“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”

WannabeFree

Today has been a NSD.

Smalls had pasta bake for dinner, they really enjoyed it too! Some ready for the freezer in portions.

DS brought his trip letter home £13.30 :cool: They are going to some workshops at Tatton Park. Spoke to school about the cost and can pay over the next 3 weeks

They all had a good day at school despite the tears this morning. They are all bathed and ready for bed now. I've washed and ironed the uniforms and done their lunches for tomorrow. I think I might start doing them the night before for the things that won't spoil overnight. It made this morning so much easier.

Think we will all be having an early night tonight

x

AdventureWanted

Hi,
Have been reading your diary (currently at page 20), but thought I'd jump ahead to your home Ed discussion.

You are absolutely qualified to home Ed your children. For starters you will be providing 1:1 learning (or 3 to 1 in my case) and you know your child better than the teachers so can choose the best learning methods to help your child understand. My DC1 needs a lot of reassurance with his maths, so we spend time doing the work together (well I watch and help explain things if he doesn't understand). At school they waste a lot of time taking registers, swapping classrooms, dealing with disruptive children, so the amount of actual learning is less than you first think. You don't have to follow the curriculum and can choose what you would like to teach. For us we do kind of follow the curriculum for English and maths, but will do projects to incorporate lots of other subjects. We've just finished studying Ancient Egypt and I don't remember hardly anything about it from my school days, but it's been really fun learning alongside the kids. In areas you don't feel as confident teaching, then there are loads of resources available (google, YouTube videos, the library, etc).

Anyway I'll stop boring you all about home Ed now!! If you have any questions or want to discuss it further just ask away .

Will now go back to page 21!

teafor2

Glad the DC's enjoyed their first day back at school and hope youngest wasn't too upset for too long.

I always do packed lunches the night before then just pop the lunchbox in the fridge. In the morning it comes out nice and chilled which helps when DS has to carry it around with him all morning. The other reason is the last thing I want to be doing in the morning is making sandwiches

Your turnaround time for washing, drying and ironing 3 sets of uniform is fantastic. Any chance I can send you DS's. :rotfl:

Have a lovely evening. x

WannabeFree

AdventureWanted wrote: »

Hi,
Have been reading your diary (currently at page 20), but thought I'd jump ahead to your home Ed discussion.

You are absolutely qualified to home Ed your children. For starters you will be providing 1:1 learning (or 3 to 1 in my case) and you know your child better than the teachers so can choose the best learning methods to help your child understand. My DC1 needs a lot of reassurance with his maths, so we spend time doing the work together (well I watch and help explain things if he doesn't understand). At school they waste a lot of time taking registers, swapping classrooms, dealing with disruptive children, so the amount of actual learning is less than you first think. You don't have to follow the curriculum and can choose what you would like to teach. For us we do kind of follow the curriculum for English and maths, but will do projects to incorporate lots of other subjects. We've just finished studying Ancient Egypt and I don't remember hardly anything about it from my school days, but it's been really fun learning alongside the kids. In areas you don't feel as confident teaching, then there are loads of resources available (google, YouTube videos, the library, etc).

Anyway I'll stop boring you all about home Ed now!! If you have any questions or want to discuss it further just ask away .

Will now go back to page 21!

Thank you so much for coming over. Please don't feel you need to read the whole thing. It's long and full of a lot of moaning :rotfl:

The cost that come with Home Ed worries me? Is it expensive?

Are you 'tested' or inspected etc? How would I prove that she is receiving education once she turns 5?

Thank you again and I'm sorry if these are silly questions
x

WannabeFree

teafor2 wrote: »

Glad the DC's enjoyed their first day back at school and hope youngest wasn't too upset for too long.

I always do packed lunches the night before then just pop the lunchbox in the fridge. In the morning it comes out nice and chilled which helps when DS has to carry it around with him all morning. The other reason is the last thing I want to be doing in the morning is making sandwiches

Your turnaround time for washing, drying and ironing 3 sets of uniform is fantastic. Any chance I can send you DS's. :rotfl:

Have a lovely evening. x

:rotfl: 28 minute wash is what washes everything in this house I only use hotter washes for underwear and anything really dirty.

I try and iron while they eat they dinner so we can chat while they are eating and I'm doing something useful :rotfl: It means I can be lazy at this time if I want to be

Going to start doing the lunches in the evening now. This morning was so much easier and felt like we had time to talk/read etc before leaving. Although I did get them up at 6.30am :rotfl:

HairyHandofDartmoor

I'm glad they had a good day at school today and hope tomorrow goes well too.

I don't know anything about home ed but I'm sure you'll make the right decision for DD2.

teafor2

Same here with the quick wash - don't know what I'd without it some days. It's the drying that takes the time here. The house is freezing - through choice. While I'm always cold the rest of the clan are hot blooded so I'm in the minority when it comes to turning the heating on

AdventureWanted

WannabeFree wrote: »

Thank you so much for coming over. Please don't feel you need to read the whole thing. It's long and full of a lot of moaning :rotfl:

The cost that come with Home Ed worries me? Is it expensive?

Are you 'tested' or inspected etc? How would I prove that she is receiving education once she turns 5?

Thank you again and I'm sorry if these are silly questions
x

Cost of home Ed
It can be as expensive or cheap as you want it to be. We pay for quite a few subscriptions, but to be honest we don't really need them (I'm fairly lazy!!). You can get lots of worksheets for free online, cheap study books in shops like the works or Poundland and many libraries have study guides too. For the first few years they will spend a lot of time learning to read (you can get loads of free resources on phonics online and at the library. There's also the teach your monster to read website which is brilliant at teaching the phonics sounds. When out for a walk read signs, advertising boards, etc), writing (they can help write shopping lists, label drawings, etc), and maths (lots of online free worksheets, can get cheapish workbooks if needed, helping with cooking - reading the ingredients, counting sweets/number of cars they see on a walk). There will be lots of fellow home Ed families who are trying to save money, so there are usually park meet ups or play dates. It doesn't have to be lots of paid days out or groups. On Facebook there are home Ed groups for most areas, so you can join and find what groups are available. As they get to GCSE age it does become more expensive, as you have to pay for them to sit the exams. The beauty of home Ed is that it doesn't have to be forever. You can try it and if after a year it isn't for you/your child, you simply reapply to local schools. Just remember you wouldn't have the cost of school uniform, school shoes, school trips, etc.

Are you 'tested' or inspected etc? How would I prove that she is receiving education once she turns 5?

We had a letter from the local authority a few months after we deregistered DC1 from school. They asked things like what resources we will have access to (library, workbooks, online worksheets, local museums, etc), how we will socialise our child, what p.e they will be doing in the week (walks, going to park, etc). You aren't tested and they don't inspect you as such. They just want proof that you are doing something with them and not just watching tv all day. Most people only deal with their local authority in writing so they fill in forms and don't have inspections. You can meet them if you want, it's a personal choice.

You have to provide an education that is appropriate for the age and ability of your child. It is the LEA's responsibility to prove if you are not doing this. Evidence wise I've got a folder which I put any worksheets, drawings, writing in and we take lots of photos of what the kids are doing so I can show some of the things we do (cooking, reading, doing worksheets, day out at a museum). We had one visit (which we aren't obligated to have - you can just contact them via writing) and our LEA didn't see any work beyond some drawings the kids wanted to show! In fact DC1 obviously found it boring half way through as he left the room and let me carry on chatting! They were happy to discuss what we were doing and wanted to offer assistance if they could.

I'm not 100% sure that all makes sense! Hopefully it does though.

WannabeFree

That's really helpful and thank you for such a detailed reply. I think they are my two main concerns. I'm sure I'll find a few more along my way. The local library has some one who can talk to me too about the workshops and activities they run. So I'm going to pop down and have a chat with her this week.

Thank you again.

x

WannabeFree

07/01/19
Debt
Council Tax [STRIKE]£375[/STRIKE] £350 (£25 paid)
Rent arrears [STRIKE]£1545[/STRIKE] £1495 (£50 paid)
Credit card [STRIKE]£150[/STRIKE] £122.60***

[STRIKE]Total £2070[/STRIKE] £1967.60

Bank balance £78.24*

Food budget £15** (£1.62 spent)

*bank balance. Includes £88 I didn't have/expect when I did the budget So over the next 6 weeks £12.50 a week extra. (after paying the £13.66 to credit card)

**Food budget is now £17 a week going forward Much healthier than the £5 it was

Need to fit in the budget
DS School trip £13.30(25th Jan)
DD's School tights £8
DD1 School shoes £?