Homeschooling KS3 in the UK - and more. - Homeschool Blogger

Another birthday

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:18:00 -0600

Once again, it's been a long time since I've written, and H's 14th birthday seems a good time to break the silence. The dining room table is still strewn with balloons which, like croissants, happen every birthday. I must get clearing up soon and get the cake into the oven.
I haven't written for some time because we've had a very difficult few months following a death in N's family, combined with ongoing worries about my mum's health. I won't go into details but writing has fallen down the list of priorities for now. However...
Here's where we all are at the moment.
N is still in the same job though this may change in a few months as his work is having one of its periodic shake-ups. On alternate weekends he goes to see a relative in hospital. This, combined with my working alternate weekends, has meant a big change from our lovely cosy family times, but it's to be hoped we will get back to them at some point.
I'm still working 3 days a week - very variable hours.
J is now working full time at an apprenticeship and it continues to suit him, though the pay is dismal. He split up from his girlfriend at the end of the summer, and these two things in combination mean we see more of him. That's nice!
L is studying for her 'A' levels and has two part-time jobs, so she's the wealthy one! Well, she would be if it weren't for clothes shopping...
H has reached what are known as his 'options'. This means choosing which GCSEs to take. Aside from the compulsory ones, he's thinking of double ICT, history and one more. We are so pleased he's at least thinking of history, as that was both N's and my major subject for our degrees. Of course he may change his mind but it's nice to know one of the children is at least that much interested. He's also due to move upfrom Scouts to Exploreres soon and is looking forward to it. Apparently it's even better than Scouts!
So tonight - the family celebration, and on Friday, the party. I happen to be at work so N has bravely offered to organise this. H has made a foodlist but I really don't know what else will be happening.
Oh, and we're having new windows fitted soon. Trust us to book this in December!

It's been a while...

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:42:00 -0500

I haven't blogged for ages... too much to say! Right now I'm not sure of the connection I have, or whether pages are loading reliably, so here's a summary: J has a new job. He was working p/t at a supermarket (who kept changing his hours) and p/t as a school cleaner. Now he has an apprenticeship in admin with the Council and seems to be enjoying it. L has also changed her work: she has more hours at the Body Shop, though these vary. She's also got a Council cleaning job though as it's relief hours only, it's variable. She started by cleaning at the school where J worked (which H goes to), and this week has some hours at the library - where N works! Small town ;-) L has officially finished with school until she gets her GCSE results. If things go well there she will probably go to the sixth form. She was the reason I started this blog, some years ago when I taught her at home. I would have liked to continue longer but she felt able to go back to school and decided for herself to go. I've since offered H some homeschooling, but he looked bemused and refused me! Interestingly, he seems to suit school better than either of the others did. Well, it's summer holidays (grey and rainy) and we are soon going away to Norfolk for a few days so I had better go and get on with some housework - namely the perennial task of sorting the sock bag! L paused to look at the lines of socks arrayed on the living room floor, as she was on her way out to the gym just now. She pointed out three bright, fluffy oddments and told me to put them in her sock drawer: 'They haven't got partners, and they're Charlotte's!' I asked whether she had the partners, whether Charlotte had the partners...? No, nobody had them. they are just three random bright socks belonging to Charlotte, which is why they are now in a bundle in L's sock drawer, waiting, I suppose, for whichever of L's and Charlotte's friends has the partner socks to lend them to L some day. The oddments will then hang around in my sock bag for weeks or months until L sees them and reunites them with their other halves. Goodness knows whether they will even match by then - depends how often each has been worn! I wonder whether any will ever return to Charlotte, and whether she will remember them if they do? I'm not going to worry about them. In the throw-away attitude this generation has acquired, there is no value on a pair of socks. In my teens, I seemed to be forever mending socks or creating garters because they fell down! My father, growing up in the Great Depression, remembers going by train to Liverpool and seeing barefoot children running alongside. Things change.

My new blog!

Thu, 21 May 2009 09:00:00 -0500

I'm not abandoning this blog, but I'm starting another: someonesthyroxinediary. I've just started taking thyroxine as my body is, in the words of the doctor, 'struggling to use' the thyroxine I produce naturally.
It's likely I've had the condition a long time but it's getting worse and a blood test for something else showed it. Before this I had suspected I had a bit of a tendency to an underactive thyroid gland, but didn't think it was enough to be medically significant, which just goes to show I should take more notice of myself.
It's not cureable but it is treatable, if you see what I mean. All that has to happen is for the doctor to work out just how much of the hormone to replace, and prescribe the tablets. Voila.
As the thyroid controls the speed of the metabolism, someone with an underactive thyroid (or who, like me, produces enough thyroxine but can't use it properly) will slow down in one or more ways. I happen to have lots of the symptoms although my deficiency isn't too severe. The new blog is to see what happens to the symptoms as I settle into treatment - hopefully it will save my friends from being bored by all the latest developments! I'm also hoping it will serve as an encouragement to me to see what progress I make and not lose sight of the huge blessing of not feeling wiped out by very ordinary activity.
If I can remember how, I'll add a link somewhere it can be found easily. could be useful if I lose the notebook with the URL in!

When does the service begin?

Sun, 10 May 2009 09:54:00 -0500

We had an interesting talk at church this morning - by the way I was at New Life - and a quotation stuck in my mind. The speaker was talking about how as Christians we can 'box God in', limiting what we allow him to do in us and through us. This has been a big theme recently and this speaker, from the opposite end of the country, was saying what has been said in sermons and prophecy from members of the local church recently.
Towards the end of the talk he mentioned someone has said that
after the Sunday morning meeting has ended, that's when the service begins.
Of course he wasn't talking about chatting over coffee afterwards. He was talking about when we get home, when we interact with others, go to work or whatever comes up all the other hours of the week. A full church building which has no impact on the wider community is missing the boat.
This is quite a challenge, but so true. It's hardest to walk the walk when we are with those who know us best, our families probably. In addition, outside church we may be in situations where we are the only person of faith and in that case, it's up to us to live the Kingdom in that situation and be the channel through which God can flow to others. Otherwise the real service just isn't happening.

May Bank Holiday

Mon, 4 May 2009 13:07:00 -0500

Nothing special to report, just a lot of Bank Holiday traditions:
After a couple of warm, sunny months with perhaps two slightly rainy days, the weather has become wet and cool - just right for Bank Holiday! In fact it was so cold and grey this morning that hardly anybody turned up for the Allertonshire Car Boot Sale, and those hardy souls who did wore jackets and huddled in the shelter of their cars quite a bit. N bought a picture but on researching it, isn't keen. H and I didn't buy much, though I got a small book of Indian recipes for L's new favourite taste. This caused amusement when the 'recipe' for onion bhajis listed the ingredients as '1/2 packet of onion bhaji mix, water', and H got some fun out of a gust of wind that rattled the sales tables, threatening to send things scuttering.
J and L stayed at home - another Bank Holiday morning tradition.
And yes, we have had a traditional Bank Holiday afternoon: trip to B&Q for paint, then N and H have nearly finished painting the hall. It's the colour of orange juice, which is really, if you think about it, yellow, so that substituted nicely for sunshine. The poor rabbits stayed in their hutches most of the day, out of the cold.
L has gone down to the May Fair with E and E (her best friend and her boyfriend), but J must be gettingolder - he declared the fair 'too expensive' and spent the money on seeing Derren Brown instead.
Now if you think I have missed the other great British Bank Holiday tradition of Doing Things To The Garden, admittedly I haven't managed more than a smidgeon today but I've bought a host of plants over the past couple of weeks (from Bedale Car Boot Sale, highly recommended) and I'm slowly finding homes for these new treasures: a Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis), a primula Vialii, some ox-eye daisies, my first ever auricula ("Gold Lace"), some runner beans, 35 leek seedlings, a tree lupin, some sweet peas and a plant with red flowers that I can't think of the name of, and lastly, I took pity on some freesia and Dutch Lily bulbs being sold off in B&Q. I like rescuing plants. Add to these the sprouting of some butternut squash seeds I planted last week, and I have... a shortage of space.
Happy May Bank Holiday!

On pandemics, pounds and pennies, power struggles and population

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:59:00 -0500

There seem to be a couple of trains of thought in the house at the moment. L and J have both come home from school with versions of the same one. "They say we're all going to get flu", said L, looking at me with a sad frown. H, typically, asked questions: "What is this 'swine flu'?" he asked; "They say it's like flu but horribly painful"; "They say you drown in mucus".
We have talked to them and tried to put the spread of swine flu into context, explaining that things have moved on a long way since the terrible Spanish flu of 1918, both in terms of medication and in terms of understanding. Back in 1918, people didn't even understand what caused it, let alone have a drug to use. What I haven't majored on, though I think I mentioned it, is that nowadays we have air travel, so it has the opportunity to spread a lot more quickly.
Between ourselves, N & I, and in conversation with a neighbour, conversation took a different turn. In amongst our usual subjects - plants and paintings - two separate conversations turned to the flu. We are all old enough and far enough from immediate danger to be philosophical, at least for now. We have seen illness come and go. We're still here. We all look out at the world from our small corner, though, and wonder where it's going, and those two of us with history degrees see the pattern over the centuries: something always comes along to regulate population, whether it be war or plague or simply economics. Today, when the UK is withdrawing from six years of war, the economy is still looking like a burst balloon and news broadcasts track the unremitting spread of swine flu. In one sentence we have three of the main ways the boiling pan of population is brought back to a sustainable bubble.
Naturally, we don't want it to happen. Just as we don't want war and are glad when, in Dorothy Sayers' memorable words, it makes 'a noise like a hoop and roll(s) away', so there are scientists making strenuous efforts to outwit the long-awaited pandemic. Similarly there are economists, politicians, bankers, lots of us little people all trying to get the economy back on track in whatever way or on whatever scale we can. If we are in a position to make policy, we make it. If we have jobs, we hang on to them. If we are in the media, it seems we try to get people to grow vegetables.
Now if that last one seems a digression, I should explain that N and I were talking about this tonight. Why the current trend to grow our own veg? For most people, I imagine the amount generated won't be enough to make a significant dint in our supermarket bills. If it were, there would be pressure groups worrying about the effect on market gardening. It may, for those who take part, be a health booster, providing exercise, fresh air, sunlight, a source of social input and even, if it all goes right, healthy food. That's undeniable - but how many people have access to enough land to make much of a difference? The UK is a land-poor country with a lot of people to support. If the trend has some effect in reversing the concreting of the nation's gardens it will be a good thing - even in our small plot we see the change in drainage since houses were built behind us and that land can no longer absorb as much water as it did a few years ago - but again - people are taught that their garden is in effect another room, and rooms 'need' solid floors. So why the big drive to dig? I think it's to make us feel we have some power over our well-being.
Having said all this, I come to the 'pennies' of the title, the small changes we actually do make to our lifestyles and the effects they could have. For us, today, not close enough to war to have the relief it is abating, not under any immediate threat to our livelihoods although we have seen the effect of price increases, and not having been to Mexico or being near to a current outbreak of the flu, the ripples are still small.
Here they are, then, at the end of an unusually long pontification: two small delights that aren't going to rock the world but may save a few pennies. Firstly, we had spicy lentil soup for tea. Secondly, there are three fat pots in the garden containing 35 seedling leeks which, in my fond imagination, are going to see us through most of the winter.
We shall see.

J's 18th!

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:35:00 -0500

Yes, amazingly, in just under half an hour J will be an adult! I am saying what parents always seem to say: 'Where did the time go?!'
We had a super day today: he wanted a family meal out so the five of us, plus his girlfriend S, my sister, her husband and daughter and N's parents all went to a local pub,The Fox and Hounds, and had dinner. The recent cold gave way in a very timely fashion to glorious warm sunshine and plenty of photo opportunities. We supplied a cake in the shape of a football pitch with a candle which unexpectedly played 'Happy Birthday' loud and long until J skewered it with a fork and restored peace.
After the meal we came back home and the younger ones sunned themselves on the trampoline, we made a start on the football pitch and my sister took some group shots.
Lovely day - and tomorrow is The Big One. The table is covered in balloons, cards and presents as we always open presents over a breakfast of croissants.
Now it;s time I stacked the dishwasher and took off today's make-up before giving him a 'last hug before you're an adult'! Of course tomorrow I can give him another for being grown up!

We from today, my friend, will date the opening of the year

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:30:00 -0600

Ever since I heard the aboveline, which if I remember rightly was addressed by William Wordsworth to his sister Dorothy (but I may have forgotten, it was a along time ago!) I have thought of it at about this time of year.
As I mentioned a week ago, the weather was due to change last Sunday, and thankfully the forecast was right. It's been getting warmer day by day. Not only have snowdrops come out, but crocuses too (mental note to self - stock up on some new ones at the end of summer: these are looking very weedy now!)
Today I spent some time tidying the garden, though there's still a lot to do, but the fantastic thing is, I didn't need a jacket! The sun was shining, birds singing and so forth. I fed a lot of weeds to the rabbits (who only a couple of days ago were lucky to get dried up twiggy bits in addition to their normal food) and got nice and muddy in the process. I found the remains of quite a few clothes pegs beginning to turn into compost, retreived a few tennis balls which probably aren't good for much any more and got a line full of sheets nearly dry.
Oh, I love the spring.
Shame we don't have all those funky smilies that were around on this site a couple of years ago, I could do with one right now.
All in all it's been a positive, energetic day, which is strange because N had to spend the morning in work after the premises were broken into, H was mithering about not being able to afford both the expensive toys he wants and I wasted time on Facebook playing with go-nowhere applications.
Wasting time - that would take a whole entry of its own. At least I have something to show for the day.

Hanging on for Sunday

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:39:00 -0600

I don't know why I set such store by the weather forecast, as it hardly ever reflects what's going on outside my window, but today it was right: snow.
In fact, since Christmas we've had I think five weeks of frost, thought there was a lovely day when the temperature went up to about 10 Celcius and my neighbour and I found ourselves tidying the gardens and chatting over the fence. that was a short-lived warmer spell, though. Much of the time there has been frost or snow for day after day, H's school closed for a couple of days (L's didn't, much to her disgust!) and the pavements have been treacherous as trampled snow froze to ice.
When it snowed again this morning, I didn't even bother to take photos, yet usually snow is a treat, marked by lots of pictures, such as a whole series taken a few weeks ago of H trampolining in the snow! I have been more worried about walking to work for 7am tomorrow, when I struggled to get as far as the rabbit hutches just by the door this evening... and then it rained!
There was a downpour for a while which hasn't managed to wash away the snow but I have hopes that in the morning it will be gone. The worst scenario is for it to freeze tonight, in which case the going will be treacherous. Snow is sufficiently rare in England for most people never to have seen snow tires (I never have), and local roads don't get priority gritting. N has offered to give me a lift to work, bless him, as it means getting up earlier than usual and braving the freezing cold.
Having moaned so much, I ought to add that so long as I don't have to battle through it, I like the snow very much, it's very pretty!
Anyway, roll on Sunday - the weather forecast says 9 Celcius, and believe me, after having become accustomed to one or two degrees either side of zero, with highs of four or five, for weeks and weeks, it's going to feel wonderful!

Winter Sky

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 15:21:00 -0600

N and I went for a walk this afternoon, unaccompanied by children, who would rather be out with friends or keeping gifts company.
It's been a blue-sky day, fairly chilly in contrast to the mild days just before Christmas. We parked near Cotcliffe Woods, which is an escarpment, and, the woods being thick mud, walked up the road and over the hill down to the A19. This road is too busy to cross lightly, even to visit pretty Leeke church, which reminded me, on the one occasion I've been in, of something out of Harry Potter. It's a little country church, which in the UK means it's old, dating from the times when churches were dotted around the countryside and it was a bit of a journey from the farm to get to Sunday morning services, but people went nonetheless. Nowadays churches are urban things, the old country ones - and some town ones too - share a vicar amongst several congregations and some have become defunct as people move out of the countryside into the cities.
Leeke church isn't defunct - it's a cosy little place and in the back we found the bit that stuck in my mind as straight out of the imagination of J K Rowling: a little room with a small gothic window, church robes hanging on a peg and, on a counter which memory or fantasy tells me was covered in gingham sticky-back plastic, a kettle. It could have been a Weasley kitchen but for one thing: the Weasleys could never all have fitted in at once.
Anyway, we didn't quite get there today. Topping the hill, the noise of the road reaches you suddenly, and the car headlights are already lit by around 3.30. We wandered down to the junction and I found what I thought must have been the original line of the road between a field hedge and a line of trees bordering the road, but N thinks it's part of a long ditch running by the thoroughfare. Someone had lost a wheel-trim so I propped it against a road sign and we made our way back towards the setting sun. There are hedges either side of the narrow road, and occasional trees. As we went along and the sun neared the horizon, the trees showed black against the warm orangey-yellow of the sky. There were copses with the trees tall and very straight, their branches clustered at the top and black against the pale blue of the zenith. There was a little cluster of two short conifers in a wayside garden, a tangle of brush obscured in the darkness beneath them while the brilliance of the yellow sun was fragmented by their trunks and branches. There was a also a lone oak, silhouetted against the empty winter sky as absolutely black, yet when we looked back it was a humble winter tree in muted colours, set in the wide landscape of the valley, lit by that quality of light that is more like gilded water.
We met nobody but Boxing Day riders hacking in a leisurely way between local liveries and saw in a field eight sportsmen shooting..what? Probably rabbits judging by the location.
The Boxing Day walk is a sort of tradition, borne of necessity after Christmas Dinner. Today's was unusually clear and bright, and the sun had set by the time we reached home and put the animals away for the evening. It will be freezing or below tonight, thanks to that clear sky.
And of course, I didn't have my camera.