Back to da old skool!

We are home educating again. I feel both relief and trepidation about going back to it. After one year in school I cannot say that Caden has learned very much at all. He has definitely learned that school expects conformity. He has learned some cursive writing. He has learned that some kids are horrible bullies and other kids are nice. His self-esteem has suffered without question and some work now has to be done to build that back up, he has a nervousness to him that he didn't have before and he has shown signs of bullying his siblings in a way that he has experienced at school from one girl in particular. This isn't something I want for him in his life, I can provide a much better education for him than this.  He has become better at French of course and he has missed out on hours and hours of time with me and Miles and also his Dad, who although in England we could have visited more regularly with the cheaper 'term time' air fares. In all, I feel that school has not been as beneficial to him either personally or educationally than home education was. The trepidation comes from knowing how much work I still have to do on the house to get it ready for renting out next Summer with decorating and repairing work. The relief comes from knowing how much I loved home educating and how I now feel sure that I am not farming out any of my parental responsibility to the chances that the state will do a good job.

Part of the problem when I first moved to France was a lack of 'tribe' in this area. I didn't have a network of friends, the children didn't know other children. That has changed in the last year. Funnily enough, not as a result of the children that the boys have met at their school but as a result of my own networking and friends I have made around this local area. So there is no need to worry about 'socialisation' now. They see other friends regularly and  will join in with local French groups so they will get the opportunity to speak French still.

I have renewed Caden's subscription to conquer maths and Miles is going great guns on reading eggs. I also will take more time to read to them, though Caden ploughs through the books alone now. Also I have invested in plenty of art supplies and we will go back to our raw fooding in a partial way. I am so looking forward to travelling with them and teaching and discovering the world with them again.

Miles ride solo! yay!

Jan and I took all 4 children out cycling. Caden tried out his new bike from his Dad and Grandad! Alo note the wolf ears helmet! Important notage! 

Miles has the chinese dragon helmet and (sound the trumpets) This is the first time he has ridden a bike! Da, da, da, da, da, daaaaaa! 

Bella has her new bike! and a new frozen helmet!

Marc has his new bike! and the shark helmet!

After the cycling we took them to mini golf. 

They played a little fussball!

Bella & Marc's joint Amazeballs Birthday party!

Isabella and Marc have their birthdays in July so we did a joint 'dressing up/disco' party for them at the Suris bar. All their friends came and everyone had fun! Marc was 6 and Bella was 8

I took Bella out for a burger and milkshake with the family and bought her a desigual dress which she chose herself! Marc enjoyed his party and his birthday was two weeks later.

Auntie Fiona comes to visit

Auntie Fiona painted all the children's faces for them! They ate their dinner as 'tiger' or 'puppy'. 

the veggies are growing so well! Jan made little ropes for the climbers to climb up! it will be a food jungle in there soon! 

We took Fiona to confolens for Fish and Chips, despite the gloomy weather - we had a great time! 

And Jan finished the floor upstairs, clever chap! It looks really fab! We have really transformed this house from the mess it was left in, to something very lovely! The kids love living here and so do we! It gets better and better! We have lots of adventures ahead!

Creating our own forest school

But first a couple of drawings they did that were very good. Caden designed a dog house for George. He drew the front, back and side panels and the top - then I explained to him about making sure the dimensions were accurate so the edges all matched up. So he wrote on the dimensions too. 

Caden also drew an emerald dragon and Miles did this rather awesome drawing of Yoda and Darth Vader - my favourity Milesy so far (spin off from Banksy IYKWIM) 

So our own little forest school. It is pretty much a blank canvas at the moment but there is a good cleared area where the cows like to go in and chill out so it's fairly well suited to making what we want. There is a little stream right down the middle - perfect for making a bridge or two at some point - great woodwork projects for the kids. 

 

There is already a bad bridge across - they all scrambled over it, it's soft and not far to fall. Just a bit wet if they do. 

That was our first trip to check it out. The second trip we did, was with supplies... they took sticks and toys and lots of determination. 

They all selected an area at the other side of the 'river' for their camp and chose a patch each. We started bending the saplings across each other to make a natural roof and pulling off non spiky leaves to make the floor. 

Marcs area complete with green carpet!

Bella's area

Miles' area - he has good security - a nettle patch at the back of his house!

And.... Caden's area.. haha