The Monkey Donkey!

We moved, had lots on the go, no time or inclination to blog, 'till now...

So, here we go again.

Sometimes you just feel like a bit of an









You spend so much time trying hard to do the right thing, but in the end haven't got a clue whether what you're doing is the right thing, or not. Take the case of a home-educating mother with one son. He's about the age when he could go to school, his Dad's got a job at a very good school, but... because he was home-educated he got really into tennis (a great outlet, and if that mother is going to supportively watch any sport, tennis would be the one) so much so, that he's become quite good at it. The school does not specialise in tennis. He doesn't want to give it up. So we carry on home-educating, and getting stuck in the rounds of tennis training, tennis competition, until that mother begins to feel like a real donkey. So she carries on, carrying him around on her back* through the leafy counties of Southern England (and doing a bit of sewing in between times) in the vague hope that he will get some kind of education from the books that get pushed in his direction, when he hasn't got a racquet in his hand.

Is the plodding along worthwhile? In the great scheme of things, who knows? But Providentially (so it seems) the tennis monkey is improving, having won two tournaments last weekend, so maybe the home-schooled boy will improve too, and in the long run, maybe the donkey will cheer up...



















*Actually it's a nice little red car, Deo Gratias.

Blogging can be useful to some!

I was recently thinking about deleting this blog, since I seem to find so little time to post things; and the initial impetus for writing it has gone, or rather, I have moved on from it. We will be quitting sunny Shropshire in the Summer, and I shall miss the countryside around here. We will, hopefully, have a proper Parish, where we can regularly attend the Mass of Ages, with not an altar girl in sight (and I do love little girls, I really do - probably more so because I was never blessed with one!). We will no longer have to drive for 30 - 40 minutes on a Sunday afternoon so that we can attend an Old Rite Mass at the awful time of 3pm (I'm guaranteed to start dropping off during the sermon at that time!), but I will miss the people of the peripatetic Latin Mass community, although they are now dwindling fast due to the establishment of a regular 6pm Latin Mass in the parish of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate in Staffordshire (thanks be to God!). We thought that there would not be many at Mass today, so were pleasantly surprised by the presence of a family - a young couple, the grandparents, the three year old son, and three week old daughter, who don't normally come. It was the mum who made me think maybe I should carry on posting occasionally, as she mentioned, over tea and tabnabs after Mass, that she'd recently discovered my blog, and found it helpful - she must have been reading some of my early posts, which dealt with our attempts to adopt (I rarely go back and read what I wrote, so I can't remember what's there that could have been helpful to her!!) When I first met her, we were both attending a home-educating group, and her little boy was about two then, but I knew she longed for more children. Having been in her position, I can honestly say I would have been of little help in encouraging her, as by then I had realised that prayers don't always get answered the way we want them to. I firmly believe that God doesn't give us what we want, but what we need. I am also heartily glad for her that what she wanted was what God knew she needed, and she now proudly holds a beautiful little girl! Praise Him!
As for the home educating, we are still in a quandary as to whether to carry on once we move. Our son is really flapping his wings, longing to fly further and further from the nest - all to be expected at his age, despite his inability to find anything he needs when he wants it, "Mum, where is my ..." "Right in front of your nose". But perhaps that's just a male thing, "Darling, where is my ..." "Just here, where you left it..."
Is school what he needs? - the good Lord seems to be giving him an opportunity to go. It's not what he wants, (mostly because he fears hard work, I think!). I'm not sure it's what I want, (I'd rather he remained a dunderhead and kept his Faith and purity), but God knows what is best, and we're hoping He's going to make it clear to us what should be done.

Meanwhile, I shall try and enjoy my garden as it comes into bloom, for the last time before we rent our house out, knowing that there is little likelihood that it will be cared for overmuch by tenants...


The blue and white garden that I have longed for, is still not in evidence, although there seem to be plenty of blues coming out at present, the whites will probably only put in an appearance after this lot have died off - ho hum...







I thought this rather an apt word-picture of the garden, which was reluctantly brought forth from my son's pen, as a description of what he could see from the school-room window...
"Through the French doors I see a red pot on a black wrought iron stand, which is sitting on the lawn, in the middle of which is a clothes drier. Further down, a bench with a metal arch sits, and after it a pond, over which a tall clump of bamboo hangs. There are shrubs around the pond, and up each side of the lawn there are flower beds, fillled with flowers, shrubs and bushes; and beyond the pond the untidy patch of wilderness that used to be a vegetable garden, is in full bloom with dandelions, daisies, forget-me-nots and buttercups. The shed which is hidden by the bamboo, stands behind the pond."

Happy St Joseph's Day to one and all! I'd like to say a special Thankyou to St Joseph for finding my husband a new job - we will be moving from sunny Shropshire in September (I do like a bit of alliteration!) - dahn saf, to Berkshire, not a county I know much about, but at least we'll be near a Parish where we can regularly get to attend the Sacraments in the "Extraordinary" Form, so that it will no longer seem so extraordinary, but be integrated into our daily life. I couldn't have asked for more.... but, of course, there's always just one more thing.. a little discernment on what to do on the home-educating front... we've left it in St. Joseph's hands, with a novena of prayer to him, and we now have to decide whether our nearing 13 yr old, only son should attend school. I'm still waiting for St Joe to write it up in big letters across the sky....

Homeschooling an only child, definitely needs a post of its own - I may get around to it someday, in the meantime:-

Glorious St. Joseph, model of all who pass their life in labour,obtain for me the grace to work in a spirit of penance to atone for my many sins; to work conscientiously, putting the call of duty above my own inclinations; to work with gratitude and joy, considering it an honour to use and develop by my labour the gifts I have received from God; to work with order, peace, moderation, and patience, without ever recoiling before weariness or difficulties. Help me to work, above all, with purity of intention and with detachment from self, having always before my eyes the hour of death and the accounting which I must render of time lost, talents wasted, good omitted, and vain complacency in success, which is so fatal to the work of God. All for Jesus, all for Mary, all after your example, O Patriarch Joseph! This shall be my watchword in life and in death.

Amen.

Science lessons - homeschool style!

I've been too busy to post anything lately, due to the fact that we've actually started using a TIMETABLE which means I can't mess around any longer when I'm supposed to be teaching! However, we were supposed to be doing science this afternoon, and since the rather ridiculous chemistry kit in an oversized box with very little in that could not be found in an average kitchen (apart from the iron filings!) didn't inspire me to go beyond the making of rose-petal perfume (which was last week's exploit) I thought the blending of butter, sugar and eggs with mashed bananas, flour and baking powder, was science enough for the day...

In the interest of scientific accuracy, for those who wish to try the experiment themselves at home, I shall note down the proceedure...

Take 3oz (sorry modern science teachers*, I still don't believe in evolution, so grammes mean nothing to me either) of butter, blend with 6oz of caster sugar, until light and fluffy. Add 2 beaten medium sized eggs with 10 oz of mashed bananas and 8oz of sifted plain flour, 3 level teaspoons of baking powder, and a pinch of salt.

For our recipe, we added some sunflower seeds, and some flaked almonds, and sprinkled extra ones on top after putting the mixture into a 2lb loaf tin.

(2 oz of walnuts can be added, if desired).

Cook for about an hour at 350 deg. F, roughly! (We actually used Celsius, but my recipe says F. and I don't know how to convert it, so we played around and it came out ok - see how scientific we are) (My son does know how to convert it, but he thought it would take too much brain effort).

* (Modern science teachers will be relieved to know that my son does think in grammes, and thought my funny old fashioned z in oz was a g, and was about to weigh out 30 grammes, instead o f 3 ounces - fortunately I realised in time what he was up to - but would it have mattered? is there a big difference between 30 grammes and 3 ounces?? I'm musing to myself here...)

Of Knights and Fair Maidens

I recently received a lovely medal in the post, from a dear homeschooling mum friend who has six boys. The envelope was rather large for the medal, which she had told me she was sending, so I was intrigued as to what else there might be in it. To my surprise, out dropped a relic from the dim distant past..




















A pair of chainmail Knight's trousers, which were somewhat past their "sell-by" date, along with a plea for something to be done about them!!! The fabric had not been easy to sew the first time round, but was now ripped apart at the seams, along with a few other damages caused by hearty warfare...





You see, when they were first made, it was to dress one little Knight of Our Lady, who, being an only child, and not having a great deal of contact with many other Knights, did not have a lot of opportunities for jousting, and armed combat, and the like; so I knew that despite the rather delicate nature of the chainmail, they would hold out for a while, long enough for him to grow out of them.
















They even survived the occasional lending to a sweet little maiden who needed to dress up as Joan of Arc for an All Saints party...


















So I hoiked out the old sewing machine, and got to work on repairing them, with the following rather good result (even if I do say so myself). Whether they will survive the onslaught of battle for long is another question, but since they will now probably only fit the youngest son of the six, and since the family's latest addition, to the shock, surprise, and delight of all, is a little girl, the trews probably don't need to survive much longer - (unless of course she decides she must be Joan of Arc)!




















Whilst the sewing machine was out, and since the household must be rather lacking in bonnets and bows with all those male siblings to the new baby, I thought I would turn these...

























into these.










Note the distinct lack of pink - it will take a while for mum to be weaned off blue...

Wimbledon, and How the Other Half Live..

We've had quite a busy week - piano, grade 2 exam on Tuesday morning, very exhausting for me, since I kept waking up all night with his tunes playing around in my head, panicking because I hadn't really heard him consistently play them well, because he does NOT practise enough. He's not a natural born musician, but he can play, and play well, if he applies himself. As far as his Father and I see it, he needs to have some discipline; and learning to play, and pass exams gives him this - since as a homeschooler, he won't be getting the same experience of being tested and examined as other children his age. He will be glad of it one day, even if it means he'll be able to bash away at the old joanna down the pub, with his mates, once he leaves home! Anyway, he didn't seem too phased by the whole affair, so we'll see....
Then in the afternoon, we drove down to stay overnight with an old friend of mine, (from Uni) and her husband, who live in a town just north of London. We spent time in the Abbey, and the Roman museum, and arrived at their house at a time when she would be back from work, about sixish. We had a cuppa, and a biccie, and chatted for a while. My son watched a bit of the Wimbledon highlights on the tv, and I suddenly realised how uncomfortable I felt being in the home of someone who is a dear friend, but who has no understanding of how we have been keeping our son from the impurity of tv. If we are at the grandparent's house, he knows he has to leave the room whenever the adverts come on - even when flicking through channels, but they at least have some understanding of why. Anyway, we got to the sports channel, without witnessing too much advertising for adult programmes - yes, they like to pack in sex, violence, and horror excerpts into the previews they put on before 9 o'clock of shows which are to come on after the ha ha "9 o'clock" ho ho, "watershed"; although I did have to stick my rather large backside in front of the box, whilst one such preview came on. Then my friend and I chatted some more, and I wondered when we'd be having supper. Her husband arrived, and we all decided we'd go to the allotment, and water some of their plants. I wondered some more when we'd be having supper. We got back, and I still wondered when we were going to have supper. Her husband asked my son what time he normally went to bed, he spouted some nonsense about half past nine - oh yeah, that's what he'd like it to be, but I could hardly insist too much in front of them that it was usually half eight to nine, since that was the current time, and we STILL hadn't had supper. But I think the hint was dropped, and my friend thought she'd better get on with starting to prepare some food!
It is interesting that some people who don't have children, don't have any idea that it might be appropriate to offer food to a child at a slightly earlier time than they themselves might eat!! Anyway, we got fed, and got him off to bed, ready for his big day at Wimbledon - his birthday gift from us, since we'd been offered tickets for court number one, via his tennis club - they cost an arm and a leg - but since the good Lord has only given us one child, we can afford to indulge him occasionally!
And of course, he took his own spending money, so that he could indulge himself, on the famous Wimbledon "Strawberries, and Cream" - which weren't bad, but not half as good as the strawberries we'd picked from the garden of our friends down the road, earlier in the week!!

It's taken me to the end of the week to recover from the late nights, and the travelling though!

Homeschooling Craft Activity for the Sacred Heart

We had our monthly homeschooling group today, and I foolishly volunteered to "present" a subject, followed by an "activity". It's quite an undertaking, since there are a lot of children, ranging in age from babydom to young adultdom. I gave a simple presentation on the Sacred Heart seeing as it's the month of June - (it's REALLY difficult to find anything pitched at the littlies, on the subject, but after much trawling of the 'net, I came up with a simple story about St Margaret Mary, and the Sacred Heart. I had a brilliant "wheeze" about a craft activity, which, when there's plenty of older people to help the youngsters, could work quite well; I'm not sure how it went down today, as I did notice a few wails of "Mummy, it's not working", from the younger ones who couldn't quite manipulate the pipe cleaners, and were getting frustrated - there seemed to be less teenagers around today, who are usually good at helping out.
Anyway, since there is a dearth of activities in relation to the Sacred Heart, on the web, I thought I would offer this contribution for all those of you out there who have "crafty" minds!



We start with two identical heart shapes cut out of thin card. One of them has three holes punched in them as you can see. Both have central cuts in them, the "holed" one is cut from the bottom point up, to half way; the other from the centre top down, to half way. We also have three pipe cleaners, of varying lengths.














The middle-sized (orange, or yellow) pipe cleaner is formed into a "flame" shape, and passed through the central hole in one of the hearts, and then secured in place.








This is followed by a smaller white piece of pipe cleaner - which can be secured to the first pipe cleaner.













Slot the two hearts together (I've missed off the flames in these pictures).

And finally thread the darker "crown of thorns" pipecleaner through the two remaining holes, being careful to leave enough "slack" for it to fit round the opened out heart.













And voila! the final product -


And here's one I made earlier, with better colours for the flames and crown, I think!

My Secret is Out!!

Several people I know have found out I keep this blog - now I have to be very careful as to what I say, ha ha! Still, if the two ladies with whom I was talking about it tonight (and they know who they are!!) manage to find it I'll be surprised (and delighted, of course) - neither being computer whizz kids as it were, to their credit, as they spend their lives doing far more important things. As to big sis, hello there too - how's things going, down in Brissle?

We had a lovely day today, attending a once a month homeschooling group, where there is always an activity to do with the Church's calendar, as well as an opportunity for some silent Adoration of Our Blessed Lord in the Church next door. Today we were treated to a talk on Our Lady of Fatima. Then the little ones could do some colouring in, and paper flower making, whilst the older ones made Marian posters. Afterwards we ended back up at one of the most hospitable homes in Shropshire, where there is always a good meal to be had, and where I revealed all about my clandestine blogging experiences. I hadn't bothered to tell anyone I knew, because I wasn't sure whether I'd keep it up, but I seem to be fairly hooked, and since I was already rumbled a month or so ago, by another homeschooling mum, who happens to be the sister of one fairly famous Priest blogger, I thought it best to let some of the other gals know too.
Anyway, I'm off to bed now, got to get up bright and early to prepare for the dreaded French lesson tomorrow!

Maths avoidance sometimes brings benefits.

Today we should have continued with the maths programme we are using. There is a lot to cover in it, and we are already several weeks behind. This is due more to the fact that one would need to study for about 2 hours a day if one intended to keep up with it! I haven't been able to work out which bits could be skipped, so I plod through the lot! It's all good practice, I suppose. My dear son would not agree with me though. He is capable of the work, he just doesn't like doing it. He practised at the piano first thing - this is inevitably done as the lesser of two evils - he knows if he doesn't get on with it, mummy will call for the maths books to be brought out. Then, after a break, he managed to convince me he was working, by reading a book all about how electricity is made, moving on to another one, on how things work. The maths books were out, but he looked out of the window at the garden, and exclaimed, "Look, they're like electric light bulbs, cups, filled with the sun!" I wondered to what he was referring, and came to see - my white tulips, certainly were like cups filled with sunshine! So I suggested that would be a good starter for a poem, and off he went and wrote one - anything to get away from the maths, I suppose. And I trouped off down the garden to get some photos of the few floral exhibits I have therein, this spring - anything to get away from the maths, I suppose!
The poem was very good too, worth avoiding maths for!

(Edited next day to add)

I actually can't get over how brilliant these flower-heads are, so I'm posting this picture I took today, as well. Even though the light isn't as bright as yesterday, they really are radiant, like light bulbs!:-) The wonders of God's creation!

God's Providence and Trench Warfare

Look what came out of the garden this morning. My boy decided to dig a trench in what was the potato patch last year, (it had something to do with trench warfare, I believe. I blame that dratted homeschooling family we know with six boys for introducing my little darling to the concept). I've been longing to dig it over, now that we are having some sunshine, and if I'd just asked him to do it for me, he would have run out of energy after the first spade-full, but as he decided, on his own initiative to dig a trench, and I knew this would be at least helpful in getting the plot dug, I let him have his fun. Mmm, I could get into this 'unschooling' type homeschooling. He found the small pile of spuds - they don't seem too bad considering they've been in the ground all winter. I then decided (since he'd got every single spade, fork, trowel and hoe out of the shed) it was about time to dig up some of the leeks and parsnips on the plot next to the ex-spud plot (can't use the same ground again this year for the spuds, apparently). Look at how well they've grown - well, by comparison to the three beans I got out of my fancy Italian bean crop last year. The reason there's plenty of them left, is that I don't really like parsnips, and only use leeks in moderation, and it's been so wet and murky all winter that I couldn't be bothered to make the (short) trip to the vegetable plot to dig 'em up!
Anyway, the lads love parsnips, so I suppose I'll just have to get my pal's curried parsnip soup recipe out (yeuch) and make it for them. What martyrdom we wives and mothers go through!


I thought the veggies on the edge of the sink would have made a good still-life, but by the time I would get round to painting it, they'd have self-composted.

That reminds me of a lad who was in my year at art school. He wasn't noted for his attendance record, so imagine our dismay when he came in one day with a dead fish to paint. Yes, it sat there for a week or two, waiting for him to come back and paint it - I can't remember how the situation was resolved, suffice to say, I was pretty glad I worked at the other end of the studio.


(We love the family with the six boys, by the way - they're expecting their 7th child in the Summer, aren't they blessed!)

We Think it's All Over

We have been waiting for a decision recently about whether we were to have a 6 year old child placed with us for adoption.
I mentioned in an earlier post about the difficulties we've had in adopting within this country. What is our big problem? We don't drink to excess, we haven't abused our birth-child in any way, we don't smoke, we aren't hugely overweight :-) ! We have a nice house (3-4 bedrooms), a big garden. We love each other, and get on well together, and are respectful towards those of different belief-systems to ours. We have a stable family life, and a good sense of humour. We've been waiting for six years now, having been approved by three social services panels.
So, what could it be? Well, the first serious problem is that we are Catholic, yes, really Catholic, that is, we actually go to Mass, and sometimes more than once a week. We also accept what the Catholic Church teaches on faith and morals.
But this is where the real irony lies. More than the Catholic bit, the social workers can't get their narrow minds around the fact that we homeschool....we actually like children enough to want to spend whole days and nights in their company! We are NOT normal. We wanted to bond with our children by being close to them, showing them that though they have been rejected, or abandoned once by adults, it isn't going to happen again. We wanted them to not feel abnormal in school because they are the only ones who are adopted. We even said that if the child insisted that they wanted to go to school, we'd let them go!
A month or so ago, we were close to being matched with a little baby. Our social worker thought we'd be a good match, the family finder social worker thought we'd be a good match, and was keen to arrange a visit. Then it all fell through, why? because the child's social worker (who is supposed to be guided to some extent by the family finder) looked at our form, read the bit about homeschooling, and didn't want to have anything to do with us!! (And they are short of couples ready to adopt in that Local Authority). Then, even more irony, whilst all this was going on, another social worker in the same department overheard about us being homeschoolers. She thought, "I know of a child who is experiencing difficulty in school, she would benefit from being home educated. Let us look at this family". Thus, we began to look at the possibilities of taking on a much older child than we had ever considered. We thought and prayed long and hard about it, and as they were keen on meeting us, we agreed to a visit from two social workers, and the child psychologist who had been dealing with the child. They visited with us for over an hour, and the discussion was thorough - we had to find out what problems we would be bringing into our home with this child, as well as the good things. The meeting was very positive, but after they'd left, my husband and I remained undecided as to whether it would be right for us to take on an older child with no experience of the Catholic faith. Although they were very impressed with us, and had no problems with the homeschooling, ultimately, they chose another family, who they believed met the child's needs. This could have been because they were not religious, and I think in this case, that may have been better for the child, and maybe for us.
Only God knows why we have been down this adoption path, and failed to adopt.
We know of at least two other Catholic homeschooling families in the UK who have managed to adopt. It is not impossible. But my advice to families who have children who are pre-school age, and want to adopt again, is "don't mention ze homeschooling!" the social workers really don't need to know. I do hope, and pray, that one day, social workers will look more favourably on home-education, and the positive effects it has on adopted children.
As for us, we are about to formally resign from the adoption agency we are with. Our social worker has tried hard on our behalf, and we are grateful to him for that, but he himself sees how near impossible the situation seems to be in our case.
I just pray for all those children in the past 6 years, who have been placed with homosexual couples, when they could have been given a home with a "normal" couple like us, who, let's face it, could have met their needs far better, given that every child comes from a mummy and a daddy.

Realities of Homeschooling

Someone left a comment re homeschooling in the UK on my first post - saying,

"is there a Catholic org in the UK that has good advice on homeschooling? You got me interested in the subject."

As I replied, the short answer is there is no organisation, as such. There used to be a Catholic homeschooling network, but that folded a couple of years ago, although there may be moves afoot to start a new one. A lot of the Catholic homeschoolers know (or know of) each other, and try to link up with others in their area, and some families arrange meetings once a week/month etc. There are many different types of Catholic homeschooling families, (as in, ranging from those who adhere very much to the Traditional Latin Mass, to those who are at home with the New Rite,) and each family chooses their own curriculum. What most of the people that I have met are trying to do, is to retain a sense of their Catholic identity, and to pass that on to their children.

A lot of people are disaffected with the state of Catholic education in this country, and the iniquitous "sex education" (otherwise known as child abuse, to my mind), has been gradually adopted by many Catholic schools, starting from aged 5 upwards. My husband is a Catholic R.E. teacher in a secondary school who has children coming to his lesson from the science lesson, where they have just been taught all about contraception. He then has to teach the "Catholic view" on contraception. The children quiz him about this discrepancy - they can see how irrational it all is. He once had a girl arriving at his lesson, wiping her hands, and saying "ugh this stuff is horrible to get off" what was it? Spermicidal jelly!!! In a Catholic school! He did complain about this to his Bishop, and his headmaster. Nothing has happened - and now it's a year on and the lessons are due again - he's wondering what will happen this time round.

But Catholic homeschooling isn't merely being done for negative reasons.

We got the idea of doing it from a Catholic Charismatic Community in the USA that we were involved with a long time ago. I first visited it when I was single, and the children of one of the families there were the most fantastic, well-balanced, and self-disciplined young people I had ever met. I was impressed with them, and their parents, and loved the idea of having one's children around, and educating them oneself. I have watched these children grow, and the oldest batch (they came in two batches, with 4 older ones, and then a second spring, with 4 younger ones, much to their parent's delight) are fine adults, making their way in the world, one training to be a priest. They have all kept the faith.

I knew, once I'd met them that I would, if I were ever blessed with a husband, and children, home educate (given that my husband would agree to it!). Well, I was truly blessed with a wonderful husband, and he visited this community with me after we were married, and he was convinced of the home-education being a good thing too. We in turn were blessed with our son, and I often thought to myself, whilst longing and waiting for more children to come, that I might not be so convinced of home educating an only child. However, since when you have a little child, you spend the first four or five years of their life helping them learn, it seemed like a logical extension to carry that on, and so we have done. He is now ten. We tried to adopt, but no child has been given to us in the five years since we were officially approved to adopt. And so he has been homeschooled on his own, and we have to make efforts to help him to meet up with other children.
We moved into Shropshire two years ago, and have found a couple of other Catholic homeschooling families fairly close by. One in particular, in a neighbouring town, have 3 boys around our son's age, and they all belong to the same tennis club (which has a brilliant youth section, and is very cheap! - unlike the hoity toity clubs elsewhere). So we try to meet up once or twice a week, and I have even begun to teach the boys French each week (which is just about all my rusty brain can stretch to!), and we have started to attend some sign language lessons, which a deaf friend of their family has been offering them for a while.
The situation is not ideal. Children need to be with other children, but an only child, who is homeschooled, has to make extra efforts to meet up with others. Our lad has attended soccer training sessions, but last time he went, he admitted that he had been bullied by two of the boys, and also that several of them use bad language (which he hates). He is quite resilient, and will probably want to go back this week, but I do wish there were some Christian youth teams around - one's that don't make a God of football, but where the children can just play to enjoy the sport.
Homeschooling is not easy, it involves sacrifice, but it is a good option if both parents are committed to it. It doesn't work for all families, some homeschool some of their children and let the others attend school. And it can be an expensive option too. Most families need two incomes to pay the mortgage, due to the ridiculous price of houses - we find it hard to break even most months, and we do not have an extravagant lifestyle, we also have to pay taxes which go towards state-funded education, but don't receive any financial assistance for our efforts! However, if you know where to look, there are plenty of cheap, or even free resources around, at least whilst the children are little. As they get older, it does involve a cost for buying in a curriculum.

We sometimes say to our son that he can go to school if he wants to, then Mummy can go out to work, and we can all go on expensive holidays, but up to now, he has declined the offer! I think he knows he's on to a good thing! He knows that we have chosen this way of educating him because we think it is the best thing for him. He knows his Faith better than a lot of the 15 & 16 year olds that my husband tries to teach. He loves to serve at Mass (Old and New rites - though I think he prefers the Old!). He has always had an amazing confidence, and ability to chat to people of all ages - he can play with little children, and hold conversations with adults - he is the most sociable child I know, despite the so called "lack of socialization" that he is supposed to be experiencing by not attending school. But he can be strong-willed, and lazy, and I do have to deal with that too. Maybe in his teenage years it will get harder, maybe it will get easier - I have to leave my son's future in the Lord's hands, I only hope and pray that we can continue to help him develop into an adult who knows and loves Our Blessed Lord through the Truths of the Catholic Church He founded.

A Slow introduction

Well, it's about a week or so on since I last wrote anything, which proves to me that I am not an avid blogger. Some days one feels one has a lot to say, other days one thinks, why bother saying anything?
I homeschool an only child, a lovely lively boy of 10 years. It has been a privilege to watch him grow and develop, and at times, I have enjoyed teaching him, at other times it IS hard work. He is a boy, and so is reluctant to get on with his work. Girls just seem more diligent - but I could be generalising a bit too much here! He is bright, and imaginative, and learns quite easily. I often think back to when I was his age, and consider the amount of things I was taught, and realise that I didn't know half the stuff he already knows, so I'm not too worried about keeping up with the "National Curriculum" (I managed to go on to further education, and I'm sure he'll be able to, if and when the time comes).
My husband and I were just discussing one thing about our boy, the fact that, despite his bursts of obnoxiousness, he has maintained (by the grace of God) his purity, and modesty. He hates to hear swearing, and see immodest pictures, and he is still innocent when it comes to the things children aren't meant to know about - at least until they want to know about them! When we were being assessed to be approved to adopt, (over 5 years ago now - ho hum, but that's another story, one entitled "why are we waiting") I remember our social worker at the time asking me "does he know about the facts of life" (I'm sure she didn't use that phrase, but it was sooooo long ago, I can't exactly remember her words), and I told her bluntly, he hasn't asked, so I haven't told him anything yet, when he does, I will. I am still amazed that primary schools have disgusting books explaining what mummy and daddy do to reproduce, available from an early age. Talk about abusing children, our schools are doing it wholesale. Our lad's not stupid, when he wants to know something, he'll ask. And we're giving him the chance to do it when he's ready.
Thanks be to God that we have St Maria Goretti to intercede for our young ones (and ourselves).

Catholic Homeschooling in the UK

My first posting.
What shall I say? the blog title seems to express it quite succinctly.
Homeschooling is a bit like this, most days I get up and - I don't know what I'm doing; I only know that my husband and I felt like it was the Right thing to do, that it was what the Holy Spirit was calling us to do, and maybe writing things down will help me to keep finding the way forward, even though I often feel stuck.
I've spent the last few months reading other people's blogs, on and off, and never felt like starting one myself, but the things some people write are so audacious that I felt I had to have some identity in order to comment on their blogs, so in trying to do that I seem to have accidentally created a blog of my own. If I keep at it, maybe one day I will be able to say I DO know what I'm doing, at last!
We are Catholic, unashamedly and gratefully Catholic. We want the Catholic faith to be experienced as something beautiful, and true in our children's lives, and we see the rapid decline in purity in the young as something that has to be countered.
But it is not easy. Children can not live in a vacuum, they have to engage with the world. It is a difficult fence top to be balancing on. How can we enable them to keep their purity, whilst still being a part of a world where impure images, and ideas abound.
How many parents really want their children to be exposed to the front page of the "Daily Star", or whatever it is, that always has some poor exploited woman being exhibited. Why are these papers being shown in Morrisons, Tescos, or Sainsburys at child's eye level?
All our children are precious. Homeschooling is just another way, that has been shown to us, in which we as parents can try to keep them precious, and unspoilt.