Round-up of 2014

It's been a very busy year. I've written and published 10 new Picture Book Explorers, a lapbook and helped The Girl take her first steps into e-publishing with the game that she devised. 

Both children have achieved the yellow belt in Ninjitsu. The Girl also gained Grade 4 in both Cornet and Music Theatre; Grade 1 Ballet; the Bronze Arts Award and Gold Award in scouts. Boykin gained the Discover Arts Award and is working towards his Silver Award for cubs and Grade 1 in both Ballet and Tap.

We've been on lots of lovely Home Ed trips including a local camp and a youth hostel trip, unfortunately cut short because we wanted to be here to celebrate 10 years of one of our local groups. I think my favourite trip might just have been the evacuee workshop because we all got to dress up and we stayed dry for a change :)

We've also been on a youth hostel trip with some of our non-HE friends and are looking forward to another one in 2015. We've had some fab days out with family too - Chatsworth House and Blackpool Pleasure Beach particularly stand out in my memory. It would also have been my Granny's 100th birthday this year so we celebrated (commemorated?) with our very large extended family by gathering for a mass picnic at Cannon Hall on her birthday :)

I set up a new HE board games group at a local games shop which we are all enjoying very much and The Girl is taking part in activities in the new teenagers group organised by another local mum. They also enjoy the new social group in a local park and are interested in contributing to the variety show that is still in the planning stages. We are very lucky to live in an area with so many HE families that like organising stuff :)

We've all learnt lots about UK geography (thanks to PBE) and they've both made progress in maths. We're still reading Story of the World, but I'm no longer using the activity book as we would only get to the end of book 4 by the time Boykin is 16 at the rate we were going :/ Our time line is looking more interesting though :) They have both been spending time on Scratch and want to create more games.

Performance-wise they both took part in their drama class end of term plays and did the half-term four day workshop. Both have given up drama groups :( The Girl has sung in various choir performances, both with her usual choir and with a gospel choir for a Christmas show. Boykin also took part in the dancing show and is happily back at classes again. The Girl has also taken up dancing lessons, but has sadly, given up cornet and brass band :( :( :( She is now learning violin and piano.

We're all looking forward to the year ahead. There are lots of changes in the offing as The Girl moves towards thinking about exams and deciding which groups and activities to keep and which to drop in an attempt to make best use of her time. Boykin will move up to scouts this year and is looking forward to investigating his new Raspberry Pi, playing all his new board games and building with Lego.

Our year in photos that didn't make it to the blog before, starting in January with an amazing birthday cake made by the Girl for Boykin :)

   

Christmas

It's been a lovely Christmas this year. My eldest son and his girlfriend joined us and came to stay over on Christmas Eve which meant I woke up on Christmas morning with all my children in the same house. This hasn't happened for a good number of years so I was very excited.

We didn't manage to get to the local Christingle service this year, nor midnight mass due to visitors and transport arrangements but we still watched our Christmas Eve film and read the last book of our annual Advent calendar - It's a Wonderful Life and Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Everyone got socks, toys, books and games - a proper Christmas selection. We ate goose for the first time but I forgot the Yorkshire puddings :( There were no arguments, everyone liked their presents and they all worked and all had the right batteries. My present from my first born and his lovely girlfriend included very posh chocolates and a theatre ticket for the end of February to go and see Mark Thomas with them. Such perfect presents - something delicious to eat and something to look forward to :)

The favourite new game we played on the day is Dixit. It consists of beautifully illustrated cards and is suitable for all ages, being both challenging and fun. I'm already thinking of ways to use the cards as creative writing prompts. I can't help it, I'm a home educator ;)

Favourite craft activity is Rainbow Loom Official Kit. The Girl declared them to be definitely superior and easier to use than the cheap ones they had before. She has made me some lovely new loom band jewellery and something I very much wanted - a glasses chain because I am CONSTANTLY losing my reading glasses.

Boxing Day was more relaxed, a day at home in front of the fire with more games (King of Tokyo), leftover Christmas food and Gnomeo & Juliet on iPlayer. (The geek in me wants to watch it slowly so that I can work out just how many Shakespeare plays are referenced...) The day was delightfully topped off with a fall of snow and playing out in the dark with the neighbour's children :) It really has been a truly delightful Christmas. I feel very blessed :)

Happy Birthday to Us!

Today was the 10th birthday of our local HE group. I was so busy that I didn't take any photos - nor do I have any photos of our first meeting. We also did Christmas crafts and played some party games. (I love the Hokey Cokey - it makes children smile).

It was a very busy session with lots of new families and old friends that I haven't seen for a while. It was lovely to see everyone there sharing memories and looking at old photos, including three families who were at the very first session, us being one of them.

The theme of our first session was Bats. We did some craft activities and had a speaker come from the Bat Trust. Some of the older children can still remember him :) The craft activity I took was making bat mobiles with coat hangers, brown card cut-outs of bats and cream card cut-outs of moths.

Whilst looking through old photos to take today, I came across the original guidelines for our group and was surprised to see just how much it hasn't changed. We had to add a few more ground rules and put up the price when we changed venues and the children don't wash up any more, but other than that, it's still pretty much the same. Sadly, we did lose the closing circle somewhere over the years but opening circle is still an important part of the day as is the communal meal and constant supply of fruit for people to snack on.

I remember the discussions and planning meetings we had at first, how we decided what was important, how we found an affordable venue. We don't have planning meetings now, but we do vote on the themes that we will cover and use email to organise related trips.

I've really enjoyed this group over the 10 years. I've made some good friends, met some interesting people, had a lot of fun, stressed about what activity to take, played, sang, danced, cooked, painted, crafted, seen children grow up, eaten lovely food (the shared meal is so important and probably my most interesting meal of the month), learnt loads, covered topics I would never have thought of (Toilets) and developed skills I didn't know I had.

I'd just like to say 'Thank you' to everyone who came today; to everyone who has ever been to our local HE group, even if they only came once; to everyone who has ever brought an activity to share; to everyone who has brought food to share - especially food that I would never dream of cooking myself; to everyone who is, and has been, involved in the organising. I'd like to say thank you for the support and friendship I've found in this group and thank you for the ideas and inspiration.

I'm really looking forward to more good food, good friends and interesting topics over the next few years :)

My top 10 tips to starting up a local HE group :)
1. Find some like-minded parents and share the load;
2. Decide what kind of session you want - purely social or learning activities?
3. Find a cheap venue, preferably with storage - church halls and scout huts are often a good bet, especially as they're likely to have outdoor space too;
4. Pick a regular date - once a month works well, it allows for other activities to happen, nobody feels overworked, and people who want to come don't keep putting it off till 'next week';
5. Do some fundraising before you start to give yourselves a cushion - a sponsored walk and jumble sale worked for us;
6. Ask parents to donate any unused art materials, pinnies, cooking equipment etc.;
7. Buy a teapot and cosy :) ;
8. Communal meals are great :)
9. Work out a fee that will cover costs - we started out at £2 for the 1st child + £1 for each sibling age 3 and up. We now charge £2.50 and £1.50 respectively.
10. Take photos - lots of them!

I'd love to hear of other peoples experiences when it comes to setting up and running Home Education groups. What tips would you add to this list?

Typekids Review

This is a really thorough programme if you really want to learn to touch type. It spends a few lessons on a combination of a small number of letters making sure that you have got those letters off pat before moving on to the next set. One thing I did like about this programme is that you can sign up for a free trial before you commit to buy to make sure it's a good fit for your child.

Typekids is an online course of 30 lessons that will teach your child to touch type. This seems to be becoming an all important skill these days as more and more writing happens via technology. I was pretty keen to try this out with my children to give them this skill.

The programme has a pirate theme complete with animated boats, canons, sharks and rousing music.
The instructions are pretty straight forward and graphically illustrated to help make them even easier to follow

As well as the exercises, there are games to play which build on the lessons. After completing so many lessons students get to unlock new games. There are also badges to be earned and chapters of a story that become available to listen to as you progress. Parents/tutors are emailed a progress report after each lesson so that they can check on their child's progress. There's a review screen so children can check their accuracy for themselves too.

Boykin had a go on this programme. He enjoyed the games and the story, but found some of the exercises a bit repetitive for his liking. He can type faster with two fingers though at the moment so learning to touch type hasn't got that much appeal to him at this stage. However, I'm hoping that he will persevere and will, hopefully, begin to see the benefits soon.

Typekids.com seem to have everything pretty much covered in terms of thoroughness, progress reports, ergonomics information and incentives - there's even a Diploma at the end of the course. Now it's just down to the Boy to keep at it and finish the course :)

Disclosure: I got given a free account at Typekids in order to write an honest review. No money changed hands. All opinions are my own.