto try them out.

The event alsomanaged to raiseover £150 for theSpinal InjuriesAssociation.

By Karen Rodgerswww.educationchoice.org.uk


THE BIG QUESTION...

Questions. They just come with the territory when you home educate! We’ve all been there, from the family gatheringswhen you’ve been gearing yourself up to tell everyone that you’re taking your children out of school, or that youwon’t be sending them in the first place, through to those ‘at-the-supermarket-checkout’ moments when you findyourself so interrogated you’re looking around for the Mastermind black chair!

These questions are sometimes born of disbelief and horror that you could even consider such a strange idea, occasionallythey are honestly curious and interested, but almost always demonstrate that the questioner has pretty much nocomprehension of what home education is, is entrenched in a system and believes that this system must be ‘the right way’.

We’re featuring those common questions to find out how you answer them! What do you say? Does it depend on thequestioner, or their attitude? Does it depend on why you chose to home educate in the first place? Does it depend on howlong you’ve been home educating? Have you answered these questions so many times that you have a quick one-liner allprepared!

In the last issue we asked:

And here are some replies!

Our next question is going to be:

But how will they do sports?

What do your children, or indeed you, reply?Please email [email protected]

by May 15th

Why aren’t you at school?

There are amultitude of sporting opportunities in the community.

Leisure centres have classes and sessions of various sports-trampolining, basketball, football, rock wall climbing, aerobics, and loads more;

town sporting clubs (rugby, football, cricket, hockey, etc) have weekly training sessionsduring their seasons; Scouts have active meetings or days or weekend camp-outs where they

hike, abseil, do challenge courses and do all sorts of sports, then there are the individualactivities like karate, dance, BMX, gymnastics, riding stables, etc.- not to mention skate

parks, cycling, jogging, skate board, rollerblading, outdoor gyms, swimming, home edPE or activity meetings... If you look for them, ask around, you will find so many

that it will be a question of 'How will we find the time to do...?' than'What can we possibly find to do?'

I think my children are moreactive than most who go to school, they walk,

cycle, trampoline, beach-comb, rock climb, buildcamps, snowball fight, swim, zumba, ice sculpt,

run, dog walk and go to the gym. Sport hasnever been a problem!

Prior tocoming out of school my

children already did ballet,trampolining, swimming, dance and jujitsu

lessons between them. Both couldn't wait forHE so they could add gymnastics to the

list........ if I pull them out of schoolbecause I want a better

educat


By Merry Raymond

Iwas asked to write this column a year ago; withjust weeks to go until the birth of our 5th child,it seemed a great opportunity to answer the

questions people always ask when Home Ed comesup. How do you manage? How do you balance allthe needs of everyone? How do you cope with theyounger children alongside the needs of the olderones? How do you get time for yourself? I thoughtI would show that it is possible to live and educatewell when there are many needs to be met. If Icould do it with four children and a baby, thenanyone could! Home educators were facing athreat from a truly rancid government who wantedto take our freedoms and privacy away from us; Ithought I could write about the everyday life ofsimply 'being' a home educating family and answersome of those concerns with the evidence of ahappy, balanced, busy family.

And then everything changed. Freddie was born,lived eleven fraught days and died. In one fell

swoop we went from a very average homeeducating family to one with the spotlight on us.Would we cope? Could we manage? How, withoutthe back up of school distractions and counsellingservices, would the girls recover? Could wemanage without 'the system', especially if thesystem turned on us? It was easy to imagine usbeing a scapegoat, a family who would be used toprove that without intervention, our children wereat risk of emotional harm. Those were dangeroustimes.

What actually happened was different indeed.Home educating for 9 years has taught us manythings but the simplest of them is this. When afamily is together for much of the time, it learns arhythm, a dance, an understanding of itself as awhole. Faced with disaster, the children assumedthat we would cope and so we did. They expectedus to be human - and we were. We didn't expectoutside agencies to rescue us or fix the children,we expected to do it organically, together, as afamily. In those dreadful days of 'afterwards' there

Patch of PuddlesHome Educating the PuddleChicks. Living without our Baby Boy.


was no school to rush back to, no adults hasteningthem through a tick boxed process. They were withus, day in, day out and we cried and grievedtogether. We know how our children learn andprocess information, so we were able to find thebooks and the words and the activities to helpthem. It might have seemed that educationstopped but of course it didn't, we just had a veryintense period of personal and social development.For a while books and films with loss and recoverybecame the ones we were drawn to. Science andmaths didn't stop, but science became all aboutunderstanding, because they needed to, whysometimes babies do not breathe, why brains dosometimes not function and what that dreadful1:200 chance of a baby dying really means.

Nothing stopped, even though time stood still. Ourchildren learned more about the friends who havealso lost siblings; they learned, though it pains me,that parents who lose a child will need time andlove and space. Far from being traumatised bybeing around their parents as they grieved, theysaw that we also smiled, laughed, tidied the houseand did the washing, that life goes on and thatthey were part of that process.

Then there was that doctor who came to check onus and said that if anyfamily could getthrough this, it was us.And the paediatricianwho sized up our girlsin a few minutes andsaid, "they are sensiblekids; they'll getthrough." Far fromturning on us, thesystem who knew us asa home educatingfamily saw through thenegative hype of thetime and knew wewould be okay.

You might ask whatthis has to do with usbeing home educatorsand writing aboutourselves as a home

educating family for a magazine. The answer istwofold. Freddie has changed us, his loss willcolour our lives and our approach to life foreverand it is best to explain that from the start. Thesecond is that the last year has defined for mewhat it really means to be a family. We are a homeeducating family and I suspect much of ourwholeness has stemmed from our intensely'together' lifestyle. Our life is not carved up intorelying on systems to process our children; weoperate as an interdependent unit and that hasbeen an enormous positive. The years of watchingmy children explore life differently, knowing themin such minute detail, was an enormous benefit inhelping them recover. It was unsurprising to watchthem grieve differently; they were all as individualabout it as they were while they learned to read.

Nearly a year on, we are all doing okay; the girlsare not unmarked, but I do not think the loss oftheir brother has harmed them. It was easy to slipgently back into familiar patterns and they did itgracefully and in their own time. We're back to lifebeing 99% about history and maths and buildingcomplicated Lego models and learning gymnasticroutines. Life goes on. It has been an honour tobe their parents through it. It might not be obviousto other people, but this year has proved to us thatchoosing to home educate was right for our family.I think it has made us the strongest possible familywe could be just at the moment when we neededit. n

www.patchofpuddles.co.uk

We are a home educating family withan intensely 'together' lifestyle......... weoperate as an interdependent unit andthat has been an enormous positive.


Get Growing!- A Big Project Idea from EOS

Those of you with abundant gardens or allotments can skip this bit ....for the rest of us, who have done littleor no growing, make this the year you give it a try! There are plenty of easy projects to start with and manycan be grown in very little space, even on kitchen windowsills or in patio containers.

ChilliesI love growing chillies in pots on the kitchen windowsill. And if I can do it, with my distinct lack of green fingers,anyone can!� A good variety to choose for a windowsill is Apache as it has a good yield and doesn’t grow very tall. Sow

seeds in a seed tray from January-April. Water and cover - use cling film if you don’t have a proper coverfor the tray, it simulates a mini greenhouse.

� To germinate, the seeds will need warmth. An airing cupboard isfine.

� Chillies take a while to germinate, so be patient - it could be acouple of weeks. Once small seedlings appear they will need lightso move the tray to a windowsill.

� Once the seedlings are a couple of centimetres tall you cantransplant them into pots. If you have more seedlings than pots,choose the strongest and dispose of the others (survival of thefittest!)

� A south facing windowsill will do best. Keep an eye on them andwater little and often (I have to use my kitchen windowsill to be sureof remembering to do this - using a window I’m not frequently standing in front of will mean I’ll forget theirvery existence until it’s too late!)

� Harvest in August-October. Freeze whole and use throughout the year. I chop them direct from frozen toadd to recipes.

Herb GardenMany herbs grow really well in containers, including basil, thyme, rosemary,coriander, oregano and parsley. You can combine several different herbs on onecontainer if you like, but make sure that invasive herbs like mint and lemon balmhave a container all to themselves as they will swamp any other plants.1. Herbs like sunny positions, but remember that containers dry out quickly so keep

on top of the watering.2. You can buy seeds and plant and germinate them yourself (as in chilies, above)

or garden centres sell herb plants ready for planting straight into your pot.3. If flowers appear on your herb plants, nip them off. This will ensure that all the

plant’s energy goes into growing the tasty leaves.4. During the summer you can pick a handful of fresh leaves any time you need

them. As the summer comes to an end you can have a go at drying your herbs,or freeze them for later use. A good tip is to pick and chop them, freeze a portionat a time with water in ice cubes trays, then once frozen push them out and putin labelled freezer bags. All over winter you’ll be able to add herbs to yourrecipes just by selecting a herby ice cube and popping it into the pan!

5. All perennial plants (such as rosemary, sage and thyme) will keep growing andwill need pruning back in autumn. Simply use scissors or shears to cut off anyflowers or long stems. Perennial herbs will also need dividing in spring. Removethem from the pot and tear or cut a section of the plant and root ball from themain plant and place the smaller section back in the pot with fresh compost.

6. Annual herbs (such as basil and coriander) will need replacing every year withnew plants. You can either buy new plants, fresh seed or try saving seed fromyour old plants in autumn.

Your children can learn

that plants need water

and warmth for

germination - sunlight is

only needed once they

have poked their heads

above the soil!

Growing plants is a good project

to experience patience and the

necessity of care over a longperiod of time......

Practise collecting data - measure the height

of plants, take photographs, count fruits

produced. What’s the best way to present the

data? Graphs? Pie Charts? Bar charts?What

does the data tell you? How reliable is it?


SunflowersEverso easy and really impressive!

1. Choose a sunny spot, facing south as much as possible, sheltered from strong winds. Make sure there’s somethingnearby (like a fence) to tie the stem to, or plan to push canes into the ground as splints.

2. Choose a variety of sunflower seed. Giants like Giant Grey Stripe, Mammoth or Aztec Gold will require specialattention to keep them upright. Dwarf varieties like Teddy Bear are ideal for patio pots or large window boxes. Somevarieties like Even better, plant a few varieties so you can compare them.

3. Plant as per the instructions on the packet and tend as the weeks go by - water them regularly and, as they grow,secure the stems to fence or cane.

4. Watch and learn about sunflowers. Your children could keep a ‘Sunflower Diary’:

� Which plants grow tallest? Take their picture next to the sunflowers so they can relate to the growth.� Which head grows biggest? Great practise at using a ruler, introduce terms like ‘diameter’, and ‘circumference’.� Use either or both of the above measurements to create graphs of growth over time, or bar charts comparing the size

of different varieties.� Watch how a flowering heads track the sun - this is really obvious with sunflowers and a good way to discover more

about sunrise and sunset.� Watch what wildlife is attracted to the flowers and to the seeds, help them see which birds like them.� Later in the year when the sunflower heads have gone completely brown on the plant, then chop them off and hang

them up to dry out for a couple of weeks. Take some of the dried seeds to put aside to grow next year, use the rest tofeed the birds over the winter or roast them to feed the humans!

PotatoesPretty cheap to buy, so unless you’re going to plant loads it’s probably not going to save you any money. So just do it forthe fun of it!1. Can be grown easily in containers, like an old dustbin. Drill 10 or 15 drainage holes in the bottom so that it does not

become waterlogged. Fill the bottom with 5-10cm of crocks (old broken pots etc), and then add another 15cm of goodpotting compost. Alternatively, you can buy special gro-bags.

2. Buy seed potatoes from a garden centre or online store. A good variety to choose is Charlotte, a salad potato. Thesecan be planted outside now and will be ready to eat around July.

3. Put five seed potatoes on top with the sprouts pointing upwards. Cover the potatoes with more of the potting compostuntil they are just buried, and then water well. As the green foliage grows upwards add more compost. It does notmatter if the leaves are covered as they will soon grow up through the compost again.

4. The only things you really need to watch out for is that the leaves of the potatoes receive enough sunlight and enoughwater. If the container is very deep then no sunlight will ever hit thefoliage and the potatoes will not do well. In this case either fill thecontainer with a lot of compost before putting in the potatoestherefore raising the height at which they are planted, or reduce theheight of the container. Compost in a container will dry out far fasterthan a vegetable plot so watch out, don’t over-water or you may rotthe potatoes.

Have a look at the Potatoes For Schools scheme atwww.potatoesforschool.org.uk. Designed for primary schools, it sends outfree potato kits to schools that register and is open to home educatorstoo. It’s too late to receive this year’s pack but you can register now fornext year - chances are you’ll have forgotten about it by then and it will bea nice surprise in the post in 2012!

Why not plant the same plants in different parts of the garden to

see which grow best. Can you work out why? Make it more

scientific by introducing the idea of a fair test and the

importance of keeping other variables the same, so water all

plants with the same amount of water at the same time of day,

for example. What variables can’t you control?


No More Monkeys........some thoughts on motherhood guilt.

By Paula Cleary

On the threshold of motherhood, a womancarries more than just a growing babeinside her. She also carries an extra weight

- a monkey on her back - that criticizes, tuts andchastises. She carries a legacy of successes andfailures, hopes, dreams and disappointments.Invested in her are all the potentialities forimproving or achieving where previous generationssucceeded or failed.

A home-educating parent faces their task with evenmore risk and responsibility. They have a greatdeal of hats to wear, and the pressure to succeedcan feel overwhelming at times. A friend recentlyconfided in me that

“ A parent who sends their child to school, nomatter how dedicated and loving they are, hasdelegated the education out. They may feel guiltyabout not picking the best school, or about notpushing homework enough, but the majority of theresponsibility lies with the school and teachers; theparent has a buffer. HE parents invest themselveswholeheartedly, there is no-one else to blame, nosystem; the buck stops with them. Sometimes Ifeel I have invested my very soul. And when itdoesn’t go according to plan (because, horror ofhorrors, our children are human beings and havetheir own paths to tread!) it all inevitably comesback to me because there is no-one else”.1

I am sure this feeling is common to all homeeducators - the sense of responsibility and guilt iffailures or hardships occur to our children that wecannot fix as easily as we wish we could. As theygrow, they enter into realms where we cannotfollow, terrains they must negotiate using theirown judgement - just as we also did, and continueto do. As they slip-slide and fall over, it can bepainful to watch, painful to be unable to preventevery accident. When our children fall flat on theirface, we blame ourselves for doing it all wrong.But are we being too hard on ourselves, and onour children, in the effort to prove the naysayersand critics wrong? Do we expect our children tobe unnaturally well-behaved and hard-working toover-compensate for the fact that they are not inschool?

We live in a society obsessed with success, targetsand achievement above the values of inner peace,joyful living, being a whole person, and takingpleasure in one’s career choice. There’s an armyof experts who apparently know best on everyaspect of child-rearing and education.Grandparents, health visitors, inspectors, completestrangers, the neighbour at number 72. Not tomention the books, newspapers and media ingeneral who all tell us what good education shouldlook like, and how and what our children shouldlearn. Everyone has their own ideas, and so do we.Trends and child-rearing decisions can equallycreate boundaries between parents and makethem feel like they must belong in one camp oranother.

But as parents we are surely mostly guided by ourown instincts and those of our partners. We arethe prescribers, guides and closest followers of ourchildren’s daily education. No-one else lives exactly


the same life as our family, has exactly the samedynamic, the same idiosyncratic personalities tocater for. We all have certain educational idealsthat we aspire to, and when, by living them out,these don’t always necessarily translate so neatlyinto our real lives, we can become frustrated andguilty, feeling that we are failing. My greateststruggle is the desire to give my four children afree-range kind of education but there aremoments in our day wheneach child wants to doentirely different things fromthe other, and compromisesmust ensue. I am frequentlycaught out by this. Forexample - we may need to goshopping for supplies. Onechild says they would ratherpaint. Another is playing ona computer game and wantsto complete their level. Another is half-waythrough an audio-book. Another is doing somemaths. It’s hard to know where to draw a line oneach person’s freedoms, and stay sane andfunctional as a household.

Upsetting the apple cart can lead to guilt that weare not following our dream - but the truth of it isthat some things in life are unavoidable whetherwe do them there and then or do them later. Lifeinvolves putting out dustbins, waiting for parcels,being frugal till pay day, going without. It cannotalways be that every person gets their way, norshould it be. I console myself when the childrenlay a guilt trip on me, that I am simply living in thereal world, that their preparation for it involvessome hardships, and sacrifices. Inevitably therewill be a certain amount of disappointmentsscattered along our HE path- not for the sake ofit as some kind of educational lesson, but inherentin the daily going about our business in ameaningful way. There will also be a certainamount of poor-judgement, of falling flat on ourfaces, of out and out failures. But is this all bad?

The Scottish novelist and poet Robert LouisStevenson once made this wonderful remark

“Our business in life is not to succeed, but tocontinue to fail in good spirits.” 2

Here is a man who clearly did enjoy quite a bit ofsuccess in his life, but perhaps only achieved thisbecause he was not plagued by self-doubts,self-flagellation and guilt. He seemed to positivelycelebrate and thrive in spite of his failings, in spiteof his humanity, perhaps, because he embraced

the inherent nature of things. I have also recentlytaken comfort in the words of Thomas Edison. Itis difficult to find a definitive quote as the numberof attempts varies wildly according to which sourceyou believe, some say 700 ways, other 1000 - itseems to change with every retelling! But theessential meaning is the same...

“ I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 waysthat won’t work” 3

When we stop viewing failureas failure, it takes the edge offall our worrying. When wegive ourselves permission tohave a go at things, to makechoices with the knowledgethat we are mostly doing ourbest at any given moment, amore compassionate and

accepting state of being can follow. In a recentissue of Juno magazine, editor Lucy Pearce sharedher own thoughts on guilt and acceptance which

When we stop viewing failure asfailure, it takes the edge off all

our worrying. ...... a morecompassionate and accepting

state of being can follow.

Cont’d on page 24


Make Every Dayyour ‘World BookDay’!By Yvonne Frost

Thursday 3rd March 2011 marked World BookDay. The celebration, which takes place in100 countries world-wide, comes from an

original idea based on a Catalonian tradition whichstarted 90 years ago during which roses and bookswere given as gifts on St George’s Day.

In view of recent research into the standard ofreading and writing of 7-11 year olds in Britainwhich revealed that 16% aren’t reaching theexpected national standard, World Book Day is animportant event in the calendar.

In my own office environment it is not uncommonto come across teenagers doing work experience,

many of whom have difficulties with spelling andgrammar. I am not alone in my observations ofthis; our local newsagent commented that manyteenaged children doing work experience in hisshop were unable to organise the newspapers intoalphabetical order before distributing them.

At a time when the Government offers statistics toshow that academic standards are improving, thisis not the perception in the work place. Why dowe get the impression that standards in readinghave actually declined?

For a child growing up in the 1970s and 80’s therewere no computers or Wiis. Children’s televisioncomprised of “Mother’s Hour “ at lunch time anda couple of hours of mainly educational children’sTV (such as Blue Peter) after school. Other thanthat there was little opportunity to be passivelyentertained hour upon hour in front of a screen.Neither were there after-school clubs and activitiesin the quantities we have today.

Whilst these activities are not in themselves a badthing, it is necessary to maintain a healthy balancebetween ‘passive leisure’ (which stems from screen


type activities) and ‘active leisure’ involving a sportor creative hobby.

In the 1970’s and 80’s life seemed to be simpler.In our household my sister and I, like many others,were involved in limited extracurricular activitiessuch as Guides, music lessons and Sunday school.There was plenty of opportunity to read and I canstill vividly recall curling up on a bean bag andreading six Enid Blyton books in a weekend. Bookswere exciting and intriguing to me then. A realtreat was when my Grandfather handed me myown full colour encyclopaedia having collected itin weekly instalments for months!

The indirect result of reading for pleasure is thatchildren subconsciously absorb information, whichenhances their learning at school. Reading,vocabulary and the ability to express ideasautomatically improve.

One of the highlights of the week when I was atprimary school was our weekly visit to the library.Book tokens were also a real treat as they offeredthe opportunity to spend hours in our smallindependent bookshop relishing the pleasure ofchoosing a book which could be stroked, handledand cherished.

Something happened however when I commencedsecondary education and still occurs today. It isthis occurrence which I believe has contributed tothe decline in literacy which we see today.

In secondary school, books were imposed uponus. They were no longer objects of pleasure,instead reading them become a duty in the pursuitof the Study of Literature. Reading became aconstant repetition of set books. “Waiting forGodot” by Samuel Beckett is etched in my brainfor being the most boring play on the planet. Withhindsight I wasted years reading books at schoolwhich today I would discard after a couple ofchapters in favour of something I enjoyed.

University education only exacerbated theproblem. Reading matter now consisted of lawbooks and by the time I started work I no longerread for pleasure. Apart from the occasionalgardening book I rarely read any non-fiction at all.

It wasn’t until my son was diagnosed withAsperger’s Syndrome at the age of seven that allthat changed. Forced to home educate him due tothe failure of the system to provide him with anappropriate education, I found myself having toread books again to educate myself. When readingbooks to my son I re-discovered the mostwonderful children’s fiction. I fell in love with thevast range of stories by Michael Morpurgo, listenedto classics like “A little Princess” on audio tape andthe more recent “White Giraffe” by Lauren St John.History came alive in the Horrible History books byTerry Deary.

It was only then that I appreciated how stiflingprescriptive State Education had been and I believestill is. Although apparently ‘succeeding’, havingearned my degree and become a lawyer, schoolhad in fact deprived me of my creativity, requiringme to learn the same books and plays as everyoneelse.

Nowadays I love books; I can’t get enough ofthem. I’ve subscribed to just about every book

catalogue printed, must be one of Amazon’s topten customers and have joined the “read it swapit” website where you can swap books for the costof a stamp. I can be found scouring the charityshops, car boot sales and antiquarian book shops.There are books under the bed and in the porch,you trip over them in the lounge and there isalways a book in the bathroom.

So what better way to celebrate books than torecognise World Book Day? Once hooked readingbecomes an addiction. Whatever the level of youreducation you can teach yourself just aboutanything if you can read. Books impart theknowledge and experience of their authors. Thereare always experts wanting to share theirknowledge with you if you are willing and eager tolearn, no matter what your age. Cookery bookshave been written by teenagers for teenagers, bymothers for sons, by dinner ladies for children.

Sadly, children today are far less exposed to booksthan when I was a child and the pressure of the

Why do we get theimpression that standards in

reading have declined?

There must be a healthy balancebetween screen based ‘passive’

leisure activities and more active andcreative leisure activities

Cont’d on page 24


The Census and Family HistoryBy Annabel Haylett

Yesterday the 2011 census forms plunked down onto our front doormat.This reminded me that looking into family history can be an interestingproject for children. I thought I’d share some information to help get

started with this.

The first detailed census was taken on 6 June 1841, and there has been a censustaken in Britain every ten years since. The 2011 Census gathers far moreinformation than the 1841 census, but past censuses can provide interestingfamily history information. The past census results up to 1911 are now allavailable on-line and most are free of charge. You can search for a particularancestor, and then find out their parents and siblings by finding out who livedwith them. Or if you happen to live in a home that was around in Victorian times,you might be interested to search on your address or street and find out whoused to live there and what sort of things they did for a living. Did they keepany servants? What kind and how many? It’s all on there.

Here’s the free census website for the 1841 – 1891 censuses: http://freecen.rootsweb.com/

The following sites are also helpful, but there is a charge to use them:

http://www.1901censusonline.com/

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/home.jsp (Find My Past allows free access to the 1881 censustranscripts but you pay for everything else. It also now includes the 1911 census but that is a bitmore expensive to access. Using the free access to the 1881 census is good for looking up informationfor a particular house or street.)

http://www.ancestry.co.uk/ (Ancestry contains a lot of information and also allows free access to the1881 census transcripts. You can also create your own family tree on the website.)

If you want to get into this more, it could be helpful to obtain a book. Here are a couple that I’ve used:

‘Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy’ by Nick Barratt(see also this website that goes with the BBC series: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007t575)

‘How to trace your Family History on the Internet’ (a Reader’s Digest book) (Some of this has becomeout of date but it is still basically helpful.)

If you get serious about all this and want to make sure you are tracing back the right family line, it’s a good ideato obtain copies of the birth and marriage certificates. Civil registration started on 1 July, 1837. Copies of birth,death and marriage certificates cost £9.25 each from the Government Record Office. They can be ordered online:

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp

To order them you need the Index Reference Number for the certificate you are after. This can be obtainedfrom here:

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

To ensure you have the correct reference number, it is a good idea to look up the records for both husband andwife and make sure they match.

To trace a family line earlier than 1837, you would need to look at parish registers – which I know nothing about– yet! Other interesting sources of family history are copies of Wills and war records and also graveyards.

Have funJ


Children’s Pages

COWBOY COOKIESIngredients:

1 cup butter¾ cup sugar¾ cup brown sugar2 eggs1 1/2 tsp vanilla2 cups flour1 tsp baking soda½ tsp baking powder1 tsp salt¾ cup oats¾ cup nuts¾ cup Raisins

Method:1. Cream together butter and sugars.

2. Whizz in eggs and vanilla, really fast, tostop them curdling

3. When it's ready, it will be smooth

4. Add in one cup of flour and the bakingpowder and baking soda and salt. Mix inthoroughly.

5. Add the other cup of flour, oats, nuts andraisins. mix in smoothly.

6. Drop one tablespoon at a time, with a bitof space as they spread, and bake for about10-15 minutes at 350°F

Cream together the butter.....

with the white andbrown sugar.....

Whizz in the eggsand vanilla untilsmooth.

Add half the flour, the bakingpowder, baking sodaand salt......

Mix thoroughly.

Add the other cup offlower, the oats, nutsand raisins......

Drop onto a baking tray and bake..........


1. The oven needs to be about 100-150 degrees C

2. Find an ovenproof bowl or container that has a base about theright size to match the label on the LP but also depending on thesize/shape of the bowl you're after (a smaller one to make a tallerbowl, for example)

3. Turn the container over, find the centre of the underside and sticka bit of tacky on it (again, ovenproof!)

4. Lower the LP gently, looking through the centre hole so youcentralise it correctly

5. Push a little to stick it

6. Put it all carefully into the oven

7. Timing is difficult, but depending on your oven, and the thicknessof the LP, 30 seconds could be more than enough!

8. I checked after about 10 seconds, and this time it was alreadystarting to bend, so we watched it, which is great if you have anoven where you can do that safely!

9. Take it out with proper oven gloves/mitts and push it gently downif it hasn't gone as far as you'd like - it creates its own curves,but you might be able to push it a bit

I'm not sure if I should do this. itdoesn't feel right, but... it's recycling; Ibought it from a charity shop; I have a CDof this music already! It's science. I cantick the science box, yay!

LP RECORDBOWL

!


Making tissue paper flowers is something I rememberdoing as a child, but couldn't remember that far backas to how to do them.... I searched the internet as youdo and found a few instructions to remind me.

It's a basic fold, to make a fan, then pull out the layersto make a flower. I'm sure there are other ways, butthis is easy enough for a child and looks pretty enoughto me! We put them on our windows, having takendown the snowflakes at last!

Take a few sheets of tissue paper, different colours if you like, placing the one you want onthe outside as the bottom layer, and working your way "in" as you layer one on top of theother. I think 6 sheets is about right, but your tissue paper might be more thicker or thinnerthan mine! Fold each fold about 1/2 an inch across the length of the pile of papers, the longside assuming they're A4.

Fold the first section down, towards you, from the top; then the next sectionis folded behind, tucking the first section underneath the pile. Then foldthose two, now stacked together, towards you, on top again. See how itmakes a fan when looked at from the side?

Make sure you push down each crease really well, as it can get a bit solid(maybe practice with only 3 sheets to start with, to make it easier).

Once you've got to the bottom of the sheets, bend it inhalf, tying with a pipe cleaner if you like, and then holdthat folded bit really tightly while you gently pull out allthe sections.

Put sticky tape around the "stalk" that you're holding, and present to your mumfor Mother's Day, or stick a few on your windows to cheer up the grey days untilall the real flowers are here!

TISSUE PAPERFLOWERS

Getting it right between these two: does it drive you crazy? Do you care? I can only apologise tothose who don't care that it drives me slightly crazy! OK, I do actually have bigger things to worryabout, but I find that if it is done incorrectly, I stumble over it. My brain must be taking in the meaningas I go along and so it just doesn't make sense when it is wrong. Did you notice I wrote "it is" twiceback there? That's one of the points - work out if it should be "it is" and then you can shorten it bytaking out a space and a letter (the second i). If you shorten something, pop an apostrophe in thereto show that you've taken something out. (check the "you've": you have; also "don't": do not; etc)

As for its - just remember his and hers - they don't have apostrophes, neither should its. Whensomething "belongs" to the it, then think of it as a him or a her, and add an s, no apostrophe.

Just remember: his hers and its, and whether you meant to say "it is".

Can I moan about "could of" and "should of” now? No? Maybe next time, along with kid's, kids' andkids!

It’s and Its


Last Issue’s Crossword Solution

Logic Puzzles

Cathy has six pairs of black socks

and six pairs of white socks in her

drawer. In complete darkness, and

without looking, how many socks

must she take from the drawer in

order to be sure to get a pair thatmatch? ?

Mary's mum has four

children. The first child is

called April. The second

May. The third June. What

is the name of the fourthchild? A woman gave natural birth to two sons

who were born on the same hour of the

same day of the same month of the

same year. But they were not tw

ins and

she had no access to a time machine.

How could this be?

A police officer saw a

truck driver clearly

going the wrong way

down a one-way

street, but did not try

to stop him. Why not?

What comes once in a year,

twice in every month, four

times in every week, and six

times in each and every

weekend?

There was a man in a solidcement room, there was noway in and no way out. Therewas nothing else In the roomapart from a table. How did heescape?(this one needs REALLYlateral thinking!)

I love logic problems! When I was a child my father worked abroad and would be away for weeks at a time. On his visitshome he would often give us a new problem to think about then promptly disappear again, leaving us to agonise overthem until his next visit! In those pre-internet days there was no way to research them, we just had to hope we’d figurethe answer out eventually.

So, if you can’t get the solution straight away, don’t head for the computer....give yourself time, talk it over with yourfriends and family, and the answer may just come to you.

We’ll print the solutions in the next issue.....so you’ve got a few weeks to think about them, just like I did!


Featured Book‘A Matter of Conscience’By Kelly Green

‘A Matter of Conscience’ makes the argument that education is a fundamental freedom, and that family decisions about education shouldbe treated as an issue of conscience. It is divided into four sections: Education is a Fundamental Freedom, Arguments against theRegulation of Home-based Education, Challenges to Freedom of Education, and How Home Education is Changing Society for the Better.

‘A Matter of Conscience’ is now available from Amazon in the U.K., priced £9.99. For more information about the book, which is derivedfrom material originally published on this blog, visit the Rubeus Books website:

http://sites.google.com/site/rubeusbooks/home/our-books/a-matter-of-conscience.

Here’s the Table of Contents:

Part One – Education is a Fundamental Freedom

Freedom of Conscience, Education, and the “Good Life”Indoctrination, Resistance, and Personal Sovereignty, orWe are the Bosses of OurselvesCompelling InterestHome Educator As Legal Beagle

Part Two – Arguments Against the Regulation of Home-based Education

Regulation of Home-based Education is Counter-ProductiveWhat If My Family Had Been Monitored? The DifferenceBetween Autonomy and PowerlessnessThe North American Experience: A Submission to theScrutiny Committee for the Children, Schools and FamiliesBill, U.K. Parliament, January 21, 2010

Part Three – Challenges to Freedom of Education

Is Home-Based Education a Threat? Should Some PeopleNot Be Allowed to Do It?Media BiasCombating Uneducated, Unsubstantiated Opinions and Hate Speech About Home-based EducationHome Education: The ImageFundamentalism and Home-Based EducationResearch on Home Education: A Good Thing?Challenges to Educational Freedoms – Could They Be Coming to a Government Near You?

Part Four – How Home Education is Changing Society for the Better

More on Research: We Home Educators are Just People. May We Request that Other People Stop Treating Us and our Kids Like LabRats? Perhaps No Group Should Be Treated Like Lab Rats.Social EngineeringSo What’s Wrong with a Parallel Society Anyway?Resisting “It”The Real (Secret) Reason People Choose to Educate Their Own KidsThere Is No Scarcity – Let the Bells Ring

Appendices

Appendix A: Background on the Home-Education Crisis in EnglandAppendix B: What Happened in OntarioAppendix C: One of the Last Acceptable Prejudices


By Karen Rodgers

Before we had a family, I had been workingin Special Education and noted how childrenflourished outside of conventional schooled

environments, especially when mentored in smallgroups or one-to-one by people who cared aboutthem and who also, crucially, had the freedom andtime to meet the

child's particular needs. As our second child arrivedand our eldest made great strides simply byexploring the world and asking questions, it wasbeginning to dawn on me that we as parents werelikely to make the best educators of our ownchildren. Yet the conventional view that theimparting

of literacy and numeracy was a specialised task,uniquely the preserve of Professionals schooled inthe mysterious techniques which were needed,

kept coming back to haunt me. How would our twodaughters learn to read and write?

At 3 1/2 our eldest had been asking us to teachher to read when I came across a copy of LynneLawrence's "Montessori Read and Write" andquickly realised I had stumbled on something veryspecial. Here was a well thought out account ofhow parents could help their child pick up basicskills, based on experience of children doing soand also on the understanding that the child-parentrelationship is a very special thing and welldesigned for helping children learn. This book notonly gave us some tips, it also gave me theconfidence as a parent to ditch the conventionalunspoken and self-imposed restraint under whichmany of us suffer and to pitch in and consciouslyprovide the understated but constant supportwhich in the absence of prejudice, parents are sogood at providing. Six years later, our eldest is afluent, voracious and adventurous reader and can

Learning to Read and Write: Our Family’sExperience


write very competently. Her younger sister atnearly six is well on the way to following suit.

I have several times been asked by familiesconsidering HE or new to HE how we did it and sothought it time to try and set out how it cameabout. Each child went through the same stages,but at different rates and in different ways.

1) When they were very tiny, we just talked tothem; all day, every day, involving them ineverything we did and explaining as we wentalong. We also sang to them a lot and told themstories.

2) From about five months, we started to readthem picture books and lift-the -flap books andgave them a choice of two or three; (thisstructured choice was toform a continuing andcrucial aspect of theireducation).

3) As soon as theystarted to ask questions,we endeavoured toanswer them and tailoredour answers to fit withthe kind of experiencesthey already had, to helpthem form links. (I have noticed that parents arevery good at doing this for their own particularchildren). As soon as they started to use theirhands we gave them tasks to do which theyseemed to enjoy and which would help themdevelop knowledge of the world, confidence aslearners and also fine and gross motor skills. Thismay sound technical, but it wasn't really, just assimple as setting out pots with different size lidsfor them to fit to the correct pots etc. and insteadof constantly saying "Don't touch!", showing themhow to touch things and use them…… I didn't leaveanything around which I was not happy to havethem handle.(Again parents are very good atchoosing these kind of objects and tasks for theirown children). I sang to them a lot still, read thempoems and each evening my husband told themstories which were specially and skilfully tailoredto their needs and interests and which encouragedthem to explore different scenarios and to thinkthrough possible outcomes. We also read a chapterbook to them each evening and went to the libraryonce a week and borrowed and ordered books.

4) We continued to read to them, a wider varietyof more challenging books and they had constantaccess to these during the day and the space andtime to explore them at will. While we werereading, we sometimes talked about such things

as punctuation, view point, characterisation, plot,likely outcomes etc. We also read newspapers andmagazine articles together and discussed thecharts and diagrams which appeared in them inwhich the children showed an interest. Oursubscription to the New Scientist has been a goodinvestment. They also saw us adults reading (andalso writing) for our own purposes. We didn't thinkanything of it at the time, but with hindsight, thisturned out to be crucial. Children look to do andto be what the significant adults in their lives aredoing and being, in other words, in most cases,what their parents are doing and being. If theirparents are reading and writing, they too will aspireto read and write and will find a way to do so. (Theconverse is also true, I now realise; if a child'sparents do not read and write and do not valuereading and writing, school-based literacy schemes

are unlikely to make him orher want to. If it is seriousabout literacy rates,government would bemuch better off leavingteachers, in consultationwith parents, to exercisetheir own judgement aboutwhat is best for thechildren in their care andfocus instead on providing

good library services for families). Making time tobe seen writing an essay or a letter in sight of ourolder daughter was a key strategy for motivatingher to write herself.

5) We played various games with them such as" Ispy.. something beginning with ["m"]", using thephonetic sounds of the letters rather than the letternames (although they knew these separatelythrough singing the ABC song). We encouragedthem to make various shapes in sand and indrawing such as zig zags, wiggly lines etc. Wewould notice letters and numbers as we were out,on shops and houses and car number plates andtalk about them and try and decode words usingphonics as well as learning to recognise "puzzlewords" which had non-phonetic spellings..

6) We had sandpaper letters out and when theyshowed an interest, showed them how to trace theshape a letter at a time. We also had laminatedcharts displayed showing how each of the letters(and numerals) are written, and encouraged themto stroke the letter shapes with their fingers eachday. Wehad a chalk-board book out whichencouraged them to do the same thing but holdinga chalk. There were also pencils and drawing paper

Loving parents who read toyou are worth a pile of

literacy schemes

Cont’d on page 22


constantly available and it was noticeable that asthey became interested in letters, these wouldbegin to creep into their drawings one by one. Wehad paper blank at the top and with widely spacedlines at the bottom, so the child could draw apicture and annotate it, if she so chose.

7) We organised get-togethers with other familiesto share the Poems & Stories which we werereading and took poems and songs into the localretirement home to share with the residents. Oftenit would turn out that the girls had learned a poemby heart merely from reading it a few times.

These visits to the local retirement home gave thegirls the chance to recite such poems to an kindlyand appreciative audience and thereby developtheir confidence, fluency and delivery. We askedour eldest to use writing as an incidental part ofan important family task such as composing ashopping list or writing a short practical note toanother family member (e.g "we left you a cake").We invested in some of the Usborne Beginnersseries of non-fiction books about topics 5 year oldsfind fascinating which our youngest has found verymotivating. (Occasionally using some of theUsborne books is as close as we have come tousing a reading scheme).

8) From the age of 7 1/2 we asked our eldest tochoose a topic each week to write about;demonstrated how to construct a spider diagram

and how to work through it methodically toproduce a logically ordered and comprehensivepiece of writing. Monday's task was to produce thespider diagram and to number the sections inorder; Tuesdays to write the rough draft with adictionary and thesaurus to hand, Wednesday's tocheck the draft and Thursday's to copy it up inbest.

We continue to read together every day, non-fiction and classic poems every morning and

quality classic fiction in the evenings (we arecurrently much enjoying the "Swallows andAmazons" series) to sing together and to tell storiesand the girls have access to a wide variety of booksfor independent study.

In selecting books, the aim is to provide the girlswith things which are both beautiful and true (atleast in the allegorical sense). Focussing on thisaim has saved me a lot of grief and time trying tojustify why we don't use x or y resource. One ofthe best investments we have made is in a smallnumber of beautifully illustrated hardbackanthologies of classic poems.

We continue to go to the local library once or twicea week and very much value meeting up withfriends to share books and going to Alex WoodHouse to share poems & songs. I am working ongetting together a collection of good, classic fictionfor older children (of which there is currently adearth in libraries). Abebooks has been a big helpin this.

In conclusion, it seems to me that children do notneed school or reading schemes in order tobecome literate. Rather in the absence of specificlearning difficulties, they easily learn to read andwrite if they are in a rich environment which offersthem interesting resources and also an adult oradults who understand them well and love themand who are prepared to make the materials andthe experience of literacy accessible to them asand when they show an interest. In short, lovingparents who spend time with you and who readthemselves and to you are worth a pile of literacyschemes. n

www.chartmedia.co.uk

www.usborne.com

www.sharingaloveoflife.org.uk

www.abebooks.co.uk

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14379

Cont’d from page 21


Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) is an exciting new initiative from the Natural History Museum and Imperial College Londonthat is open to anyone with an interest in nature. We aim to create and inspire a new generation of nature-lovers by gettingpeople to explore, study, enjoy and protect their local environment.

Between 2009 and 2012 OPAL is running six public surveys of wildlife and theenvironment in which anyone can take part. Last year many home educatorstook part in surveying ponds and hedges in their local area as part of OPAL.

Look to the skies: the OPAL Climate Survey

Our fifth national survey, the OPAL Climate Survey, is happening from March toJune 2011. It will involve around 45 minutes of outside observations, and canbe carried out in gardens or parks in your local area – you don’t have to makea special journey.

The key questions the survey will help us answer are:

§ Where are aeroplane contrails found? The British Isles is criss-crossed withaeroplane routes. On some days contrails disappear almost immediately, but on other days they can persist for hours.

§ How do winds blow the clouds? Use the free cloud mirror to watch the movement of clouds, and help measure cloud-levelwinds.

§ How do winds blow at person height? Use a compass (included in the pack) and soap bubbles to measure wind speedand direction close to the ground.

§ How hot or cold do people feel? Find out the Tog value of your clothing, and compare levels of personal warmth acrossthe country.

The results will be analysed by OPAL scientists at Imperial College London.

OPAL Climate SurveyFree learning resources for home educators to support Science and Geography

By Simon Norman of the Field Studies Council

Taking Part in the OPAL Climate Survey - with FREE gift!

We’re sending a to everyone who wants to participate, which includes full instructions, a cloudspotter’s guide, compass, thermometer and cloud mirror. We are also offering a from the FieldStudies Council, normally £2.75, for readers of EOS. There is a choice from:

- Butterflies of Britain (http://www.field-studies-council.org/publications/pubsinfo.aspx?Code=OP48)- Cloud Name Trail (http://www.field-studies-council.org/publications/pubsinfo.aspx?Code=OP60)- The Night Sky (http://www.field-studies-council.org/publications/pubsinfo.aspx?Code=OP141)

To receive them, please email me at opal@field-studies council.org with ‘EOS’ in the subject header.Please indicate which of the charts you would like. The closing date for this offer is 30th April 2011.

We have designed the OPAL Climate Survey is designed so that it can be used independently byages 11+. Younger children can still take part, but they will probably need the help of an adult.As the pack contains small parts, we regret that it is not suitable for children under 3.

Your results count! The OPAL Climate Survey will be supported by dedicated web pages whichwill display survey results, along with those of other participants from around the country. Ultimately, everyone’s findingswill be fed into a ground-breaking community-led study of the natural world. See the results which have come in so farat the OPAL website www.OPALexplorenature.org.


resonated strongly with me and perhaps kick-started the very idea of this article:

“Guilt is a powerful, insidious tool ...It is perhapsthe greatest way to stunt a human being. And wehave learnt to do it to ourselves, to self-regulateour actions daily. It has the power to make usstrive harder, higher, better. But it also has thepower to shut us down and make us feel so badthat we stop trying altogether.”

She continues

“….The Buddhist teaching of equanimity is alwaysa thought provoking lesson: things are not good,nor bad, they simply are. Once we can allow forthis, our ego can detach a little from our ownrightness (or wrongness), and we can begin toenter into dialogue or compassionate acceptance,with those who choose differently from us. Thepower of guilt, and of judgement can imprison usfirmly in the prisons of our own values. Opennessto possibilities is the key to setting us free.” 4

Cont’d from Page 11 The 17th century Historian and religiousphilosopher George Herbert once made thispertinent observation

“He who cannot forgive others breaks the bridgeover which he himself must pass”. 5

He was referring to the way to heaven but we caninterpret the value of this lesson as a path to amore enlightened state of living in the here andnow, in this lifetime. Of forgiving and forgettingour and our children’s transgressions, ill-judgements, of the mistakes and slip-ups allhumans are capable of. Forgiveness is not onlyabout the big things but the smaller weaknessesthat we see in ourselves and each other.

There is an African saying that It takes a village toraise a child. No one person or two people shouldshoulder all the blame, guilt or joy of parentingalone. When we accept our flaws and allow othersto play a bigger role in our family life, everyone isthe richer for it. Our children need the love,guidance, constructive criticism and support of awider network of respected, esteemed and


cherished others as much as we parents do. Wecannot thrive or live joyfully without helping oneanother.

Being a good HE parent isn’t about providing themost expensive resources, having the bestfacilities, taking our children to every club withina 50 mile radius, or following a ‘method’ down tothe last full-stop. It’s not about raising geniuses.It most certainly is not about being perfect. Neitherwe, nor our children will ever be able to pleaseeveryone in our lives, all the time. But we can stillbe nice people whilst staying true to what is mostimportant and in following our own philosophiesand way of life - even if it is not totally acceptedor supported by every last person we know.Perhaps then, the most important gift we can giveour children is simply our love, faith andunconditional acceptance - who could ask for morein life?

Lets leave a gentler legacy for our children, andchase those monkeys away forever. Instead ofhaving a monkey on their back lets give thembeautiful, strong wings instead. Focus on thepositive things you and they do. Congratulate andpraise yourself and them. Hold out your hand topick them up when they fall. Those realms wherethey tread in future won’t feel nearly so big andscary knowing that whatever happens, it’s not theend of the world - just another lesson learnt. n

1. A HE friend who wishes to remain anonymous, via email.

2. Robert Louis Stevenson; Complete Works, vol 26 ‘Reflections andremarks on human life’, section 4

3. www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_a_edison.html

4. Lucy Pearce, sub-editor’s response; Juno Magazine, Letters page:Dec 2011 and also appeared in Lucy’s fantastic parenting bloghttp://dreamingaloudnet.blogspot.com/

5. Sidney Lee (ed.) The Autobiography of Edward, Lord Herbert ofCherbury, revised edition (London: Routledge, 1906). Page 34.

‘Escaping Toxic Guilt: Five Proven Steps To Free Yourself From GuiltFor Good!’ by Susan CarrelISBN-10: 0071497358

‘Emotional Blackmail: When the people in your life use fear, obligationand guilt to manipulate you’ by Susan Forward and Donna FrazierISBN-10: 0060928971

‘The Good Enough Child: How to have an imperfect family and stillbe perfectly satisfied’ by Brad E. Sachs ISBN-10 : 0380813033

Spring-time?By Richard L.Jones

Time - what an elusive and ephemeral thingit is! Even more so to peoples of antiquity,who of course had the sun and moon to give

them a guide to astrology and the seasons, thoughthey lacked a simple device that could tell themthe exact minute of the day (that then would haveto be accepted country and world wide).

Confusion reigned, and has caused us problems tothis day in trying to pin down specific dates.

The Romans used the number of years from thefounding of Rome (753 BC in our system); theirother provinces used year one from theirfoundation. That must have been fun!

There are few dates to help us understand the twohundred years after the fall of the Roman Empire(410 AD) in this country - as expressed by themonk Gildas, this is not to offer any complaintagainst him as an Historian. There could have beenno agreed dating system in Britain in his day,although it is probable that individual kingdomsused the regnal years of their king.

Of course Gildas was writing for the subjects of atleast five British rulers. The BC/AD system was notused until the Venerable Bede in the eighth century.

In short our early history suffers because Gildashad little choice but to be vague. So given theseproblems, it was apparently nothing later to seepeasants celebrating New Year in the springmonths, as each diocese adopted their owntimetable. It was very difficult for each county tosynchronise time, in fact because of this problemthe celebration of New Year became so late insome parts that the term 'April Fool' was coinedfor just such occasions.

In fact it wasn't until the coming of train timetablesthat this problem was ironed out. Thank goodnessfor Greenwich mean time.


Cont’d from Page 13

Education System is doing nothing to show themhow all-enveloping a good story can be. It’s mucheasier to switch on the television or computer thanpick up a book. So what can we as parents doabout it?

One idea is to use audio books, which wereintroduced to me by a friend who said they kepther children occupied for hours on long journeys.Audio books are free to borrow at your local library;we have listened to some great fiction whilsttravelling to the music lessons or youth group. Oneof my daughter’s friends even asked me if shecould sit in the car to hear the end of JacquelineWilson’s “Hettie Feather”, she had become soabsorbed in the story. Children travelling with mehave had numerous discussions about the booksthey’ve read, as a result of an audio book we arecurrently listening to.

I also place books in the pockets in the back of theseats and regularly swap them. It’s amazing howoften they’re picked up and read! Gift tokens area brilliant present and with the introduction of siteslike Amazon, customer reviews give a good ideaas to whether a book is worth buying. We alsoregularly visit our local library where my son hasdiscovered we can get hot chocolate for 50p andhe can spend an hour or so on a wet morningchoosing books and videos to take home .

So this month why not get treat yourself and yourchildren to a good book, sit yourself down with acoffee and learn something new! It’s never toolate! n

www.worldbookday.comwww.readitswapit.co.uk

HE and WorkingLorena Hodgson

So, how do you do it? Another one of thosequestions HE families get asked. How canyou afford it? You must be rich/on stacks of

benefits/have a rich husband. In fact, we metsomeone recently whose first reaction to the ideaof home education was that it must be the preserveof well-off middle class families who can afford amultitude of tutors. While I'm sure there must besome HE families who can afford "it" andeverything else, I get the impression many gowithout some things that are considered essentialtoday. I'm not going to go on about TV or not;weekends away, or not, but I think we have all"sacrificed" in our own way, even if we think we'velost nothing. We have made a choice and putlooking after our children full time above otherneeds or wants.

I recently spoke to a parent who is havingdifficulties making ends meet. Her mother hassuggested she goes to work, to bring in extra cash,"the children will be fine at school..." The last thingthis mother wants is to send her children to school.She would rather go without other things than dothat, but not everyone understands that.

I suggested she ask her mother for suggestionson how to bring in more cash while staying athome, they could work together on somethingperhaps. This leads me neatly on to what I wantto do over the next few issues. To talk about howto make money from home, specifically start upyour own business, with a potential for more if youwant to.

I have been an independent worker for 20 yearsnow, in various roles, but I've spent some time asa director of a limited company; plenty of time withcustomers, suppliers, magazines, attending shows,


organising shows, talking to other business ownersof various sizes (the businesses, not the owners...)and sometimes business advice places! I didn'trealise it until I started the magazine with Janeand we attended a couple of those seminarsorganised for "Women in Business" that I actuallyknew what I was doing already! (as did Jane!). Itwas interesting, but there's nothing new in theworld of how to attract customers, how to presentyourself, etc etc. It doesn’t matter too much whatyour business actually is, the ways to marketyourself are the same.

Websites and social media are new, but as that'sone of my old jobs, I can manage that. So, Idecided with so many families needing to "bringin a little extra cash" and HE families in particular,I'd try to bring that information to you through themagazine. I know we can all go to Business Link(well, until they get shut down), and otherorganisations like them, but I've found many ofthem only give half the advice; or are talking aboutlarger companies - I'm going to start with "oneman bands" - or "micro-businesses" as we're nowcalled. Of course none of these agencies evenconsider the issue of how to do it with children intow!

Please write in, or use Twitter of Facebook, to tellus about your business and what you want to do

with it - do you want to just get extra cash, areyou planning for it to pay the mortgage, or do youwant to build it into an empire?! I'd like tointerview HE businesses to find out how they areorganised and to share the experience. Havingfamily at home is not the norm, as we all know,and it makes running a business, especially fromhome, a different exercise to running it while thekids are at school.

I'll put some questions on the website andFacebook to help you make the decision in the firstplace. We'll also be linking up with organisationsto help you.


Woods as aClassroomBy Alison Kirkman of the Woodland Trust

We all know that traditional schoolingmethods are not the only way forchildren to learn. Home education is a

great way to teach children in a more holistic wayabout the world they live in.

Teaching as part of a group can also be extremelybeneficial, providing more stimulation and socialdevelopment opportunities for children as well asinspiration and support for educators.

It's often a challenge to find a good place toeducate in a group, but the great outdoors isundoubtedly one of the best. Woods especiallyoffer a whole range of natural resources with whichto teach and your nearest wood is probably nearerthan you think. 33 million people in the UK livewithin 2.5 miles of a publicly accessible wood andthe possibilities for education are endless.

VisitWoods.org.uk has recently been launched andwill be of enormous help to home educators infinding suitable woods to take their children foroutdoor learning. It is the UK's first interactivewoodland website mapping 14,000 publiclyaccessible woods. Many woods have attributes toshow they are particularly good for finding certain

things such as ancient trees, spring colour, a riveror lake or, especially at this time of year, bluebells.Information such as whether the wood has a cafe,visitor centre or toilets is also included - all reallyuseful when planning education outdoors.

Karen Rodgers from Cambridgeshire homeeducates her two girls. Asked about the benefitsof educating children in woodlands, she says:

"Children need to develop their senses andfaculties of fine and gross motor control. Theydevelop these best in an environment which is richin contrasts - in colour, texture, scent - and wherethere is plenty of space to move. It's good to allowchildren to take managed risks and take them toa place where they are at liberty to touch andengage with any object or substance that attractstheir attention.

"Natural woodland provides opportunities for thewhole range of these needs in a way that indoorartificial environments cannot. Also, woodland is ahugely motivating environment for children. Theyreally do want to feel that bark, watch that beetle,climb that tree. It helps them to develop self-motivation, self-confidence and self-discipline aswell as a keen sense of risk assessment.

"In an outdoor environment there are no videogames, TV screens or a fridge full of food todampen down their natural drive to learn andexplore. Outdoor education frees children from theprevalent materialist, competitive and destructive'mine or yours?' mindset. It enables them to playwith each other on neutral territory and of coursethere's the obvious benefit of fresh air and VitaminD!"

There is also a range of resources on VisitWoodsto aid learning, such as downloadable spottersheets to identify woodland flora and fauna andeven a den building kit to inspire creativity.

Education Outside School Editor, Lorena Hodgson,says: "The attributes on VisitWoods.org.uk will bereally helpful. It's so important for home educatingfamilies to feel they're given permission to runaround, make dens and 'do stuff'. All too oftenwoods are just seen as places to take the dog.

"Do check out VisitWoods in advance, and use thelinks to the Nature Detectives website for ideas aswell. The best thing to do then is to take the


children on a long walk, ask them what they cansee and what they’d like to do. You can alwaysgo back there for all the different activities theywill come up with! Wear appropriate clothing, takeplastic bags - they're useful to sit on, or to carrytreasure or muddy boots home in. Take somesnacks, water and warm drinks, get outside andhave fun!"

So what can we learn

in the woods?Of course, a visit to the woods is fantastic ofitself and needs no embellishments, but if youfelt inclined to tease out the educational valuea bit more, how would you do it? Here are afew of EOS’s suggestions - some will occur asa natural by product of your day out, somemay need some research either before the tripor upon your return. Take your pick and addsome of your own!

Religious EducationDiscussion of older religions such as

paganism which were heavily based innature, Druids who traditionally met for

worship in groves in the woods asthey were forbidden to meet in places

enclosed by walls and a roof;significance of Yew trees in

Christianity and as one of the thingsborrowed from paganism to ease and

encourage their conversion intoChristianity

Physical EducationWalking, running about,climbing trees, obstacle

courses

LanguagesLatin scientific names oftrees/plants; words like

‘arboreal’ and theirconnection to Latin

languages such as theFrench for tree, l’arbre.

GeographyOrienteering, laying atrail and following it.

EnglishPoetry inspired by nature –Wordsworth’s ‘Daffodils’,

Gerard Manley Hopkins, ‘TheWay Through The Woods’ by

Rudyard Kipling, greatenvironment to practise

descriptive writing

BiologyAn easy one with all the plantsaround! Species, classification,

plant reproduction, insects,mammals (badger sets,squirrels etc), fungi…..Maths

What is the tallest tree; measuringthe area of the wood; age of trees

through counting rings; foryounger children counting thenumbers of a certain type of

tree/plant found

ArtSimply drawing what we see,

making natural art out of objectsaround us, relate to natural artistssuch as Andy Goldsworthy, bark

rubbings, photography

HistoryAge of trees, history of the British

landscape, what used to bewoodland, why and when it

changed, industrial revolution;which monarch was on the throne

when this wood was young…..

PhysicsThe way leaves fall to the ground, trees that

have ‘helicopter seeds’ like maple andsycamore, discuss the physics of flight

ChemistryBit of a crossover withBiology, but could talkabout gas exchange,

carbon cycle, greenhousegases and the importance

of trees…..


Education is Compulsory, Schooling is NotThe specific legalities of home educating in the UK differ somewhat between England, Wales, Scotland andNorthern Ireland as much as they do in countries throughout the rest of the world. The national organisationslisted to the right go into this in detail and are a good place to go if you are unsure or have specific queries.However, some things are clear:

YOU DO NOT need to be a qualified teacher to educate your child at home

YOU ARE NOT obliged to follow the National Curriculum or take national tests

YOU DO NOT need to observe school hours, days or terms

YOU DO NOT need to have a fixed timetable, nor give formal lessons

THERE IS NO FUNDING directly available from central government for parents who decide to educate theirchildren

THERE IS NO WRONG WAY to home educate. There are many different approaches, from the autonomous orchild-led to the highly structured, through a myriad of hybrids in between. In fact it has been said that thereare as many different approaches to home education as there are families doing it.

The above is a swift ‘FAQ’ style list; basically, if you’re thinking of HE, and your children aren’t registered at aschool, just keep them home. Talk to them. Research what they could do, and discuss with them how they’dlike to learn. Then just do it. Go out, enjoy. (Museums, playgrounds, everywhere, are much quieter in schooltime!)

If they are at school, send a letter to the head teacher, use recorded delivery; say you will be home educating,and that’s it. Nothing else is required of you. You are the parent, you are responsibile for your child’s education,as you are responsible for other aspects of their life.

If you do your research, you will find yourself impressed and maybe amazed at what children can do outside ofschool. They really can learn very successfully! Don’t Panic. Research, and enjoy.

Local Authority information and actions differ wildly, but the facts remain as above. If they wish to speak withyou, check out the websites of HE organisations for suggestions on how to do this first. LAs are interested inmaking sure your children are receiving a good enough education, they are allowed to check if it seems they’renot.


Home Education Websites and GroupsThere are many home education groups, national and local, all over the UK. Most websites and lists are full ofvery valuable free information provided by other home educators. A few charge a subscription. EOS Magazineis not affiliated to and does not recommend any particular group over another and they have been listed in noparticular order - please use your own discretion and follow your own home ed path! Any omissions are purelydue to our own human fallibility! If you run a website or a group that you would like to see featured here, or ifyou know of one that you feel should be here, please contact us and tell us.

National

AHEdAction for Home Educationwww.ahed.org.ukPO Box 7324, Derby, DE1 0GT

Education Otherwisewww.education-otherwise.org125 Queen Street, Sheffield, South Yorks.S1 2DU

Freedom In Educationwww.freedom-in-education.co.uk

HE-SpecialHome Education in the UK - SpecialEducational Needswww.he-special.org.uk

HE-UKHome Education UKwww.home-education.org.uk

HEdNIHome Education in Northern Irelandwww.hedni.org

Home Education Advisory Servicewww.heas.org.uk

Home Education in the UKwww.home-ed.info

Home Educated Youth CouncilAn independent voice for home educatedyoung peopleheyc.org.uk

MuddlePuddleA site aimed particularly at the 0-8 agerange.www.muddlepuddle.co.uk

SchoolhouseFor home education in Scotlandwww.schoolhouse.org.ukPO Box 18044, Glenrothes,Fife KY7 9ADTel: 01307 463120

THEN UKThe Home Education Networkwww.thenuk.comPO Box 388, St Helens, WA10 [email protected]

Home Ed Gymnastics GroupMansfield, Nottinghamshire

The group is open to all home educatedchildren aged between 4-16 years old,subject to the availability of places. Wemeet on Friday afternoons during termtime and half term holidays (but not duringEaster, summer and Christmas holidays)from 3pm-4pm.

For further details, contact Alexandra orMartin at [email protected] oron 01623 477922 or 07923 496701.

Regional

North EastNorth Yorkshirewww.nyhe.co.ukhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/henney/(Home Education Network North EastYorkshire). A monthly meeting in a localvillage hall and a monthly meeting out andabout somewhere in the local area

West Yorkshirewyheal.wordpress.com

East MidlandsLeicestershirewww.he-al.org.uk

Northamptonshirewww.iflow.org.ukwww.northantshe.org.uk

West MidlandsWorcestershirewww.worcestershire-home-educators.co.uk

EastCambridgeshirewww.cambridgehomeeducators.org.uk

South EastBerkshirewww.heroesberkshire.co.ukIsle of Wightwww.iwlearningzone.co.ukKentwww.flags-education.org.ukwww.ukhome-educators.co.ukSurreywww.pact-he.org.ukwww.swsurrey-home-ed.co.uk

South WestBristolwww.bristolhomeeducation.org.ukDorsetwww.he-ed.org.ukSomersetwww.homeeducationcentre.org.ukWiltshirewww.nwilts-he.org.uk

WalesNorth Westwww.creativelearningandsupport.co.uk


www.education-otherwise.org

www.hedni.org

www.thenuk.com

www.schoolhouse.org.uk

www.muddlepuddle.co.uk

www.heas.org.uk

www.educationeverywhere.co.uk

www.ahed.org.uk

Spring has sprungThe grass has rizI wonders where the birdies is?Some say the birdie's on the wingBut that’s absurd!I say the wing's on the bird!

Anon

www.education-otherwise.org

www.home-education.org.uk

www.hedni.org

www.thenuk.com

www.schoolhouse.org.uk

www.muddlepuddle.co.uk

www.educationeverywhere.co.uk

www.ahed.org.uk

Date post:	11-Mar-2016
Category:	Documents
Upload:	education-outside-school-magazine
View:	217 times
Download:	1 times

EOS Mag Issue 4 - Mar/Apr 2011

Documents