Two Weeks and Counting

We are two weeks into our new curriculum work and I can honestly say that this is one of the best decisions I have ever made for our home ed. A couple of years ago it probably wouldn’t have worked for us, and who knows where we will be in a couple of years‘ time, but right now, for us, this absolutely hits the spot.

I am one of those people who loves a list. Shopping lists, To Do lists, list of ideas for the millions of things I may explore at some point; they help me collect my thoughts and reassure me that I won’t forget those important things (until I lose the list, of course). I am much, much happier when I am organised. 

With half our house due to be demolished in less than three weeks, we have an eye-watering amount to do. Over the past few months, knowing this was coming up, I have gradually worked through the boxes of random stuff thrown together during house moves, invested in sensible storage furniture and generally got us a lot more sorted than we have ever been. Now it is time to do the last big push as we race to shift things into storage and declutter the few rooms we will have left to make room for a camp kitchen, filthy waterproofs, muddy wellies, and the pile of straitjackets that will certainly be the only way to stop my children hijacking a bulldozer and ‘helping’ to widen our driveway by adjusting the position of next door’s house wall. 

With all of that looming, it is a huge relief to know that we have a home ed routine that is sustainable and will keep the boys engaged and happy whatever else is going on - and that I don’t need to apply too much thought to while dealing with everything. Most importantly, it will carve out a piece of time for me to spend with each of them in the midst of the chaos. 

Daniel is using Build Your Library Level 1, which covers the Ancient World for History. The focus is largely on reading great books together (me reading to him and natural discussion as it comes up) - short bursts of amazing content. There is The Tale of Despereaux for literature, which we are both loving. Daniel was hooked from the first day and is always disappointed to stop reading. We have both learned to leave this until last. The magic of the writing resonates for some time after we finish reading it and immediately moving on to another subject is a complete waste of time. Since Daniel prefers to get his least-liked work over with first and finish with his favourite, this works out nicely. 

History uses sections of Story of the World, which hadn’t exactly gripped us until we were able to get some maps out to work out the region we were reading about. Daniel really enjoys being able to slot together different pieces of information, so I suspect we’ll get into it. Last week we read a fun book about archaeology and made the mind-blowing discovery that US historical eras are completely different to ours. (For any Americans reading, ‘Prehistoric’ for us refers to anything before around CE43, and is divided into eras like the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age etc.)

The week finished with an exciting archaeological dig in an exotic location (a.k.a. squatting on the concrete outside the garage, digging in the washing-up bowl). With Ben’s help, I had snuck out in the morning and filled the bowl from the flowerbed, complete with post holes (compost) and layers of knapped flint (picked up and worked on a walk a couple of weeks ago), Roman jewellery (since adopted by Ben, who loves a bit of bling), a grotty Saxon coin (an old £1 that once spent three weeks inside one of the boys and looks suitably revolting), various shards of glazed pottery (some that fit together), some Swiss coins (evidence of international trade), and a small plastic car that reduced Adam to a state of outrage when unearthed. Everyone got involved with this project. Daniel painstakingly scraped the soil off in layers and I was detailed to sieve every bit of it. Adam dashed off to fetch some water and came back (treading so carefully that several snails zoomed past him) with one of our china bowls full to the brim. He spent three quarters of an hour diligently scrubbing every find. Ben, entranced by the ready supply of both earth and water, mixed mud to the perfect consistency and painted himself from head to foot. Adam was mildly put out that his Very Important Archaeologist’s Brush was being put to such a plebeian use (he may not have actually used that word) but that was soon sorted out with a bit of diplomacy and an extra paintbrush. A few days later, Daniel was able to talk to my dad about the whole thing, and hear the story of the real post holes he excavated on Dartmoor in his youth, which was very cool. 

Science is Nature Studies this year. For all we spend so much time outdoors, Daniel hasn’t tended to enjoy the topic when studied before. However, he seems to appreciate BYL’s combined approach of practical activities in our own chosen area of nature (the allotment, since the garden is shortly to become a bulldozed wasteland) and books that present complex information in accessible but still challenging language. Right now I doubt he will remember all the levels of animal classifications from kingdom down to genus and species, but he enjoys discovering the concept. Now he knows the information exists, he will come back to it when he feels ready for more. 

Art is my real mental block after an appalling teacher in secondary school. I don’t remember ever learning about particular artists there, nor learning any techniques that produced a result I liked or wanted. Even before looking at full curriculums, I was wondering if I could find a guide to teaching Art, as I had absolutely no idea where to start. We have rediscovered watercolours (which I never used at school, only at home, thus bypassing most of the block) and I love how easy they are to get out and clear away. There is also flexibility, though. This week’s picture study was a set of paintings of faces constructed from different materials (fruits, vegetables and plants, in this case, to represent the seasons). As Daniel had already done some painting this week, I suggested he could build a face in Minecraft using different blocks. He ended up creating an engineer using different redstone blocks (for those who aren’t MC-savvy, redstone is like electricity and you can build circuits with it) and giving a full guided tour to a visiting friend. 

Poetry memorisation was a new idea for us. At the start, he was a bit huffy about doing it and really couldn’t see the point. Fortunately, both he and Adam (and probably Ben, as far as I can tell) have amazing memories. As he has realised how easy it is for him (he reads it twice and he’s generally got it), and especially when we have managed to find a bit of humour in each poem, he has started to warm up a bit. 

Aside from the curriculum, we have carried on with Cursive Kickoff for handwriting, Maths Seeds, and Usborne reading books. We were just coming to the end of a Year 2 CGP Geography book about North and South America, and although we liked it, it was still a bit of an uphill battle each week. Seeing the completely different approach of a Charlotte Mason-inspired programme, it occurred to me that we were taking far too much time relative to the amount of content. So far we have had to spend ages negotiating how much reading Daniel will do, and then ploughing painfully through the workbook (which, let’s face it, is really there so a teacher can tell which of her 30+ pupils have taken in anything they they have read with their often-limited decoding skills). Now we have decided to ditch the workbook and just read the main book, discuss it, and look things up in books or on the internet if we want to learn more. The extra busy-work didn’t seem to be achieving anything other than putting him off the subject, so we are going to stop doing it. 

Hebrew is carrying on and I am gathering information and resources to build a whole Jewish Studies curriculum for the kids. We won’t start that until after the High Holydays (end of September) so I’ll do a post about that another time. 

All in all, this is definitely a success. Daniel is so much happier; he is interested in what we are doing, happy to give things a go, and his creative side is blossoming as we do just enough of each thing to spark ideas without getting bogged down in busy-work (which then leaves us time for other things too). Loving the journey so far! 

This Is Our Normal

The last couple of days have felt pretty mundane and unexciting (no bad thing). But, of course, that's because they are 'normal' - as far as that is a thing in this family - for US. Other people have their own normal, and in a few years/months/weeks our normal, too, will have shifted and evolved. So maybe even the boring days are worth recording! Don't say you weren't warned. 

Monday's story really starts on Sunday night, when Daniel chose The Twits as his bedtime story. Now, just to be clear, I LOVE Roald Dahl. I particularly enjoy reading them aloud, and I am very very pleased that Daniel enjoys them so much (the coloured editions were the deciding factor for him). We have read most of them several times over, just missing The Witches and Boy for now. 

On Sunday evening, it took ten chapters to get the boy to sleep. I can live with that. But when a further 19 chapters were required at 3.30am due to a sudden attack of insomnia, my enthusiasm was significantly reduced! It would have been more than 19 chapters but we ran out of book and I went on strike. There followed a couple of hours of musical beds which left me a bleary-eyed zombie over the breakfast table in the morning. 

Adam's music class had its first session of the term at some (for us) ungodly hour in the morning. For once, every traffic light was kind to us and there was a parking space just round the corner, so we made it in record time. We fell at the final hurdle when the council parking app refused to work several times, wasting time before I finally shoved my overpayment into the machine (at least they now take the new £1 coins, which they didn't last term) and ran for it. We only missed one song, so I count that as virtually on time for us. 

Then off to kill some time in town before meeting some friends for lunch. We had to dodge some torrential rain showers (no coats because they still need washing post-forest school) but found a cheap umbrella for the kids to share, which went considerably better than you might expect. The high point was trying out an RNIB pod with simulations of four different kinds of visual impairment. Daniel was fascinated and the resulting conversation took us all the way down to the other end of town to the cafe. So that was our bit of home ed for the day!

Not much else to report for the day. I managed a nap with Adam in the afternoon, cobbled together a reasonably nutritious dinner and then we curled up in pyjamas for a movie before bedtime. I was mostly still smiling by the end. 

Tuesday we pottered. Daniel did Reading Eggs and some writing, and we all made tomato soup for lunch and smoked mackerel & potato pie for dinner. Many apples were eaten, lots of noise was made, lego was built and destroyed. And in the evening, when DH was late back from work, I got both of them to sleep with only 18 chapters of James and the Giant Peach. 

I have ordered some Dick King-Smith for a change. 

Tomorrow Is Also a Day

The plan:

• Reading Eggs. 
• Museum with another HE family to see the Seaton Hoard (Roman coins found near here) and look for Roman cooking pots as a follow-up to the Roman honey cake we made a few weeks ago. Also find some Anglo-Saxon things in preparation for the next lot of historical cooking. 
• Library to return some books (not overdue for once) and find new ones. 
• Shop for ingredients for Anglo-Saxon recipes (rye bread and apricot conserve). 
• Home to make the rye bread and conserve with appropriately educational conversation about the period.

Well, the Reading Eggs happened, though we were all tired and lacking in patience. And we did make it to the museum - half an hour late, grumpy and frazzled. Various things were looked at and played with, especially thanks to having company, but Daniel made it very clear that he had no interest at all in what we had planned and really wanted me to shut up about it. Thanks to the other mum we did see the Sealife exhibition (which I would have missed completely) and the kids were fascinated by the tank of sea urchins, star fish and prawns, and the shells and microscope in the other room. 

We had forgotten our library books so gave up on that and decided to try out a nearby chocolate cafe instead. Also gave up on shopping as it was obvious no one was in the mood for either history or cooking. Went home and chilled out with a movie instead. 

I don't know why but we were all tired and grumpy today. There was a lot of squabbling, shouting, nagging and snarling, and not even the cafe helped. 

On days like this, with no curriculum to keep up with or boxes to tick, sometimes the best thing to do is park the activity until some later date when everyone is in the mood. In hindsight, even the museum should probably have gone by the wayside today but I needed to get out and see another adult! 

So we will save the Anglo-Saxon cooking experiments for a better day rather than wasting an interesting and fun activity by doing it when no one feels like it. 

Let's see what tomorrow brings!

Not Back To School

Every year around this time, our Facebook newsfeeds are full of uniformed children off for the first day of the school year. Some are going for the first time, others are off to a new school, others moving up a year. This wave of photos has become such an event that home edders often decide to post their own versions, usually clad in pyjamas doing something very not-schooly! HE groups across the country arrange Not Back To School Picnics (ours is next week) and even the most unstructured feel a compulsion to share stories of their not-first days. 

Exactly when the first day is depends on the school. Around here it seems to be today or tomorrow, which is quite precise enough for me. So if today doesn't quite meet your expectations of what we 'should' be doing, just hang on until tomorrow!

After such a busy day yesterday, we didn't have anything particular planned for today.  This morning Daniel took one look at the rain coming down in sheets and announced "I don't think we should go anywhere today." This was possibly to ward off any ad hoc suggestions I might have been contemplating - he knows me well! 

We started with Reading Eggs and Daniel bashed through four lessons to get to the end of the map (set of 10 lessons, after which the child must pass a quiz to be allowed to continue) and get his certificate. The games allow him to collect eggs which can then be spent in the 'shop' to furnish and decorate a virtual house. That got a bit obsessive at the start so we agreed with Daniel that he would save his eggs until the end of each map and then have some time to go on a spending spree with them. 

While Daniel worked and then played on the virtual shop and a few other bits, Adam played some number matching and shape games with me and wandered in and out. He seems to have grasped the idea of Daniel's work time and knows there are various things he can do if he wants to join in, so he is less desperate to stay with us for every minute in case he misses something. 

After lunch, Daniel and I spent ages with the lego rebuilding part of his fire station. When Adam woke up from his nap he 'helped', patiently redirected by Daniel who strategically fixed the wheels on a vehicle he could broom-broom round the sitting room. Eventually we got stuck thanks to some missing pieces. The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to a movie and hot chocolate! 

This evening Daniel and I put together his new pop-up fire station book (thank you Lidl!) and discussed the plan for tomorrow. Watch this space! 

When Do You Start Home Educating?

This is a question I have been asked a lot over the last year and a half, as if one day we will sit Daniel at the kitchen table, get out a blackboard on an easel, and start requiring him to ask permission to go to the toilet. For most HEers in the UK, however, this is just not how it works. We are not trying to create school-at-home; the school system is designed to get a pre-set curriculum into a large number of children at a time, in a trackable way. When working with just your own children, with every waking hour at your disposal, it really isn't the most efficient way to be learning. 

Having said that, some families find that a bit of structured learning works for them. Others choose (perfectly legally) to do no formal work at all but instead to learn through life. The important thing is to be flexible, to try out different approaches until you find what works best for your family, and to be open to change as and when needed. 

Last year, when Daniel would have started school, nothing much changed for us. He was happy and learning, so there was no need. As this September approaches, though, I have been very aware that he has now reached CSA ('Compulsory School Age') and I am extremely conscious of our responsibilities to make sure he is receiving a suitable education. Again, that wouldn't necessarily have changed anything in our approach, except that Daniel has suddenly had a massive developmental leap in the last couple of weeks and appears to have grown up hugely. He has also been rather difficult to live with, but that's a separate issue, and may be partly to do with me being 6 months pregnant and all the upheaval that threatens.

Anyway, for a variety of reasons I decided a couple of weeks ago to see how he got on with a trial of Reading Eggs, an online programme used by a lot of HEers. He has had a good grasp of most of the letters and their most common sounds for a long time but seemed to lack the confidence to start putting them together. Well, there is only one problem with Reading Eggs... getting him off it! He blitzed through around 18 lessons in three days and was reading sentences confidently by day 2. A week and a half later and he is still asking to do it every day, so we're carrying on (though not at quite the same breakneck speed as the start). We have also just started the companion programme, Maths Seeds, and we'll see how he gets on with that. The biggest problem I have at the moment is keeping Adam occupied while Daniel and I work on the computer, so I am having to be rather creative with 'work' that Adam can do with us at the table at the same time. Today it was some magnetic shape-matching and scissor practice; tomorrow, who knows? Jigsaws and plasticine, perhaps. 

I'm slightly startled to find us doing something so structured, and it all seems to have happened very suddenly. A few weeks ago I would have sworn that we wouldn't have been doing this kind of thing for a long time yet, if ever, but that's life with children - in the blink of an eye, they grow and change and need something different. And as long as we can adapt and find the new balance, it's all good. 

Just Answer The Question!

Yesterday evening my husband expressed concern that "Daniel is so resistant to learning anything." When I had stared at him in disbelief for a few moments and then checked we were actually thinking about the same child, I did a bit of digging.

It turned out that Daniel had been looking at his Flags of the World poster and asked which country one of them belonged to. DH then tried to prompt him to read the word himself, letter by letter. Daniel was not in the mood and said very firmly that he has no intention of reading until he is 10!

So let's unpick this. Firstly, I bought the poster (and a couple of others) in Lidl last week, intending to stash them for the future. Daniel spotted the flags one and asked to have it up in his room, chose a spot where he could see it easily, then experimented with the relevant efficiency of blue-tack versus sellotape (and had a conversation with us about the possible damage excessive use of the latter could do to the wall). He looks at it several times a day, frequently asks for the names of the countries, has learned the concept of a capital city, can recognise a few of the flags by himself, now knows one or two capitals too, and has, on occasion, been persuaded to sound out a name. He has also learned the idea of alphabetical order and how to find a country's flag that way. On this particular evening, he had asked a simple question that required a simple answer - maybe it was part of a more complicated train of thought - and his response sounds like a 5 year old's version of "Just answer the damn question!" It is all too easy to get so caught up in what WE want them to learn that we miss all the other things they ARE doing. 

To be fair to him, DH did see my point. I also reassured him with an abridged version of our day. He eventually begged for mercy - before I had finished! Just for the record, here it is:

(After Adam's music class we decided on a whim to go to Buckfast Abbey - about half an hour away - for lunch and a wander. This is just what we discussed in the couple of hours we were there, and only what I can remember.)

Passed some building work being done to prepare for their millennium next year. Discussed the word and its meaning, and what the area looked like when I visited as a child.

Saw a mural in the cafe showing monks building the abbey. D started listing the various bits of equipment he could see - ropes and pulleys, horse-drawn cart, hammer and chisel, and so on. Talked about how, when they arrived, the monks didn't know how to do any of those building things but they found people who could teach them. Thought of some examples of him doing the same with people we know; e.g. when he wants to know how to fix something, he often asks my dad to show him.

He referred to the abbey as a 'castle', so we talked about the difference. Talked about monks and nuns, how they live, what they do, why they do it. Discussed why Judaism doesn't really have an equivalent.

Went to look around the abbey, having a brief chat with both of them on the way about how to behave inside. Both were amazing - held my hands, talked in whispers and didn't mess around.

Spotted a nun praying so pointed her out (discreetly!) with reference to the previous conversation. A service had just finished so we also saw a couple of the brothers.

Lit a candle together at the Lady Chapel with an explanation about why they have them there, and why I tend to light one (in memory of my godmother, who was a regular churchgoer). 

Daniel spotted a large chandelier above the high altar that looks like a crown. Talked about the idea of God as a king, with reference to our own Hebrew prayers that he is starting to learn.

Saw the massive stained glass window and talked about how it was made. Admired the colours for a few minutes. Spotted Moses in  smaller window and noted that he was carrying tablets just like those above the ark in the synagogue.

Saw some historical photos on the way back out and had a quick look, discussing building techniques.

Saw the font (hard to miss!) and explained baptism and what we have instead.

Back outside and off to investigate the gardens. First was the physick garden, and Daniel pointed out a plant that looked like lavender but wasn't. Having found the real lavender, he wanted to know why one variety had flowers and the other not yet.

The garden was divided into four - household (dyes etc), medicinal, culinary and poisons (i.e. to be used with care - planted on an island with a shallow channel of water around it). Daniel remembered that we use fennel for tummy aches and chamomile for headaches. Talked about how to use bay leaves in cooking. Enjoyed spotting different alliums (they have come up a few times this summer), from the massive ones down to little chives. Wanted to know the names of all the plants we saw and what they could be used for. Wild strawberries were in the medicinal section and he theorised they were for "hard tummy aches" - I think this might have referred to constipation, combined with warnings in the past not to eat too much soft fruit in one go or he would get a runny tummy. If so, good logic! Smelled various herbs.

Adam was very excited to spot meadowsweet, which he has learned to identify along the walkway to forest school. He went off to explore and came back to get us so we could admire the pond skaters on the water channel around the poisonous plants.

Long chat about the medieval period, when it came relative to the Romans, Saxons and Vikings, and what characterised it (knights, squires and castles). How there was a lot of fighting and people were busy trying to stay alive, so most people couldn't read or write. The role of religious communities in keeping literature alive and in caring for those who were sick and couldn't pay for doctors. How the herbs grown in the physick garden provided medicines for treating people. 

Off to the sensory garden. Admired the roses, talked about the pebble feature and why it was there. Daniel found some bamboo and remarked that pandas eat it, at which Adam (who I didn't think was listening) fished his plastic 'Pando' out of his pocket and 'fed' it some bamboo. Daniel then said experimentally "Pandas eat bamboo... and rocks", so his brother immediately departed for the pebbles and started making Pando munch on those too. Daniel exploded with giggles! Psychology and the power of suggestion? 

On the way back up towards the car park, Daniel insisted on a detour through the large lavender garden. Watched the bees for a bit and generally enjoyed comparing the different colours and varieties. 

Went to the monastic produce shop and looked around. Talked about what is made at Buckfast (including honey, with reference to our German holiday the year before last when Daniel got to have a go making some) and how other places might make different things according to what grows well in their area.

Sat down on a bench while Adam went off for a run and admired the decorative iron work on the big doors to the abbey. Talked about blacksmiths and how that iron work would have been made, and remarked upon the stone carving around the door. Then discussed the word 'skill' and its relationship to 'clever' and the importance of having both people who are good at thinking about things and those skilled at more practical jobs.

Phew! All of that came up in the space of about two and a half hours (including lunch) and all was completely led by Daniel. This wasn't me lecturing at him, it was proper interactive conversation, with genuinely relevant thoughts and references from him. You could clearly see how all the new information was fitting neatly into things he already knew and was likely to stay there, being added to as and when.

My point is that this was pretty standard. Daniel never STOPS learning, asking, talking, making connections! Maybe not related to the phonetic properties of the letter E, but that will come when he is ready - exactly like everything else.

A Deadline Goes WHOOSH!

(Ok, I confess, I am posting this a full year and a half after the fact. I wrote up a couple of posts on my phone but never got round to actually blogging them, so I'm catching up with myself and fiddling the dates, because it's my blog and I can cheat if I want to!)

15 January 2016 was an important day for us. 15 January was the deadline for applying for a primary school place for Daniel... and we didn't. It's a slightly grey area because legally he doesn't have to be in education until the term after his 5th birthday, which would be September 2017. However, the vast majority of his peers will start in September this year at the achingly young age of 4.

I had heard of so many people getting letters inviting them to apply for school places that I was actually rather disappointed when we didn't get one. Apparently, not every area sends out letters as there are supposedly posters up in various places (children's centres, libraries) telling parents when the deadline is, though I haven't seen a single one! We decided before Daniel was born that we wanted to home educate, so we wouldn't have done anything with the letter-that-never-came but I was looking forward to filing it under 'ignore'; it felt like a proactive step in our choice not to send Daniel to school. In its absence, though, we had to make do with the more abstract act of smiling as the deadline went whooshing by.

So what now? Well, nothing really changes. In UK law, home education is the default: Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 states that:
The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable - 
a) to his age, ability and aptitude, and 
b) to any special needs he may have,
either by regular attendance at school or otherwise. [my emphasis]

In other words, it is our responsibility to make sure our children are educated. We can delegate that job to a school if we wish, and the government have to provide a school place if we choose to do so, but those magic words 'or otherwise' give us the option to do things differently. We are not subject to inspections by Ofsted - they exist to check, on parents' behalf, that schools are doing the job they have been asked to do. 

Often, people are deeply concerned to hear that home educators are not monitored or regulated. But let's turn that on its head: should the police be able to investigate your life if they have no evidence that you have broken the law? Should Social Services have automatic access to your family if no one has any concerns about your children's well-being? Of course not, that would be unacceptably intrusive. The Local Authority does have powers to investigate if they have reason to believe that an HE child is not receiving a suitable education but they have no right to interfere otherwise. For many families who have chosen to home educate after their children have been utterly failed (and deeply traumatised) by the school system, the thought of the government having any control over HE is both laughable and deeply disturbing. And for those who claim that home educated children are hidden and vulnerable, it is worth remembering that every one of the high-profile child abuse cases in the last few years have involved children who were in school (or had been recently) and were already known to the authorities, who had failed to follow up the many concerns raised.

Unlike state schools, we are not required to follow the National Curriculum (or any other curriculum). Initially, this can seem worrying; how do we ensure that our children get a broad, balanced education? Well, the NC is actually rather narrow. Who decided, for example, that Maths should not include how to keep accounts or fill in a tax return? When did the Wars of the Roses and the Georgians disappear from History? Why is photography not part of Art? Could basic car maintenance not come into the Technology syllabus? Even in school, I would argue that no one comes out with a completely balanced grasp of all subjects. It only takes a personality clash with a teacher, bullying in class or a badly-timed illness to sabotage an entire subject. (For me, that happened in Geography, Chemistry, Art, Drama, Textiles, Food Tech... and I was considered to be one of the more able students. It has taken me 17 years to dismantle the mental blocks I developed around those subjects, and some are still there even now.) 

The truth is that children naturally learn a wide range of things if you let them get on with it and don't stifle their natural curiosity. We currently follow a largely autonomous approach, letting Daniel lead and simply helping him to acquire the information or skills he wants or needs at the time. Of course, we create opportunities and bring up topics we think might interest him, but he chooses whether or not to follow it up. At this age, most of his learning happens through conversation, and when we say "I don't know the answer to that; let's go and find out", we are teaching him the most valuable skill of all: how to learn. By following his interests he is also much more likely to retain the information because it is relevant and interesting. If he is busy thinking about the worm he has just found in the garden, he's not likely to be fully concentrating on Maths tasks. On the other hand, if we spend some time observing the worm, carefully put it back and go and find a book about insects, he will learn as much as he wants to know and probably still be able to recall most of it weeks or months later. Maths will come when we measure out ingredients to make Wormy Spaghetti for dinner (à la Roald Dahl's The Twits) or count his pocket money to see if he has enough to buy a toy after our visit to the library. He might also request Superworm as a bedtime story, which leads to a conversation about rhyming... and so on. 

Finally, the perennial question: "But what about socialisation?" This makes every home educator I have ever met either fall down laughing or roll their eyes, depending on how many times they have had to answer it in the past week. The answer is that there is so much to do that most of us have to actively schedule in time at home so we don't burn out. Groups, clubs, informal meets, and just getting out and about in the real world all ensure that HE kids mix with people of a wide range of ages and backgrounds. School-style segregation by age, which you won't find anywhere in adult life, is just not found in the HE community, where children of all ages play and work together quite happily. That feels to me like much better preparation for the adult world!