Half term whether we like it or not….

Well we are now 5 people deep into colds, coughs, snot etc etc – so there is not a lot going on here to say the least! In fact OH TO BE ABLE TO PUT THEM ALL IN THE CUPBOARD!!!!!!!!!

Still – aside from having to miss skating and our HE trip on a boat today cos everyones just too poorly to go out in disgusting rain, wind and hurricane, we are doing okay. Pud and Moo sat and did the DK British Isles Explorer this morning for ages and completed several of the travel medals and then they all snuggled up for some Nick Jr – now normally it annoys me that they repeat the programmes so often but today, as Blues Clues started, Pud jumped up, ran out and got paper and pens. The prog had a little drawing workshop built into it and she followed it all, presumably cos she knew what was coming – and produced some really good “shapes make pictures” drawing – now we have all dissolved in a heap again. Oh we also looked up Venus flytraps today and found some fab pictures – including one of the Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.. .ah… nostalgia…. those were the days….

Moo has made some necklaces, picked out words and letters from the pages of my book and generally pootled about. There was some very protracted play with the dolls house toilet that was frankly baffling…

Pud made a train out of a party ring box and was very pleased with the results, especially as it was self started and done all on her own.

Scruff is… scruffy! (and snotty!)

Then, just as i thought i had shaken them off, the LEA inspector rang up. I tried to be polite, i really did, but she really got my back up. She said, without any preamble “What has made you suddenly decide to HE?” (HM.. well actually i decided 3 years ago) and that she would “have” to visit and that i didn’t “have anything to worry about” because she was “just coming to see what approach we were taking and make sure i knew what i was doing.”

NOW FORGIVE ME (!!!!!!!!!!!) but i have been making rational, informed and intelligent decisions about this child for nearly 6 years – she is smart, able, social, curious, happy, healthy, talking, walking, smiling, drawing, counting, reading – frankly – i don’t think i have done a bad job. In fact i would say the people who might need inspecting are those who randomly send tiny weeny children off into the nearest school available as soon as possible for as long as possible, regardless of whether it suits them or not. And i find myself unexpectedly riled by the notion that having done a good job for that length of time, i suddenly need inspecting or advising about it. Quite frankly, when i left school you could get on to a teaching degree with one E at A level, and most teachers i know said their training had more to do with form filling and crowd control than knowledge – i mean – how far wrong can we go quite frankly???? Until very recently there were many ways to bring up children and educate them that were considered perfectly acceptable to the majority; down mines, governesses, small schools, HEing, boarding school, nothing at all. Given the generally accepted failure of most of our public services in terms of perfection, i don’t see why we put such faith is schools as being the “right” way to educate children. An interested and intelligent parent who loves and understands her child and will go to any lengths to make it work, really has to be a valid and viable option. No one mutters about the Queens social abilities and she had a governess!!!!!!

Which is all (spout spout!) totally at odds with what i thought i felt! I don’t really mind them knowing we exist – if it was a welfare system being in place that found us then so be it and i hope it works – but i am not going to be advised on how to bring up my child so no one better start!

Grrr bah humbug!