6 posts tagged “friends”
It is very easy to shut yourself up away from the world when you are home educating; well it seems to be easy for some people. I am not one of those people! I am very much of the opinion that as a community and certainly as the church family that we should be helping each other as much as we can. I am not talking about taking over other people's lives and butting in where you are not welcome, rather I am talking about the gentle, kind little gestures that make someone's day go well or that makes them smile.
I have a number of friends who have been so kind to me over the last couple of years from the people who are happy to share lifts to clubs and I don't know very well to people I who I can dump the children on with a second's notice in a crisis. When Evie was little she had Bronchiolitis and the doctor took one look at her and told me to get her to the hospital NOW. My friend's house was on the way and I rang the bell, dumped three children and headed off with barely a word. She didn't blink; just bundled them up with a hug and told me to be as long as I needed. There are others out there who are on the end of the phone or just available for a coffee. Even on the good days it is good to chat.
I make myself part of the wider community. A lot of the people I meet would always have been instant friends, but others are people that I wouldn't usually come into contact with. I enjoy meeting with them. They don't always share my views but I love to chat to them and I hope it helps me to understand them. It is great to chat with other home educators who can sympathise with the issues I face and quite often can see things in a different light.
At the moment there seem to be a lot of people who are struggling. The weather here is not good and people are stuck inside. Also the lack of a summer means that we are all suffering from the lack of sun on our skin. The bills are landing on people's mats from Christmas and friends around us are losing their jobs. I want to be someone that they can call for a chat or that they can ask to help with the children. I want to be looking out for the mother that looks tired and might like to bring her children over for a meal. My friends have been so good to me and they continue to be good to me. I think in January it is especially important to be thinking about other people a bit more.
We weren't going to 'do' half term because we were taking days out and enjoying the term so much that there didn't see much need for a break! As it turned out, we had a wonderful week. We saw so many of our friends. Four different families visited and I am not sure I want to count the number of children. Our kids loved having them to visit/stay and my washing machine did not stop all week. We have most of Wiltshire's mud in our machine but it was worth it!
We have started to meet some lovely people locally which is nice. The kids are settled into Brownies and Scouts so they are feeling happier. Slowly things are happening. It was difficult moving in before Christmas because everybody was busy with their own lives and the usual avenues for making friends were not there. We now have people to visit and friends to call on which is great.
We also met some home educating friends at the Swindon Group. They meet regularly and seem very friendly. They made us feel very welcome and the kids played really well together. Home educated kids seem to manage to organise themselves well. Not that others don't but I think they spend a lot more time entertaining themselves. It was lovely to talk to some people who had home educated for a long time and had seen the results. On those days when it seems like an uphill struggle remembering their children will keep me going.
Today we have had the usual struggle with writing. I am ashamed to say that we haven't finished our thank you letters yet. Well Ewan hasn't! The others are in the envelopes waiting for Ewan's. We have done some maths which was good. Isobel is finding some of it hard which is unusual for her. I will have to think of another way to explain it all. Sometimes that is all that is needed. Maybe we will move on to something else and come back to it. I don't want her to worry about one area of her maths and let it cloud everything else.
Anyway we are off to the local lake to float the remote control boats. I have told them that if they let the battery run out in the middle of the lake, I am not going in to get it. Stuart will tell you that lakes in January can be very cold!! We will see.....
We are finally settling in. We visited some new friends for tea last night which was wonderful. The kids all got on really well and were still excited about it this morning. I am sat tapping away as they are sat getting on with their wildlife projects. School is getting easier and they are getting into the fact that there are certain bits that we need to get done before the fun starts.
We are off to the library for the second time this week as we have exhausted all our books. The staff have been very helpful and they finally asked on Tuesday why the kids wern't in school! They have done well to wait that long.
I am getting more confident about the maths that they are learning. I was worried about it because I am not really that good at it. However, we have all been learning together and they are coming on really well. Now to tackle the literacy! I can't help feeling guilty when I hear what other kids are doing in school. If we haven't done it yet then I feel like we should be but then I suppose we are going at our own pace. We will have done things that they haven't. Oh the guilt thing again..
The boys are into Cubs and Beavers so they are excited. Issy can't start brownies until February so she is a bit upset. She would like to join a gym club so we are researching that at the moment!
Off to the library and the supermarket - why do I leave it to Friday when it will be a nightmare in the supermarket!!
It has been a very strange week. I have such wonderful friends here and saying goodbye to them all has been a bit traumatic. I have had a lovely week seeing everybody but I really am ready to go now. The house is in boxes and the kids have very little to play with. They are still managing to entertain themselves though. I was feeling a bit weepy earlier in the week and Isobel cheered me up and made me grin. She just said "Well Mummy it is just another phase in our lives." She is such a wise little girl - not at all a seven year old.
Well
here are some of the people that we are leaving behind! If you are not
there, it's not that we don't love you but more that I can't find a
good piccie of you!
Well I have discovered today that going out with your friends for a 'leaving' do and then trying to school the following day is difficult! Also it looks like the leaving is going to be delayed/cancelled anyway because the house sale is very rocky at the moment.
We were chatting away last night and it occured to me
- I have wonderful friends here and it will be awful to leave them
- I am missing the school run - yes you did read that right
I am not missing school as such but at least the school run means that I catch up with my friends on a daily basis. I am also guaranteed some exercise (rain and shine!) twice a day. I am in danger of becoming very lazy! I realised that schooling the children at home would make meeting up with friends during the day difficult, but I hadn't quite appreciated that if you don't have a school playground to stand in then you have to call/organise/meet friends. Should be obvious, I know! I have been so busy making sure that the kids socialise that I have ignored me!
Anyway, the schooling has gone okay. A bit of handwriting and some history of America (thanks Mum for the email stories coming daily!!). We are venturing into the world of fractions this afternoon. Hope it goes well!
