I’m not normally a particularly vengeful human, though I admit there have been a couple of times recently when karma has bitten a bottom very sweetly. I admit that when Ed Balls lost his seat in the election this morning, I cheered. And then promptly burst into tears. It was a miserable night for many […]
Educating Josie.
“How many people are there in the world?” It’s a pretty typical question for the 10 year old, an age where scale and numbers are beginning to make sense and an understanding of the wider world is something that can be grasped and considered. We talked about there being 7 billion people and about how […]
Oh, Gove Away! Frustrations with School
I’ve had this post in draft for a while, trying to find a time to write up some of the nagging doubts that are resurfacing about having our children in school. Debating the Paul Kirby blog post (a former advisor to the government) yesterday caused me to say, among other things, this:- This man may […]
Bitesize Education and Learning from Life
Sorry, this is supposed to be a blog about home educating; the politics and the tragedies seem to have gatecrashed 🙄 Mind you, i’d love to think that the politics could take a back seat now but i’m faintly worried we’re going to have to have a revolution first. I cannot believe that we’re in […]
Go quietly
Or actually, just go. Loudly, kicking and screaming, evicted by the army, hung trouser-less out of a window (defenestration is almost too good for you). I really don’t care. I spent most of my pregnancy with Freddie fretting and worrying about what the Labour Party might do to my family. By the end of it, […]
Baroness Deech & the Rights of the (Home Educated) Child
A while ago, home educators watched (if they could bear it and weren’t too busy packing ready to claim asylum in the US) the reading of the latest Education Bill as it went through the House of Lords. We had some fairly strong support, which was heartening and said a lot for the people who […]
Open Letter to Fern Britton & Jeremy Vine
I write to you regarding your shameful coverage of the Khyra Ishaq case on the Jeremy Vine Show on Friday. While the interview was conducted by Fern, it was done in the name of JV and quite honestly, you should both be ashamed. Fern, to be a journalist is many things; there is, without doubt, […]
You may say i am mentally ill. I couldn't possibly comment.
Münchhausen’s By Proxy – that weapon of war against mothers. Used to vilify women in all sorts of scenarios and now, thankfully, largely dead in the water after Dr Roy Meadows was discredited for using it to bring to their knees the mothers of children who fell victim to cot death. I do not have […]
Dear Ed Balls & the DCSF – no thank you.
Inspired by Helen and Jax. You have conspired to question whether my children are safe in their own home, with their own parents, without any evidence of justification for doing so. My children are my children, conceived and grown by me, fed and clothed by me, nurtured and loved by me, taught to walk and […]
Equations = Power
Fran and i have been learning equations this last few weeks. I never liked equations; as a child, i struggled to see use for much of what i learned in maths and because i couldn’t see why or how to use them in real life, i didn’t really learn how they were working or why […]
