Tuesday 13 December 2011

Baby Love.

We are smitten. All of us, even though most us are yet to meet her. The teeny tiny little girl who has scared us half out of our minds for a good few hours of Monday the 12th. And deprived of 38 hours sleep.

Miss Nelli Eve Phillips Culculoglu was born yesterday weighing in at 7lbs and 10oz.

And we are now grandparents and uncles and auntie in our crazy home Ed family!

And it is wonderful. We are so happy and grateful that our beautiful daughter and granddaughter are safe and content. Bonding beautifully despite the trauma and surroundings they had not hoped for.

And so to end the gushiest post, although there are likely now to be quite a few more. Here is who our home-Ed life will be filled with over the next days, weeks and months!

P.S great anatomy learning has been going on!

Wednesday 7 December 2011

The thing is.....

Unless you are going to sit at the table and work to a structure, and goodness knows it could work for you, you have to have a bit of patience. And trust. And, I've realised, quite a bit of emotional resilience.

We don't do school at home, structure doesn't work for us. That may change by child or due to interest or requirement to just get things done, I'm thinking about igcse's.

But the good thing about learning to recognise that need to trust is that it doesn't really matter if a child spends all their time researching swords, castles, Greek gods or ponies. It doesn't matter if they're in their pjs all day doing it, unless we need to go the the library of course. They frown on that!

They can spend all day teaching themselves to play the recorder or playing tunnels because the next day they will spend it writing a short story or a novel maybe. Perhaps they'll sew or work out how much it would cost for six people to travel to Athens. They might teach themselves how to play the whole of David Bowies back catalogue and read a bit of Shakespeare.

The thing is, this is how it works for us.

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Working, planning, making, waiting.

As a record of our children's progress this blog has been sorely lacking of late. I would of course like to reassure the invisible educational pixie in my head or indeed any real educational bod whom happens to read this as some form of evidence that life in this home educating household is carrying on as usual. Even if the so called facilitator in charge seems to be doing bugger all.

Because that's really not true. And the mess, piles, the undone and half done would show anyone who walked through our door.

We are planning our Christmas crafts and treats, making bits and pieces everyday. Sometimes more that just cuttings and sparkles on the floor.

We have parties and concerts to enjoy. And we're waiting.
Waiting for that fabulous bump to decide its ready to meet us all. To make a young woman a Mama and her siblings Aunty and Uncles and this Mummy a grandma or whatever name we find that suits! This baby has a wonderful family to arrive into, blessed with many great and great great grandparents that we can't yet decide on a name to call ourselves.

Still, as this is home Ed and its all about the learning, right? While we wait we can be looking up names for grand parents around the world! Oma anyone or just granny?