DD2 has just BEGGED me not to send her to school

[lougle]

She's had the most lovely time with her cousins - a sleepover then a day out with them. But it transpires that they've been telling her not to suck her hand in the last couple of days, as do the children at school, and the teachers at school.

She's just begged me to be a 'home learner'.

The saddest thing was when she said 'I really want to learn at home but I'm worried that if I do miss my friends I won't know the way to their houses when they invite me over to play.' The truth is, she doesn't have any friends to be invited to play with. She associates with the other children, but none would be 'friends'. That's why it was so precious to go and spend time with her cousin (same age, same year group, same school, different class).

It kills me to hear her distress and I know that she knows we keep ignoring her pleas. I can't work out if we genuinely think it's the best for her (she is a child, after all, so we can't let her unilaterally make decisions), or if we're just chicken.

I know I've said it before but zzzz is a genius. That's an amazing idea.

I spoke to the LA HE Advisor/Co-ordinator today. We had quite a productive chat. She was clear about the general LA position but helpful with details of the processes and expectations.

What general LA position? They're not supposed to have one are they? At least not if they aren't maintaining a statement.

It's niche but an expanding one. I reckon you could sell your resource ideas/products/write a book etc.

And also you could SO sell your sanity. It's just so much of a relief to hear you exclaim that their 'ought' to be a language development curriculum and not just an 'every child is different so we couldn't possibly document anything every' that you get from so many other sources. In fact, I'd probably pay you simply for such a sentence to be uttered now and then.

The LA position is that they discourage HE because they believe that the vast majority of children are best served by being in school. Having said that, they recognise that every child is an individual and some children need to be educated out of school.

They write to new HE parents ensuring that they understand the seriousness of a decision to HE and make clear that no funding is given for HE children, etc. They do offer a one off educational consultation, but the onus is on the parent to request it. Other than that, they only have further contact if they have concerns.

They will pay up to £278 towards exam fees for yr11 children. They have arranged exam premises for one HE group and secured facilities for them to do practical science lessons and arranged CRB checks and paid for the insurances (I found this info out from a Hansard publication through Google).

Zzzzz, I must be so frustrating! I'm fighting the urge every day to just say 'enough' and I'm still dreading Monday's TAC meeting.

I might start a blog -I'm terribly naive about it all right now. It would be interesting to look back after some time and see how I was thinking now, how things evolve and change, etc.

zzzz you really ought to write that language development curriculum. It was something you wrote that made me realise that DS being able to discuss mathematical etc concepts with huge words but yet struggling to ask simple questions like 'is that girl your daughter' was not normal
It's so easy to miss the missing basics when there are aspects advanced language present.

Happy Birthday Zzzzz!!!

DS got bought a couple of things over the hols and got annoyed that the baby kept touching them.

Every day he asked 'when we get home, can we paint a tray?'
We always replied something along the lines of 'er, okay. What do you want to paint a tray for?' to which the response was 'to paint it and put my things in it'.

We spent the holidays believing he was desperate for some artwork. When we get back and get an empty box for him and put it on a shelf he was the happiest boy ever.

He didn't want to 'paint' anything particularly. He was trying to communicate that he wanted to HAVE a place to put his things where the baby couldn't get to them.

Your birthday!! Happy, happy birthday!! It's DH's birthday today.

I feel terrible actually -DH's Mum and Dad are in the uk for a visit and brought a fruit cake for DH that his Mum lovingly baked. DH cut the girls a slice, then put the cake on the worktop. The girls were being really raucous and we got distracted.

The.dog.snaffled.the.cake.

DH has had to phone them and confess.

Why did he have to confess?

Poor Lougles DH!

Because when they brought the cake over they specifically said they would look forward to having a slice on Friday. He couldn't say nothing so decided better to do it by phone today than in person on Friday!

I don't think he ate much. I really don't.

It was quite funny trying to reconstruct the cake and work out if he was at risk of raisin poisoning.

3 grams per kilo is the toxic rate. He's only 15kg, so he could bey easily go under.

He'll be fine -he's a tough young thing.

Birthday present

Ah. It's not much, and leads nowhere but it is SOMETHING.

I think you'll like This better!