Assessing home educators

Many questions home educators receive have hidden agendas. For example;

"Does anyone have to inspect you?" hides the questions: 

"How can you educate without someone telling you what to do?" 

and;

"How can you be good enough?"

To which my reply ought to be:

"I have a brain, I can figure out the stuff my kid should know. I can read at least as well as an average teacher, I can access the same resources. Most people can do these things. Even if I can't buy books I can request them through my library. I can beg and borrow. You may be surprised to hear that many home educators spend plenty of time considering educational philosophies and honing their approach.

"I continue to educate myself. I have family and friends to whom I am accountable and I trust myself to make choices for my family. I work damn hard to achieve the best for her and no-one has a right to judge my ability or define us by arbitrary numbers made for a system we reject."

...but instead I will continue to smile and shake my head, "no, it's not like school." Because some arguments are still too frighteningly radical to get into out loud.

Resources Page

I've added a page up the top to put my home-made resources in!

These are here in good faith for personal use, please let me know if you've used them and credit me where possible, I'll try to do the same if I happen to borrow anything.

The first thing I have for you is a set of dinosaur silhouettes that you can cut up, laminate and use for anything you like :) 

Print two and play matching games or use them on a large timeline or map.

Enjoy.

"Orwellian Schemes"?

"A graduate is taking legal action against the government over a scheme which she says forces people to do unpaid work." via BBC

I'm really struggling with this report that was just on the news. I would love to hear a bit more from Cait - the aforementioned graduate; things like whether she has worked before, what experience she already has and what sort of job she wants. 

I'd like to ask her whether she had to work during her degree, and where she got money from to support herself during those three years. I'd like to find out how difficult it is to find work in her field and what other students from her graduating year are now doing.

I'd like to ask whether she believes she is entitled to JSA until she finds a job exactly in her field. I'd be interested to find out why she thinks the Job Centre is the right place to find a graduate career. I'd like to hear how she spends her time when she's not volunteering at a museum. Is she improving herself, creating a kick-ass CV, keeping on top of her field?

I don't like to criticise without knowing these facts. 

But.

Man.

I...

I can't get over feeling that this STINKS of entitlement.

I detest the idea of unpaid internships, of which this government scheme is a dumbed-down version. But sometimes, just sometimes, you have to get over yourself and do what is necessary. Which means taking a job beneath your skill level. Which means working hard, finding opportunities and taking things in your stride. Because everything you do should further you, whether you are only working towards the next pay cheque or bettering yourself to move up the ladder. 

  

I'm not saying Cait should have just got on with it. She obviously felt insulted by it, but no-one walks into a graduate job. Even the people who seem to do so have usually been working their a*ses off for 3+ years. Perhaps working a job alongside their degree. Perhaps working two jobs whilst also developing a portfolio of work in their own time. Perhaps working hard on an extra-curricular activity that turns out to be the thing they do for the rest of their lives, the degree being a leg up or a period of time to develop.

So what should a graduate expect from a government funded partnership scheme? Well, you certainly shouldn't assume they'll give you something awesome. Especially when that scheme is contracted through a large company. When you enter a framework that expects conformity, through a scheme administered by a big business, where does it say that they have to give you exactly what you want?

Cos that scheme? The whole structure of it? It ain't about what the lowly job seeker wants, is it?

Can She Read and Write...?

We drop Mr Onions off at work most days and Little Onion (Shallot? Perhaps she needs an Onion-Based alias too?) loves it when he knocks on her window to say 'goodbye,' I actually think it's the highlight of her day. 

Before we left the other morning he wrote her name in the condensation on the window, which was hugely exciting for her. 

The next day, when we were out and about on our own, she decided to write 'Daddy' in the same place, and added some kisses. She wrote it right to left, (yes, that's fine) and got every letter right. 

I wish I could capture these moments forever, watching our little self-motivated girl find joy in letters. This is what autonomy is all about.

Self direction with Sonic

My girly is trying to use a handheld Mega Drive. And getting really frustrated with it not doing what she wants.

It's hard to stand back and stop myself from showing her.

The litany of 'If you want to play you play, but if you're frustrated you can put it down,' is getting tiresome, but what is the alternative? What will she learn if I do it all for her?

I'm obviously happy to help her read and find what she's looking for, but I'm not going to play the game for her. I can facilitate her use of the game ('What happens when you press this button?' 'What's happening now?') but I won't tell her what to do.

And guess what this approach led to: she realised that to find the game she wants, she needs to read. 

She wanted 'Sonic and Knuckles,' so we worked out that it had 3 words and started with /s/. Then it was a matter of puzzling it out with logic. She found the game then realised there was another Sonic game underneath.

So, what have we learned by playing on the Mega Drive? Through the intrinsic motivation to play the game we want we have practised:

• letter recognition
• counting  
• logic
• whole word recognition and matching

Not bad for half an hour of work.

Banana and Date Breakfast Muffins!

Let's lighten things up a bit here!

I've been investigating making muffins for about 6 months now and finally think I'm getting the hang of it. 

I invented these with NP and they were well received by all, they are low on (added, refined) sugar and not too fatty (I think). I reckon they could be tarted up a bit more with some nuts to slow the release of the sugar, perhaps some chopped walnuts? 

So, so sorry there's no picture, I'll remedy that next time we make them. Have to say, there's some guesswork gone into remembering this, but I hope you enjoy them.

makes around 12 large muffins

150g self raising flour

50g wholemeal flour 

100g oats

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarb

pinch of salt

50g soft brown sugar

c.100g chopped dates

3 really ripe bananas (the browner they are, the sweeter)

50g sultanas

1 large egg

60g melted butter

c.2 tbsp of milk (just for binding because the wholemeal flour sucks up liquid, add one at a time to make sure you're not adding too much)

Get some muffin tins ready in your preferred manner. Grease really well or use some paper cases. 

Put your oven on a high temp (gas 6 or 7, 200-220c, 400-425f) and put a tin filled with water in the bottom (the steam is supposed to help your muffins rise) 

You will be turning this temp down later - don't forget!

Mix the dry ingredients together by sieving them all into a bowl, then add the dried fruit and have a good stir. 

(if you chop the dates yourself you might want to roll them in cornflour before adding to the mixture to stop them clumping together) 

Mash the bananas to a good smush in a separate bowl then chuck them into the melted butter and whisk in the egg slightly. 

Put the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix to a cakey-slop with some of the milk, don't take too long over this, make sure they're *just* combined. 

Spoon into the prepared tins (I fill them to the top and do a little peak in the middle so they rise like mini mountains :) 

TURN YOUR OVEN DOWN TO gas 4/180c/350f

Bake in the oven for 20-25mins. They will be nice and brown when they come out.

We love cooking with bananas and dates because they are lovely and sweet for baking, it might even be possible to reduce the amount of sugar you add, but that's an experiment for next time.

You can also change the proportions of flours, but remember, the more wholemeal you use, the more liquid it will suck up, making your cakes drier if you don't add more!

Please leave me a comment if you make these ;o)

More Meta

Sometimes I want to kick my ass. I have all these pretensions about What My Blog Is. So many, in fact, that I end up writing nothing on here for days, weeks, months sometimes. I feel like I have nothing important to say. I think about those blogs that I skip reading these days because they're so boring to me and wonder, what the hell can I do here that will be interesting?

I've fallen way out of touch with the analytical university stuff that I used to love. Which is understandable; I'm not at uni any more, I don't have to think about it 24/7 whilst juggling a baby/toddler and feeling like I've got something to prove.

But where do we go from here? I've actually been blogging for about 6 years in various places yet I'm still struggling to find my voice. I'm sorta lost amongst so many more interesting people and every now and then I try on a different bloggy-persona but ultimately realise it's not Me. 

There's Serious Blogger who writes about the news and feminism.

There's Mommy Blogger who just wants to show off.

There's Ranty Blogger who is an infernal mixture of the other two (because it's nearly always something to do with Mommy-ing or Feminist-ing that sets me off).

Then there's Me. I'm not any of those things, really. Where actually is my individual voice in all this? I've been trying on all these Blogging Outfits but none of them have really shown who I am. The one I'm closest to is Mrs Ranty, because those posts are normally written from the heart with minimal editing. Someone even chose this one for the defunct Carnival of Feminist Parenting. But still, when I sit down to Do Some Writing I feel like I'm missing my soul.

I guess other people might not really understand where I'm coming from, but writing has always been such an intensely personal part of me. Old diaries would get destroyed when I read them back, embarrassed and shameful and cringing. 

I think I want to embrace that shame, and fight through it. My blogging idol is Wil Wheaton. His work is always personal and unashamed. He shares his love and passion with the whole of geek-dom and geek-dom accepts him as one of their own. That must be a really special feeling, taking that risk and exposing (what you feel are) your weaknesses, only to find people love you for it. What a brave man :) He's recently started talking about The Gap between your aspirations and your production, which is a hugely interesting concept to me, and reminds me of my cringing teenage self, tearing those old diaries apart.

So perhaps I might try it on for size. Writing and writing to bridge that gap between what I produce and who I am. Am I nutty to over-analyse this quite so much? Should I bite the bullet and just trill about the glory of home-education for ever more, leaving the proper writing to people who know what they're doing? Oh damn, I seem to be wrapping this up on a sour note...here, have a picture of a swan in a dress: