If Not School?

Medieval Project Part 2

2011-09-21T06:29:00.000-07:00

So I thought I would do a separate post to describe our feast in more detail.

A genuine medieval feast had many many courses and nobles and the royalty would literally eat all day. We pared it down a bit!!

The feast was heralded by the cornet. Then the feast commenced with the following menu

Menu
Poussin
Duck
Pickled herring
Vegetable Potage
Bread and butter

Marpisan subtleties shaped by the boys

Apple Pie

The feast was followed with entertainment from the court jesters. There was
clowning followed by wrestling!

I'm sure we didn't eat enough for a genuine medival feast as there was still some room for tea later!

Medieval Project Part 1

2011-09-21T06:06:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our colourful, extraordinary, fantastical, medieval project extravagansa. In the next few paragraphs, you will be entertained, amused, amazed and leave my blog, bloated with new ideas as you feast on its splendour! Hopefully it won't have the same after effects as a genuine medieval feast!

Now for the practical stuff! ... Our activities included lots of reading, visits, craft and finished off with a medieval feast. We didn't "produce" much written work as I wanted to keep it fun and light.

I highly recommend this fantastic book on medieval feasts. A nobleman is told that the King is about to visit and the story follows his, and his servants' amazing preparations - and boy was it expensive! The pictures are filled with all kinds of interesting things to spot and lots of amazing facts about the medieval period. For several weeks the boys requested this every day! We ended up basing our end of project medieval feast on this book as well as lots of suggestions from my Facebook friends (thank you!)

We also enjoyed these two David Macaulay books which follow the story and construction of a castle and a cathedral. They would probably be better for age 8+

This Usborne book is very good

This version of Robin Hood is also a favourite

The boys had great fun constructing a medieval castle from a cardboard box and also from a pre-bought book like this one

Other activities included:

Making medieval shields
Drawing castles and surrounding peasant huts
Making collage of the armour as God and memorising Ephesians Ch 6 v 10-11
Visiting Denny Abbey for their medieval day (see below)
Having a medieval feast (See part 2)

Season of a Mother's Heart - Review

2011-07-19T08:01:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite books recently, and a really encouraging read, is "Seasons of a Mother's Heart" by Sally Clarkson, co-author of "Educating the Wholehearted Child". She has written several books for mothers but the focus for this one is particularly for homeschooling mothers of young children. Sally Clarkson is a Christian author and this is a very Christian book.

She divides the book into four sections, spring, summer, autumn and winter and reflects on the different challenges, joys and opportunities which face home-schooling mothers. The chapters cover themes such as celebrating our calling and our life even when it's tough; living in a joyful way; freedom from guilt; discipling our children; enduring with grace.

The book has a Charlotte Mason flavour and is very gentle and reflective. It is a very encouraging and uplifting read, but I think it's much more than that. There is lots of practical advice, including how to build better and closer relationships with our children; how to foster family times and great collective memories and how to recharge our batteries amongst the daily business.

She also includes lots of great personal anicdotes which are warm and realistic. I like one where a small child gate-crashes her "me time" and she has to quickly adapt without showing disappointment. It turns out to be a really blessed time with the child.

In summary, it's actually one of the books I've enjoyed the most on mothering and home-education. I would highly recommend it.

Classroom secrets

2011-07-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

Here is a very interesting BBC documentary which follows 4 children through a school week and highlights the problem of "low level disruption" in the classroom. They conclude that one of the main ways to improve kids' achievement is to increase parental involvement.

Warning ... may make you want to consider home-educating!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b012ltz9/Classroom_Secrets/

Two-year-olds 'to be given compulsory education checks

2011-07-07T00:32:00.000-07:00

"All two-year-olds will be given a compulsory “progress check” under Government plans to identify children failing to develop properly at a young age."

See article here

Handwriting and Maths - Having a Re-think

2011-06-29T00:31:00.000-07:00

Quite a few things have changed for us since we started home-educating two years ago. Two years ago!! Now I have a 6 year old I can see the truth of comments I heard back then about pushing kids too early. I am happy to admit that I have probably been guilty of that in some areas. But in some ways I am glad we have already tried out different curriculums and ideas as I am beginning to see what is working for us as a family.

T is struggling a bit with his handwriting. He can write a short sentence but it's not a fun process! He also struggles quite a bit with letter reverse and basic letter formation.

So for handwriting, we're trying handwriting without tears (HWOT) Kindergarten level. HWOT is a multi-sensory approach using great big wooden letters and a chalk board to practise letter formation. The idea is to re-inforce the letter formation so much that hopefully T won't struggle so much with the mechanics. I found with reading that going back to the basics was a great approach when we hit a brick wall, so I'm hopeful that this will make a real difference for him.

With maths, T is doing OK. We're using math mammoth which I really like, but I've realised that T needs something more hands on. Some days he can do his maths problems and the next day he can't, so something clearly isn't working for him. I've just ordered MathUSee which I've heard good things about. Again this is a multi-sensory programme which is really heavy on manipulatives. DH never enjoyed maths when he was younger and he has watched the sample videos and given them the thumbs up. So watch this space!

For other subjects we're doing fun projects in the afternoon - one on the human body which I'll write about shortly. I think we're going to do lots more unit studies together as I can teach S and T together and they really enjoy them and retain a lot. S especially loves the project on his body because we have created a full sized picture of him and his insides. They want to do a project on snakes next!

Encouraging a Reluctant Artist Part 2

2011-06-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

Isn't it strange to look back on children and remember problem you had a few years ago! My sister in law reminded me recently about a post I did a long while back on encouraging a reluctant artist. It seems strange because now my title should really be "discouraging a prolific artist who is always messing up our dining room"! No .. I'm actually joking of course, because I love art being created, especially now I've persuaded our 6 year old not to do it at 6 in the morning!

So how did we crack it? Well actually it was due to encouraging a thousand little opportunities to "do art" and having materials always available even at the expense of a tidy house. Also, due to a lovely lady at our local HE art group has really encouraged and sparked T's enthuiasm. We have tried so many different techniques over the past couple of years and it has really sparked T's interest!

Robin in our garden

Poppy picked from our front garden


Blackbird in our garden

I have also looked for opportunities to include art in various projects we have done. Here are a few recent pictures from our "nature journal" which we sporadically add to.

The Little Red Lighthouse 2011

2011-03-31T06:07:00.000-07:00

Roughly every other week, we have a book for the week. Yes, that's right - we read the same book every day for a week. We actually find it is not boring because good books will bear re-reading and it is often a very rich experience. The boys love the books and the "Five in a Row" books are often their favourites to pick for reading even when we aren't studying them officially.

The book we used last week is "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge," by Hildegard Swift. It's the story of a lighthouse that protects the river Hudson in New York. It thinks it is redundant one day when a great bridge begins to be erected and it realises that the bridge also has a flashing light. However, it learns that each one has its own very important job. It's a story my boys really like with the night scenes and mild sense of danger.

Now when we study a book, I do use the "Five in a Row" manual. I find it a really good sources of ideas. However, we concentrate on talking through themes as we read and reading other books alongside it. When I started using the programme we did try to produce little folders or lapbooks but I found it was becoming much too onerous and actually putting me off doing a book. Now I simply read through the book each day with a different theme in mind and I point out various things in the book as we go.

And this is how my week with the book panned out:

Monday: Read the story.
Tuesday: Read the story and also looked at the globe and atlas on America.
Wednesday: Read the story and also read a book rivers and the water cycle.
Thursday: Explained nouns and verbs and read through the story trying to spot them.
Friday: Read the story and looked at the way the artist depicts the night. In the afternoon did some artwork of our own of night scenes. We used watercolour pastels because they're a mixture between pastels and watercolour paints. They're easy to use but children can blend them afterwards like watercolour paints.

Here are some of the other resources we used.

Quote of the week 17/3/11

2011-03-17T11:29:00.000-07:00

"My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint."

Thomas Edison (scientist and inventor of the electric light-bulb who was thrown out of school and for being too stupid to learn and was home-educated by his mother)

The Actual Cons of Homeschooling

2011-03-08T11:19:00.000-08:00

See this interesting article here.

Most of it is spot on!

It's a Small World ...

2011-03-04T01:51:00.000-08:00

... when you home educate!

Actually, although true, this has nothing to do with my article, although I did want to say something about "small worlds" and I've been listening to my boy's jokes for too long a avoid a pun!

So about small worlds ... My friend Anna has an amazing blog The Imagination Tree which is a resource of great ideas to use with preschool children (and older). A couple of weeks ago, on a wet day, we had a go at creating one of her small worlds of a beach scene. I wasn't sure how the boys would enjoy it as they sometimes don't stick at craft activities for very long, but they actually had a great time and T really enjoyed creating sand castles, background pictures, beach signs and playing with little men fishing on boats. We used moon sand for the beach as Anna suggests as we had some old tubs that we never got round to using. It was actually great because it's much less messy than real sand. We had made clay fish a week before, so these were added to the sea. We've kept it for a few weeks as they keep wanted to play with it again. Here is my three year old adding some sand castles.

I would recommend taking a look at Anna's blog for lots of great ideas with littlies.

OK, I admit it ... I'm a curriculum geek!

2011-02-18T06:05:00.000-08:00

Recently, some fellow home-educators at our local HE group had the great idea to bring along curriculum and swap ideas about what we use. Well, deciding what to bring last week made me realise that I already have some definite curriculum favourites.

We are broadly following some Charlotte Mason ideas, with other ideas from the Well Trained Mind. (book listed below!). That means that we have a heavy emphasis on history and literature as the basis for what we study, with even science being taught mainly through reading books aloud. We're fairly relaxed at the moment and formal "schooling" is probably only 1-2 hours depending on the day. This doesn't include lots of time spent reading books, doing art, cooking together, going to HE groups etc. and it depends what you include as "school time"! Of course, one-to-one study is much more efficient than teaching a mixed class with lots of abilities, so we can achieve a lot in relatively short time. 20-30 mins of quite stretching maths is actually quite a lot!!

Our curriculum favourites so far are as follows:

Phonics - Phonics Pathways; Reading Pathways, Bob Books for fun (Phonics Pathways, 1/2 page or so every day and the others as and when). We love Phonics Pathways because it is very very simple. You can open and teach from it very easily. The layout is clear with no complicated script and it is pretty exhaustive. T's reading really took off when we reached about page 80, but we are still probably going to continue to the end to make sure he is really secure in all his phonics sounds/blends etc.
Maths - Miquon; Math Mammoth (1 page from each every day). See my other posts on Miquon. Math Mammoth is a very good more traditional maths programme similar to Singapore Maths but cheaper and downloadable. You can also download individual topics from Maria's website for re-inforcement on a topic and they're very reasonably priced.
History - Mystery of History. (1 topic every 2 weeks, it's designed to do 1 every week but T is really too young for this curriculum. It's really for me because I love history!) This is a history curriculum which covers the history of the world in 4 years. The first year covers the Ancients, the 2nd year covers Medieval etc. The thing I like about it is that it weaves in the Biblical narrative with the historical events. It's really aimed at age 8-12 or so but it can be adapted for younger or older children
Art - Artistic pursuits (1 chapter per week). I really like this art programme so far. You look at an art-work and discuss it an then there is an art project for the child related to the art work
Science - We intend to use the "Well Trained Mind" recommendations. T will have a science notebook and we will read about a topic a week; sometimes do an experiment (animals, human body & plants in the first year) and then he will narrate what he has learned and do picture.
Five in a Row (1 or 2 books per month and I usually let my son choose the book as we have most of the books on our shelves). This is a literature-based curriculum for children aged 4-7 (although it is also extended for older kids). The same book is read for 5 days and the manual has lots of fun ideas for activities and things to talk about based on the book. We have volumes 1-3 and I have pre-bought a lot of the books. The book suggestions are excellent even if you don't use the whole programme.

Other areas where we have no formal curriculum include

Literature and poetry - I read aloud lots of good books
Art appreciation - we have some books of pictures we pull from the shelf and discuss
Bible study - we read a children's Bible in the morning and evening.
Handwriting - T does copywork (very short sentences at the moment).

And here is a list of the books and resources I've mentioned.

Math Mammoth

Mystery of History (you can buy this from Conquest Books)

Five in a Row (the teaching manuals are available from Conquest Books)

Artistic Pursuits (available from Conquest Books)

Parents in Florida may be graded

2011-02-09T05:40:00.000-08:00

That's right ... not children ... parents!! Another sign that parental rights are under threat.

"Last Thursday, CNN reported that a Florida legislator has proposed a bill that would have public school teachers issuing a grade to parents. Yes, grading the parents. HB 255 provides that “each prekindergarten through grade 3 student report card shall include a section in which the teacher grades the parental involvement as satisfactory, needs improvement, or unsatisfactory…” based on criteria set by the bill."

See article

Quote of the week 03/02/11

2011-02-03T06:33:00.000-08:00

"SIR – I resigned from teaching in a state secondary school after 25 years, exhausted and frustrated with all the problems mentioned by Katharine Birbalsingh (Comment, February 1).

I once witnessed a history teacher almost in tears as he watched the subject he was passionate about being diluted almost to oblivion. I was one of those who was guilty of playing to Ofsted when they visited, and shutting my door and attempting to use my experience and intelligence in the classroom when no one was observing."

Daily Telegraph Letters - 3 February 2011

Link

And the secret to enjoying poetry with children is .....

2011-01-24T14:04:00.000-08:00

Treating it just like any other book that is read to children. It doesn't have to be read in a funny tone of voice in words that children don't understand. It should be read with enthusiasm and enjoyed as something fun!

Good poetry books for young children should be well illustrated - many of them are absolutely gorgeous! And they should be read and enjoyed together. Not scary .... just books like any other!

There are so many different types of poems that there must be some to suit most chidren. Epic poems, story poems, nonsense poems, silly poems, dramatic poems, comic poems, nursery rhymes, songs with actions, animal poems and many more.

I try to read poetry at least once a week and here are some of my favourite books:

A great nursery rhyme book with quirky and varied illustrations:

Another great nursery rhyme book with old-fashioned illustrations:

A lovely animal rhyme book with great illustrations:

I haven't got this one, but it's on my Amazon list:

A gorgeous collection of well illustrated poems for young children and would be lovely as a gift:

A lovely version of this poetry collection:

A great, non-illustrated collection for slightly older children. The contents is split by author rather than by theme:

Another great non-illustrated and very extensive collection for slightly older children. It's American so there are many poems and poets I don't know. The contents is divided into themes:

An atmospheric, illustrated version of this famous poem:

An amazing, dramatic poem that my son loves about the beginning of the American Revolution:

Revealed-the-hundreds-of-welsh-children-being-educated-at-home

2011-01-22T03:46:00.000-08:00

" Education experts last night called for tighter regulation of home schooling in Wales as new statistics show the number of children being taught outside of schools.

Figures released by the Assembly Government reveal that nearly 1,000 children across Wales have been taken out of local authority education."

Link

Scholastic $1 book sale

2011-01-14T10:16:00.000-08:00

In case anyone is interested, I just found a $1 sale of Scholastic downloadable books. Looks like some good stuff.

Scholastic $1 books

It took me a few attempts to checkout though.

Quote of the week 03/01/10

2011-01-03T14:07:00.000-08:00

“You are as much serving God in looking after your own children, and training them up in God’s fear, and minding the house, and making your household a church for God, as you would be if you had been called to lead an army to battle for the Lord of hosts.”

Charles Spurgeon

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening 2010

2010-12-30T05:39:00.000-08:00

How to encourage children to like poetry is an interesting challenge - I remember switching off when poems were read to me when I was small. I'm not sure why this was exactly, but I want to try to encourage the boys to enjoy poetry more than I did. With this aim I'm trying to expose them to lots of fun poetry while they are little so, hopefully, they won't find it boring or intimidating as they grow older. We try to read poetry at least once a week and have several nice anthologies for children. (I'll do a poetry reading list at some point). But when it came to choosing another "Five in a Row" book for a weekly unit study a few weeks ago, I wasn't sure how the boys would react to an illustrated poem.

In fact they really enjoyed reading "Stopping by woods on a snowy evening" by Robert Frost.

The story line is simple and the language and illustrations are evocative and atmospheric. We read the poem each morning and also did the the following "work" on the poem:

memorised the poem together. This was good fun as we tested each other on car journeys and meal times during the week. It wasn't as hard as I expected as we were already reading it each morning. They could practise reading it and then see if they could attempt it without the words. My 3 year old obviously needed quite a bit of prompting, but he actually found it quite funny.
talked about rhyming words in the poem and tried to think up other silly rhymes
spotted animals hiding in the pictures
talked about the paintings in the book and spotted the colourful item in each picture (most of the illustrations are black and white with one item picked out in colour on each page)
painted our own pictures of woods (see if you can spot the monsters!)

Happy Christmas!

2010-12-24T12:00:00.000-08:00

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John Ch 1 v14

Quote of the week 16/12/10

2010-12-16T14:48:00.000-08:00

"More than half of five-year-old boys are struggling in the basics after a year at primary school, official figures show.

Some 53.1% of boys this age are struggling with skills such as reading and writing, and emotional and social development.
In comparison, 34.9% of girls are failing to reach this target - a gender gap of 18.2 percentage points."

BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12009209

Have a very merry bargain Christmas

2010-12-16T04:40:00.000-08:00

For a home-educating family, surviving on one salary is not always easy, especially at Christmas time. Here are some great ways we've found to save money.

Presents
The boys don't really need any toys so they will be having a few nice, rather than expensive presents. Presents include the following:

A handmade (by me) toy from a book with lots of simple sewing patterns. I have a sewing machine I bought years ago and have finally worked out how to use! T is having a dalmation and S is having a elephant
K will be having her first dolly - a nice Fairtrade one I bought when I had some money in my paypal account.
2nd hand Playmobil (I put a watch on Ebay at any within 10 miles of us so we didn't have to pay postage).
"Victory" wooden jigsaws from Ebay. They have some of these already and really love them
Good quality felt tips (these will be kept out of the way of my 3 year old as I want to make them last as long as possible).
Cheap chocs and coins from Asda and Aldi

Other ideas I have had in the past include:

Good quality art supplies. They love art at the moment but we don't really need much
Games and puzzles. These have been a huge hit in the past and are usually reasonably priced for the amount of play value. However they have plenty and don't really need much this year. We love "Rush Hour Traffic Jam"

We love "Shape by Shape" and other games in this series

And Wedgits have been a huge hit with my 3 year old

Another huge favourite is "Orchard" wooden game by Haba. This is very pricey but they play it loads!

Food

We usually have chicken rather than turkey for Christmas dinner. We prefer it, it's cheaper and I find it much easier to cook. Here is what I'm planning to kepp the food cost down.

Aldi have a Free Range chicken for £4.99 at the moment. Or I might splash out and get an Organic one!
Aldi also have a cheese platter which is really reasonable (I can't remember the exact price)
Aldi again for cheap veggies
Lidl have lots of interesting chocs and drinks which would be good for presents
Homemade bread sauce (I use the Nigella recipe). This is surprisingly easy to cook and tastes delicious
Value crackers (the kids don't care as long as they bang!)

Other

This year we are having a new innovation and Daddy will be dressing up as Father Christmas on Christmas afternoon to give them the presents which won't be in their stocking. I bought a cheap outfit which hopefully should come out each year now. It's lovely to create new traditions, especially if they're cheap. And ... to quote something I heard recently ... you can't put a price on comedy!!

Feel free to add your tips!

Is this the ultimate art for a boy?

2010-12-10T13:59:00.000-08:00

A question for Mums with boys ... "When do they get most excited?" The answer, for mine, is when anything battery-operated with buttons appears. The insatiable need to press buttons can create problems. But when it comes to encouraging an interest in art, this can be an advantage. What is it that has moving parts which zoom in and out, lights that flash, click click sounds and can produce results in a second? (Great for ants-in-the-pants kind of boys!). Of course I'm talking about a camera! And what better way to get little boys excited about art and nature than let them loose in the garden with a real camera.

Here are some shots that T took in the frosty weather we had last week.

Quote of the week 9/12/10

2010-12-09T14:04:00.000-08:00

"If you're fortunate, you live near an elementary school filled with excellent teachers who are dedicated to developing your child's skills in reading, writing, arithmetic, history and science. These teachers have small classes - no more than ten students - and can give each student plenty of attention. The elementary school sits next to a middle school that is safe ... This school also has small classes; the teachers train their students in logic, critical thinking, and advanced writing. And in the distance (not too far away) is a high school that will take older students through world history, the classics of literature, the techniques of advanced writing, high-lvel mathematics and science, debate, art history, and music appreciation ...

This book is for the rest of us."

Introduction to "The Well-Trained Mind - A Guide to Classical Education at Home", Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise

Our favourite winter & snow books

2010-12-01T07:05:00.000-08:00

I love cosying up with some wintry snow books in this kind of weather. Here is a list of our favourite ones:

This is a great story for boys who like machines. Katy comes the rescue of the town after a big snow drift.

This book is possibly our favourite. It's a lovely nature book which describes the hibernation and migration of winter animals. The book was written in the 40s so it's an enduring classic in America.

This is a lovely illustrated version of this winter poem. It's great for snuggle-times when you don't have too long as the poem's very brief but evocative.

This is an atmospheric swedish fairy tale about a strange winter creature who lives on a farm. He looks after everything while the farmer is sleeping.

This is a Swedish fairytale about a visit to the Snow King. It's a similar, but slightly different, version of the Father Christmas story.

This is a true account of the Farmer-scientist who photographed snowflakes. It's is very interesting, slightly scientific book that appeals to my older son.

This is the Winter tale of Brambley Hedge. One of the mice gets lost in a snow storm, but finds her way to the Ice Palace in time for the winter ball.

This is a really lovely story along similar lines to Brambley Hedge. It's really about winter rather than spring. The mice go visiting friends in the North, play in the snow, lose a friend, then find him again. Very sweet!

This is a lovely and very interesting book about a boy growing up in Canada and what his life was like. The author, an acclaimed artist, wanted to write about his experience before it was lost for ever as he grew up just before large-scale industrialisation changed everything. The illustrations are detailed and evocative and each page describes a different aspect of growing up. This was a firm favourite for bedtime stories as you can dip into a few pages each evening. There is also a summer book in the same series.

Feel free to add any favourites I've missed.

Review of Miquon after nearly completing the Orange Book

2010-11-26T12:35:00.000-08:00

We have nearly completed the first Orange book in the Miquon series so I felt like it would be a good time for a review.

I haven't used any other maths programme, so some of my thoughts are based on my reading about other maths programmes rather than actual experience.

Miquon is aimed at US Grade 1 (which is equivalent to aged 6 and up). There are 3 parts to the programme - the coloured books which start with the Orange book, the First Grade Diary and the Lab Sheet Annotations.

Miquon Maths

The coloured books contain the Lab Sheets which are A4 worksheets - this is the main part of the programme. The First Grade Diary explains how Lore Rasummen used the programme over one year. She encouraged her class to do loads of playing around with the rods before she introduced worksheets or lab sheets and she encouraged children to discover answers themselves as they became familiar with the rods. "The Lab Sheet Annotations" explain how to use each worksheet in the coloured Miquon books. I haven't needed to refer to it too much as most of them are fairly self-explanatory once you get into the swing of it. But it is useful to have.

So, what is Miquon like. Well, it's a highly hands-on and visual programme because it relies heavily on Cuisenaire Rods to assist with computations. The rods range in length from 1 cm to 10 cm and are different colours so that children quickly learn the "value" of these rods eg. the "5" rod is 5cm long and is yellow, the "3" rod is 3cm long and is green. Children can then work out addition, subtraction, fractions and multiplication using the rods to help them.

This use of the Cuisenaire rods helps children to very quickly be able to SEE maths. They can see that 4+2 is the same as 3 + 3 and the same as 8 - 2 for example. They can also understand ideas such as fractions and multiplication much earlier than most traditional programmes with the aid of the rods. Children can instinctively learn how to do maths calculations because they can visually see that 4 x 1/2 is the same as 4 / 2. This means that Miquon can introduce quite hard concepts without children being freaked out.

"The First Grade Diary" encourages teachers to let the rods almost teach the children with some direction and use the coloured books with the lab sheets as a back-up. I have found though, that with a 5 year old with itchy pants, the lab sheets are short and sweet enough to keep him interested. I'm afraid I often don't have the imagiation/energy to be as creative as I would like. I would say, from our experience so far that using the Lab sheets more like a traditional programme and simply doing one a day has worked fine for us.

The things I have found surprising about the programme are as follows:

How bitty the Orange book feels compared to other programmes. The National Curriculum, for example, seems to spends loads of time in the early years getting a really good grounding in additional and subtraction before moving on to things like fractions and multiplication. In contrast, Miquon dips into lots of concepts in fairly quick succession. The Orange book (which takes about 8 months if you do a lab sheet most days), covers basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, early fractions, place value, measurement, a little bit on time and probably more I've forgotten.
How much my son loves this programme. I tried to introduce another programme on addition to cover it in a bit more detail but he kept asking for Miquon again. Hey, it's a good programme, and I'm not going to say no if he's asking for it.
How easy he finds more traditional programmes having done Miquon. I'm not going to count my chickens but Miquon really seems to be working at the moment. Despite the apparent lack of systematic drill on things like addition, when he's come across them in other books he seems to find them easy.
How interesting it is to teach. I must admit I have a bad tendency to get a bit bored sometimes a change things around, but I've stuck with this for the whole first book with no regrets so far. Watch this space!!

Other advantages are as follows:

It's cheap
It's very easy to use alongside another programme as each concept, addition, multiplication etc is referenced and it would be easy to dip into.

Possible disadvantages are as follows:

I may feel the need to supplement it with a bit more drill in the future so T knows his additional and multiplication facts etc without having to work it out each time. However, this is easily solvable with a bit of determined memorisation. Little kids are like sponges :-)
The programme only has 6 workbooks, but there are is another programme for older kids by the same publisher. I don't know much about this yet.

So in all I've been really happy with Miquon so far. It works really really well for us, which is so nice. What it is to find a curriculum that you really like. No more worried conversations with hubby "have we may the right choice with maths" ... not more reading other blogs wondering if their programme looks better .... OK, I'm joking on the last bit of course!! I am a home educator after all so I reserve my right to the occasional wobbly moment! .....

Christian and Bible Books for Young Children

2010-11-08T11:57:00.000-08:00

We love our books here and most of our learning is done through read-aloud books at the moment.

This is particularly true of our Christian and Bible learning. We usually read our Children's Bible as part of our morning routine and again at bed-time. We like these ones:

Peep of day is good for young children, maybe 3 plus. There is a short biblical lesson for every day and some short questions for the child. The lesson takes perhaps 3-4 minutes to read so it is great for a young child.

We find this Children's Bible very thought provoking and well written. The stories are fresh and can be read several times without growing tired. There are no pictures of the Lord Jesus in the illustrations.

Again this Children's Bible is very well written and stimulating. Catherine Vos brings the Bible accounts to life by bringing out the characters' motives and feelings (whilst sticking closely to the Biblical account). I must have heard the account of Joseph being thrown into the pit many times, but I had never noticed before that his brothers eat their lunch by the top of the pit while they can hear his cries for help. She really brings out the emotions of the narrative.

We like this book which explains the Biblical account of the flood and how the Ark really was big enough to carry all those animals. Some of the pictures of the flood are pretty graphic so it may not be suitable for young children, depending on their disposition.

We also really enjoy the Millers series and the Moody series which are available from Rainbows books.

The Millers series include stories of a Christian Home-Educated family. Each story deals with teaching different heart issues such as learning to share, to be kind to siblings, to help around the home, not to tell tales etc. My 5 year old loves these stories and they have been very helpful in teaching Christian principles. The stories are individual episodes rather than a continuous story so they are great to read more occasionally than regular devotions, perhaps on a Sunday.

The Moodys series are continuous stories. They don't teach Chrisitian principles so directly, but are lovely homely stories describing a Godly Christian family.

So far we have "Storytime with the Millers", "Wisdom and the Millers" and "Summer days with the Moodys".

http://www.rainbowbooks.co.uk/shop/

The Bee Tree 2010

2010-10-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we "rowed" "The Bee Tree" as our Five in a Row topic. We had a great time. The story follows a girl and her Grandfather as they romp through the countryside looking for honey from a Bee Tree.

It's slightly quirky but very interesting story and we really enjoyed it. I love the way Five in a Row books so often focus on relationships across the generations, encouraging kids to respect and enjoy the company of older people. Even if you don't want to use the Five in a Row manuals, the reading books on the syllabus are really really good.

Alongside "The Bee Tree" we read this factual book on bees over a couple of days. I learnt quite a bit myself and the illustrations are lovely. Gail Gibbons has written books on several different animals and we really like them.

The "Five in a Row" manual had a lovely idea to follow an episode in the end of the story and prepare a party with the child. T and I had great fun coming up with ideas for a one-off non-birthday party. We wrote a list of food and decided how we would set the table. We did the shopping together for the party food (nothing more than a normal tea really - just a few more treats!)

It somehow developed into a birthday party for T's favourite teddy bear, Archie. We had balloons, jelly, candles, a present and he even had his own mini birthday cake.

We're planning to do a birthday party for S's favourite teddy at some point. It was a really simple, fun idea that the children really enjoyed. (The present was another teddy in case anyone was wondering. It was T's idea to introduce them as friends.)

On the sunny beach in September

2010-10-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

We've usually managed to have nice weather when we go on holiday in September, and this year's weather was particularly unseasonal. I can't believe it was only a couple of weeks ago. The weather was gorgeous! We stayed in Rendlesham forest in Suffolk (we love this area of Suffolk). It never seems too busy even though it's beautiful.

West Stow Anglo Saxon Village (on route)

Anglo Saxon Chicken

Our Anglo-Saxon soldier (Sutton Hoo)

Shingle Street was packed!

The Martello Tower behind me is now a house

Boating at Thorpeness

The House in the Clouds


Rendlesham Forest from our cottage

We had a history themed week, with visits to West Stow Anglo Saxon village, Sutton Hoo and Framingham castle. I don't have any pictures of Framingham Castle because the weather had turned by Friday and we got soaking wet. It was very atmospheric though. I never knew that Queen Mary, declared herself Queen from Framingham castle when Lady Jane Grey fell. Poor Lady Jane Grey!

New Rules on Child Benefit Affect Home Educators

2010-10-07T11:25:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how many of us will be affected by the new announcements that spouses of higher rate tax payers will not be eligible for Child Benefit. However even if it doesn't affect us directly, I feel that this is a serious attack on stay at home mothers, and therefore Home Educators.

The legislation is unfair as it will affect a woman whose husband earns £45k, whereas couples where they both earn £44k (but £88k in total) will still keep their Child Benefit. Therefore, the proposed rules unfairly penalise mothers who stay at home and rely on their husband's income.

Also, and perhaps even worse, is that a woman whose husband is a higher rate tax payer will lose her protection for State Pension as this is linked to claiming Child Benefit. For every year a woman receives Child Benefit it reduces the number of years she needs to work to qualify for State Pension. A woman, therefore, could end up with reduced entitlement to State Pension even though it is based on her husband's earnings rather than her own.

I believe we should be concerned about the principle of this worrying legislation because it discrimates against women who stay at home to look after their children.

This legislation is subtly against stay at home mothers but the next legislation may be more overt.

We need to make a fuss even if this doesn't affect us. (And by the way it doesn't directly affect me at the moment!)

I would encourage as many of us as possible to write to our MPs about this unfair decision. The fuss in the media seems to have died down so they may get away with it.

Don't be fooled that this is only about rich people. This is another piece of discrimination against stay at home mums and in favour of working mums / institutionalised child care.

"So ... Why Did You Decide to Send Your Kid to School?"

2010-09-30T01:25:00.000-07:00

If we asked our friends and neighbours ... "So ... why did you decide to send your kid to school?" ...we'd probably meet with blank stares or annoyed looks. How rude!! How nosey!!! But no-one seems to have a problem asking us why we home educate!!

But sending kids to school is just as much a decision as home educating. In fact, one could argue it's a more significant decision, at the least initially. I've often heard parents talk about "losing" their kids when they start school. Surely "losing" one's kids at the age of 4 should make people think about whether school is the right option for them.

In our crazy system, this means that when our kids reach age 3, parents need to think about whether to send them to school or home educate. Home education may not be the best option for everyone, but it should be considered. And then parents who send their kids to school should recognise that they've made a decision to do so.

"So ... why do you home educate?" is sadly a question we hear more often, followed by "how will they learn to socialise?" etc. etc. We hopefully wouldn't be so rude as to respond in like manner; "So ... why did you decide to send your kids to school?" Nevertheless, we perhaps need encouragement to be more confident in our decision. I repeat our decision.

This article is very interesting and stimulating on the subject.

Pass the bean dip

Reading list for 3 Year Olds - Part 1

2010-09-13T06:45:00.000-07:00

Over the next few weeks I hope to add some book lists on different topics and list some of our favourite books. I thought I would start with our favourite books to read with 2-3 years olds and I think this is a difficult age. They're ready for story books, but not too long. Many of these books were saved by my parents so are very old, but still worth getting hold of if you can.

I've found that our young children need simple stories with one main theme and not too many characters. They love repitition and simple humour too.

Pat Hutchin's, "Rosie's Walk". Very simple story for young children.

David Armitage "The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch". This is one of our favourites.

John Burningham, "Mr Gumpy's Motor Car" - brilliant! Simple, so good for littlies.

Martin Waddell, "Owl Babies". Where's Mummy? But she turns up again.

Quentin Blake, "Mr Magnolia" - We like lots of Quentin Blake but this is our favourite. Good for very young children as it has a catchy rhyming scheme.

Don Freeman "Corduroy" - This is a lovely story about a little bear looking for a friend. Brought a tear to my eye!

Barbara Emberley, "Drummer Hoff" - Brilliant rhyming story for little boys (or girls!)

Robert McClosky "Blueberry's for Sal" - Classic story about Mummy's, bears and little people.

Anno's Counting Book. This is our absolute favourite counting book. The more you look the more you see.

Jill Murphy, "Peace at Last" - Lovely story about sleepless parents. Many of us will probably empathise!

Richard Scarry - "What Do People Do All day". We love Richard Scarry. There's loads of detail in the pictures so children will pour over them for hours. Also good for long car journeys and keeping them still in church!

"The Sneetches", "Green Eggs and Ham", "Fox in Socks" Dr Seuss. These are probably at the older end of 2-3 yrs, but my 3 year old is starting to love them. The rhymes are so funny and catchy.

Quote of the week 13/9/10

2010-09-13T06:23:00.000-07:00

"This mad, doctrinaire policy of pushing children barely out of nappies into organised schooling has far-reaching repercussions. By the time a child reaches 14, he has been in organised schooling for over a decade and it is fair to say that, for the non-academic child, this so often just leads to boredom and, in turn, to bad behaviour."

Daily Telegraph Letter
Daphe Clark

Here

Climbing Kansas Mountains 2010

2010-08-18T12:23:00.000-07:00

OK I admit it. I've been a bit lax with the blog recently. I keep coming up with ideas for posts but they never quite make it to screen or keyboard. Hopefully when K is sleeping through .... but then I keep saying that about everything!

A few weeks ago we "rowed" a Five in a Row book called "Climbing Kansas Mountains". It's like a lot of the FIAR books - it's quite slow-paced and thoughtful, but the more you read it the more you enjoy it.

It's about a little boy who goes with his Dad to climb a Kansas Mountain - only Kansas doesn't have any mountains! Intrigued? From the "mountain-top" he looks down over his town and the surrounding countryside.

The idea of Five in a Row is that you read the book each morning for a week and do a short activity based on the book. The beauty of the programme is that it's really flexible and you can do as much or as little as you want and pick and choose activities to suit your children.

Our activities included:

Printing a satellite map from Googlemaps and plotting our house and the walk we do from our house.
Making an tower of 8 houses
Making a saltdough model of our house and garden

Reading books on mapping. These are some of our favourites.

Actually this whole series is fab!

In September we'll probably do some more Five in Row books - or once K is sleeping through! Yawn yawn ... must go to bed!!

Walking near our Home

2010-07-21T15:27:00.000-07:00

Every week, although it's too hot at the moment, we do the same circular walk from our house. I love seeing the same fields, the same paths, the same views and enjoying the changing seasons. Last week I printed an aerial view of our route and T and I looked at it to work out where we walk. Then I took some photos as we walked. I'm going to cut them out, see if we can order them from memory and probably make a collage with them. Anyway .... here ... is lovely Bedfordshire in the summer.

Walking into the countryside

T took this one

Branching off enthusiastically (I guess this could be a metaphor)

Lovely views

Fields of cornflowers

Looking towards the Common

We walk quickly and quietly past these cows and hope for the best!

The real Bob the Builder works here

School's out - or it is for us!

We don't trepass by the way!

And then we head home, avoiding the corner shop with the icecream fridge if possible! A lovely, much repeated walk.

Camping with young children - trial or error?

2010-07-05T06:19:00.000-07:00

When DH booked a week off work, we tentatively talked about camping, but we weren't sure how it would be with a baby. K still isn't sleeping through reliably and I didn't fancy jiggling a screaming baby at 3 am. However, the kids love camping so, I finally bit the bullet and phoned up to book the campsite. We decided to go somewhere only 20 mins away, but in the middle of the countryside. It was very very relaxing and we really enjoyed it. K did wake up once in the night for a feed, but settled back fine. I love that feeling - walking back from the shower block before bed, across the grass, listening to bird song and about to sleep under the stars.

We did a couple of day trips to places within a few miles. It's amazing how we don't get round to visiting places only half an hour away, so it still really felt like a break. The campsite was virtually empty and very peaceful.

Anyway, here are my 5 top reasons to go camping with children and a baby:

The children really chill out being outdoors all the time
You can sit in the evening listening to the birdsong
All food tastes amazing outdoors
Simple pleasures seem more enjoyable when you're camping
Kids can get involved in all the tasks as even the washing up is fun

And here are some pics from one of our day trips to Harrold Country Park

Into the jungle!

Do you know you the alternative Little Red Riding Hood?

2010-06-24T05:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we were reading from Andrew Lang's "Red Fairy" book. It was actually following T watching the Disney version of Snow White and puzzling over why the Apple doesn't kill Snow White. I'm sure I read in one version that the spell on the apple was such that she was only put into a deep sleep and could be woken again by a handsome Prince, but in the Disney version the apple lodges in her throat and she wakes up when she sits up. Andrew Lang's version has the piece of apple coming out as the Prince takes the coffin away.

Anyway, not solving our Snow White dilema we read on in the "Red Fairy". We came across this:

"YOU know the tale of poor Little Red Riding-hood, that the Wolf deceived and devoured, with her cake, her little butter can, and her Grandmother; well, the true story happened quite differently, as we know now. And first of all the little girl was called and is still called Little Golden-hood; secondly, it was not she, nor the good grand-dame, but the wicked Wolf who was, in the end, caught and devoured.

Only listen."

Very intriguing!! I think it would be a good starting point to study the differences between stories and fairy tales with older children and to have them make up their own variations of tales. In this version, Granny is actually out doing her shopping when the wicked wolf arrives!

Here is the Red Fairy

And here is an online version of the slightly gory tale!

Golden Hood

Education select committee chair hits out at Ofsted home education report

2010-06-18T13:45:00.000-07:00

Graham Stuart responds to Ofsted report

here

Bola - New Clothing Label for Teenage Girls

2010-06-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

My friend Bola is setting up a new clothing label for teenage girls. She struggled to find modest, yet stylish clothes as a teenager and has now decided to set up her own label.

Her clothes are all handmade to order and feature locally-sourced natural fabrics. Her first collection features a range of simple, classic summer skirts.

Bola

Ofsted reports on Home Education Findings

2010-06-17T03:24:00.000-07:00

Ofsted today published it's report into Home Education. Here is an excerpt from the report showing it's recommendations.

"Report Recommendations

The Department for Education should:

enable local authorities to carry out their responsibilities to safeguard children who are educated at home and evaluate the suitability and efficiency of their education by:

enacting legislation which requires parents to register their intention to home educate and inform the local authority if they move home

enacting legislation which requires and enables local authority officers to undertake an annual home visit to monitor the child’s progress. This visit should involve a discussion with the child in private as well as their parents and include a focus on any support needed

define what constitutes a ‘suitable’ education in the context of the 1996 Education Act

consider funding an entitlement for home-educated children to take public examinations at 16, or earlier if appropriate, at recognised examination centres."

BBC article

Ofsted press release

Independent article

Full Ofsted report

Quote of the week 9/6/10

2010-06-09T06:56:00.000-07:00

"Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world."

— L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables)

"Mummy I love handwriting"

2010-06-09T06:22:00.000-07:00

Of all the things I expected this week, I did not expect my eldest to develop a sudden love of handwriting! This, from the boy who would only produce a scribble 18 months ago. Around 6 months ago, at 4 1/2, I felt he was ready to start learning how to hold a pencil and practise copying simple marks. We used this book for just 5 minutes every day.

It uses shapes and lines to start kids on pre-writing skills.

Then about a month ago we started to use this series

The Jolly Phonics workbooks are really great for small kids. They're attractive and well produced; the letters are just the right size and there are appealing colouring sections on each page. We used Jolly Stories a lot for early reading so T already knows the characters and loves the series.

When we started book 1 of the workbooks, T was doing just a row of letters each day and it was painfully slow! But the last couple of days he's finished a whole page and wanted to do more. He's been asking to do handwriting first rather than doing it reluctantly at the end of our morning session.

It just goes to show that doing a little bit every day is the way to build confidence. Also, that sometimes waiting for the right moment is better than pushing kids too early.

Here is today's page.

And here's the Jolly Stories book we use for phonics and early reading.

Summer books

2010-05-27T06:47:00.000-07:00

It was summer at the week end and now it's cold again! Still, here are my recommendations for some great summer books for children. Hopefully they'll bring out the sunshine!

This book is a wordless picture book with lots of lovely summer scenes to prompt discussion with a young child.

This is an absolutely gorgeous book with lovely illustrations. It's about the author's life as a boy growing up in the Canadian prairies. It's one of my husband's favourites for bedtime stories as there is a lovely short account/story on each page. Very gentle but evocative writing.

We love Alfie stories and there are several summer ones in this collection including camping out with Daddy and going to the beach.

Lovely nature book for young children describing the growth of a sunflower seed over the spring, summer and autumn.

The bears go to the seaside and have lots of adventures. Great fun!

"One hot summer in Itching Down, 4 million wasps flew into town..." We know this one off by heart! I won't spoil the surprise but just to say that those pesky pests come to a sticky end!

Got this one for T's birthday and it looks great. We'll save it for our camping holiday in case we have a few rainy days!

No ... it's Michael Gove

2010-05-12T08:19:00.000-07:00

The new Education Secretary will be Michael Gove.

And here is a link to the LibCon agreement.

LibCon agreement

There's no mention of HE but I guess there wouldn't be at this level.

They also agree to:
"The scrapping of ID card scheme, the National Identity register, the next generation of biometric passports and the Contact Point Database."

Loud cheers all round!!

David Laws is rumoured to be the new Education Secretary

2010-05-11T13:42:00.000-07:00

I wonder what this means for Home Education?

Fifth of school leavers 'illiterate and innumerate'

2010-05-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

"Around a fifth of pupils leave school functionally illiterate and functionally innumerate, despite average achievement in the three Rs improving over the past decade, a new Government-funded study has found." DT

John Bangs, head of education at the NUT suggests "one-to-one tuition" for struggling pupils. TES

... Home education anyone?

Full Article in Daily Telegraph and TES

Field trip to London with Daddy

2010-05-05T13:49:00.000-07:00

Every so often DH does something one-to-one with the boys. Usually it's nothing major - a trip to Asda, or to McDonalds for a Happy Meal. But sometimes it's nice to do something a bit more. So this Saturday, bright and early, Daddy and T set off into London on the 8.17 train. Actually this isn't especially early for our early bird boys!

It was a long-overdue trip to the Natural History Museum, where T has wanted to visit for ages.

Here they are at 9.15 in a virtually empty Hyde Park (How come Londoners are up so late?!!)

And here are the obligatory bones pictures. The second one was taken by T.

They came back with 2 scary dinosaur grabbers with which S has perfected his scary dinosaur roar. Watch this space for their next adventure!

Why I love history and my favourite history books for young children

2010-04-30T04:10:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love history and I'm always puzzled when I hear kids saying they don't enjoy it at school. I think this might be because it's often mixed with geography and RE in this country and taught by teachers who aren't particularly interested in it. We spent 2 years at my secondary school with our non-history specialist teacher looking at Neolithic burial mounds! It sends me to sleep just remembering those lessons!!

But in my own time, with my parents, I always loved history. I ended up studying it for my degree and it was brilliant. Why? ... Because studying history makes us consider why things happened, how events relate and how to think analytically. It also helps us understand the historical backdrop to our country and the world, why are things as they are and how have they changed over time.

With this in mind I want my kids to love history as well. I thought I would share some of my favourite books for little ones.

Picture book

I actually prefer this older version to some of Usborne's more up-to-date offerings. Sure, it's not so glossy, but I think it's much more interesting. There are detailed drawings of the Egyptians and their farming year showing how crop irrigration worked; drawings of Genghis Khan's army; very detailed drawings of Victorian factories with lots of interesting details. It's a very interesting book, although some people may not like the nude pictures on some pages.

Read aloud / story books

This little gem was originally written in 1835 but is very accessible for young children with short chapters and simple language, though few pictures. It focuses on Kings and Queens of England with a short chapter on each. This book is no longer in print but it is available 2nd hand from Amazon. I would say it is suitable from around aged 6 upwards.

This book is American, but focuses on British history. It covers famous stories such as Alfred burning the cakes, Robert the Bruce and the Spider and Dick Whittington and his cat. Again there are very short chapters and the cover suggests it is suitable for age 6 plus. That's probably about right, although my almost five year old enjoys it. It's also available free to download or listen to on Librivox. T actually listens to this every day at the moment during his rest time (I burned the download onto CD). His favourite story is one about Black Douglas ambushing and capturing an English castle - very dramatic!

Librivox

This book is my fourth suggestion. The chapters are slightly longer than the previous two books but it is very gripping and well written. It focuses on many different characters, not just Kings and Queens, so we have Caractacus and Boudica bravely fighting the Romans and Captain Cook discovering new worlds. Again, very old fashioned but very inspiring.

Quote of the week 27/4/10

2010-04-27T06:34:00.000-07:00

"Boys with their risk-taking, status driven nature, don't take well to either boredom or failure. So if learning becomes bland and tests are the only measure of success, it's increasingly difficult to keep them interested in the whole educational process. .... On the other hand, girls are making steady progress. They now outperform boys in almost every subject on the curriculum and 70% go on to further and higher education, as opposed to 50% of boys."

"21st Century Boys", Sue Palmer, p188

If Not School Curriculum Clear-OUT!

2010-04-17T03:43:00.000-07:00

I've got a few books to give away. These are all in new or very good condition. Just for info, here they are on Amazon.

Please leave your details below stating which book you would like or email me ifnotschool@hotmail.com and I will select a "winner" after 30 April using Random.org.

Just to clarify - you don't need a blog and you don't need to do a give-away yourself to enter my give-away. It's open to anyone!

Curriculum Clear-OUT is now live!

2010-04-17T02:59:00.000-07:00

The Curriculum Clear-OUT! is now live. Please post links to your give-aways in the comments below this post and remember to link back from your blog to this post at If Not School?. Feel free to join in at any time up until 30 April.

If you don't have a blog you can still join in by leaving details of what you want to give away and your email address in your comment below.

Please see this post for a full explanation of how the Clear-OUT! works.

I will be posting details of my give-away later today so please check back later to see it.

If you want to post a link to your giveaway in a comment, you can use this code:

href="http://www.betterthanmachines.com">my giveaway

Then:
Change the http code to your link
Put this at the beginning of your code - a
Put at the end of your code - <*slash*a (*slash* is /)
Now put these round the code - < >

Curriculum Clear-OUT! 17 April - 30 April

2010-04-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

Most of us probably have curriculum and books sitting on our shelves that we don’t use. That’s why I thought it would be great to have a Curriculum Clear-Out! This is an idea I’ve seen on Homeschool Creations and I thought it would be great to try it out here in the UK.

I’ve got a few extra books we won’t be using, and it’s a shame to see them go to waste, so I want to offer them here for other HE families to use. Hopefully other people can join me, dust off your shelves and hold give-aways on your blogs, then link back to here so we can keep it all in one place.

Why are we doing this?
The idea is to get as much unused stuff to as many good homes as possible. People give away items and leave details of their give-aways here and on their on blogs to make sure lots of people can find all the information.

How will it work?
On 17th April I will put a post on If Not School? with details of the items I am giving away. If you also have something to give away, then during the give-away period please do the following:

1. Write a post on your blog with details of your item(s) and ask readers to leave a comment or send you an email to say they want it.
2. Put a link on your post back to If Not School?
Copy this: http://ifnotschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Curriculum%20Clear-OUT
3. Put a comment on If Not School? with a link to your blog and give-away.
4. At the end of the give-away period, select your winner using random.org or something similar.
5. Post the item to the winner (you need to pay for postage yourself as this is a give-away)

If you want an item then leave a comment on the relevant blog post.

What can I give away?
Any curriculum or item for home education that is in usable condition. It can be a textbook, audio-book or ordinary book.

Do I need to have a blog to offer a give-away?
No. You can leave a comment with information on what you are giving away on If Not School?. You will also need to leave contact details.

Can I start my give-away at any time?
Yes. Since the Curriculum Clear-OUT will be going on for almost 2 weeks, you can join at any time.

Are there any other requirements?
Yes. Please use the button {html link is on the right side bar below the button} or post a link back to this blog.

If you have any other questions, feel free to comment and ask!

Excerpts from Yesterday's Commons Debate on Children, Schools and Families Bill

2010-04-09T03:43:00.000-07:00

Mr Gibb - "...Finally, I am delighted that our sustained opposition to the Bill's draconian and excessive proposals to regulate home education has resulted in the Government's decision to abandon those clauses as well. We have always stressed that the choice to educate a child at home should belong solely and entirely to parents. As my hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath said on Second Reading:

"It is a basic right of parents to be able to educate their children in accordance with their own wishes, and to educate them at home if they so wish."-[ Official Report, 11 January 2010; Vol. 503, c. 456.]

....

For now, it is enough that home-educating parents will not be subjected to the dictatorial provisions of the Bill. We can only hope that the hostility between local authorities and home educators, which the Government created with the publication of the Badman report and exacerbated during the passage of the Bill, does not rule out the possibility of creating a practicable and mutually acceptable working arrangement between home educators and local authorities in the future.

However, the 50,000 home educators in this country need to take heed of the final paragraph of the Secretary of State's letter to my hon. Friend, in which he states:

"I will be campaigning to ensure that this Government is returned and that these measures do make it on to the statute book in the first session of the new Parliament."

Labour is clearly committed to reintroducing the clauses on home education if it is re-elected."

...

Mr Willis - "...My last comment is on home education. There is a fundamental flaw in our thinking in this country-this was brought home in the debate with the home educators-that it is the state's job to educate our children. It is not; it is the parents' job. The Education Act 1944, and indeed Forster's great Act of 1870-an Act brought about by that great Bradford Member of Parliament-both state that it is the parents' duty to educate their children, and that the state acts as a convenient default mechanism when necessary, which most of us, myself included, have used."

Full Hansard record

A victory for Home Education

2010-04-07T08:48:00.001-07:00

Confirmation that the new Home Education legislation will NOT be brought in as it has been thrown out in the "wash-up".

Well done to everyone for all your work highlighting the problems with the proposed legislation. We did it!

"Wash-up" Tomorrow

2010-04-06T14:35:00.000-07:00

The "Wash-up" process is due to take place tomorrow and Thursday. This process means that the main parties reach an agreement on controversial aspects of the bills and then they are rushed through their final stages.

Schedule

Wash-up

Changes to my blog

2010-04-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

Over the bank holiday I've been tinkering with the layout of my blog and adding a few more gadgets and widgets. Please feel free to take a look at my new Amazon bookstore. I've included 67 of our favourite books and also some of our favourite games and DVDs.

After a lot of tinkering around with HTML codes I've also worked out how to include a blog button for "If Not School?" so you can link back to my blog. Copy and paste the HTML code below the button into an HTML gadget on the layout menu.

Jesus is the resurrection and the life

2010-04-03T04:08:00.000-07:00

"Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”"

John Ch 11, v 25-26

Quote of the week 3/4/10

2010-04-03T04:02:00.000-07:00

"Children are still being taught in “hideously overcrowded” classrooms after 13 years of Labour, according to teachers."

Graeme Paton, Daily Telegraph, 3 Apr 2010

See full article

Miquon Maths

2010-03-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

For some time I've wanted to start using Miquon Maths but I put it off until I felt T was getting the hang of simple number work. We've done loads of simple work to add numbers up to 10 in different ways and also lots of "playing" with manipulatives to teach an awareness of the relationship between shapes. I was excited to finally get down the book and start to use it.

Miquon is is very hands on and relies heavily on the use of manipulatives such as cuisenaire rods. Many people use it as a supplement to a more traditional maths programme.

Homeschoolmath.net says in its review that "Unlike conventional math series that concentrate on the mechanical manipulations of arithmetic, Miquon Math presents a broader introduction to mathematics, of which arithmetic is only a part. It allows children to be creative and imaginative problem solvers."

And here is a review by Cathy Duffy.

We're only a few days in but it's going great so far! We are using cuisenaire rods to teach simple addition and T is already remembering and understanding numbers really well. This is a highly recommended programme and so far I can see why. It teaches maths in a highly visual and I think an interesting way.

Quote of the week 22/3/10

2010-03-22T13:20:00.000-07:00

“Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.”

Joseph Stalin

Ping and Apple Pie 2010

2010-03-18T06:06:00.000-07:00

Ping is one of our favourite stories. Here are some of the activities we did when we studied this a few weeks ago.

Narration of the story
Maths activities based on Ping's very large family
Maths based on our family - how many aunts, uncles, cousins etc.
Read children's atlas on China and "Children Just Like Me"
Looked at Great Wall on Youtube
Ate Chinese meal and also a duck supper!

And on "How to Make and Apple Pie and See the World"

Made an apple pie
Made apple crisps
Apple tasting of different varieties
Evapourated salt solution to leave salt crystals
Geography looking at different countries covered

We had great fun. I have to say we are absolutely loving "Five in a Row" so far. We still usually do reading and Maths each day and one or two little activities from the book we're studying.

Car Transporter Maths

2010-03-10T03:02:00.000-08:00

When we were in the car yesterday I suddenly had an idea. What about using car tranporters and lorries to teach simple addition? We spotted lorries and car transporters while we drove, then we added the number of cars top and bottom on car transporters, the number of wheels front and back on lorries and also the number of wheels on either side of lorries. We saw one lorry with 3 wheels back and front, so "3 plus 3 is 6 and 6 x 2 is 12" ... teaching simple multiplication as well. When the kids are older we could also multiply the cars to work out the total number of wheels on a car transporter. Apparently steam trains also have different groupings of wheels so this could make maths interesting for train-mad kids. I love ideas that require no preparation and we can do when we're out and about!

Home Education on the back of an envelope

2010-03-03T13:29:00.000-08:00

Quote of the week 26/2/10

2010-02-26T05:46:00.000-08:00

"Any child eluding state control and the brainwashing into politically correct attitudes that is endemic in schools is intolerable to “progressives”. They cannot realistically abolish the independent schools so, for the moment, they are content to undermine their ethos with PC impositions. That leaves between 20,000 and 50,000 children in Britain being educated at home, in the bosom of their – ugh! – family, the competitor entity the state desperately wants to eliminate."

Gerald Warner
Daily Telegraph
26th February 2010

Full article

New Baby and Owl Moon 2010

2010-02-23T06:05:00.000-08:00

I have to apologise in advance for any spelling mistakes and typos. K is 5 weeks old now and thankful she sleeps pretty well, but I still feel tired and seem not to be able to type any more!

We've carried on with T's "schooltime" in the mornings, partly because I've found it easier to have some kind of schedule and partly because we're fairly relaxed anyway, so it's not been too hard. So I'm a bit behind with blogging what we've been up to. I'll start at the beginning ...

While DH was on paternity leave he decided to do a bit of the home-educating, which was great. Having someone else follow our schedule for a week was really interesting as we could talk afterwards about what works and what doesn't. DH and T had great fun with "Owl Moon" by Jane Yolen, which is about a child and Father going Owl tracking together. They read the book together each morning and based various activities around the book. Their activities included:

Making Owl Mask
Painting and art (they spent more time on this than I often do as DH is definitely more arty than me).
Night walk
Reading poems about owls and the moon.
Science book on owls
Science book on the moon
Counting birds (using tangrams to represent different birds)

I realised that I've been doing too much reading in one go, so we've now adjusted the schedule to include several shorter sessions, a bit like Charlotte Mason suggests. I'll post up our amended schedule soon, although with a baby it has to be very flexible.

Quote of the week 15/2/10

2010-02-15T10:16:00.000-08:00

Compulsory games are bad for the character

"Compulsory games marginalise those who are not good at them, in a way that no other school activity does. Whoever heard of a boy being bullied for not being good at maths? The misery and humiliation suffered by non-gamesy children features in myriad 20th-century novels....

Those who are good at games are lauded beyond all reason. Only a few people will ever go on to make a career out of playing children's games as adults, and do they really add so much more to our society than those swotty kids who became scholars and physicians, clergy and scientists?"

Daily Telegraph
Dr Richard Austen-Baker
Lancaster

Full article

Safe arrival of a baby girl

2010-01-19T02:50:00.000-08:00

Our new baby girl arrived safely in the early hours of Sunday 17th January weighing 8lbs 8ozs. I will be taking a break from homeschooling and the blog for a few weeks.

"Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever."

Madeline 2010

2010-01-12T05:32:00.000-08:00

We have just started to use "Five in a Row" with T, which is a unit-study programme where we study one picture book for a week and various topics are covered - social studies, geography, language arts, maths and science. It is a good fit for us because we love books and this is a really great way to study a wide range of topics.

One of T's favourite picture books is "Madeline" so this seemed like a good place to start.

The story is set in Paris so we watched a You-Tube clip on climbing the Eiffel Tower, ate a French breakfast and read about France in our picture Atlas.

We made a "poster" of words used in the book and also matched up rhyming words in the story.

We "made" Madeline.

We based our maths activities and books around the number 12 and grouping 12 objects because there are 12 girls in the story.

We talked about caring for the sick and elderly and wrote a letter to an elderly friend. We also watched You-Tube clips of videos for children preparing to go into hospital for a operation.

Quote of the week 24/12/09

2009-12-24T11:21:00.000-08:00

"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting."

Micah Ch 5 v 2

Snowy adventures

2009-12-23T01:31:00.000-08:00

A while ago I ordered some winter and Christmas-themed picture books from Amazon. They were mostly second hand so they took a while to start arriving from America. Anyway, most got here just in time for the lovely winter weather so we've been doing some wintry-themed reading and activities.

Our favourite books are:

Big snow - Berta Hader
Snowy day - Ezra Keats
Owl Moon - Jane Yolen
Prairie Boy's Winter - William Kurelek
Ollie's Ski Trip - Elsa Beskow
The Tomten - Astrid Lindgren
Brambly Hedge, Winter Story - Jill Barklem

And wintry activities have included:
• Winter walk and measuring the snow in different places.
• Snow experiment - take a glass packed full of snow and measure it - then predict how much will be in the glass when it melts. Compare estimate with actual results.
• Collage of winter animals, grouped into hibernating, food storing animals, and animals that gather food every day (we used the "Big Snow" book as the basis for this).
• Freezing baking tray of water and using it to drive toy cars.
• Narration of various books. T gives brief outline of the story and I write it down.

In the spring I want to start using Five in a Row and doing various activities based on the books. T loves books so I think this will be a great way for us to try out lots of different activities and also richly explore the themes in a book. For next year, I also have ideas for unit studies/topics on "all about me", "my family", "my body", "night animals" and "bears" ... oh and "dinosaurs" as T is really keen on a visit to the Natural History Museum. We're trying to link our studies to our interests, so with the baby due in January, the topic on "my family" may come first.

Great Geography Downloads

2009-12-16T13:21:00.000-08:00

I just found this website with great unit studies available on loads of different countries including China, Egypt and India. They have a distinctly Christian flavour. They contain loads of interesting info, pictures, activities, maps and information on Christians and missionaries in each country.

Kids of Courage

BBC article on HE petitions

2009-12-10T00:55:00.000-08:00

BBC article on HE petitions

Historic night - MPs present petitions

2009-12-09T13:17:00.000-08:00

Mr. Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) (Con):

"This is an historic night. More than 70 right hon. and hon. Members will present petitions from more than 120 different constituencies opposing the compulsory registration and monitoring of home-educated children. The previous record for petitions presented in one day is 44 in March 2006.

If enacted, the Government's proposals will, for the first time in our history, tear away from parents and give to the state the responsibility for a child's education. I should like to thank the thousands of people who have signed the petitions, the co-ordinators and organisers, and those outside in candle-lit vigil earlier this evening" ...

Sir Nicholas Winterton (Macclesfield) (Con):

"I should like to present a petition on behalf of a number of residents of the Macclesfield constituency, strongly opposed to the ill-judged recommendations of the Badman report" ...

Alistair Burt (North-East Bedfordshire) (Con):

"I am delighted to present a petition on behalf of a dozen good and true people of the glorious constituency of North-East Bedfordshire" ...

Mr. Owen Paterson (North Shropshire) (Con):

"I would like to present a petition from a large number of constituents across North Shropshire, led by Mr. and Mrs. Hardy from Market Drayton, who are deeply concerned about the iniquitous recommendations of the Badman report" ...

Mr. Edward Vaizey (Wantage) (Con):

"It is my honour and privilege to present a petition on behalf of 36 constituents of mine-that is just the tip of the iceberg-objecting to the Badman report in the terms already put forward" ...

Mrs. Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest) (Con):

"I present a petition on behalf of 62 of the people who live in the Epping Forest constituency who are furious about the implications of the Badman report" ...

Nick Herbert (Arundel and South Downs) (Con):

"I would like to present a petition on behalf of the home educators of Arundel and South Downs, who are as furious about this as those of my hon. Friends and many hon. Members in all parts of the House. I believe that the Government should take notice of the strength of feeling on this issue and the numbers of hon. Members who have presented petitions this evening."

And there were many more!

See full text here

Quote of the week 9/12/09

2009-12-09T12:43:00.000-08:00

"Mothers of adolescents and adults with autism experience chronic stress comparable to combat soldiers and struggle with frequent fatigue and work interruptions, new research finds. These moms also spend significantly more time caregiving than moms of those without disabilities .... They found that a hormone associated with stress was extremely low, consistent with people experiencing chronic stress such as soldiers in combat, the researchers report in one of two studies published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders."

Article here
Michelle Diament
Disability Scoop
10 November 2009

HE Petitions on No 10 Website

2009-12-03T14:01:00.000-08:00

3 petitions on HE and the changes proposed in the Children Schools and Families Bill

1. "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to uphold that parents have the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of their child, to not undermine parents legitimately fulfilling their fundamental duties, and to assume that the best interests of their child is the basic concern of parents unless there is specific evidence to the contrary." Sign here

2. "The Government are seeking to review the terms suitable and efficient as they apply to home education. However, this was already carefully considered in the 1940s and anyone with an understanding of education and child development will know that education should be suitable to the child, rather than the child receiving a politically-defined suitable education (no Government should ever be allowed to define education in such a dogmatic way as this goes against basic democracy)." Sign here

3. "In the light of the Badman Review into home education, which recommends giving more powers to LA's and has been accepted in full by the government, there are grave concerns over how those powers would be used, as there are many instances, recorded and anecdotal, of LA officials misusing the powers they have, often by claiming to have more legal responsibilies than they really do or by using bullying tactics to get the outcome they want. We, the undersigned, feel that a comprehensive review of current LA practice should be undertaken before deciding to hand over powers that could easily be misued to a far greater extent than currently is possible in order to protect the public by ensuring that any current poor practice and abuses that may come to light are dealt with effectively and prevented from occuring in the future." Sign here

Arguments to use to MPs

2009-12-03T04:39:00.000-08:00

Here is a summary of the main arguments to use when writing to MPs about the Children, Schools and Families Bill. These points will obviously need fleshing out and probably only a couple rather than all the arguments need to be used.

Arguments
• The Bill is based on recommendations of the Badman Report. This Report was rushed and the statistics used have been widely discredited.
• The Report unfairly conflates child safeguarding concerns with home educating, as if such concerns were more likely in the home education context, when this is an entirely unproven assertion.
• The Bill attacks the fundamental principle in English law that parents are responsible for the education of their children. The proposed registration system is in effect an annual licensing scheme where the Local Authority has the power to grant and revoke registration at its discretion. The reality of this will mean that parents can no longer decide what is best for their child.
• Local Authorities will have intrusive powers to monitor home educated families and children. The proposed system includes mandatory annual home visits, unaccompanied interviews with children and prescribed paperwork to be completed. Parents will have to supply an advance plan for their children’s education every year in order to remain on the ‘register’.
• The Bill has been described as a "skeleton" with further regulation to be issued on how many of the proposals would work in practise. Future guidance will be issued for Local Authorities on the ‘registration’, monitoring and inspection regime but MPs are being asked to approve the Bill without having sight of this guidance. This exposes Home Educators to huge uncertainty as rules could be changed significantly in the future.
• The Impact Assessment implies that parents will be forced to use exemplar curricula which will be produced by the QCDA. This will stifle parents' ability to tailor an education to a child's particular needs and force them to replicate school at home.

Useful quotes
• Lord Lucas - “in its current form it is a skeleton exposing home educators and their children to the unknown because so much will depend on how the regulations are written. Nothing in it secures their rights as home educators to look after their children in the way they see best.”
• Graham Stuart MP: "As for parents who reject the Secretary of State’s school system entirely and sacrifice their time and career to bring up and educate their children themselves, they are stigmatised as more likely to be child abusers than normal people. It is an absolute affront to those in the home education community, and it is baseless. The scheme is all about getting home educators in a headlock and forcing their children back into the Balls fold."
• Graham Stuart MP: “it is clear that the percentage of home-educated children with a child protection plan is, if anything, probably lower than the national average overall."
• Professor James C Conroy, "In my 30 odd years of professional life in education I have rarely encountered a process, the entirety of which was so slap dash, panic driven, and nakedly and naively populist."

Useful links
• Summary of the Bill
• Full Bill
• Letter to our MP
• Lord Lucas’s speech
• Graham Stuart’s speech
• Right to Reply
• More arguments to use to MPs
• Impact Assessment
• Wikipedia page
• Challenge to statistics in Badman Report and Impact Assessment here and here

Canadian survey of HE adults shows that they excel

2009-12-03T00:38:00.000-08:00

A new study released today by the Canadian Centre for Home Education reveals that home-educated adults excel in all measured areas of adult life.
The study surveyed adults whose parents responded to a 1994 study on home education. Ranging in age from 15 to 34, they answered questions on a variety of topics with comparable data from Statistics Canada. The results were astounding.

When measured against the Canadian average, home-educated adults were more socially engaged and almost twice as likely to have voted in a federal election. Average income was higher with more sources of investment income and self employment, and no cases of government support as the primary source of income. They were happier in their work and their lives in general. When reflecting on the value of being home educated, most felt that it was an advantage in their adult life.

“In terms of income, education, entrepreneurial endeavours, involvement in their community, and all the other characteristics measured, home-educated adults not only excel, but also make meaningful contributions to their communities. They are the type of neighbours we all want,” says president Paul Faris.

See survey results

Quote of the week 30/11/09

2009-11-30T05:35:00.000-08:00

"I think that the main focus should be on persuading the conservative and liberal front benches in the Commons that they will vote to remove the HE part of the bill. I do not see the current proposals as a sensible basis for anything.

With all the action in the Commons for the next 2 months, I shall spend my time on helping demolish the stats used by the government, and on thinking about what a fallback position might look like if we turn out to need one. I don't as yet have clear ideas on this but, to answer the persistent anonymous, it seems to me that a compulsory registration system is pointless, but that a voluntary one that conferred benefits (e.g. access to funding for exams, books etc) might make life easier for those it suited ...

I think that the Conservative front bench will line up against the schedule. The LibDems may need reassurance that there really is no problem re child protection - hence the point of attacking the statistics."

Lord Lucas - comment on his blog

Quote of the week 26/11/09

2009-11-26T11:49:00.001-08:00

"There is no evidence that this part of the Bill [Schedule 1 on Home Education] is needed; in fact, the reverse is very much the truth. We have just had the chief inspector saying that one-third of state schooling is unsatisfactory, while the true figures on home education say that maybe 1 per cent of home education is unsatisfactory. The phrase involving beams, motes and eyes comes to mind."

Lord Lucas's speech in the House of Lords - 26 November 2009

Lord Lucas's speech today

2009-11-26T11:11:00.000-08:00

Here is Lord Lucas's defence of home education today in the House of Lords.

Letter to our MP

2009-11-26T04:32:00.000-08:00

Dear Mr ....... MP

We are writing to you to express our concerns about the Children Schools and Families Bill now before Parliament.

This Bill proposes setting up a registration and monitoring system in England for families that home educate their children. We have serious concerns that this damages fundamental principles and will harm home educating families.

First of all, the Bill is based on the Badman Review of Home Education, which was rushed and flawed. One of the experts consulted by the Children Schools and Families Select Committee, Professor James C Conroy, stated: "In my 30 odd years of professional life in education I have rarely encountered a process, the entirety of which was so slap dash, panic driven, and nakedly and naively populist."

In particular, the report unfairly conflated child safeguarding concerns with home educating, as if such concerns were more likely in the home education context, when this is an entirely unproven assertion. We can only echo the words of your colleague in the House, Graham Stuart MP:

"As for parents who reject the Secretary of State’s school system entirely and sacrifice their time and career to bring up and educate their children themselves, they are stigmatised as more likely to be child abusers than normal people. It is an absolute affront to those in the home education community, and it is baseless. The scheme is all about getting home educators in a headlock and forcing their children back into the Balls fold."

We believe that no legislation should be debated until a proper, independent and thorough review has been conducted.

The Bill also attacks the fundamental principle in English law that parents are responsible for the education of their children. The proposed registration system is in effect a licensing scheme where the Local Authority has the power to grant and revoke registration at its discretion. The reality of this will mean that parents can no longer decide what is best for their child. If the Local Authority does not agree, then the parents are over-ruled and effectively no longer have responsibility for their own child's education.

Home education can be wonderful and creative. It can be tailored to a child's particular needs. The proposed system is likely to stiffle this and force everything into the Local Authority's view of what 'a suitable education' should be. The monitoring system includes an intrusive level of involvement, with what will effectively be mandatory annual home visits and prescribed paperwork to be completed. We fear that in effect this will simply mean that home educators will have to replicate school at home and more than likely follow the National Curriculum or they will be forced back to school. The very reason home education is undertaken is often because school has not worked.

Children are infinitely varied and each child is unique. Can there be only one way to educate a child? Must that always be by the Government's set educational formula? We believe that home education is not only a fair option, but is innovative and creative and schools could learn valuable lessons from it. This proposed system should not be established as it will crush this diverse and vital community.

We hope that you will consider these views and debate this actively in the House to ensure that this legislation is not passed at this time.

We look forward to your response and would be grateful if you would permit us to share it with others.

Thank you for your consideration.

Yours sincerely

Lord Lucas will defend Home Educators in the Lords!

2009-11-25T14:29:00.000-08:00

See this interesting blog post which also provides a useful summary of the main problems and issues with the Children, Schools and Families Bill.

He will raise these issues tomorrow in the debate on the Queen's speech and comments are welcome.

Lord Lucas's blog post

Summary of Children, School and Families Bill (Schedule 1)

2009-11-25T08:04:00.000-08:00

The home education register

Parents of home educated children will be required to annually apply to have their children registered with their local authority (LA) (s19A). The application will probably include a prescribed statement with information about the child’s education and other information (s19C (4)(b)(c) & (d)).

Applications will be rejected if the LA consider it would be harmful to the child’s welfare to continue or become home educated (s19B (7)).

If a previous application for a child to be home educated was rejected or revoked, a future application will not be allowed within a certain time period. This time period is to be determined by future regulations (s19C (5) & (6)).

Once a child’s registration is accepted, an LA may revoke a child’s registration at any time. This will happen if the parent has failed to fulfill an undertaking (promise) to provide the prescribed statement about the child’s education; if the information given in the application is materially incorrect, inadequate or has subsequently become so; or if the parents have not co-operated will the LA to allow a meeting under section 19E – see below on monitoring (s19F (1)(a)(b)(e)).

Registration will also be revoked if it is deemed harmful for the child to continue to be home educated or the child is not receiving a “suitable education” (see s19F (2)) (consideration is to be given to the child’s wishes in both these cases) (s19F (1)(d) & s19F (1)(f) & s19F (4)).

Monitoring of home educated children

LAs will hold annual meetings with parents and children and visit one of the places where education takes place (s19E (3)). LAs will also meet the child without parents present, unless the parents or child object (s19E (4)).

LAs will use these meetings to assess whether the education provided is suitable and fits with information provided at the point of application (s19E (1)(a)(b)). They will assess what the child’s wishes and feelings are about their education and whether it would be harmful for the child’s welfare to continue to be home educated (s19E (1)(c)(d)).

A “suitable education” is defined as being if the education is efficient, full time and suitable to a child’s age, ability, aptitude and any special educational needs (s19E (2)).

Future regulations

The initial application process will be clarified by future regulations which will cover maintaining the register (s19A (2)), how an application is to be made and what information will be required (s19B (9) & s19C (4)(a)(d)). Regulations will also specify a time period during which registration will not be allowed for children who have previously had an application rejected or have had a registration revoked, unless the LA are convinced that circumstances have changed (s19C (5) & (6)).

The registration and revocation process will be clarified for LAs. Regulations will specify what the LA should take into account when determining whether to register a child (s19C (2)). This will apply to applications where a previous application for the child’s details to be entered on the home education register was rejected or revoked or a school attendance order is in force (s19B (3) & s19B (6)); where the information given in the application is materially incorrect, inadequate or has subsequently become materially incorrect or inadequate (s19B (3) & s19B (8)) and where the LA consider it would be harmful to the child’s welfare to continue or become home educated (s19B (7)). Regulations will also set out steps to be taken by the LA when registration is revoked (s19F (5)). They will also provide more details for LAs about what to take into account when considering whether to revoke a registration (s19F (6)) .

LAs and proprietors of school may be required under future regulations to provide prescribed information on children who are, or will become, home educated; information on children with school attendance orders and those who have had previous applications to home educate rejected or revoked (s19H).
LAs will also have a duty to identify children not registered as home educated (s436ZA).

The Government may also issue guidance to LAs in the future on law to interpret and use this legislation (s19I).

Parents’ right of appeal will be covered in future regulations, as well as appeal procedures, matters to consider, person or body who will deal with the appeal (s19G).

Summary of Children, Schools and Families Bill

2009-11-24T14:02:00.000-08:00

The Children, Schools and Families Bill is currently going through Parliament. So far it has had its first reading.

The Bill doesn't make easy reading, so here is my non-expert summary of the Bill. I've tried to include the sections numbers so people can cross-reference when they write to their MPs.

The second reading of the Bill may be as soon as 4 December so we need to get writing.

I hope to write a summary of the key points of the Bill and ideas for what can be written to MPs in the next few days.

My summary version of Schedule 1 of the "Children, Schools, and Families Bill"

Full text of Schedule 1 of the "Children's, Schools and Families Bill"

Wikiversity page on Children, Schools and Families Bill

2009-11-24T05:52:00.000-08:00

Wikiversity

What's going on exactly with the Children's Bill?

2009-11-20T14:08:00.000-08:00

There seems to be quite a bit of confusion about where we are with the Children's Schools and Families Bill.

I thought it might be helpful to set out where we are at the moment and explain the Parliamentary process.

1 Following the Queen's Speech on 18th November, the Government (through Secretary of State for Education Ed Balls) has formally proposed a new law on home education and this is contained in the Children, Schools and Families Bill at Schedule 1.

2 This Bill was based on the recommendations of the recent Badman Review of Home Education.

3 The Bill is only a draft law and so will have to be passed by Parliament and receive Royal Assent from the Queen before it becomes law.

4 The Bill will therefore be debated in the House of Commons by MPs, and also debated, reviewed and possibly amended in the House of Lords by Peers.

5 There are a number of stages of debate (or 'readings') of the Bill in each House before it is finally passed by Parliament.

6 Now is the time to write to MPs so that they are aware of our concerns and the wider issues involved. They should be encouraged to enter the debates in Parliament.

7 Later, if the Bill is approved in the Commons, we can write to the Lords and try to persuade them that amendments are needed to the Bill. This could hugely change the nature of the Bill and may also delay it until it is too late to pass into law.

8 As a General Election must happen by June next year, it is possible that there will not be enough time in the Parliamentary session 2009/10 to pass the law. The more debate and amendments take place, the less likely this will pass into law.

Speech on Home Education today in the Commons

2009-11-19T14:54:00.000-08:00

This speech by Graham Stuart MP was part of the debate today on the "Children's, Schools and Families Bill."

"As for parents who reject the Secretary of State’s school system entirely and sacrifice their time and career to bring up and educate their children themselves, they are stigmatised as more likely to be child abusers than normal people. It is an absolute affront to those in the home education community, and it is baseless. The scheme is all about getting home educators in a headlock and forcing their children back into the Balls fold."

See full speech

Quote of the week 19/11/09

2009-11-19T08:24:00.000-08:00

19E Monitoring provision of home education to registered children

(1) A local authority in England shall make arrangements with a view to ascertaining, so far as is reasonably practicable—

(a) whether the education provided to a child whose details are entered on their home education register is suitable;

(b) whether it accords with information provided to them for the purposes of the application for registration;

(c) what the child’s wishes and feelings about it are;

(d) whether it would be harmful for the child’s welfare for the child to continue to be a home-educated child.

.............

19F Revocation of registration

(5) Regulations may make provision about steps to be taken by an authority in connection with revocation, or proposed revocation, of registration of a child’s details on their home education register.

Children, Schools and Families Bill
Schedule 1
Here

This is now being debated in Parliament.

We love board games

2009-11-18T03:01:00.001-08:00

I try to use a lot of games for teaching as it makes things so much more fun and interactive for both of us. But a parent can only take so much "Connect 4" and "Snakes and Ladders" - so what other options are there for games to play with kids.

It turns out that there are loads of fun, interesting board games for young children, but not necessarily the ones available in the mainstream shops.

I really like this website, which reviews games for children.

Our favourites so far are

Duck Duck Bruce - T loves this one
Sherlock - children can genuinely beat adults on this one
Catch the Match - great short visual game
Three of a Crime - logic game for slightly older kids
Auntie Pasta's Fraction Game - fractions and making pizzas
Sum Swamp - practise addition and subtraction
Frank's Zoo - I have made my own easier rules for this one
Monza - great for boys (and girls) who love cars
Rush Hour Traffic Jam - we have the adult version but we can do the easier level together
Coppit - more fun version of ludo

Most of these only take 15 minutes but are great fun and teach quite a bit.

I love games because we can learn maths, logic, strategy, concentration and how to lose and win graciously. Most of all - they are fun.

I have used Boardgamegeek website quite a bit for reviews
And Gameslore shop sells a lot of the more unusual games

Quote of the week 16/11/09

2009-11-16T09:20:00.000-08:00

"What's one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?"
"I don't know," said Alice. "I lost count."
"She can't do addition," said the Red Queen."

Lewis Carroll

Calendar maths

2009-11-09T03:57:00.000-08:00

Something we have started recently, which has worked really well, is using the calendar to teach simple maths.

Each morning, we write the day of the month into our blank calendar and tick the weather on our weather chart. At the end of the month we graph the weather for the previous month using unifix cubes and talk about what type of weather was most common.

T was so excited when it was November because he knew it meant bonfire night and fireworks in a few days and he's beginning to get an idea of the months from this activity.

Here is the blank calendar and worksheets we use for the weather (see weather graph)

And you can also use the calendar to teach place value, like this (scroll down the place value section).

Quote of the week 5/11/09

2009-11-05T12:20:00.000-08:00

"In my 30 odd years of professional life in education I have rarely encountered a process, the entirety of which was so slap dash, panic driven, and nakedly and naively populist.... In the report itself Badman compounds the felony with a raft of unsubstantiated claims based on hearsay and vague generalisation."

Memorandum submitted to the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee by Prof. James C Conroy, Dean: Faculty of Education, University of Glasgow

See here for full memorandum

Running down home educators

2009-11-05T00:30:00.000-08:00

This, from Badman, should not be a surprise ....

Dr Paula Rothermel FRSA said ...

"At our first interview Mr Badman was interested in what I had to say. His opening question was to ask me if home educating mothers suffered from Munchhausen's by Proxy. I thought this to be a curious starting point - that of questioning whether home education is a symptom of mental illness. I am not medically qualified, but I was able to inform Mr Badman that there is no research evidence available that I am aware of, which makes this link."

Badman interview and evidence

Using story books to teach maths

2009-10-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

If I'm honest, I wasn't sure where to start when it came to teaching maths. We tried Singapore Math Earlybird for a while and T liked it to a point but he didn't seem to be enjoying maths nearly as much as he enjoyed stories and books.

Then I came across this website – Living Math.

It seemed like a great fit for us. Kids pick up language by us talking to them, reading to them, asking questions, listening to conversations and maths should be the same. Integrating maths into everyday life and finding fun ways to teach maths should work much better than pulling out a workbook each day.

So we started with some maths-based stories. Each time we read we pull out some manipulatives and do a puzzle/activity based on the story.

I find that, far from being less rigourous, using stories to teach maths actually encourages T to stretch his understanding and interest in maths. Some of the stories deal with concepts that would not normally be found in textbook for his age. He can cope with them in the context of the story and starts to "get" them.

In “Monster Math” there are 12 monsters who gradually disappear until zero remain. We start with 12 buttons and count them into a cup each time a monster disappears, ending up with all the buttons in the cup. We then cross check every so often to see how many buttons left and how many in the cup, thereby teaching addition up to 12.

In “The Doorbell Rang” there are 12 cookies which need to be divided in various ways between several children. We pull out several plates and used them to “act out” the story. T loves it!

T’s interest in numbers has increased significantly and he is starting to enjoy counting, finding patterns and noticing maths concepts in everyday life.

Here are some of my/our favourite books so far. There are several more extensive maths book lists on the living math website here, many for older children too.

Books for teaching maths
"Read any good math lately" – David Whitin
"Games for Math" – Peggy Kaye
"Math Power" – Patricia Clark Kenschaft

Maths story/puzzle books
"Monster Math" - Grace Maccarone
"Monster Math Picnic" - Grace Maccarone
"Stay in Line" - Teddy Slater
"How Big is a Foot?" - Rolf Myller
"Anno’s counting book" - Anno Mitsumasa
"The Doorbell Rang" – Pat Hutchins
"Maths Games" – Anno Mitsumasa

Quote of the week 26/10/09

2009-10-26T06:30:00.000-07:00

"Homeschooling an ADHD child can be a real challenge. Here are some of the issues we deal with regularly in our home:

* Distractibility - cannot keep on task when given an assignment
* Frustration - low frustration levels when given an assignment that is confusing or repetitious
* Boredom - easily bored with repetitive tasks like spelling and handwriting, or math facts
* Clueless - unless you are working with a gifted child, you will reach times where the information just isn't understood
* Careless - sloppy work and careless mistakes
* Endless school days - unaware of the concept of time and prove this by taking 3 hours to complete 5 math problems
* Insanity - can drive even the sanest parent to question their sanity
* Noise - 3 or more children chattering away at the same time, tapping pencils, rolling desk chairs across the floor; child 2 distracts child 1 while child 3 has disappeared to who knows where
* Grace - God's grace is sufficient, for His power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV)"

ADHD of the Christian Kind
"Homeschooling the ADHD Child"

Great free maths programme

2009-10-26T03:01:00.000-07:00

We're mainly using books, manipulatives and games at the moment to teach maths but I do like the look of this free programme. I think it would supplement what we're doing really well. I also love the fact it's printable. I generally don't like consumable resources - stinginess I suppose!

Free maths programme

Quote of the week 22/10/09

2009-10-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

"She has observed over and over again that little children do not make senseless mistakes or random guesses if they are not pushed into making them. Hours spent analysing children's errors revealed that the errors "made sense". Often they were answers to a different problem than the one posed, or were close approximations of what had been asked for. In an atmosphere where the learner may leave undone a task he cannot do at present, he does not resort to nonsense."

"Notes to Teachers", Lore Rasmussen (Miquon Math), p5

Great colouring sheets website

2009-10-22T07:31:00.000-07:00

They even have Tintin which is T's favourite!

Colouring

Quote of the week 6/10/09

2009-10-06T06:02:00.000-07:00

"Any mathematician can tell you that he or she is often told, "Oh I always hated math!" Sometimes this is said almost proudly. Hatred towards mathematics is a socially acceptable emotion in our culture, even around mathematicians ... Who ever has heard someone say cheerily, "I never did learn to read" at social gatherings?" "Math Power - how to help your child love math even if you don't," Patricia Clark Kenschaft