If I’m honest, there aren’t many bits of my life I look back and and absolutely think “I wish I could go back to then” and relive it all over and one stage I shrugged off with delight was my teenage years. Being chubby, plain, short and socially awkward teen in a school full of […]
Gratitude. #SaveSyriasChildren
One of the most powerful lessons since Freddie’s death is that of gratitude. Counting my blessings. I learned it, not from the people who told me to be grateful for the children I still had alive and well, not from the people who told me to be glad I could have another child and not […]
The Big Day for Winesi #SeeTheMiracle
If you read my post for Sightsavers last week you may know that today is the big day for Winesi, who will get his cataracts removed during a £30, 20 minute operation that will give him back his sight. He currently cannot work, has never seen his youngest grandchild and in a few months, the […]
Blogging for Sightsavers #SeeTheMiracle
Just short of 2 years ago I took Max for a day in Cambridge that would, in the words of my unemotional, stoical husband, change his life. Having been severely shortsighted since his early teens, with a prescription of -5.5, he had laser eye surgery. Within hours he could see better than he had seen […]
Sponsored Video: Give a Child a Breakfast.
When the volume goes up at home and suddenly there are tears and wailing, I always know exactly how to fix it. I think pretty much every mother does. There is something about hunger, particularly in very small people, that ramps up the hysteria at almost breakneck speed. After years of home educating I know […]
For Freddie. #EveryNewborn
11 years ago when we started blogging, my friends and I wondered if blogging would ever be a way to change the world or even our own small worlds. It’s such a long time ago. So much has happened. There is a great deal more to say about this picture but I want to grab […]
Just Like Us #WomenAndGirls #EveryNewborn
As the mother of 4 girls, as the mother of a boy who never came home from the maternity hospital and as the mother of a boy I have to raise to respect and support the women in his life, it will come as no surprise to anyone to know that rights for girl and […]
Josie visits the House of Lords to #ChangeTheStory
When this blog started Josie was not even a twinkle in my eye but even then, right back at the beginning in May 2003, books and reading were the building blocks of our home education journey. My confidence in a book-rich education led to my self belief in educating my children at home. They’ve grown […]
Sponsored Video: Project Sunlight #brightfuture
It’s not like the old days. In the old days the air sparkled and was full of birds. Tweeting meant a noise, a natural noise, heard with ears, not eyes. We played in mud and out in the street and illness was proper, wholesome illness and broken arms didn’t mean a week off school while […]
Changing the story for the UK's poorest children #EducationMatters
About 8 years ago I was staying in a building where a literacy programme was running for young adults who needed a ‘fresh start’ and literacy help. As a group of home educators, late readers were nothing new to us, most of us there had at least one 8 year old who was not yet […]
