Yesterday and today:

F and I went up to Spring Barn Farm Park yesterday and had a really lovely afternoon. We went on the spooky trailer ride and it was excellent fun - a trailer full of 20 or so kids and 8 adults and a witch, driven slowly around the slightly creepy dried-up maize maze that rustled in the wind now and then. Our mission was to help Bones the skeleton to find his missing bones, whilst interacting with a scary scarecrow who kept appearing and attacking the trailer with a bone. At one stage the kids were exhorted to throw old corn cobs at scarecrow targets and tell the scarecrow to go away.

Apart from that, we did both Hallowe'en quizzes, finding all the creepy creatures and the ingredients of the witch's brew. F also did 'Meet the Animals', holding and stroking a rabbit, a guinea pig and a tortoise. And I had Creepy Curry, which was delicious and vegan, and she had a honey sandwich and an ice cream.

And of course F bounced on the jumping pillow in glorious October sunshine while I chatted with a few mums at one of the picnic tables, and she also went on the zip wire and various other play equipment items.
Splendid afternoon indeed.
And not a row all day!

We walked there and back too, chatted about all sorts, wish I could remember.

Earlier in the day F had done the 'Make your own Morph' kit that her Uncle I had given her. She wasn't impressed by Morph, so made her own 'Dolly' instead, which she's been playing with ever since. She wants to try clay again now. Her dexterity has improved a bit.

Today we sorted through most of our art kits and science kits and threw a few odd bits away and reminded ourselves what we have, which was good. We have loads! So we coloured in an umbrella (kit) together, more chat, can't remember that either. Need to get back into the blogging habit, clearly.

Also we watched a couple of films and F bounced and read a bit.

History, MPs, Sleepovers, Fireworks

Catching up again!

Since coming back from Devon (which seems like months ago now but was only 3 weeks) our days have gone to:

- Mass Lobbying on 16th October as part of a group of 450 home-educating adults and children, as shown here:

F was pleased "finally" to be taking the protest to the Houses of Parliament, as she had been highly unconvinced by both the bubbles and the picnics, on the grounds that, if the MPs are in Parliament then that's where we need to go. And, as so often, she does have a point.
We spoke to Norman Baker, along with 2 other families from his constituency. He wasn't hugely keen but was vaguely positive and supportive. He had signed the EDM.
The Mass Lobby was excellent, huge thanks to Clare and everyone else who helped her in the cat-herdinglike task of organizing it. A great achievement, along with the excellent Right To Reply document which is being given to MPs now. I'm in awe of the commitment and dedication that went into this collaborative work, well done to all concerned.

- to lots of history in various forms: reading about Medieval castles, Inca cities, Lady Godiva, King John and The Wash, the Great Fire of London, the Romans, Stone Age life; watching Horrible Histories a lot; writing down the order of various periods of history; me learning about Cromwell and Charles I and II and passing it on. F wants to make a history book and write things down in it as she finds out about them. I need to buy a decent hardback book for that.

- to various multiplying and dividing activities that have followed on from fractions, so she's fairly comfortable now with things like a third of 24 and that kind of thing, mainly done through conversation and 'fiddling with groups of things';

- the cinema (Up - I cried almost all the way through, thank goodness for black 3D glasses), swimming, opticians, Pizza Express, the dentists (a really bright sunny day and we made shadow shapes on the floor during an overly long wait)

- fairy drawings and a pot painting kit

- to Palula scores - this is a thing that F made up, don't know why it's called palula - you give yourself 1 point for each category: energeticness; logic; writing art; drawing/painting art; socialness; and 2 others I'll have to ask her to remind me of (just did - singing/music art and handiness (fixing)). So each day you give yourself a score out of 7. She hasn't done it for a few days though now, think it's last week's news maybe...

- F doing cooking - helping whichever of us is cooking dinner, recognizing ingredients, chopping veggies, learning about the different herbs and spices, different methods of cooking. It's hard for her doing chopping and peeling but improves with practice, finding her own ways to hold things.

- to reading Mr Gum books, very amused by Chapter Four: Mr Gum has a cup of tea, and also by the secret bonus pages at the end of the first one.

- to Nic's where we had to come away early as the 3 children just could not all settle at once, I said 'well, if blah blah blah then we'll have to go home' and instead of achieving blah blah blah it achieved having to go home :( No prolonged wine and conversation for me and Nic. Never mind. Felt sad for D as he'd tried really hard out of the 3 of them.

- to Nic coming here the following week, which went fine but doesn't include the wine option, but we did get a good chance to chat at least.

- to sleepovers - E came to us one Thursday and F went to E's one Tuesday - much fun was had on both occasions

- to me attending an EO organized event in the Houses of Parliament (again, it was good having been there already and knowing my way around from the previous week), attended by 11 MPs from the main 3 parties, as well as a researcher representing another one, and Lord Lucas. There were 20 or so home-ed people there and we had the chance to talk to some of the MPs informally after the presentation of Ann Newstead's excellent survey

- to a localish drop-in group to try it out - we didn't feel very comfortable there, but it's good that we tried it. F wants to go to more groups, so am working on that...

- to meeting my (half)brother's fiancee (awww she's really lovely and they're going to be very happy together) yesterday and spending time with both of them - a nice walk into town, pizza and chat, and then up to meet C's family and watch the Nevill Juvenile bonfire procession. Thanks for having us all visit, C!
Our group then went on to the actual fire site, which was a bit lairy but OK once we found a safer spot to stand! F was remarkably unbothered about people throwing bangers around, which made me twice as bothered and fairly twitchy.
Fireworks were excellent, very good display this year. Back here we all shared some wine and slightly Christmassy chocolate snacks that they had brought, it was a lovely evening.

- to launching this - please contact me if you're interested

No Thank You Mr Balls

Because asking Graham Badman to review home education was like asking Nic to give a lentil casserole a mark out of 10.

Because my daughter just learnt to swim in her own inimitably autonomous way and I saw at first-hand how I can be a useful resource in her life, whether I'm being told 'Stand exactly 10 steps away and don't grab me unless I'm drowning' or being asked 'Is Oliver Cromwell in my history book?' whilst queuing to go in for the Mass Lobby.

Because almost all of Badman's statistics are flawed by failure to adjust for the fact that we don't know how many home-educated children there are overall, failure to adjust for the fact that his samples were self-selecting and failure to adjust for the fact that local authorities included everything but the kitchen sink in some of their figures.

Because the parental role belongs by default to the parent, not the state, and that's how it needs to stay.

Because Every Child Does Matter and mine likes her life and education just the way it is.

Because you aren't listening to our children and I don't think you will.

Because a terrifyingly high number of children in this country are being bullied, abused, neglected and murdered - at home and at school - and your proposals will just cover the needles with a couple of extra cartfuls of hay for poorly trained local authority personnel to sift through, whilst another 60 visits to a vulnerable child somewhere continue to add up to nothing.

Because you and your government constantly ask for our input and talk endlessly about listening and consulting but you don't take on board anything that jars with your mission to take control of bloody everything.

Because you have managed to take a life-long Labour supporter and make her contemplate voting Tory.

Because I cannot and will not predict what my child will do over the year ahead, other than to say 'I will offer her all sorts of things that I haven't even thought of yet and she will continue to amaze and inspire me with her determination, imagination and spirit and take us off on crazy tangents together' or perhaps 'we will continue to live as if we were free in this country'.

Because I can, Mr Balls, and as long as I can, I say:
No
Thank
You

Holiday in Devon

We had a wonderful holiday last week, based at Goodrington Sands, Paignton.


Saturday

We had a good train journey and arrived at the holiday apartment at about 3pm, so all we did was settle in, go get some shopping, eat, swim and try out the hot tub.

Meals of deli stuff, fruit and bread, eaten at the table on the terrace, enjoying the view over the bay, were regular features of the week, along with playing Professor Layton on DS and swimming and hot tubbing. The absolute highlight was seeing F get to the point of being able to swim (just) with armbands on.

We all went in the pool every day, sometimes twice a day, and her progress was brilliant to see. She quickly took control of the whole process and it was one of those real 'autonomous learning in action' times, when you can very clearly see how that works. She was very specific in her instructions to us and we were largely obedient and useful, I like to think.

Swimming is obviously one of the areas where F's difficult arm and leg make it slightly harder for her than other children, so she had to find her own way of doing some things and may not swim as well as others, but basically she is doing it and we were completely thrilled to see her get there. J managed to take a few short films of her gradually gaining confidence and ability too, which are a fab record to have, for her especially I think.

Sunday

We had arranged to catch up with one of J's ex-colleagues, who left J's work a couple of years ago and moved down to Plymouth. They've been in touch online and regularly play XBox or PS games together. After a slightly misdirected but very beautiful walk up around Roundham Head, we managed to catch the train over to meet up with R, his wife C and their daughter, little R (14 mths). We had a lovely afternoon, walking around the harbour area and having some pizza/pasta. Little R was cute and funny and they were good company.

We walked up over the Hoe, stopped to listen to some very cheesy crooning at a waterside cafe, and managed to buy F a float (which turned out to be not very useful but maybe it served a brief psychological purpose). Nice to spend time with them, wandering and chatting.

Back at the apartment we had a late swim and hot tub. F used the float a bit and we could already see her confidence and determination growing.

Monday

In the morning, after breakfast on the terrace, J and F went for a walk along the beach, leaving me to have a long soak in the bath with my book.

When they came back, we got the bus to the zoo and had a lovely day there, seeing elephants, giraffes, lions, a tiger, crocodiles, huge pythons, ostriches, peacocks and many other beautiful animals.

The elephants were gorgeous - they go in and out via a weighbridge so always a chorus of excitement as the LED numbers flicker up and up. They were 2 females, one Asian, one African, and had lived together for years and years - we wondered if they ever discussed their ear differences. The lions were wonderful - a pair and they were quite playful with each other - the female came up to the male and bopped him one to start a chase. Some goats were playing 'let's each stand on top of our own pile of rocks and see who can shout loudest about it' (conference time again). The baboons were fascinating - a huge colony of them there and interesting to see the biggest, oldest males keeping an eye on the fights that broke out when they were fed. A tiny baby was on its mother's back and they were clearly 'allowed' to share one of the older ones' food, with no challenges from others.

Usual concerns about zoo spaces aside, it was a good day out. F did some climbing she wasn't sure she could do in the playground, too. Whilst there, I managed to call old friends to arrange meeting up with them.

Back at the apartment we had more swim time, think we watched something on i-Player and played some Professor Layton on DS.

Tuesday

We had a pottering-type morning, bit of swimming (F definitely setting challenges for herself by this stage), socializing with the holiday cat (he was like some kind of Westworld robo-cat, perfectly catlike, auto-miaow function, repetitive rolling on back, inviting tummy-stroking, etc.) and playing more Prof. Layton.

Then we walked up to Goodrington station to catch the steam train - quite a nice ride, not really worth the money, but pleasant and scenic enough. If we'd gone earlier we might have combined it with a riverboat cruise, which would have been good, but we just did the train to Dartmouth/Kingswear and back.

When we got back to Paignton, our plan was to have some Italian food - well we trudged and trudged around Paignton, googling and GPSing determinedly, but found only one Italian restaurant open in the evening and that was very tiny and didn't do any options that we liked between us.

So we ended up with chips and then went to the cinema to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which was fun.

Back at the apartment we had a late swim and J and I watched a bit of a film - it was weird having Sky on holiday as we've not had it at home for a few years - oh my goodness what a high percentage of shite there is at any given moment! Definitely good for the odd thing though, especially films. We didn't really watch much, except for a few old episodes of Fawlty Towers, appropriately for our location. F watched a bit of Nick Jr, nostalgically, a couple of times.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, after breakfasting and swimming, we headed off by bus to Torquay and went to Kent's Cavern which was very good. Think F would have liked a bit more 'stone age stuff' but it was very atmospheric and the guide was excellent, with a mixture of educational, informative and entertaining content to share, well presented and enjoyable. The caves are huge. The best bit was experiencing the complete darkness, far underground, hearing about all the different animals that had lived down there (cave bears, hyenas...), then seeing shell candles bringing light to a small area of the cavern. Also liked seeing a mammoth molar and hearing about the woolly rhinoceroses.

Afterwards, a short bus ride took us to Torquay harbour area and we had a lovely pizza and pasta dinner there, before getting our bus home for a lovely coastal ride as the sun was setting.


Thursday

We had planned to do the steam train/river cruise/bus ride trip, but we decided to have a pottering day instead, with our friends coming over that evening. We swam and had a lovely leisurely walk along the beach, picking up shells, paddling, looking at rock pools, etc.

Then we had a snack and went in the small amusement arcade to waste some money - J and F played arcade games, racing each other and teaming up against various enemies and I went on the slots mainly, think they had more fun by far!

We went to the supermarket and stocked up on a few bits for the remaining couple of days of the holiday, then went back to the apartment and swam again - F was really swimming by this point, still wanting one of us close by but getting better and more confident all the time. Fantastic!

Our friends arrived earlyish at about half five. J and F were still hot tubbing and I'd just about got out of the shower! It was lovely to see them and catch up (and to have a curry delivered from a really good Indian takeaway place, Cilantro - really special food, we loved it). We hadn't all been together for a few years, so lots to catch up on. We've known B for about 16 years and it's funny that her lifestyle hasn't changed that much in all that time really. Consequently she is about twice as well-preserved as the rest of us, I think!

F had pizza and went to bed (at least 3 times).


Friday

Our last full day and we headed off on the bus to Woodlands Park to go on water slides and other such delights. Had a lovely afternoon there and the water slides were definitely the highlight - we wished we'd taken more clothing or waterproofs to go on more times. They are brilliant fun, never been on anything like that before!

Also, F went on some indoor slides and a few other things and we all went on the swing ship. I got off after 1 go, but J and F stayed on for about 6 or 7 I think.

Back at the apartment, we had a final swim and hot tub, I cooked up the leftover curry and F had pizza again.

And that was our holiday! Journey back wasn't so good, delayed for rather tragic reasons in Somerset and nobody had any helpful information for over an hour. Although fresh veggie sausage sandwiches from the cafe on Axminster station were fairly remedial.

Since we got back I've had a 'sticky eye' and F and I both had rashes (pool? hot tub?) but are improving now. J also has a cold/cough and joint pains. So we're not a great advertisement for it but did have a really excellent holiday. Pictures are here.