Keeping an Eye Open

I applied for The Celestial One (TCO) to go back to her old primary School as a Year Five pupil. She isn’t going because she had a complete turnaround within the week. But for a short while there, it seemed as though our current journey was at an end. She appeared positive – she wanted more routine, she said, and it just felt like time, like that’s what she needed.

I took her with me on every step of the school application process, including having her listen in when, at her insistence, I phoned North Somerset Council to verify that they’d received the form I’d filled out and we’d hand-delivered. They had. Actually, thinking about it now, I should have been a more on-the-ball home edder and encouraged her to do the filling, posting, chasing herself.

Then her surety faltered: if she went to school she’d miss her friends and our impromptu outings to wherever, she’d lack freedom, there would be restrictions. And anyway, she reasoned, she’s learning plenty, in her own way, although what she learns rarely coincides with what her peer-group in school are taught.

So routine, eh?

We don’t follow a curriculum, rarely plan our days, apart from those organised events that dictate you must be at a certain place at a given time. Nor do we have regular waking up/lunch/dinner even bed times (OK we have a going upstairs time of 8:30ish but she never goes to sleep then, always something to do up there, often connected to YouTube). And the workroom has turned into a bit of a tip, housing too much unnecessary stuff.

But everything is subject to change and TCO’s wobble has helped us both to remember that this gig will work however we want it too, that we can alter the way we do things, nothing is static, our educational waters need never become stagnant. Isn’t that the point of it all?

So, there and then, we made a start on the workroom, throwing out some of the crap (how much paper?), sorting out containers for pens, ideas, craft etc. She hasn’t been in it since, preferring to walk around the house with her Hudl (tablet) glued to her hand so she can take videos of absolutely everything. TCO was asleep by 8:30 that evening, wanting to prove that she could get up easily to the alarm she’d set at 8am. The next day, she was still tired and we argued. Never mind, at least her Hudl alarm clock has been used once. We said we’d print out some worksheets when the inclination arose to do ‘proper’ work but she’s more likely to sing, dance and write whenever she feels the need.

But we do now have a schedule, albeit a limited one. We were booked to go on a home ed camp in Wales this week but we cancelled, feeling stability is what is needed right now and to throw ourselves into a week of endless activity, surrounded by hundreds of new faces, might even have been damaging. All we’ve planned together in the past four days is a play date, a sleepover, 2 theatre shows as part of Bristol Festival of Puppetry and her visit to Nanny & Grandad’s to watch XFactor with them (I get off lightly there!). Oh and she’s putting on a theatre show with her mates so they’ve been excitedly practising that, making posters and selling tickets around the neighbourhood.

Here’s our weekly plan:

Monday: iPad App Design (if we can get enough people to sign on the course),
Art class, swimming when we can afford it, Karate.

Tuesday: Curriculum based work at the home of/with a friend who thrives on structure and set work, Spanish, Street Dance, Cubs.

Wednesday: Adventure Day, where we explore somewhere completely new, sometimes sleeping in the van so it morphs into Adventure Thursday too (we’ve already failed on this in advance because the next few Wednesdays are taken up with a science home ed day at @Bristol, a trip to Dorset and a day at Bath Literature Festival. Hmm, wait, we will explore in Dorset and we’ve never been to BLF so … well, this is easy, isn’t it).

Thursday: See Wednesday and the occasional outing to Wrington Home Ed Group

Not a packed looking schedule but, like life, it’s a work in progress. Our plans will adapt as she does. I’m resurrecting this blog so that I can keep an eye on myself, to see whether I’m responding to her needs, to spur us on during those inevitable moments when we feel like little is being achieved.

Meanwhile, here’s some of August in circles:

Tree Den

In the “womb” of ancient tree, Magog

Walnut tree at Paddington Farm

Documenting evidence on an Step in Stones art trail, Westdown/Asham Quarry

Skeleton of a bird

Making Books workshop at Somerset Earth Science Centre

Miniture Shetland ponies at Paddington Farm

Magic Workshop, Glastonbury Assembly Rooms

Climbing roots

Dancing in the tent by torchlight

At home with the cows, Paddy Farm

Dismaland

Music and Songwriting Workshop at Studio 9, Glastonbury

At home with Rommel

“Little Frankenstein” and “Smart at a Donkey” as part of Bristol Festival of Puppetry

Feeding cake to street art, Bedminster, Bristol

Reading out her poem on stage at Mark Grist and Tim Clare’s event at Bristol Colston Hall

Collecting manure at the allotment

Oobleck