Independent Play

This morning, I dropped Linnea off at creche, and triked into town to run some errands.

It was weird. I don't think I've had a weekday morning to myself since she was born - since, therefore, a full month before she was born, because we had houseguests continuously from 37 weeks onwards - and I kept doing things like making for the lifts rather than the escalators, avoiding stairs, and so on.

I ran my errands, which involved buying biscuits for the toddler and parent coffee, and getting some stuff sorted out with my Boots loyalty card, including collecting a few bits of free stuff and using points to buy apple juice. Then I had about half an hour left, which wasn't long enough to get a cup of coffee (I can't drink it hot) but too early to collect her, given how much she enjoys going to creche. So I sat around looking at my freebies.

If I get another chance to do this, I'll make sure to do something like get a haircut, rather than buying boring old groceries. Or sit in a bookshop cafe for 90 minutes, all on my own. I am absolutely determined not to use time like that for housework though.

Today, I met a young woman who used to teach us ballroom dancing, and her 6-week-old baby girl, who was asleep, and didn't mind my touching her little bitty hand, and didn't wake or stir or anything. The birth was easy and all-natural, and mother and baby look fit as particularly healthy fiddles. I love meeting people who've recently had babies.

Home Education

I received an article in this morning's post from A Well-Wisher about Home Education. It's the one that was in the Sunday Times this weekend, which many of you who are already reading all the Home Ed mailing lists and communities will know all about :)

What it boils down to, as usual, is that people who think formal schooling is the best way for everyone think that many home-educated children are at a serious disadvantage, and that people who think that formal schooling is always unhealthy think that all home-educated children who are not in abusive situations are better off than schooled children, and some fuzzy thinkers in the middle think maybe there's no One True Way, but they think it much more quietly than the other two groups.

And what I boil down to is that different ways of doing things will suit different families and, importantly, different individual children. I think home education as I believe my family is able to offer it (since we live where and how we do) can offer my children everything they're able to take with both hands. We have a lot of personal and social resources available to us. But I also believe that if my children - individually - express a desire to go to school, we'll send them. I find it hard to believe that they'd choose it long-term, but they might, and as long as they're ok at school, we'll work around it.

It probably helps that this is my heart's desire. I may have to start my own Plumfield once I run out of kids of my own to raise.