Shakespeare Week

We love Shakespeare in our homeschool. Sophie and Charis love to draw pictures of all the characters and how they inter-relate whilst I slowly read through the summary of the play in the Lambs' book.

Last week was ‘National Shakespeare Week’ here in the UK, so several weeks ago I started planning a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon. We signed up for the primary school resources, and the children each received a ‘passport’ they could fill in. This was to whet their appetite a little, and they were pleased to get certificates in the post to say they’d completed them. We also made sure to read through ‘The Bard of Avon’ by Diane Stanley, which is actually one of Sophie’s set books for this year.

Unfortunately, a lot of what was going on in Shakespeare week seemed to be aimed at schools. However, there were special craft activities going on in the various Shakespeare houses, and so in the end it was definitely worth going to visit this week rather than another. (In fact, I think the kids may have been a bit bored if the craft activities hadn’t been there, to be honest).

Stratford was a beautiful town, and everything we visited was within easy walking distance. We started at the visitors centre, where we collected our tickets. We’d gone for the ‘Family – Birthplace Pass’ tickets, and got 10% off by booking online ahead of time. First up we went to Harvard House, which was owned by a rich family who would have known the Shakespeares. The kids enjoyed the ‘Apprentice Trail’ around the house, with clipboards in tow, and there were some costumes to try on. Afterwards there was a craft activity. 

We took our picnic lunch down by the water’s edge, watching the swans and geese, and the kids had a good run around on the grass. Afterwards, we headed to ‘Hall’s Croft’, the home owned by Shakespeare’s daughter, Susanna. More clipboards, involving finding little toy mice around the house, and another great craft activity. After a welcome coffee in the adjoining café, we headed off to Shakespeare’s grave, which the children found surprisingly interesting, and then walked back up to the visitors centre to see Shakespeare’s birthplace. I guess we should have done this first, but it worked out well to finish a bit nearer to where we’d parked the car. Another fabulous craft activity, and then we took the tour around the house and learnt all about glove-making and wallpaper. The kids listened attentively for quite a long time, again I was pleasantly surprised!

By this time we were all tired and it was time to head back home. There are other houses you can see in Stratford, but I’m glad we didn’t try to do more than we did with little kids in tow. The next day I got Sophie and Charis to write a report each on the day, and it was lovely to see how much they’d remembered and what had particularly interested them. 

I don’t think this is something we’ll do again for a while, since it’s such a long drive for us, but I highly recommend it as an educational day out!

Abide in Him!


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Homeschooling in the UK - 1

We've been homeschooling in the UK now for six months, and I wanted to share some of my thoughts as I reflect on how things have been going. Rather than write one very long blog post about it all, I thought I'd turn this into a series of 10 bite-sized observations. For each post there's a positive and a negative side, and the posts are in no particular order. So here goes with number 1......

 

Positive: Freedom

When we returned from Russia, where we'd lived for 11 years, we were determined to maintain the progress that the children had made in their Russian language. We had crazy ideas of 'Family Russian Days', where we would only speak Russian to the kids. However, we soon found that, with no other Russian speakers around us, any attempt by us to use the language just seemed too artificial, and the children rebelled. Sophie and Charis were in mainstream school for that first year, and Sophie was learning Spanish. Besides, we just didn't seem to have the time, inbetween school runs, homework and cranky, tired kids. I was also disappointed that Sophie seemed to be doing so little art at school, and I knew that she had a real gift and passion for the subject. Another area we were concerned about was spiritual input. There just didn't seem to be time for the family devotions we'd been used to.

Fast forward a year, and here we are homeschooling and able to choose how we spend our day and what subjects to focus on. Gone are the often pointless home learning assignments, which seemed to be more about the artistic skills of the parent than the child, and instead we have Russian, art and family Bible time, with Scripture memory, firmly back on the timetable.

In addition we're reading some wonderful books and loving our Astronomy course. The children get to choose their own topic to research for the display board every half-term (space, dinosaurs, electricity...), as well as choosing which sports, handicrafts and musical instruments they'd like to learn.

All in all, I love that homeschooling allows us the opportunity to focus on subjects and skills that we think are important and that our children are interested in.

Negative: Fear

I don't know if it's because my kids are a little older now, or if it's because we're back in the UK, but suddenly I feel huge anxiety about their eduction and a sense of the huge burden of responsibility that I've taken upon myself. 

How do I know if I'm teaching them the right things? Are they keeping up with their peers? What am I going to do about GCSEs (exams usually taken aged 16)? Are my choices burning any bridges for them academically later down the line? Will a home education still allow them to follow their dreams in terms of a higher education and career?

I have to admit that this is the number one negative I feel about homeschooling at the moment. The more research I do about how to study for and take exams as a home educated candidate, the more scared I feel. So much so that we haven't yet decided if we might put Sophie into secondary school at age 11, simply in order for her to achieve the necessary GCSE qualifications to get into college/sixth form, and are leaving our options open at the moment.

Since homeschooling is still relatively rare in the UK, I don't personally know any families who have already, successfully navigated the waters of exams, qualifications and university applications. Yes, I've joined enough facebook groups to know it can be done, but without that face-to-face, personal encouragement, I feel very isolated and alone. 

So, there we go, the first observation is about curriculum choices. You'll find part 2 here.

Does any of this resonate with you? Do leave a comment - I'd love to hear from you.


Abide in Him!


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An ACTUAL Homeschool Day In The Life

I'm dedicating this post to my dear friend A, who told me that, after having read my last post, she'd decided she couldn't possibly homeschool because she could never be organised enough in her daily routine. Now, A is one of the most organised people I know, so if SHE thinks that then clearly I haven't been honest enough! The last thing I want to do is to put people off homeschooling, so I decided to write an honest account of what we actually did today. Here goes......

6.40am Hubby gets up to have his shower. I roll over, hoping for a few more minutes in bed...but...no, that's the baby crying. I fetch baby Joy (10 months) from her room and take her to the kitchen and feed her some baby porridge. I immediately start multi-tasking and check facebook and some homeschooling websites in a sorry attempt to feel somehow connected to the outside world.

7.30am Wow, where did the time go? Hubby comes in to take over and set up breakfast while I go and have my shower. I get dressed and then, feeling guilty that I should really be having a quiet time, I bow to my perfectionistic, task-orientated self and go to the office to print off the next 30 pages of maths sheets for Sophie (10).

8.15am I decide I probably ought to grab some breakfast before family Bible time.

8.30am We all congregate in the living room, and I suddenly realise that I completely forgot to breastfeed Joy when I got her up this morning! I try to make up for it while Hubby is reading the story of Jonah, but Joy is already too distracted and really isn't interested in what I have to offer. I spend the rest of family Bible time trying to stop her chewing the school books on the table.

9.00am Hubby puts Joy down for a sleep, while the rest of us get going with our morning school routine. Charis (7) speeds ahead with her check list of various maths and English assignments. Sophie ploughs on through her newly-printed-off maths sheet. Nathaniel(5) has a brief burst of enthusiasm in his reading practice and then declares that that's enough. We try some maths, but again he decides two pages is quite sufficient. He opts to colour in his Valentine's Day card for baby Joy instead. Sophie is getting frustrated with her maths. I go over to help her and decide that my brain doesn't really want to put in the effort involved either. I tell her that, since I can't think of a reason why she would have to change centilitres into mililitres in real life, she doesn't have to do that particular problem! Feel some remorse. I am a trained maths teacher after all!

10.15am I let the kids have some biscuits in the kitchen while I get Joy up from her nap. We need to go into town to pick up Sophie's new glasses. Charis tells me she doesn't want to come, and I don't force her because, quite honestly, it'll be quicker without her. She's not much of a walker. I set her up on a typing programme on the computer, while the rest of us get our coats and shoes on.

10.50am I find a parking space near the shops, strap Joy into the sling, and Sophie, Nathaniel and I set off for the opticians. The lady who sees us is incredibly slow this morning, and it takes us a full hour to collect two pairs of glasses! Fortunately Nathaniel and Joy have been very patient.

12.00pm We arrive home. It's time to feed Joy her lunch, and get our lunch ready.

12.30pm I call everyone to the table, but reluctantly decide that this is really the best time I have to go for my run today. I'm on a strict training schedule for my half-marathon coming up in April. Today I'm supposed to do 3 miles, including some short bursts of sprinting. Fortunately I know I can leave Hubby in charge for half an hour or so.  I go upstairs to get changed.

1.15pm I return exhausted, and a little disappointed that my time wasn't any faster, despite the short bursts. I find Sophie, Charis and Nathaniel in the middle of a very exciting game where Nathaniel is dressed up as a knight / king, and Sophie and Charis are his servants. "Oo, can I have a servant?" Apparently not, since I'm not royalty and haven't been knighted. I take a shower and, since they're enjoying themselves so much, linger a bit too long over my lunch. Sophie and Charis are also doing some art work, which I decide counts for school work, so I leave them to it.

2.30pm I suddenly remember that Charis is being collected for gymnastics at 3.30pm, I quickly put together a tray of afternoon tea and call everyone into the living room. I briefly consider putting something healthy on the plate, but then opt for biscuits because, well, it's just quicker. Note to self: I must buy a proper teapot for when we have adult guests over.

While Nathaniel makes a mess dunking his biscuit into his tea (thank you Grandpa for teaching him that trick), I read some poetry, a chapter of "Paddle to the Sea" and a bit of our Astronomy book. We take a brief break while Charis changes into her gym stuff and I quickly sign a form for her gym teacher and put some money in an envelope. We have just enough time to read 3 or 4 pages of "Children of the New Forest" before she needs to go.

3.30pm I leave Sophie with a list of assignments she has still to do, and disappear off to work on an annual report required by our organisation that Hubby really wants me to finish today so he can send it off.

4.30pm I start making dinner. It's a new recipe - some sort of vegetable pie, which I just know everyone is going to hate. I decide to whizz the chickpeas up in the blender so they won't be recognisable. In true multi-tasking form, I simultaneously feed Joy her dinner and listen to a couple of podcasts. Sophie turns up for a quick times tables test before she's allowed to watch TV.

6.00pm Charis returns, we all sit down to dinner (a surprising hit with all but Nathaniel) and our evening bedtime routine sets in. However, it takes the kids so long to tidy up the 'throne room' in Nathaniel's bedroom that they have to forego bedtime stories. Joy gets her first bath in two weeks (don't tell Grandma). The other kids finally settle sometime after 8pm, and I come down to write this blog post.

So, A, if you're reading this, I hope this helps you feel that homeschooling is something you could do after all. Yes it is messy, and chaotic and tiring, but it's so worth it!

Abide in Him!


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A Homeschool Day in the Life

We're into our second term of homeschooling in the UK now! I saw this series on the Simple Homeschool blog and thought it was a good opportunity to share how our days are going. What you find below is pretty much an 'ideal' day. Of course, in real life you have to add in postmen making deliveries, phones ringing, babies waking up earlier than they should, unplanned dashes to the shop for a necessary item, and people (including Mummy) catching heavy colds or suffering from severe lack of sleep (definitely Mummy on that one)......


7.00 am or so I get up to nurse the baby. My husband makes sure the other children are up by 7.30am. The rule is that they need to come down to breakfast fully dressed on a week-day - it seems to help speed things along! I'm lucky in that my husband works from home and so doesn't need to walk up the stairs to his 'office' until 9am. I prepare the baby's breakfast but leave Hubbie to oversee the rest while I shower, dress and do a few odd chores like laundry or vacuuming. The children finish their morning chores, which includes tidying up their rooms for 'room inspection'. If they pass (which they do 99% of the time) they get a star on their chart, which adds up to a trip to the sweet shop every 6 weeks or so. I'm so thankful to start the day with tidy bedrooms - it really helps my sanity!

8.30 am  We meet in the living room for 'Family Bible Time'. This involves reading the Bible, alternating between the 'real' Bible and a children's Bible, praying using our prayer sticks, and going over our Scripture Memory verses. Daddy then puts the baby down for her nap on his way up to his office at 9am, and the rest of us head to the school room.

9.00 am At the moment the baby sleeps for an hour, which allows the rest of us a good, concentrated time to get some essential schoolwork done. The girls, 10 and 7, get on with copywork, phonics/grammar and maths, while I start the morning helping my 5 year old son. We work through writing out letters, doing some reading/phonics and then some maths. I don't force him if he's not interested. Afterwards he colours or plays with lego while I focus in on some specific maths help for the girls.

10.00 am I get the baby up from her nap. The girls are free to do what they want (usually curl up on the sofa with their latest library book) once they've finished their maths and English. I read a book to my 5 year old.

10.30 am We all have a snack. On nice mornings we might go to the park, the library or go on a nature walk, but during the winter it's hard to get motivated to go outside, in which case I go through various assigned readings and narrations with my 10 and 7 year olds. If I'm feeling energetic we might do a craft.

12.00 pm I set up one of the girls (it alternates each day) on the computer to do their Russian with Rosetta Stone, whilst I feed the baby her lunch and prepare lunch for the rest of us.

1pm I put the baby down for a sleep and Daddy joins us for lunch. Once a week we go swimming or play tennis while the baby sleeps and then have a late lunch when we return. On Fridays the girls have a homeschool art class from 1 till 3. But usually after lunch we carry on with assigned readings and narrations. This is always a good time to read our Shakespeare, undisturbed, while my 5 year old watches a nature documentary.

3pm. The baby gets up. I might do a quick piano lesson with one of the children. On some days we go and collect a friend of Sophie's or Charis's from school and have them come and play. On other days we might go to a playground.

3.30pm Unless we're doing something else, this is our Afternoon Tea time. We drink tea, have a snack, and I use this time to read poetry, read a portion of our Astronomy book or a Nature book, and perhaps look at our Artist print.

4pm We're usually finished now for the day, if we haven't finished earlier. Once a week Charis has gymnastics, but otherwise we all have a rest and I think about preparing dinner. The children have certain chores they have to do before they can watch TV, such us dusting or watering plants.

5-6pm I feed the baby and then the rest of us eat dinner together. One of the children might be out to Guides, Brownies or Boys Brigade afterwards.

7pm The kids start getting ready for bed. I nurse the baby and put her down. Daddy usually reads a story to Nathaniel while I read one of our school 'free reads' to the girls.

8pm I give out final goodnight kisses, close the bedroom doors, and collapse on the sofa!

Abide in Him!


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Learning to Say No to Myself

There are only ten days left until Christmas! The tree is up and decorated, we made our first batch of mince pies this afternoon, and Nathaniel has already eaten all of the chocolates in his advent calendar.

Flashback to last year. We had just moved....again!.....temporarily....and were simultaneously enjoying our friend's wood burner stove and anxiously making sure that the kids didn't fall into it in their excitement as they performed somersaults on the unusually large leather sofas.

That Christmas, our first back in the UK for 10 years, proved to be rather stressful, for various reasons, and Hubbie and I were determined to make some changes for 2014.

I wonder if anyone's like me. We hear talks or podcasts about 'Learning to Say No', and we nod along, agreeing with the sentiment that already-overstretched-mothers like ourselves need to be firm in not consenting to take on the role of PTA treasurer, or agreeing to host the next bake sale, or whatever it might be that others ask us to do that, to be honest, we know will turn us into 'angry-stressed-mummy' for the days leading up to the event, to the detriment of our quivering, 'quick-get-out-of-her-way' families. But then this year, since no one is really asking me to do anything extra, I feel I can tick this 'Learning to say no' business off my list. Check!

So then, why was I so stressed come the end of November? After a chat with my husband I realised it was because  

It wasn't just about saying no to other people, I had to say no to myself too!

You see, I'd placed all these unrealistic burdens on myself, thinking that they were essential to my Christmas to-do list, when really they weren't. I had already posted off three parcels to missionary friends overseas and filled two shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child with my children (which stupidly involved turning up at the supermarket with all four children in tow on Black Friday morning, blissfully unaware that that particular phenomenon had hit the UK - I mean, why??? We don't even celebrate Thanksgiving!) and I was already burnt out. 

Yes, these are all lovely, thoughtful things to do at Christmas, but I had never really examined them to see if I needed to say 'no' to any of them. 

The next thing on my to-do list? Christmas cards. With a new-found sense of freedom in my heart, I cut down my list to an absolute bare minimum. People would understand why they didn't get a Christmas card from us this year, it would be OK. Next year, hopefully, I could add them all back onto the list, but for now, for the sake of my sanity and my family's well-being I needed to say no....

...to myself...

....to my perfectionistic self which says that I need to send all these Christmas cards out every single year or people will be offended...

....to my perfectionistic self which says that I need to complete this particular Christmas craft activity series with my kids otherwise their Christmas won't be complete and meaningful...

....to my perfectionistic self which says that I need to rush out and buy more Christmas decorations for our new house, instead of making do with just the basics this year.

So here's to a stress-free Christmas season! Merry Christmas!

Oh, and if you were on my Christmas card list....um....er.....sorry about that. I think the postman's dog ate your card....ahem.

Abide in Him!


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Back on the Homeschooling Wagon

I love this photo of a mother bird sheltering her chicks under her wing. She has a rather fierce, defiant look about her, don't you think? Like she's saying "Don't you dare snatch these little ones away from me, I'm taking care of them!" I guess I feel a little like this as September 1st approaches, and with it our return to Home Education after a year's leave of absence.

Not that we had a bad experience of mainstream school. On the contrary, it was with a great deal of heart-wrestling that I mailed that fateful letter declining our school places for the next academic year. "Am I doing the right thing? Am I crazy - I've got a newborn baby who's still not sleeping through the night! Am I dragging my kids away from all their friends only to isolate them and make it ten times harder for them to make any new ones? What about all the positive aspects of mainstream school that they're going to be missing out on, like sports days, choirs, school trips and plays? And what on earth am I going to do about their exams when they're 16, if we get that far? Am I ruining their chances to get into a good university if that's what they want to do?

......and so on and so on.......

Perhaps some of you have been there too. It was interesting; it was so much more difficult to pull them out of school than if we'd never put them into school in the first place. I think if we were still in Russia and still happily homeschooling, because that was really the only viable option and we loved it, I'd have great peace in my heart instead of this terror and panic that I have now, along with this huge (self-imposed) pressure to prove to doubting family and friends that I can do this.

I guess I've caught a glimpse of what life could be like. With just one little baby at home I'd be free to go on playdates...and sit in coffee shops...and read books...and workout.. and finish those two books that I started ages ago. And my house would be so clean and tidy!

But somewhere deep down I know that that is not God's calling for my life at this moment in time. We're a homeschooling family at heart - it's what we're supposed to do, for this particular season at least. And somewhere deep down it just feels right. Hard, yes, but right.

And to be honest, if I look deep down I also find a sense of freedom and relief. No more shouting at the kids to get them out of the house on time in the mornings. No more packed lunches, reply slips, crazy 'dress up days' where I'm given one week's notice to find them a World War 2 Evacuee's outfit or to whip up an ancient Egyptian's costume on my sewing machine.

Most importantly of all, no more wondering what my kids are doing, what they're thinking, what they're being told about life, the world and their place in it. No more worrying that I'm losing their hearts and losing my connection with them because they're spending more time away from me than they are with me.

So yes, I'm firmly gripping my little chicks under my wings (all four of them) and heading out into this new school year with trepidation and fear but also with determination and excitement. What will be the key to our success? Having my eyes firmly fixed on Jesus, placing all my hope in Him and trusting that He will provide me with the resources I need to do this job He's called me to and to do it well.

Abide in Him!

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Life Amongst the Mess and Chaos

Things have been a bit quiet on Grace to Abide this year. After a brief burst of enthusiasm around Christmas, life just continued to be too demanding and messy for me to get my creative juices flowing again and find the time to keep up with my blog.

What's been going on for us this year? Well, at the start of April this happened:

Then just two days later, this happened:

Yes, after months of chasing after mortgages (which never materialised), getting finances together and viewing over 20 properties with a bored pre-schooler in tow, we finally found our future home. It's a perfect fit for our family, and such a clear answer to prayer in many ways - ticking so many boxes. We feel very blessed and I can't wait to move in and finally unpack those bags which....yes really...have been sitting there for over a whole year. Not to mention the bags that have been stored in other people's attics for over ten years!


Of course, just to make things even more stressful, we decided to have a new baby at the exact same time.....crazy I know! After a couple of sad miscarriages in recent years, we were so happy to welcome baby Joy into our family - our fourth and, I've decided after experiencing a truly horrible pregnancy in which I was sick for the entire 9 months, definitely (hopefully) our last! We are so grateful to God for this beautiful, healthy baby girl, and are loving being a family of six.

And so now, I'm living in the crazy interim period of choosing paint colours, carpets, furniture and appliances for our new house whilst at the same time caring for a newborn and trying to keep my other three kids fed, dressed and arriving at school with all the necessary equipment on next-to-no sleep. We're still in our temporary, rented accommodation while Hubbie is overseeing the necessary remodelling which needs to be done on the new house, but we hope to be able to move in about three weeks' time (fingers crossed, touch wood, and all other manner of superstitious mumbo-jumbo).

So as I look back over this last, rather difficult year, I can see God teaching me lessons of patience and contentment in less-than-ideal circumstances. Perhaps the biggest lesson for this control-loving, home proud perfectionist has been to learn to live surrounded by boxes, piles of 'stuff', and the general clutter that comes from living in a house that is not your own but which already has loads of clutter from previous occupants. I hope I've become more 'chilled' and laid-back as a result, but that doesn't stop me dreaming of perfectly aligned mason jars on my kitchen shelves and IKEA storage units.


Abide in Him!

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