Six Quails in Wales

Enjoying the snow!

2012-02-05T12:50:00.000Z

One of the joys of Home Education....being able to make the most of the days when the weather's just right for sledging (and hurtling down hills on skateboard decks and body boards!)

Sam is getting pretty nifty at editing video - this is his handy work!

e-petition on Pilot Safety

2011-11-11T10:16:00.000Z

We're really concerned about the governments new proposals regarding the hours a pilot is allowed to fly. Please have a look at this you tube video made by BALPA the pilot's union and think about signing the e-petition. We need to stop this from happening!

Trying again...............:-S

2011-11-03T10:22:00.000Z

No one ever keeps to New Years Resolutions do they!

Anyway, I just wanted to draw your attention to the blog my eldest daughter has just set up. I thought it may be of interest to all those intrepid Home Edders out there. Rhiannon was home educated for 5 years and took a determinedly unconventional approach to her learning! Despite my efforts at encouraging something different, she insisted on taking only 2 IGCSE's which got her into college to do a Level 2 diploma in Art and Design. She found the course unchallenging but achieved a Distinction*. She was then advised by one of her art tutors to "skip" A levels and go straight on to an Art Foundation course. This was a big leap - the course is intensive and is designed to prepare students for Uni. At the same time she is busy with violin, drama and opera, so her days are full to bursting.

She is now applying to university to do Theatre Design. Obviously we don't know if her unconventional background and lack of qualifications will be a problem. We don't know if she'll get any offers. But it will be interesting. And I thought it may be of interest to other home educating parents who are perhaps worrying, as I did (and still do), that home education may not always provide our children with the same opportunities as they would have had if they had gone through school.

http://artstudentmind.blogspot.com/

New Years Resolutions............

2011-01-17T17:36:00.043Z

....yes, I know it's a bit late but I never was one to be on time. I can't believe my last post was last May - that's pretty awful even for me! But the children are often saying "...oh perhaps you could put this on the blog...." so guilt has finally got the better of me and I thought I'd try again. It's also nice to look back at things we've done, so....here goes!

I'm sure you can imagine that alot has happened in the past 8 months (oops, is it really that long). Don't worry, I won't ramble on for long..............

Rhiannon got through her exams (despite everything) and is now at college. A shock to all of our systems. Despite the colleges somewhat snobby attitude to her when she went to interview, the course is way below her abilities and has been somewhat unstimulating. It makes me realise just how much our children progress and flourish at home. She is not at all disadvantged by lack of formal teaching over the past years. On the contrary........ So I am determined not to underestimate the talents of my children in the future. I will be pushing to get R onto the course she wants, irrespective of whether she has the formal entry requirements. As long as she believes it is right for her. She knows her own limits - because she has learnt to know them. Having said all that she is still trying to extract as much as possible from the course, especially with respect to putting together a really good portfolio of work for the future.

And what about some other stuff.... Well, Rhiannon, Sam and Jo are now all members of the Clarbeston Road players and performed in this years panto "Snow White and the Six Giants".

Rhiannon as "Snow White"

Jo as "Grumpy"!

They always have a great time at drama!
They are just starting work on a one act play "The Hard Yards" that they will be performing in April, so watch this space! It's a play about the difficulties a bright 17 year old boy faces and it covers difficult themes like parental pressure, peer pressure, teenage pregnancy, depression, promiscuity...........I'm exhausted! And all in less than an hour!! The point is, Jo is too young for this one so it's just Rhiannon and Sam involved. Sam will also be in the adult groups play "Chain Reaction" which I think is a comedy about house selling (if that could ever be conceived of as funny!)

So, what else? Well......we enjoyed the pre-Christmas snow..................really not too bad for us compared to January 2010!

Made lots of our christmas pressies including soap (from scratch....interesting piece of chemistry), felt, lavender bags and calendars.

Detail of Rhiannon's felt cockerel....

Keira took her first ballet exam (!)

We hatched some Bantum eggs for our eglu......

Built scarecrows..........

Painted rocks.......

Went to Fiddle Festivals (well, one anyway...)

.....to name but a few things (8 months is definitely too long!)..............

Sam especially spends alot of time modelling, designing and building stuff.........last week he built a replica piston engine out of K'nex...powered by a drill. Must show you that one when I get around to it!

Life is full of things we do that seem unimportant and ordinary at the time...but then you look back and think "wow, we did OK didn't we?" Or at least we hope we do. I won't promise anyone, least of all myself, that I will start blogging regularly, but I will try........for us it seems to be more about creating some king of log of our home ed achievements. To remind us that it is in the little everyday experiences and discoveries that we actually achieve so much without really noticing.

So what do you reckon.......anyone gonna' take bets.............I wouldn't if I were you!

And Then There Were Three...

2010-05-30T23:41:00.003+01:00

At last I have managed to get hold of a few photos of the one act play that Rhiannon recently took part in with the Clarbeston Road players. Here is the cast - all teenagers except for one who was just 9! Don't they look cool!

The play was about a group of young people trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where no adults remain alive. The events of the play are tragic and leave only three of them alive at the end.

Scenes from the dress rehearsal. The play was performed at the Torch Theatre in Milford Haven which has a large stage. Because of this they were unable to rehearse on the small stage at the hall where they usually rehearse and perform, so they had to rehearse in the hall to get used to the space that they would have available on the day.

Rhiannon wielding a stick............

Publicity photos for the local paper.

More art.....

2010-05-13T23:19:00.002+01:00

.........from Rhiannon. Another fantasy piece in pen and ink. She wasn't too happy with the girl or the background.

If any of you are into the "Skulduggery Pleasant" books, the characters are Tanith (that's the girl brandishing a sword) and the Torment (I think that's the spider).

Although the characters are from a book, there were no illustrations of them so they are her own interpretation of them.

She's definitely getting more confident with using colour and is now moving away from copying other people's work or photographic images - I think that's quite a leap, and one that is happening even though she does not have alot of time for art at the moment, whilst preparing for exams. (Sigh!)

In which we are amazed and delighted at the product of a humble Tescos egg.....

2010-05-13T20:28:00.000+01:00

With just a week to go until Rhiannon's first exam life is truly hectic - especially since we will have to travel to my sister's house in Wetherby so she can sit her exams in Harrogate! It's always a major operation going anywhere with my lot - even if it's just for a day. Trying to help Rhiannon in her last phases of exam preparation is hard work enough without having to get packed and organised for a week and a half away.

We enjoyed a lighter moment over the weekend though when our duck egg finally hatched!

The duckling is huge! He/she is fit and healthy and has now moved to be with the lad who didn't believe a supermarket egg would hatch! Don't worry, he does have a proper home to go to once he is old enough -we wouldn't have agreed to incubate the egg purely for experimental purposes!

In which we wonder what is the purpose of exams, and why there's so much slate in my garden....

2010-04-27T21:13:00.001+01:00

Well spring has finally sprung here in Pembrokeshire and life is as busy as ever. Thought it was about time (or perhaps a bit overdue) to sit down and have a quick update on some of the things we have been up to!

With the good weather I've been trying to get our little garden going, and it really does seem to be taking up a disproportionate amount of time. Trying to create something attractive but also productive is pretty tricky in such a small space but we have a cunning plan! Rhiannon (of course) came up with a design as she said she didn't want it looking like an allotment! I quite like the allotment look but I will bend to her superior sense of style! Trouble is the digging is hard work because the ground is very compacted and full of slate. The boys have helped me quite a bit and Derek when he is around, but Keira is only interested in the fun bits like sowing seeds (who can blame her!) We've managed to dig a couple of beds but I've got loads of stuff to go in and more beds to dig. Each bed, although only small is taking over a week to double dig. Then we go off with our squeaky wheelbarrow to raid a pile of well rotted manure that no one else wants (the neighbours already think we're eccentric). Then because the soil was so compacted there's not enough room in the hole for our soil to go. So now we have piles of unwanted soil and slate rubble which is really making the garden look attractive (sigh!) It's all looking a bit of a mess at the moment but at least it's nice to see some produce popping out of the ground.....so long as we can keep the armies of slugs at bay!

Gardening isn't the only thing we've been doing though.

We've started to get out and about again - back to the beach, fab walks and trips to the Botanic Gardens of Wales and the Centre for Alternative Technology. We normally manage to get out more throughout the winter but it was just so relentlessly wet and windy, there was little pleasure to be had in it.

Guess where!

Rhiannon took part in a one Act Play festival at the Torch Theatre in Milford Haven. They put on a challenging post-apocalyptic play called "And Then there were Three". It was about 6 children trying to survive without adults following a global catastrophe in which all adults over the age of 18 had died of a deadly virus. Sounds a bit hard going I know, but it was fantastic and surprisingly entertaining, given the subject matter! It won't be too long before its' back to Panto rehearsals for a bit of light relief!!

Jo with Derek at his book signing!

Jo helped to publicise a new book called "Is" by Derek Webb. It's about a girl who believes herself to be the reincarnation of Isenbard Kingdom Brunel. Jo took part in a dramatisation of parts of the book which took place in Haverfordwest Library and the Waterfront Museum in Swansea. He really enjoyed it and as a bonus, it triggered an interest in Brunel and we have been watching some documentaries about his life and work as a result.

We had an "eggy" time over easter, having our first go at painting eggs.

We also began incubating some duck eggs! There is a lad in the village who simply couldn't believe that we'd successfully hatched quail eggs that had come from a shop. So he found someone who wanted some ducks and bought some duck eggs from Tescos. He put 6 eggs in a make shift incubator he'd thrown together in his bedroom and gave the other 6 to Rhiannon to put in her proper incubator. Needless to say, none of his eggs developed, but one of Rhiannon's is doing well! It shoud hatch in under 2 weeks now, so we'll keep you posted! Still it's a bit sad there's only one.......

We hope it won't be long before we begin incubating some bantum eggs for our own garden. We will be getting our eggs from a local breeder who specialises in wynadotte bantums. We are told they are good layers (for bantums) and something smaller seems better suited to our pokey little garden! The only thing that's holding us back is that we will be away for Rhiannon's exams and then again for HESFES and there's no one here we know well enough to ask to look after young hatchlings. Apart from anything else we don't want to miss any of that part anyway! So we'll probably pop some eggs in the incubator before going off to HESFES (it turns the eggs automatically).

Oh yes....those exams. Rhiannon is just over three weeks away from her first exam. It really has been an eye opener. We spend more time talking about how to interpret a question to work out what the examiners want to hear than anything else! Learning how to jump through the hoops in the right way is critical to success! What happened to learning something in a meaningful way? Frankly it all seems a bit of a waste of time - but it is so frustrating because society at large places so much emphasis on acquiring these pieces of paper. It's hard work to find a different way through - yet I'm more than ever convinced that it would be worth the effort.

An example - Rhiannon is turning into a fine creative writer..............yet she finds it almost impossible to write anything worth reading in a time frame of 40 minutes. So she may not do too well in the exam. How then is a future employer/college or whatever supposed to judge her literacy skills fairly on the basis of this exam?

The boys too will be greatful when exams are over, since the work is tying us to the house somewhat. Most days, after doing maths, they read, play chess, play physics games on the computer, whittle pieces of wood, make models, play guitar, cook,do some art and play with Keira. I feel pretty guilty that they are not getting to do more of the many things on their lists of stuff they want to do, but Rhiannon needs so much support on the final run up to the exams - marking exam papers, discusssing answers, testing her on word definitions and so on. It's amazing how time consuming it all is. All I can say is thank goodness she's not sitting 10 subjects!!!!

And here's one of R's latest creations done in pen and ink and very much from her own imagination.

More pictures to add but will try to do that tommorow. I am reeling from the shock that I've actually posted something at all! Time for a strong cup of coffee me thinks.

Facing prejudice

2010-03-10T18:27:00.000Z

Today I accompanied Rhiannon to a college interview. She wants to do a First Diploma in Art and design which is equivalent to 4 GCSE's - nothing earthshattering, but she wants to pursue a career in art and design and having been mostly self taught in her art, she wanted to start with a basic course to "fill in" gaps in her knowledge and experience before progressing to more advanced courses.

The interviewer clearly did not get home education. She couldn't understand why she was only doing 2 GCSE's (the requirement for the course). Why didn't she have any predicted grades for her GCSE's? Why didn't her Biology exam include a practical? Why wasn't she doing art GCSE? Why was she home educated anyway? Does she have any friends? I think she thought that there must be something "wrong" with Rhiannon and at the very least, I must be a bit of a weirdo or certainly irresponsible.

I fumed all the way home.

I was left feeling angry and frustrated at her blinkered views - almost felt like saying "you can keep your course then if you are going to be so prejudiced!" It also left me feeling full of doubt about my decision to home educate......have I let her down? I hope not.

But Rhiannon is determined to forge on ahead and prove her prejudices wrong.

A couple of A*'s at IGCSE wouldn't go amiss, but that would be administering pressure on Rhiannon just to make me feel better. At the end of the day, when you home educate it has to be about the child and not your own ideas and aspirations, nor your own sense of comfort.

She has a "conditional offer" for a place on the course, providing she acquires 2 "D's" in her exams! I can only assume she is likening Rhiannon to a schooled child who only takes 2 GCSE's.

Looking forward to spring and a view of Mars!

2010-01-29T16:43:00.000Z

In the winter our HE activities do seem to take on a more indoors approach. Pembrokeshire is very much an outdoory kind of place but the wind and the wet do not invite us out as much as when the weather is more clement. Now as January draws to a close we are looking forward to the promise of spring and the chance to get out and about more. I have so many plans and ideas in my head of things we can do and enjoy. The winter wearies me.

A pressing task is the need to design our small garden for maximum productivity. Fruit, veg and chickens as well as better accomodation for our quails is planned, not forgetting flowering plants to help our honeybees and butterflies. The children have come up with some lovely suggestions for the design, so now we need to pool ideas and get digging and constructing. I'll keep you updated of our progress!

One thing that seems to be tying us to the house more than usual is Rhiannon studying for IGCSE's. She started in October and is taking the exams in May so she has a packed schedule to ensure she is fully prepared when the time comes. I addition she is completing her art correspondence course and trying to build a portfolio of art work and photography for when she is called to interview at the local college. She is only taking the exams she needs to get onto the course she wants to do, but it is still time consuming just learning to jump through the right hoops to pass the exams - at least that is what it feels like to us. I'm not sure much learning happens which is a shame, and another reason why she is not taking more exams than absolutely necessary.

Sam's been doing alot of science lately - yesterday he did experiments on viscosity of liquids.

We're also watching a great series on BBC - "Chemistry: A Volatile History". It's fascinating stuff and is putting alot of what he is learning into perspective, as well as making me realise what my Chemistry teacher must have been rambling on about all those years ago! I highly recommend it to anyone like Sam who loves a bit of science - lots of bangs, flashes and pretty colours :-)

Jo is currently quite determined to learn to play his guitar and to learn to sing. Guitar I can help him with for a time but I'm looking around for resources and ideas to help with the singing. I can sing to a point but was never taught to sing properly which I regret.

So now it's a wet Friday afternoon and blowing a gale. Enthusiasm is lacking so we have been trying out some one-point perspective drawing. Sam decided to have a go at drawing his skateboard!

Jo looked at photographs and tried to identify the vanishing points and horizons. Rhiannon of course is way ahead of us in that department so she has been experimenting with sketching eyes.

And tonight, at around 9pm, we're hoping to get a view of Mars (cloud dependant). Apparently it is only about 62 million miles from earth and should be visible slightly above and to the left of the moon. We'll let you know if we're lucky!

Meccano, flour and the alphabet.

2010-01-26T23:36:00.002Z

Sam's been designing away with his meccano set recently acquired from Santa :-) Here was what he came up with the other day.

I also got hold of this lovely new cookbook around Christmas. Its' focus is cooking with children and it works through different food groups. I really like it because it is not at all patronising like alot of books aimed at children. It really aims to teach children about food and how to cook properly with an understanding of some of the principles behind it all.

At the moment we plan to work through the section on flour. We're finding out about the different types of flours, why they're different, their different uses, the relationship between flour and the beginnings of civilisation and so on. The section takes us through all the main uses of flour. Today we started with bread and raisin bread and had alot of fun making, experimenting and tasting!

Mixing the ingredients

Is it s'posed to be this sticky?

Stretching that gluten!

I hasten to add that baking is not a rare event in our household. Normally I do it or I tell the children what to do and they do it! After doing years of food science when I was at college (oh so long ago) it's just never occured to me to help the children see the whole picture...........understanding for example, what was so important about using "strong flour" for bread, what is strong flour anyway, what are we trying to achieve when we knead and so on. I think I often didn't think to talk about such things because they seem so obvious to me. But the more we worked together, with this book as a catalyst, the more I realised how much was not obvious to them!

I thought that they may find all that food sciency kind of stuff a bit boring, but they really seemed to enjoy getting a better understanding. And of course there's no better science lesson than one that ends up with something you can eat!

Over the next few weeks we'll be doing loads more with flour - pastry, pasta, sauces, cakes, pancakes......yum! And I'll try to remember to share our successes (and failures - not too sure about the pasta already!)

Keira on the other hand is really interested in letters at the moment. This is not something that we have imposed on her. She is very much leading the way here. Currently she chooses two or three letters from the alphabet every day. She likes me to cut the letter shapes out of card and she decorates them. She's finding out about the sounds the letters make and can tell you how to spell some simple words. It's her main activity of the day at the moment. We'll have the alphabet sorted in no time!!!

Letter "e"

A funny kind of day.......

2010-01-14T15:14:00.006Z

After snowing lightly for 12 hours solid we find ourselves marooned in a snowy Walton. There ia about 2 foot of snow directly surrounding the house due to the large quantities falling off the roof, and some of the guttering has even broken off! Once again there was no school for the children living in the village so the boys spent the day building snowmen and igloos with their friends. It's been fun and the snow is very beautiful, but it has been virtually impossible to get about for us. The nearest food shop in any form is 20 minutes drive away, even in good weather, and activities looked forward to and enjoyed such as swimming lessons and dance classes have been impossible to get to. So we'd all like it to thaw now.

But for my eldest daughter and I the day has been overwhelming consumed by an unexpected learning experience!

She loves to use Facebook. Living in a rural area, she finds it a great way to chat to her friends and generally keep in touch. To be honest it's been a bit of a lifeline for her recently.

Well she was sent a group invitation to join a group that is campaigning against the new home education laws. She joined the group and thought she'd send out invitations to join to everyone on her contact list. This seemed inocuous enough.

To cut a very long story short, she received some very aggressive and abusive responses to this from some of her "friends", which she tried to deal with in a mature assertive way. However, they persisted in misinterpreting everything she wrote and twisting her words. After being accused of being "full of s**t", together with sarcastic comments such as ..."what is the home educated genius doing today then..." she decided to post on the home ed group, sections of what these people had said to get their comments! Well that opened a can of worms. Many articulate and well informed people, who are lobbying to protect our rights, got involved in the debate. It was all a little overwhelming but encouraging as they were able to put these young men straight about many of their misconceptions in a way we were finding hard to do.

We were shocked and horrified by the level of aggression expressed by these boys. We couldn't see how the issue should matter to them. The irony of it all was that they were implying that they were getting a better education at school and that home educated children would be indoctrinated by their parents opinions, unable to think for themselves, as well as being overly sheltered from life experiences. Yet their spelling was appauling, and the use of expletives when they were losing an argument, offensive. They had been well and truly indoctrinated by the system as far as I could see. They certainly struggled with the art of thinking and could not listen to or consider another point of view. I am not suggesting that all schooled children are like them It was just two teenage boys who were ill informed and unwilling to listen. But it certainly reinforced my conviction that school is not for my children at least.

It was at first an upsetting experience but as a result we "met" new people who were willing to give of their time and effort to help and support us, even if just in cyberspace! We learnt about how contentious some issues can be, thought about how to deal with them, learnt a bit about politics and the difference between assertiveness and aggression and which is the most effective.

You just never know what learning opportunities may come your way do you! Mind you I'd rather not have too many days like today :-)

Snowing crazy......!

2010-01-08T17:11:00.003Z

Well they said they were going for a walk but you never know what will happen and where your feet might take you when you step across the threshold!

I think Jo has his heart set on the next Winter Olympics.....!

Feeling a bit chilly.....

2010-01-08T15:53:00.006Z

....well aren't we all at the moment? All the snow is beautiful but we've been pretty much snowed up for a week and a half now and with the nearest shop 20 minutes drive away, and being unable to get to drama, swimming lessons, dance class etc, the novelty's beginning to wear off. The other day we had a bit of a panic as we'd run out of food and it was snowing heavily. None of our country lanes are gritted and there isn't much traffic at the best of times. It's like driving on an ice rink. It was like a great adventure trying to get to the supermarket! It was a sobering thought, realising just how dependant we were on such places.

Still, it IS beautiful and it's been lovely to see everyone's snowy photos, so I thought I'd add a few of ours!

Arty picture!

More arty pictures.....!

And again...!

And another...!

Sam ...what has he done to that skateboard?!

Keira's snowman

Trying to snowboard on a sledge!

Well there's not much sign of this lot thawing....perhaps we could have a go at building an igloo or something!

Oh no he didn't.....OH YES HE DID!

2009-12-09T18:44:00.003Z

I have soooo much to blog about - mainly about our time in New York - but so far I have failed miserably to get around to it. The days just go past so quickly and since my children NEVER go to bed early there doesn't seem to be much time left for anything else! I've decided I need to get back to blogging from now and perhaps pop in a few updates of the more interesting stuff we have been doing as I go along. Perhaps next year I'll get better at all of this ;-)

Anyway, back to the title of this post. Rhiannon has recently

joined a local theatre group, the Clarbeston Road Players. She is really enjoying being in the group which has members ranging in age from 7 to 80+. She's made lots of new friends and at last has a social life............it's not been easy for her at 15 moving to a new and very rural area to make new social contacts. But she's made the effort and come up smiling as it were.

Well it's panto season, and she is playing the cat in "Dick Whittington". She designed her own costume and does her own stage make up - it takes her about 2 hours! Here are a few pics.

Foxy encounters........

2009-10-02T14:21:00.002+01:00

"What do ya reckon then.......?"

Without any words...........

2009-09-28T23:59:00.003+01:00

Thought it was about time I got around to updating the "title picture" of the blog. The last photo was taken in May 2007 and we hadn't even moved to Pembrokeshire at that point. Alot has happened since - the children have certainly grown and at last we are settling into a home of our own again.

I couldn't believe how difficult it was to choose another picture! There was only room for one! I agonised for some time over my choice.

Then I became intrigued as to why the choice seemed so important.

I suppose it's because I felt the photo had to say something about us as a family - where we are, where we're going, the things we love, enjoy and value.

Sounds a bit precocious doesn't it! But I think that on a subconscious level at least, it was things like that that led me to make my decision.

So what do you make of us then?!!!!

Images can be so powerful it's almost scary.........and this is only a blog!

Perhaps I'll change the picture a little more often so I can share the others that were "just right" ............ and tell you a bit more about us without any words!

Dragons, drawing and discovery!

2009-09-23T21:35:00.005+01:00

Just had to share this beautiful pencil drawing my daughter did yesterday for a birthday card.

So far she's self taught, (with the exception of a painting and drawing correspondence course she has been doing.) She's thinking of doing an art/design based National Diploma next year at Pembrokeshire College. It will be interesting to see what professional guidance can do for her work. But I'm glad she's already learnt to be self-reliant! She has already learnt to discover how to do things for herself. She has no one to tell her how to create an effect here. Every day is a journey of discovery!

I think that now she needs more, but I hope she will never forget to believe in her own ability to find a solution to a "problem".

The Story of Stuff

2009-09-10T12:47:00.004+01:00

Today we've been talking about "stuff" and thinking about the implications of "stuff". Dh found a great website which I wanted to share - http://www.storyofstuff.com/. It starts with a great 20 minute presentation which brilliantly shows the links between all those issues we know to be important regarding the environment, exploitation of natural resources, cheap labour in developing countries etc etc.... but helps us to see the bigger picture. It is very much based on the American system but nevertheless, the points apply to all of us living in the Western World! It was a great conversation spinner and we hope to follow it up with some real action.

I am sure many of you are already well informed on these issues, but the children learned alot, and for me it helped put many things into perspective.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.................hmmmmm......now I think I'll just knock up a few handbags out of those old jeans......!

In which we discover when it is OK to throw oneself off a bridge...!

2009-08-28T23:38:00.005+01:00

The answer................when you are jumping into a river dressed in a helmet and life jacket, and someone who knows what they are talking about says it is safe! Still doesn't sound like a good idea to me though!

However, it turned out to be the highlight of a day out with our newly formed HE group, Kayaking in Llandysul!

Rhiannon poised for action

Oops - missed with the camera

Sam at the ready

I think he liked that.......!

I thought you were supposed to use boats or something.......................

In which we consider the joys of new houses, cardboard boxes, home education, more boxes, slugs, boxes, broken computers and much more....

2009-08-24T00:37:00.026+01:00

So, we've done it! After 3 years of planning we've moved into our house in a Pembrokeshire village, 30 minutes from the coast.....bliss!

"Are you all settled in yet?" people ask! "Well you have been in for nearly 2 months".................actually NO WE'VE BARELY STARTED!!! Can't think why really!

Things don't look too bad on the surface - you can move around the place fairly unhindered and I know where all the important things are (like the tea and the wine glasses...). Just DON'T open the door to the garage ...................that's where we shoved everything! Still, I'm feeling optimistic - I reckon about another 3 years and we'll have sorted that lot out and perhaps dh can get his van in the garage (if it hasn't already rusted away).

The thing is, home education is a full time job in itself, so when faced with unpacking and all the hassle that goes with a house move it can all be a bit taxing.

Then there's computers....what is it with them? My dh carefully unplugged our PC, lovingly packed it away, moved it himself to the new house just 15 miles or so down the road, carefully plugged everything back in and hey presto - it wouldn't work. WHY?????!!!!! It has taken 2 months and a gazillion phone calls to get a little man from New Delhi to sort it out for us!Aaaaarrrggghhhhhh! Like we have time for this!

That said, it's nice to be back in our own place again. Here are a few pics as requested by some...

The house

Part of the rather small garden!

The neighbours.....

It all looks very neat and tidy but don't be deceived. For example if we don't take some immediate action re: the windows they'll be rotting in places given a year....all 26 of them! Eek!

Then there's the plague of slugs in the garden. The other day Rhiannon found the quail feeder full of them - evidently they love layers pellets. It's a good job I haven't started my veg plot - it would be decimated by now! ("What's that?" I hear you say, "no veg garden yet? What can you have been doing these last 2 months....?!")

Oh and then of course, there's the boxes......

Still we've been trying to regain some sense of normality. The children have decided they want more structured work to do!! Some IGCSE courses are beginning to creep in for the older ones....! But there's still lots of informal learning going on too and I think that's where the best learning happens!

Then we've been getting back to art courses long forgotten!

Still life in pastels

Sam sketching (complete with pastel all over his forehead!)

Then there's been lots of cooking.....

Home-made burgers

And there's been a birthday for Jo..........

Rhiannon has been busy - she has recently joined a local theatre group which she is really enjoying. And a real turn up for the books..... she has now started thinking about college possibilities for the future! It's taken a while to get to this point but I wanted it to be in her own time. How many of us were "bullied" by careers teachers in to making decisions about our futures long before we were really ready? I know it happened to me. On paper I was the model student - just 14, and a career path all mapped out. I never gave it another thought - just went from one qualification to the next until I reached my goal........only to realise at the age of 22 that it had all been a big mistake. I'm not suggesting I can stop this happening to my children nor that sometimes early vocations do not become successful and fulfilling careers. I just think that if I hadn't been so pressured to make career decisions at such a young age I would have probably taken a very different path. Anyway, enough of me......Rhiannon has no definite plans as yet but I think she has finally decided the broad area she would like to study more seriously. So she's now trying to find out what qualifications she may or may not need to move forward. I just need to find the balance between letting her find her own way and giving the right amount of support and encouragement. I'm always afraid of pushing too hard in my anxiety to make sure she does the "right thing". She's not a terribly "driven" personality and admits she needs a bit of a nudge sometimes. I just don't want to be responsible for "nudging" her into something she doesn't really want.

The boys are still surfing - they passed their level 2 British Surfing Association Awards a couple of weeks ago, so they're having fun with that! They're also making some new friends in the village and are enjoying the greater freedom they have here to go off on their bikes and explore.

Well that's a quick run down of our goings on.....trouble is I always leave the blogging for so long that it seems like a daunting task and there are too many thing to say. So once again I'm promising myself to make more of an effort....!

We're off kayaking tomorrow so will try to remember to put in a report ;)

Fairies never go to bed.....

2009-08-06T21:33:00.006+01:00

....according to my three year old! She has been walking around the Botanic Gardens of Wales all day dressed in a pair of fairy wings and a sparkly crown. We had a lovely day pond dipping, looking at what we'd caught under microscopes, and later, den building. A day when HE seems right and purposeful, when everyone is happy and learning by default.

Then later, I had a comment from an old "friend" on Facebook about HE and the proposed monitoring arrangements which were frankly derogatory to all home educators. The implication being that we were all lazy and just "couldn't be bothered to send our children to school". I was angry and upset, not just for myself but for all the many selfless, hardworking home educators I have met over the past three years. Maybe I've been lucky (or just oblivious) to have not encountered such prejudice before, but it brought home to me just how unaware most people are as to the law regarding education. How narrow minded people are. Sad to realise how people cannot see that everyone is different, so that a "one size fits all" style of education can never work. I am not in any way critical of those who send their children to school - I did it once - but how dare they criticise me for choosing to fully exercise my responsibility and right to educate my children in the way I see fit!

It only makes me feel more determined to make HE work for my children for as long as they want it - if they want to return to school then they know they are always free to do so....it's part of the deal.

Anyway, I'm sorry to rant, but I feel injured by this attack - I guess I need to toughen up.

To explain why I haven't been blogging.......we have finally moved to our own house - it's been a stressful year with two moves, but hopefully we can get settled now.....and I can get blogging!

Surf and stuff.....

2009-05-31T22:26:00.005+01:00

Highlight of the year.......the boys have joined Surf Club!! 2 hours of madness on a Sunday evening. It's what they've been waiting for ever since we moved to Pembrokeshire. And what a fantastic evening for their first surf lesson! Incidentally it was off of the very same beach where they recently filmed scenes for the next Harry Potter movie "The Deathly Hallows" - but that is irrelevant really! The only magic today was in the moment!

Apart from that we've been having an odd sort of time where I don't feel we are "getting much done" in the way of HE. But maybe those are the times when we achieve the most! Here are a couple of things that happen when "nothing happens".......

Jo has been studying the laws of physics!

Rhiannon continues to explore creative possibilities....this time with silk.

Oh yes, and when I don't interfere they just read alot....................they'd much rather read than empty the dishwasher - then again, come to think of it.........so would I!

Bliss!

2009-05-29T22:37:00.003+01:00

Just wallowing in the pleasure of having spent a glorious summer evening barbequeing on the beach, the children just enjoying being and doing their own thing.....sand art, rock balancing, sand castles. paddling.....the perfect end to an otherwise pretty rubbish day!!!!

Building "Minas Tirith"

Sand Art

Oh no, not again!

2009-05-20T18:42:00.003+01:00

I can't believe it - another Quail dead. We have been keeping them inside but the male likes to have a fly around - stretch his wings so to speak. So we put him in the run during the day for a couple of hours thinking he'd be fine as long as we brought him in by nightfall.

Three hours later we found him dead. A friend of mine suggested a stoat the likely culprit and that it would have been able to get in through the chicken wire!

So now we only have 2. A sad day.

We need a very big rethink on how to house our quails...............sounds like an opportunity for a design project! Back to the drawing board................

Promise to try to post something more cheerful next time.

Quail crisis!

2009-05-17T19:39:00.002+01:00

Bit of a traumatic day today - two of our quails were attacked and killed in the night. We have no idea how anything could have got into the run. We assume it was a rat. Since we don't know how it got in we don't know how to keep it out, so now we have three quails in the conservatory! Our poor quails seem to have been facing calamity after calamity over the past few weeks. We've had a couple lost to rat attacks recently - we tried to reinforce the run but obviously we're missing something. Then one of Rhiannon's baby quails died of some infection a few weeks back. I think poor Rhiannon is feeling a bit defeated. She does everything she can to look after her quails as far as I can see. Things just aren't going too well at the moment. Not really sure where we go from here.

Serious need for a mega-update!

2009-05-16T20:17:00.014+01:00

Oh dear, I really need to work on this blogging. The trouble is the longer you leave it the harder it gets and since I haven't posted since February I need to take a very deep breath and dive in!

We've had a few visits from friends and family over the past couple of months.

Just after my last post we had a lovely visit from our good HE friends from Oxfordshire. It was amazing to see how 7 children could get on so beautifully in the same house over 5 days without a cross word! Had great fun jumping off sand dunes, cooking sausages on the beach and our friends shared their woodcraft skills with the children. Thanks! A very special time - we hope they will be back soon for another visit!

At Easter we had a lovely visit from some of our other friends in Oxfordshire. The weather was great and the children really enjoyed spending time with old friends as did I. The hardest thing about moving to Pembrokshire has been missing close friends....we've all felt that over the past six months.....but it is always great to spend quality time with them when they visit.

My sister and family managed their first visit (its a heck of a long way from Yorkshire!) last week. It was so nice to share a bit of our beloved Pembrokeshire with them. The highlight (for me anyway) was our visit to Skomer to see the puffins, but I think Uncle P found it all a bit strenuous! Here are a couple of Rhiannons pictures...

When we have been without visitors life has been a mixture of house hunting, hospital visits to investigate my dh's dicky stomach, spending time enjoying our new surroundings (i.e. Pembrokeshire) and ....oh yes, HE! To be honest it's been a bit of a barren time on that score. I think we have all felt unsettled not having a house of our own - I don't think its being in rented accomodation as such that has been the problem. More the fact that we know we want to move on....and we have looked at alot of houses.....frankly we're all sick of it. I have found it difficult to focus on working with the children and as much as I would LOVE to work in a fully autonomous way, the children increasingly want more input from me. But then again if that's their choice I guess that's still autonomy?! I always had this vision of autonomously educated children floating around the house all day contentedly exploring and asking questions and me being there just at the right moment..............................oh dear - need a rethink!

Having said all that, I do think we have turned a corner as a family with regards to HE in just the last couple of weeks. At last we seem to have found our feet..its only taken 2 and a half years. Its difficult to explain but things are calmer and more fun. For example the other day we were talking about atomic structure - I never thought that could be enjoyable but it was (or am I getting too old?) It was something about the way we were able to share ideas, ask questions, think about the concepts that felt so constructive. I don't think I ever experienced that feeling through my entire education. It felt really important - not the subject matter - but the process we were going through, the way we were helping eachother discover new things. I don't think that would happen at school - there just wouldn't be time. Don't get me wrong - I have no illusions that all will be hunky-dorey from now on, but something has changed that feels more right. (Of course I may be eating my words by the next time I post!)

Anyway, off my soap box. Here are a few other things we have been up to.

We painted rocks.........

Rhiannon hatched more quails.........

.....and some chickens for a local HE friend who has a smallholding.

Keira cut, stuck and painted.........

The boys did lots of exercise.....

And we all played on the beach!

Its a tough life but somebodys got to live it!!

Nomads and Musicians

2009-02-20T22:21:00.011Z

My dh is always complaining that because of his work he feels like a Nomad! Well this week we've been thinking about the Nomads who were kicking around in about 10,000BC. So we thought that in true home ed style we should have a go at building a shelter in the paddock and cooking up a feast over a roaring fire! This is the moment when I realised that home ed has really transported me into a kind of parallel universe....never before in my well ordered life would I have even considered such a thing! The children say that I'm "coming on" and "showing signs of improvement" though I must admit the control freak in me keeps trying to get out.

Well the children set to constructing a somewhat precarious shelter and covered part of it with animal skins (...... old dust sheets actually, but you get the point!) Then they made a fire pit whilst I "foraged" at the local farm shop for roots and funghi and "hunted" for a nice rump steak.

Well it was all going rather well until we tried to get the fire going and actually cook on it! In my optimism I had placed a large bucket of water next to the fire pit, but I needn't have worried. It took about 2 hours and a whole box of matches (I mean flints ) to get some thing like a fire going!! Oh the shame of it..........we have HE friends who are experts at such things!

Finally managed to produce something edible but the children concluded that even the Rayburn cooked faster than this and they really didn't fancy the idea of being Nomads! They certainly got an inkling of how hard life must have been for the Nomads compared with our own comfy way of life...........mind you, I'm sure the Nomads were more competent than us at surviving in the "wild" !!! Next time (if there is a next time) we are resolved to make a bigger fire pit so we can actually get some heat into it!! We all stink of smoke now................

Keira continues to demonstrate the natural desire to learn that all young children seem to have. For example she often watches Rhiannon and Jo practising their violins. Yesterday she got a music stand, music (a rather tricky Double Concerto by Bach) and her ukele, perched under her chin as best she could, and she began to play. After a minute she stopped and turned to me saying "can you help me Mummy, I don't know how to learn it!" So we let her have a go with Jo's violin.............here is a pic - doesn't she look serious!

She so much wants to play like Rhiannon and Jo. I sometimes wonder what to do when children have such big ambitions - surely she is too young to tackle something so challenging (my natural instinct is to get out a recorder ). But at the same time I don't want to limit her through my own preconceived ideas. Perhaps there is a danger that just as we often expect too much of our children, maybe there are other times when we may inadvertently squash their enthusiasm because we think something may be beyond them. As for Keira, it is probably a phase that will pass - but maybe not. Why do I assume that she is incapable of extraordinary things?

One thing I have learned today..........I'm rubbish at building fires.

I'm not a one to rush into things but.........

2009-02-01T23:22:00.004Z

......I have been trying to set up this blog for the past 4 months! Oh well. I never pretended to be great with technology.

So why the title "Six Quails in Wales" - perhaps I should begin by explaining myself. I have been home educating our 4 children for the past 2 and a half years. When we started out, we just wanted a different lifestyle - I didn't like the pressure my children were continually under at school. It seemed to be all about SATS and league tables - not about education at all. So we took the plunge and deregistered them - quite a leap for someone like me who had spent her life playing by the rules! Perhaps it was a mid life crisis!

I don't think I really knew what I was expecting home education to be like. Its a bit like being on a roller coaster ride, with emotions ranging from exhilaration to total blind panic. But for all the highs and lows it just feels right. Its nothing like school - I want the children to follow their own interests. Trusting them in this way has been something I have not found easy - but I'm learning! And that's the point. Home education is a journey of discovery for the whole family - we are ALL learning, about the world, about maths, about eachother, about everything and anything that comes our way. I am learning so much about myself and about my children - stuff that I know I just would have missed if we had continued in that crazy treadmill that we were all on before. We still do the maths, science, history and so on, but there is so much more to educating young people than learning facts. They need to be equipped to cope with an ever changing world - that is the real challenge.

But I digress..... back to the title of this blog!

There have been many special moments since we began home educating, but for me one of the highlights was when my teenage daughter asked if she could hatch some quails in her bedroom! To her total surprise (and mine) I agreed! She researched the subject and thanks to the kind loan of an incubator and heat lamp from another home ed friend (thanks) she managed to hatch 8 chicks from 21 eggs.

It was such a simple thing, nothing earth-shattering at all really, yet it was symbolic of how home ed had changed our lives. Coming from an Essex council estate where the only livestock consisted of cats and budgies, it felt like a real trip into the unknown for me! I don't believe we would ever have done such a thing had the children remained in school - it was a product of my daughter having time to develop an interest in birds, a product of all the wonderful new people we have been meeting all from different backgrounds, with different interests and experiences, and in a small way, a product of how I have learned to view the world differently now. It was a life enriching experience for all of us. And that's what home education is more than anything - a life enriching daily experience that has become a natural part of our lives.

As for the quails, we sadly lost 2 of them so we are left with 6 - just as we are a family of 6! They have moved with us to West Wales where we are looking forward to enjoying the surf, the wildlife and the landscape (well perhaps not the quails!)..............and the next chapter of our home educating life.