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wibblewobble LA visit Tuesday..

17 replies

catbus · 09/05/2010 13:02

Am bit wibblywobbly again, and having posted recently on another thread regarding somebody else's wobbles, I need to share my own and hopefully regain some empowerment about what the dickens I'm doing!!
Have been HEing since Feb 22nd, officially. Have 3 DCs, 11, 7 and 2.5 and one due early September. I filled out the forms for the LA a while back, but since then our plans etc have changed. I am not covering subjects as formally as I stated in the form. I am now learning to go with the flow abit more and am watching my kids' learning styles/patterns unfold.
Consequently, there is not that much written material to show; we have an awful lot of books, use t'internet for a lot of things etc..
A lot of the time, they are 'just' playing and sometimes it seems they aren't 'doing anything that seems constructive'; although I know they are still learning and pretty much still learning to live without the boundaries of school. This is still a massive learning curve for us all! I know I don't have to accept the visit, but am going to, for many reasons, along with seeing if they can offer me anything positive.
I am riddled with fear and guilt some days, that I'm not doing enough with them; I suffer from anxiety in a reasonably big way and some days this affects how far out and about we go. This isn't helped much by feeling quite tired and large and wondering if I am doing the right thing.
My eldest has a place at a 'good' secondary for Sept, which I haven't officially refused yet, in case she changes her mind. Currently, she catagorically doesn't want to go. She has never been statemented, but had a language processing disorder, which along with lack of confidence, amounts to her 'getting hold of the wrong end of the stck' and not making herself understood. School really let her down on this, despite numerous assessments and one to one with maths. Since HEing, her confidence is creeping up; she has gone into a shop and paid for something on her own. They are both going to try art workshops from Friday; something they would have been too tired or nervous about before.
Sometimes I feel my youngest isn't involved enough and gets left to his own devices a lot when I'm trying to spend time with one individual child. Something that will be added to potentially when this baby arrives.
I do think though, that by being at home, I can still give them more love and attention with a new baby, rather than trying to help DD1 adjust to a new baby, secondary school and homework by the shedload she doesn't comprehend; all this whilst dealing with the other 3.
As it stands today, I try to do half an hour structured maths and literacy with each of them per day, then the rest is pretty much free for whatever they want to do. The structured bit doesn't always happen and my eldest has only just agreed to Maths as the fear of it means that I'm taking her right back to basics. Obviously there are many ways we 'do maths' informally; cooking, gardening, shopping etc; same for everything else really. Sometimes this feels I'm not doing enough.
So sorry if this is long and very disjointed; I think I'm just venting my worries and not sure this is the right place for it!
Thanks for enduring though!!

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ommmward · 09/05/2010 14:16

Wobble here. Don't wobble to the LA visitor

Make a list of all the things that school was rubbish at with your children. Next to each thing on the list, make a note of how you are addressing those things, what successes you've had so far, which bits you're still working on. use that as your crib for talking to the person.

Talk about how you are now seeing education and life as one big holistic thing - it's no good worrying about whether your child can do differential equations if they aren't yet confident doing transactions in shops, so you are concentrating on real life learning, helping the children become independent and confident, and they are learning all sorts of things through informal routes along the way

And I would, myself, start the visit by asking the LA staffer what they can offer you - what knowledge do they have, what is their background in HE, what is their knowledge and experience of informal learning, what resources can they offer you? The answers to all those questions are likely to be embarrassing for the LA visitor, and it sets you up for the rest of the meeting as being the expert, graciously explaining to them what you are doing, rather than the supplicant looking for approval.