A LIFE WORTH LIVING....: March 2009

Sunday, 29 March 2009

Catch up,shopping,holiday plans.

It's been a little quiet on here:-)

We've kept ourselves busy,seeing friends,visiting family in Yorkshire,sleepovers,pyjama days,TV and DVDs, walks for Emily and Alan in the fairy woods leading to Crummock water.Crying a great deal to Marley and me at the cinema,lot's of drawing,plans for an art gallery and money making opportunity for Emily, more of that at a later date;-))Request for a project on Victorians from Emily,whose best friend is doing one at school.Daily Bratz play with Daddy and vets surgery play with mummy.

Shopping for a bed,Milly fell in love with a water bed today,not my cup of tea though, very strange feeling!! Searching for an automatic car locally which is proving to be like searching for a needle in a haystack,might have found one today depending on how much they will stretch on a part exchange deal,fingers crossed.Sofa shopping in DFS with Milly who said she was surprised she had enjoyed sofa shopping so much!! Great fun in large swivel chairs and trying out as many different styles as she could.

Plans for holidays later in the year,caravan in Scotland with Emily's best friend E ,Aunty's house in Yorkshire,long weekend in a caravan in Northumberland with Emily's best friend A,no greek island this year (boo hoo)unfortunately car and sofa are taking priority this year:-( Maybe next year!!Or,wishful thinking, a really good hot summer so I can get my sun fix!!

Thursday, 19 March 2009

Hooked on your blog award.

I wrote this before I got Ill and just never got it posted so I thought now was as good a time as any:-))

Jean, Heart Rockin Mama very kindly passed this on to me.6 random things/what makes me happy.Seems like things are conspiring to encourage me to look at the positives in my life and that's no bad thing. Luckily I am in a positive frame of mind as this could be tricky when I am in lull:-)

Okey dokey here we go.Some random facts and some things that make me happy.

1.There are particular areas in the house that I love to spend time in,one of them is the desk area. I love to sit here with the big lights off and the desk light on.It always feels cosy.I am surrounded by pictures Emily has drawn for me, a list of positive affirmations,pictures of my nephew and Emily,some inspiring quotes, and my inner peace cards that I choose one from each day and am constantly amazed at just how relevant the message always is.There is also a huge amount of clutter and a constant pile of bills to pay and letters to answer but that's ok, that's what this area is for after all.

2.One of my favourite comfort foods is mashed potatoes with gravy.The gravy has to just right though.I do make a good gravy even though I say so myself and I freeze any left over from roast dinners so I have a supply waiting,you never know when your gonna need comforting ;-))

3.I would class myself as a dreamer.Some might say I am naive,I trust easily and always want to believe the best in people.I think of myself as a lucky person.Over the last few years I have got much better at seeing the bright side.

4.Driving past a school during school hours with Emily in the car never fails to remind me how blessed we are and to be thankful that we are out of that system.

5.Seeing the garden fresh and clean in the springtime.I love to see the earth and space between the plants before they grow larger.The little veg shoots promising so much,unless said shoots get eaten by bleeping slugs or caterpillars!!sore point,I lost a great deal last year as I wasn't ready for them.I will be armed with information,netting and slug pellets this year,organic of course!!

6.I am seriously thinking of having my nose pierced.

I now pass it on to 6 blogs I am hooked on ?

Not sure I can list just 6 as I have soooo many I love to read for differing reasons.
Some that I have followed since I first heard about the blog world are

Grit

Michelle

Laura

Colleen

Gill

Claire

clare

Sally

See up to eight already!!
Some that are newer to me but I seem to have a great deal in common with are,

Mon

Sam

Debs

K

Hannah

Dawny

Shirl

Thank you all for sharing.I do love the new follow linky thing cos now I don't spend quite so long skipping around to see who posted,the info is all in one place so I never miss anything!!I am sure no one will mind if you all pick up this award,if you want to of course.xx

Tuesday, 17 March 2009

Sunshine and sleepover

A wonderful sunny day today has helped to lift my spirits.We have been out to town to do a few errands and took Emily for an appointment with Rezwanna for some Rieki.

We have picked up E who I have not seen for over 3 weeks and she is staying over tonight.I am picking her up after her drama group on Thursday and she will stay over again, much to Milly's pleasure:-))

So things are getting back to normal now.The horrible black cloud of a possible relapse has passed and all is well.xx

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This is me.....

There comes a time when you have to stand up and shout: This is me damn it! I look the way I look, think the way I think, feel the way I feel, love the way I love! I am a whole complex package. Take me... or leave me. Accept me - or walk away! Do not try to make me feel like less of a person, just because I don't fit your idea of who I should be and don't try to change me to fit your mold. If I need to change, I alone will make that decision.When you are strong enough to love yourself 100%, good and bad - you will be amazed at the opportunities that life presents you.” Stacey Charter.

Why we Home educate

( Slightly edited from a blog post I did when we started out) In the end the actual decision to take Emily out only took a matter of days but before that it had been around a year and a half of talking about ti and reading books, Free range education by Terri Dowty, Educating your child at home by Jane Lowe and Alan Thomas were two that had a real impact for different reasons. Free range education has lots of examples of real life home educators and I think I can say that it was this one that convinced me the most that we could do it. We are two very average people ,neither of us left school with many qualifications, we went on to do quite well in our chosen professions and had no need to think about the education system at all until Emily came along.

I knew about home education and when Emily was born considered it as an optionbut always felt my lack of education would be a problem and that I wouldn't be capable of providing her with what she would need.Looking back with hindsight it is easy to see how wrong I was!!

School never really suited Emily......After the nursery year at a very highly rated, high achieving school we knew that particular School wasn't for us and took her out. We enrolled her in a lovely village school with only 70 children in the whole school .The ethos of the school was totally different, the children didn't wear uniforms and there was much more emphasis on the children being individuals.The head was a sensitive and principled man who wanted the best for the children. We thought we had struck gold.Over the reception and year 1 Emily gained confidence and really started to bloom. It was at this time she was diagnosed with dyspraxia( we had had to go down the diagnosis route as our observations of Emily's difficulties were not enough to enable the teachers to tailor things so she was helped and given less work in class) but she managed quite well in the more relaxed play orientated early years.Year 2 with more emphasis on academic activities got progressively harder for her. She is very sensitive and it wasn't just the academic side it was the embarassment of having to put her hand up for the toilet,seeing others being told off and worrying in case she did something wrong and got the same treatment, panicking because she couldn't do the work and the teacher never had time to sit with her (alot of this did not come out until she had left school) her behaviour at home became worse and worse she was so angry and obviously stressed . At this time we began to seriously consider taking her out but held back because of my lack of confidence in my ability to provide her with an adequate education ,my health being so poor was also a major stumbling block.

Then in year three it became blatantly obvious that something needed to change .She was struggling on all levels and we couldn't allow the school system to damage our daughter anymore.She became ill with a bug that was doing the rounds and she was off for two weeks , during that time I had a conversation with a friend who home educates her two children and I was so upset I couldn't make a decision and she said just go with whats in your heart and that really helped me to shift my thinking and stop worrying about what I couldn't give her and focus on what I could give her.

We never sent her back.I still get emotional when I think of that time , the look on Emily's face when we told her she would never have to go back to school was priceless,the immense sense of relief that we were off the treadmill of school life and the excitement of the time ahead and to be honest the fear of the unknown......

So here we are four years on and a lot of reading and researching later I feel comfortable with what we are doing . The changes that have happened so far have been helped along the way by the many wonderful blogs out there.They are so varied and there are so many different approaches , I have found ones that I can identify with and have read a lot of archive material that has been written in each and found answers to so many of the questions I have had that they have helped me to sort out what will work best for us .As much as I wish we had done this earlier and saved Emily from the distress that she went through I do believe things happen for a reason and that the time was right for us to take her out and that looking on the bright side one of the benefits is that at least she has had a taste of school and now we all know without a doubt that it is not for us !!!!

It is very liberating to be making decisions based on what works best for us as a family and not what society expects.

Let your child be a child.

No child was ever spoiled by too much love.

Be authentic with your child.

Listen openly to your child’s needs.

Believe in your child’s good intentions.

Find the humour.

Look past the behaviour… what is your child feeling?

Have fun with your child today!

“There is no reason why we cannot say ‘No’ to children in just as kind a way as we say ‘Yes’.” - John Holt

“Play is really the work of childhood.” - Fred Rogers

“The best way to make children good is to make them happy.” - Oscar Wilde

Children thrive in a peaceful and loving environment.

A child needs love most when things go wrong.

Children reflect the treatment they receive.

A few qoutes I like....

Life shouldn't be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in, broadside, thouroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly shouting, 'WOW'.... Beth Moore

The perpetual testing of public school children is like a gardener constantly pulling his plants up by the roots to see if they are growing....(unknown)

Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instuction...Helen Kellers teacher

I hear and I forget I see and I remember I do and I understand...Confusious