I went to visit a Home Ed group today that is about 19 minutes away so one we'd be likely to go to regularly. It is held every other week on a Wednesday. From 1.00pm-2.00pm there is an Art lesson for older children and then from 2.00pm-4.00pm there is a looser coffee/chat/play session. It costs £1 per family plus £1 each child to take part in the art.
I decided to turn up around 1.30ish so I could see a bit of the art session and then get some chatting time. I felt a bit of a fraud though as I went on my own without the children! I did consider taking them out of school for the afternoon (I reckon it would count as a legitimate reason, after all they would let us take them out to visit a new school) but they had a science workshop today that we'd already paid for! Plus it gave me a chance to get a feel for it before bringing them.
The room is set up with the art taking place on one side and then on the other side are sofas and lots of toys and games laid out for all different ages. Most excitingly (well for me anyway!) there was a whole table full of books to read about home education and related subjects..... including all Ken Robinson's ;) The art lesson was lovely and gentle and allowed the children to go off with their own ideas, Jaya will really love it I know. The "chat" part kind of carried on during it as well as afterwards. There were around 20 adults and 30 or so children, of all different ages. I saw a lot of girls who reminded me of Papaya, all floating around being arty with flowing hair, but not many boys who reminded me of Povey. In fact the boys seemed to be mostly toddlers and babies, although I guess that probably varies from week to week.
I chatted with several mums all of whom had different reasons for choosing home education and different ways of approaching it. The meeting was held in a "Christian centre" so I was a bit nervous it would have a Christian core to it (I'm Humanist) but actually there was no mention of any religion and the adults were a wonderfully diverse group with women and men from every ethnicity, social status, age etc. you could think of. I wasn't the only one visiting for the first time, and I also wasn't the only one who hadn't brought her children. Everyone seemed to be very friendly and open to talking and the children were able to happily roam inside and out and do whatever took their fancy.
The next one is in two weeks time which is the last week of term. I'm thinking I might take Papaya out of school that day to come along as I know she'd really get a lot from the art session, and then take them both along to the one after that which will be during the Easter Holiday.
I decided to turn up around 1.30ish so I could see a bit of the art session and then get some chatting time. I felt a bit of a fraud though as I went on my own without the children! I did consider taking them out of school for the afternoon (I reckon it would count as a legitimate reason, after all they would let us take them out to visit a new school) but they had a science workshop today that we'd already paid for! Plus it gave me a chance to get a feel for it before bringing them.
The room is set up with the art taking place on one side and then on the other side are sofas and lots of toys and games laid out for all different ages. Most excitingly (well for me anyway!) there was a whole table full of books to read about home education and related subjects..... including all Ken Robinson's ;) The art lesson was lovely and gentle and allowed the children to go off with their own ideas, Jaya will really love it I know. The "chat" part kind of carried on during it as well as afterwards. There were around 20 adults and 30 or so children, of all different ages. I saw a lot of girls who reminded me of Papaya, all floating around being arty with flowing hair, but not many boys who reminded me of Povey. In fact the boys seemed to be mostly toddlers and babies, although I guess that probably varies from week to week.
I chatted with several mums all of whom had different reasons for choosing home education and different ways of approaching it. The meeting was held in a "Christian centre" so I was a bit nervous it would have a Christian core to it (I'm Humanist) but actually there was no mention of any religion and the adults were a wonderfully diverse group with women and men from every ethnicity, social status, age etc. you could think of. I wasn't the only one visiting for the first time, and I also wasn't the only one who hadn't brought her children. Everyone seemed to be very friendly and open to talking and the children were able to happily roam inside and out and do whatever took their fancy.
The next one is in two weeks time which is the last week of term. I'm thinking I might take Papaya out of school that day to come along as I know she'd really get a lot from the art session, and then take them both along to the one after that which will be during the Easter Holiday.
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