Week One Review

It was a mixed bag of a week.  We didn't hit any of the suggested items apart from our core subjects of English and Maths.  We did however make full use of two glorious days of sunshine:

Tuesday ~ After the weekly food shop we cleaned out the car; Benedict had responsibility for the vacuuming  and I cleaned the windows.  We ate a picnic lunch in the garden and bought new shoes once Pip had finished school.

Wednesday ~ Benedict was with Shein in the morning.  I collected him at midday and this time we ate our sandwiches in the park.  We also played an impromptu game of Star Wars Top Trump Cards, Benedict won!  His knowledge of the Star Wars characters and their impact on the story lines is phenomenal!  As promised we visited Bea and Benedict had fun helping one of her child - minded kids with a jigsaw.  We collected Pip at three and took the long way home through the countryside, it was refreshing to see the countryside looking so lush.  Roland came for tea and Scouts as usual.

By Thursday the fog and cold came creeping in and it has been heating on and extra jumpers ever since!

I came to quite a profound understanding this week and that is I have had enough of home schooling!  It never has sat easy with me, either because I have had concerns about keeping up with a school curriculum; our main points of contact are with school based folk and not the home ed community, or the fact that I actually need periods of time completely on my own in order to function and this constantly having people around is quite wearying.  It is quite an intense relationship home schooling just one child in isolation and over these past two years I have felt suffocated by it all.

With this in mind I have made contact with a local learning centre funded  for young people of secondary school age, who for medical reasons are unable to access full time education.  Sara finished her secondary education at LEMS and the support and teaching staff were excellent.  The lady who normally oversees the service is on long term sick but another person has stepped in as acting coordinator. The centre is near to us so if there are any diabetes issues we are on hand to sort things out and if it is the same as last time, then being at the younger end of the "school", Benedict will only be attending afternoons as the mornings are kept free for those studying GCSE's. We are hoping to make a visit within the next few weeks and by September somebody other than myself will have responsibility for his education.  

I know that him being out of the house on a regular basis will improve his confidence and give him the opportunity to be around other kids of a similar age.  It will also enable him to practise his listening skills and taking instructions from someone other than mum!  So we are really pushing forward now with our core subjects including regular writing practise and spellings.  It has given us both a new focus and a long term goal and that can only be a good thing.