You see I spoke too soon about it all winding down .... I have decided this morning that I will go camping on Monday taking myself and 6 children on the train to Wales. My floor is covered in sleeping bags and camping cutlery. I have been out today purchasing gas and camp pillows. It is a lot to organise with only 2 days to go but I am enjoying the challenge and the children are all very excited! Photos to follow when we return!!!

Hi everyone! I think I have sorted the computer with a different modem. Well I can get on-line now but haven't blogged.
Life is busy here though winding up for the summer. So french, drama, AP, singing stops for a few weeks.

So far A+D have lined up for the summer weeks:
cycle training
Lowry theatre summer school
YHA holiday
Possibly another summer school if I book it next week
swim camp/squash
M is doing the Lowry summer school and wants to do the other one too.
Jude will be spending all his time with me moaning cos his sisters aren't here lol.

A has carried on doing the local radio with friends. D has given it a miss. In November they will both be starting the arts award for drama which is like D of E but within the arts.
Talking of D of E they want to do that as well and A is doing her Baden Powell award through guides.

I think I need to fill my time with exciting stuff. I am still gardening/doing the allotment. We had a tour round a friends allotment last night. I came away with globe artichokes, onions, shallots, lettuce and we ate evening primrose flowers and berries. I then went to my allotment and planted some of said lettuces, mixed leaves and leaf beet. So far I have been harvesting runner beans, radish, peas and rhubarb but everything seems to be growing so sloooowly this year.

We have the girls friend here again this week. The older girls are plotting to tag along to a friends camp next week. I was invited to this one but have neither the energy nor cash for it. I really want a holiday with the kids but August is ruled out as it is too busy. So I plan to down size my tent that month and go somewhere in September. We may get on the camp in September that all my friends go to but we are on the waiting list for that one. Either way I will have a camp ready in reserve even if it is just my family but we would invite the girls' friends. I would like to run a not back to school celebration camp. It would have to be North Wales (as we want beach nearby) and accessible by train as we are without car.

My summer plans are to paint some rooms and sort out my garden and allotment. I suppose I can paint if it rains and garden if it doesn't lol

Still haven't sorted the computer, it is getting very complicated and I have given up for now. I just access the web from other people's houses instead lol. Tonight A and her friend from Blackpool are heading up the road to my Mum's to have a night of music and msn while the house is empty as they are missing the internet!

This evening I have dropped M and D at their big annual dance show held at a boy's school. They are there from 6-10.30 tonight (the same yesterday) and 1-5.30 tomorrow. They are in classrooms next door to each other which I am glad about. I chaperoned the first show last night. The show went well but the noise of being stuck in a stuffy pokey classroom with 18 girls aged 10-13 all excited was terrible after a few hours. D was not well towards the end of last night and is very pale today. But she has still gone to perform tonight. I have mentioned it to the staff so she can have quiet time if it all gets too much. M loves it as she in a classroom with her friend from the dance school and they are all so happy to do this show. There is probably also the novelty of being in a classroom. Both my girls are in maths classrooms so maybe they will learn something from the wall displays rofl. Must mark that down for the LA!! I am going to watch it tomorrow with A. I feel bad as A's friend will have to stay home alone tomorrow as the show is sold out. I didn't know she was coming till the day before she arrived so I couldn't plan it in advance. These tickets sold out very quickly.
Bev Hughes was watching it last night. I should have took her to one side to ask about lone parents and their income cuts!

So it has been lots of performing, both on radio and in dance shows, recently. I on the other hand have been down to the allotment. I built a really big raised bed last week and sowed some rocket, dwarf beans and mixed lettuce leaves. I have also harvested some peas. I am so happy pottering in the earth. I wonder if I could get paid for working 16 hours a week on my allotment???
As you can see, thinking of how/what/when questions relating to my impending employment status once the white paper is issued on lone parents welfare reform is occupying a lot of my thoughts. Sometimes it stresses me and I find myself shouting more at the kids which then makes me more stressed. Sigh, gotta role with it and breathe more.
Lottery ticket anyone?

I am tired of blogging!

We had a day the other week when lots of "educational" things went on but I never made a note of them and now I can only remember bits. This is something I want to work on sorting out. I think it is a shame to feel I have to make a note of everything educational that just happens. Work books and schooling are so much easier in many ways. It is the things discussed that I forget.

Someone once said that even though autonomously educated children are chatting about educational topics, living life, doing days out etc, that so are schooled children AND they are doing academic work too.

I no longer class myself as autonomous - well maybe part time but I have been doing structured stuff with the kids. Autonomy doesn't work for us it just leads to a life of more struggle. I can honestly say if I could go back I would either purchase a curriculum or design one myself. I have done too many things out of guilt and reading the autonomous propaganda about letting kids play, they learn anyway. Well they do learn - maybe the exact channel and time of Hollyoaks every day and the plots of said soaps, but that is in my mind not an education.

I wish I had read autonomous articles that state to be successful you have to take every opportunity you have to teach, teach, teach. If you come from working class routes as I do that isn't part of your natural make up and you have to make it become so. This is why most autonomous middle class educators say they don't teach but that is because they don't think what they do naturally is teaching but it is. I will write this up as an article and send it to some newsletters as I wish to help other newbies that think if you are available and have a rich environment your kids will just want to read/write/play with maths etc because it just is not true.

Ok off my soap box now.

My modem is not working so I am hardly getting on-line. I am at my Mum's but am off home shortly to do some reading instruction and workbooks with my kids.

The older girls are broadcasting live at 3pm today on All FM. I am looking forward to that!

Everything is going swimmingly here and busy as usual.

Recent activities:

i) M had a go at kayaking in the rain with a home-ed session. She had a wobbly lip before entering the water but I encouraged her and she absolutely loved it. She was a little cold but happy at the end.

ii) The girls are still continuing radio training and enjoying it. They broadcast live on the 23rd June and have the option of a regular show if they wish. They have been practicing with the help of a baby alarm and a box with levers on that they created!

iii) A, M and J had a session of squash the other day which we had not done before. I ended up coaching J as he got frustrated. M beat everybody including the coach, he couldn't believe she hadn't played it before. She might go this Tuesday to have another go at the club.

iv) M turned 9 on Thursday and we held her a birthday party on Saturday. The theme was nintendo so the kids dressed up accordingly. M had made a big pikachu painting and the kids had to pin the tail on. Bless her! With my 4 there was a total of 10 which seemed enough. The weather was nice for it too.

Along with these and the regular dance/drama/french/singing just to name a few, life is good. I'll update again soon lol!

I think I'll have to resign myself to monthly blog updates from now on. I spend so little time on the computer now and am really very busy.
I find myself wishing for more days in the week. Don't get me wrong there are quiet moments then there are also moments of dashing to one thing, home again and back out. The beginning of our week tends to be relatively quiet. Then we have outings on Weds, swimming, french, dance; Thurs, drama, papers and guides on Friday. Weekends fly by especially as A is working towards the end of term production with her drama group, and D and M working towards the end of year dance show, so Sunday afternoon tends to be my free time when I walk the dog along the river for an hour or so. I would do longer and may do as it gets lighter in the evening.
I was talking to some home-ed Mums I know and one was saying she had cut back and is in 2 days a week now. In fact round here it is a good week if you have 2 days at home lol, but of course usually there is shopping to do as well.

I have been having a hard time emotionally this past month or so. I won't go into it but it involves heavy family stuff. I have reached real lows yet I am carrying on.

I had my sisters 2 lovely children (she has 3 but my eldest niece stayed home to revise for her upcoming GCSE's!!)come to stay for just over a week. A and D were great with the entertainment and I provided all the motherly stuff lol. It was a pleasure to have them here and reminded me how J at 6 is challenging yet a 3 year old is so much more demanding. I love kids but am glad not to have to do all that stage again!!!!

J has had his 6th birthday. M's 9th is on the 29th of this month. I shall then have a 6,9,12 and 14 year old and I only feel 21 myself rofl. Hmmmmmmm, what else???
M and D have just sat there twice yearly dance exmas. D has one more to go. It was great because D has learned to do a bun in her hair and M's is too short so I just have to clean everything and hand it to them now!

I have purchased our first GCSE! Yes we got on that train! I have ordered an English pack for A from Little Arthur. Not sure when she will sit the exam but we are going to see how it goes. She wants to go to college so we are aiming for the English an Maths and maybe one or two more, finances and planning dependent! She and D have been doing hours off maths tutorials on a cd rom we have and managing it. D asked if she could do the maths GCSE now (she loves it) but I explained I personally won't be paying for any until each child is at least 14. I have to budget!!!!!

I hope the photo at the beginning inspires you to look up into the sky. For me there is nothing like hearing the summer swifts and seeing them flying overhead. Truly magical.

Well my computer now mostly works with bits of freezing. It is better than it was but still not perfect.

The past week has been taken up with bouts of illness. The kids all have had a virus the symptoms of which seem to be loss of appetite, chesty cough, exhaustion and fevers. J's temperature reached 104 last Tuesday. They are mostly recovering now but spend huge amounts of time lounging around in pyjamas. They have been going to a few activities but then come home exhausted. I am fighting it myself. I have the heavy chest and cough and feel a bit spaced out and my eyes hurt. I am trying to take it easy but I still went for an hour walk along the river yesterday - I love that too much to give it up - the dog was very grateful too!
I did also manage to get to the allotment last week and spent hours weeding. I find it very therapeutic sitting in the sun with a trowel, weeding away. I still need to sort out wood to line my plots with. I am making slow progress but never mind, I'll get there.

A and D are starting a 6 week (2hrs weekly) radio training course today with a group of friends. That should be fun. We are also looking to join in with home-ed cricket starting up soon as we don't do much sport and yet we do enjoy bat and ball type games.

Hopefully this week the weather should start to feel more spring like. It was so cold here yesterday I had my heaviest winter coat on! I think we all need a good summer to boost our immune systems. I don't think mine have built themselves up completely from the whooping cough yet. I am off out to buy more Vit C, echinacea and acidophillus today. My cupboard is really like a pharmacy now.