A parent reflects on his daughter's home education.

We could not send her to school now even if we wanted to!

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Grit's Day

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reported in CYPNOW what Hilton say's may or may not be true but I do wonder how BASW's UK members feel about being classed second rate by their representatives.
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The case for Home Education strengthens again with the continuing failure of the state-run factory system of mass destruction of life potential for British individuals.

Full article here

This news confirms the disgraceful paradox that the previous government wanted to crush Home Education in favour of their much heralded commitment to "education, education, education" and the current mantra of Every Child Matters.

In reality, Every Parent Matters in the fight for Britain's future by demonstrating that State Education is not fit for purpose.

Go here, at once!

http://www.wwwdotcom.com/

Teenage son has just been checking out Adobe CS5 FLASH Pro, but is put off by the cost. Does anyone know of any open source or low cost alternatives with similar functionality? We have access to both PCs and Macs.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Sheila

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Great fun , absolutely

I am unsure what to do about this subject, music tutors can be expensive.My 8yr old daughter loved recorders at school and I would like her to carry it on but do private tutors actually teach the recorder? hmmm.. any ideas anyone?

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I saw this excellent piece from Gerald Warner earlier today and decided that I wasn't going to post it due to the cheeeeeeze.
Three times I have been back to the link but managed to stay my hand, but I am tired and can no longer resist.
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From Gerald Warner in Scotland on Sunday
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Look away now if you have a cheese allergy!.
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I will leave it there.

This is a really strange one, I know, but if you HE and have several children- when do you get the housework done?! I am so used to the routine of them being at school I have always had 'housework days'. Sad I know but having a child with CF you do kind of have to be clean. I know this is really random and the kids do help, maybe I need to just get a little dirty! any tips/ideas would be great. :o

The prequel to Skellig is even better than the original, says Marcus Sedgwick



My Name Is Mina is the prequel to David Almond's award-winning, bestselling and superb first novel, Skellig. But forget all that for now, because My Name Is Mina is a wonderful book in its own right.

Mina McKee is a young girl whose father has died and who lives alone with her mother. To try to describe Mina in a word would be to fall into the same trap as several characters in the book – especially the representatives of the school system. A "misfit" to her teachers, a "disgrace" to the head, "crazy" and "bonkers" to her peers, Mina has left school and, after a brief visit to a Pupil Referral Unit, is being home-schooled by her mum, a thing that they find entirely excellent.

Together they discuss all manner of strange subjects, many of which would never find their way into the curriculum, such as metempsychosis and astral travel, as well as more everyday but no less wonderful things like the arrival of spring and the hatching of the blackbird chicks in the tree where Mina likes to sit. Here, in the tree, is where Mina spends much of her time, and where she does much of her own learning. For far from being stupid or unteachable, Mina is very bright, perhaps too bright for her age, something that grown-ups often find unsettling and hard to deal with. Fortunately for Mina, she has a mother who understands her perfectly, knowing that the only thing "wrong" with Mina is that maybe her brain is wired a little differently from most other people's.

I've spoken before in these pages about the ability of the best writers to grip you even when nothing very much happens, and it seems that Almond is having fun with that idea here. During Mina's brief visit to the referral unit she meets Malcolm, a young worker there who confesses that he's writing a novel. "It's all bits and pieces," he says. "And the book keeps on getting rejected, so maybe it's too barmy for anybody to publish. Maybe next time I should write a story where everything's plain and simple . . . a book where nothing barmy happens at all, eh? Or where nothing of any kind happens at all?"

If anything, My Name Is Mina is both kinds of book. Its "barminess" is evidenced by the random thoughts, dreams and wordplay that Almond offers us through the exploration of Mina's mind. And in terms of dramatic incident, the key episode is "the story of what happened on Sats Day". Almond, a former teacher himself, again has fun. Mina asks herself: "Did William Blake do writing tasks just because somebody else told him to? And what Level would he have got anyway? Would Shakespeare have been well above average? And Dickens and Chaucer and Keats and Shirley Hughes and Maurice Sendak and Michael Rosen. Did any of them do stupid silly SATS! I SUSPECT NOT!"

With the pupils urged by teacher and head alike to "do their best", Mina writes a nonsense passage for her Sats test, full of marvellous new words of her own creation, such as "cludderish", "glibbertysnark" and "claminosity". And it is this piece of work that culminates in her departure from mainstream school life, something about which she (and, secretly, her mother) is very pleased.

Through the delightful Mina, Almond covers many subjects: big stuff such as death and loss; mundane stuff like the appropriate nature of schooling. And, while the school system works fine for the vast majority of children, he reminds us that there has to be a place for alternative schooling for boys and girls like Mina. And everyone has met a child like Mina at least once, (metaphorically) sitting in a tree, looking down at the world, and wondering and whispering to themselves at the beauty of it all.

It is from the tree, too, that Mina sees the arrival in the street of a new family, a mother, father and young son, the mother with a new baby due imminently; and those familiar with Skellig will immediately see that this family provides the link to the earlier book.

But as I said, My Name Is Mina is a wonderful book in its own right, perhaps an even better one than Skellig. It is joyous. Thank you, David Almond; I cannot remember when a book last filled me with such claminosity.

Marcus Sedgwick's Revolver is published by Orion

My kid is only 11, but I am getting it in the ear from an ex-teacher (who is a friend) who says that it is imperative that she should do her GSCEs - because it is the only way she can access other courses.

I know for a fact that this is incorrect - and due to the "dumbed down" nature of GCSEs, was wondering what other routes my daughter could take. (I'd be grateful for some links, please!)

She is not a "genius" as such - she is intelligent in her own right - we seek to generate a lifelong love of learning and bettering of oneselves - and acheivements are made not for the sake of impressing others (enquiring relatives and friends) or wearing the badge of Proud Parent to validate ourselves on this planet.

Most of the time, "swimming upstream" is easy - but I struggle when facing new choices such as when my daughter gets to the age where it is conventional to acquire qualifications.

She doesn't want to go back to school at 14 to study for GCSEs...

She is also not sure about what she would like to do as a career...I for one think it is early days to decide anyway, but there are very clear interests that she has.

Please, can someone advise me? Especially with regards to funding with any form of alternative qualification (as we are not a rich family!!!).

Thank you for reading this.

I have just heard this on the radio:

"Ed Balls is like Gordon Brown without the charisma."
:love::rofl:

(I think it was Alan Duncan who said it.)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...nd-of-comments

Are you listening, Lord Soley et al? Some professionals really cannot be trusted (yet we wouldn't want to paint them all as paedophiles just because they happen to enjoy the company of children).

Pay attention now, you Lordy sorts: one of Portugal's most famous television presenters and a former ambassador to Unesco are among those found guilty of abusing young boys in a paedophile ring involving the country's state-run orphanages.

Portuguese TV presenter found guilty of being in paedophile ring

The Madeline McCann and Hollie Greig cases have connections with Potugal,too. Just saying...