Sunny Spain

We have managed to get away from the awful weather of England. We are in very sunny Spain and everything is just lovely. Isabella is working hard and playing very hard. It is the most relaxing holiday as she has found two friends and plays with them from 12 till 7pm everyday. (I have read three books.)

I can't help but feel relieved that in three days everyone returns to school and we do not have to. I do not know where the summer holidays have gone. There is still so much to do!

We are really working on Isabellas numeracy at the moment and I am finding that little and often is the key. When it is one on one I can slip in work without her realising. We do spellings throughout the day and maths when we are in the car. The key to learning is making everything an educational experience without the children necessarily realising it.

I used to joke when my mother would make her day to day things into a learning experience but now I can see that everything is there to learn from. Spain has been the perfect place to sit by the pool and do lots of water experiments. Also we have looked at Flamingos in the salt marshes and discussed their natural habitat. I can't describe the pleasure I get from teaching my daughter and from learning with her. I didn't know there was so much to learn all over again.

The Dreaded feeling

Each morning I wake up with the dreaded feeling of impending gloom, summer is over and we will have to start the rush of the term. Then I realise we no longer have to feel like this. It is the most bizarre feeling. I do not have to say "hurry up" or " come on we are late" I can't explain what it does to your way of thinking but it is almost surreal.

I was told today by a lovely lady that I was a control freak. I think I am and therefore have to be aware of this when Isabella has to think for herself. I think it is a positive thing to notice your own traits and to be aware of them. I must make sure I let Isabella make her own decisions and not be ruled by me. This is all such a wonderful learning curve.

Brilliant Ideas

I thought I would start to write out a few ideas for teaching:

The first and my most favourite is WOW words.
We have a notice board and on it we put new, big and exciting words and we have to try and use them in our everyday chat.

Words for this week are treacherous, indigenous, congregating and exhilarating.

Each week we will add new ones to the board so our vocabulary becomes extended. It is such fun trying to use these words and becomes a game.

Is this the right thing to do?

I want everyone to know that I am always questioning whether this is the right thing to do, I am always wondering whether this will work out.

I am not trying to tell anyone else how to bring up their child. I only know what suits me and us at this time. All I want to do is to be able to give people an honest account of the ups and downs that this next year may bring.

I read an article the other day saying that supermums are a thing of the past. I believe in a perfect world that if you have children then you should want to be with them and teach them and enjoy their company. I do know this is not a perfect world and I have a wonderful little girl who each night says that her father and I are the best parents in the world. I hope she still feels this strongly in ten years time as a terrible teenager! Things may have been very different if i had a child that didn't behave and didn't want to work etc. But then I also believe that that can come down to the nature nurture question.

I worry about this world and the kind of place it is becoming, I want to keep my child's innocence for as long as possible and hope that she will not grow up sheltered but just wise about the world around her.

But when does she play?

If I hear this one more time I might crack up completely. What is play? As far as I can tell when Isabella gets up every morning and the first words she speaks are "Can we play now" and I end up in her bedroom playing barbies and schools and polly pockets, this then also takes place through out the day and in the evening, most weekends we end up playing good old fashioned games in the garden...therefore I believe my daughter plays.

It actually came apparent to me how many children don't play properly. Leaving children to their own imagination is imperative but also helping them learn through play is crucial. Put it this way, Isabella keeps saying to me, "Mummy when are you going to start teaching me" little does she know that it has already started.

Without her knowing it, she has learnt about platelets and the different types of blood we all have. She also writes each day when writing my shopping list or writing her blog and emails. Little does she know that she has understood money and weights etc because she comes shopping with me to Borough Market ( which by the way is amazing)

So to end my rant I can honestly say we are playing lots together and with her other friends and equally by herself!

Holidays

I am very excited today as last night I booked flights to Chicago and New York. We are off to see family in Chicago and then we will spend a week in New York. I can't wait.

Things to do

To do:

• Buy isabella her own camera to record everything.
• Arrange the classroom area
• Buy useful materials, pens and pads etc
• Arrange day trips
• Arrange holidays
• Sort out a timetable
• Arrange extra curricular stuff
• Arrange a social life full of playdates
• Decide on the curriculum

The routine is the most important thing to put in place.

The audition

I thought I would tell you a little bit about her audition. I know there will be quite a lot of mums out there wanting to know!

I was an actress and therefore it was inevitable that she would try it. I got her an agent, she is a lovely lady in North London. Isabella had been on her books for about half a year and we had heard nothing. Then I was just considering taking her off the books because maybe she was too young when we had a phone call about a new programme on Cbeebies. We were asked whether Isabella would like to attend. I of course immediately said yes. This meant a change of our weekend plans but I didn't care. We turned up to a place in North London with a lot of other children of all ages, sizes, nationalities and a variety of pushy parents. This was actually our turning point to say that we wouldn't be doing this again as the aura in the room was frighteningly competitive! She went in to the room by herself and disappeared for about 10 minutes and then we left and that was it.


We just kept saying what a good experience that had been and did not expect to hear anything. So when we did we were very shocked. We were asked to go back for another audition with only 48 chosen children. She had to do a show and tell and learn a song and dance. This was even more competitive. We were able to watch their dance at the end and I couldn't believe how Isabella performed. She just kept watching the other children. I knew we wouldn't get it but again it had been a day off school and a good experience. So you can imagine my surprise when we got a phone call asking her back again. This time we went to Cbeebies at the BBC and she spent the afternoon there. There were only ten children left now and we were all very nervous. She came out and didn't really tell me much so all we had to do was wait.

and wait




and wait


and wait



It felt like an eternity but I think it was four weeks and we got the phone call that changed our lives forever. She had been given the job of presenting the show with three other older children. I cried and called everyone. She has been given the most amazing opportunity and now I am going with it and hoping that if this is what she wants to do she will carry on being successful and happy.

All I want for my daughter is for her to be happy and have a passion. At the moment she wants to be a polo playing pilot!

The Law

As far as the legal side is concerned, there is no need to tell anyone that you are homeschooling.

You are advised to tell your local education authority but you do not have to. I believe the reason must be that not everyone wants to do this. Everyone might like the idea of not sending their children to school but a lot of people realise that it is free time for parents and a stimulating time for the children if they attend school.

I have decided that we will tell the authority if they come and ask. I will have written out lesson plans and kept her work in books. Therefore if anyone needs to check up on me they can.

I still truly believe that the education she will gain from all the differnt places we will visit and all the different stimuli she will be exposed to outways school at the moment.

Here goes..........

The decision

After we had made the decision about Isabella leaving school, the first step was to tell the school and then tell our friends and family.

I hadn't realised it would cause so many personal opinions to be thrust upon us, naive I know!

I can't help it, I like to do different things and be different. I still go back to the saying, "life is too short."

The comments were "Why would you do this?"
"Are you sure you are doing the right thing?"
"What about her friends and her social life?"


This is not something we entered into lightly, so we listened to all the opinions and still felt we could offer Isabella so much more from life if we made this decision.

The next step was to find out what we legally had to do to homeschool.....