Where Did the Week Go?

Not quite sure how it is Friday already.

Tuesday of course I had the truancy thing, then Thursday Roarke and I went to London to take part in a focus group for NFER and their research for the Esmee Foundation on the "support available" for home educators...

A very interesting discussion around the table, I must say!

Today I found myself being quoted by the BBC, following the publication of the York Consulting research, carried out for DfES, on the numbers that home educate, and their reasons why.

The article is here.

The Report is here.

And your chance to comment on the story is here. Please do - there are some appalling comments on there, including "Wendy" who says bullying prepares children for work!!!

I'm sure Childline, Kidscape et all would all be supportive of THAT line...

The boys have worked mainly online this week. We found some good games for Samuel on the iKnowThat site, including this great storybook game.

Joshua got to work on some more stuff about slavery, including this site.
Samuel's choice of books from the library this week included some more Usborne Puzzle books, which he really enjoys doing. I found him sitting going through them with WD, reading the puzzles outloud to him and helping him to find the solutions.

William amazed me today with how well he can copy; he might not be so good at writing letters from memory, but give him something to copy and his writing is very clear, and very well formed. Especially considering we are mainly autonomous in our approach and he has had no formal letter formation practice, workbooks or “teaching” on how to write.

I still long for more time though so that I can sit down with him more often to read to him, and with him, as that was how I “taught” the other two to read (before they went to school).

We also picked up some “Walking with Beetles…to School!’ activity packs from the library, and have been using them in our garden, and on a walk up to the nearby park. You can download the packs from this website under the “Kids and Parents” section.

Still, it feels like it has been a long week, even though I don’t seem to have much to show for it! I think its been because I’ve been so busy with EO and HE stuff for me which has taken over from doing stuff with the boys. We’ve got a nice family weekend planned to make up for it!