I am mum to two human boys, Owen and Henry, and a fur ball one, Jasper. I’m also wife to Kev. I am a trained secondary teacher and enjoy trying lots of new activities especially craft related ones. I’m also a type one diabetic of 36 years.
My eldest son should have started in reception in September of 2020. To be honest prior to applying we’d visited lots of schools and none of them felt right. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why but I just couldn’t see him settling well. I put it down to being to picky and ploughed on with the visits and applications. We even waited up the night before to see where we got. There was lots of excitement around us but I still had the feeling. I couldn’t work out why though. He went to nursery and we all loved it, I’d enrolled his brother with him to start in January of 2020 so they’d have a few months together. The staff at nursery are amazing. They made you feel relaxed and calm about leaving the children, the children loved going in and looked forward to activities. Coming home they got excited to tell us what had happened. My eldest made some wonderful friends there too. When September arrived I still didn’t feel happy. As it was he’d had no experience days and very little contact due to pandemic. Things that where promised never arrived, understandably but it didn’t help. After getting some Home Ed advice I realised I could keep him home until January as he wasn’t Compulsory School Age. With friends “in the system” and us being on the shield list this seemed like the best option. We talked it through and emailed the school. (The deregistering process itself was a later more complicated decision which I’ll cover later) The head promised me that either she or the reception teacher would call me within the week to discuss my son and how they could support us. I wasn’t surprised that at the end of the second week we still hadn’t heard from them. I was even more reassured that I’d made the right choice. After much consideration I told them we no longer required the place again they said they’d be in touch. Instead I ended up emailing a secretary back and fourth. As it was we had more support from the nursery staff than the school.
As it was we’d already spent most of the summer learning new things. We’d made and exploded volcanoes. We’d created the entire solar system using papier-mâché and balloons. We’d painted and coloured we done treasure hunts. Thanks to Wrexham Green Infrastructure we’d built bird feeders and hedgehog houses. We also planted lots of new seeds to attract bees and butterflies. We learnt about their habitats and how they survive as we walked the dog, lots.
I also joined Twinkl Home Educators who have been so amazingly supportive. We didn’t want to force a curriculum on the children that they’d resent but recognised the importance of certain educational aspects. To try and find a happy medium we do lots of learning and writing practice early in the day before moving into adventures and craft later in the day. We also don’t force issues so if the children are resistant for any reason we swap tasks and take a different approach another day. Most days if I’m crafty we work maths/writing/literacy and other traditional subjects into our fun.
To keep track of all our activities I have spent the last few days setting up our new blog and Instagram page. I’m not aiming to reinvent the wheel here so please don’t be surprised if this is something you’ve already done, it’s more to keep track for us. If you do see something you like and have questions feel free to message us. Similarly if you think you’ve any activities we might like.
So what might we like? Well they’re excitable boys who love anything messy. We spend much of our time exploring new activities and taking on new challenges. At any one time I envisage having three or four posts going on detailing our activities. The oldest of my boys is quieter and more cautious than his brother. He likes to think about things before we attempt them and will often “hypothesise” about what’s going to happen. The younger one knows no fear. He will jump head first into anything. He’s a naturally inquisitive personality and he loves being in the thick of the action.
Daddy and Jasper tend to roll with whatever madness we have going on. Painting; baking; building they’re just in. So welcome to our madness, may we merrily lead you to mischief.
