Well, that's not quite true. We had some fun way back in July at West Wittering in the scorchio heat with some lovely home edders, and a spectacular storm that wasn't at all scary to witness whilst cowering under canvas in a field.
We got a new gorgeous black kitten called Storm - named after the not-at-all scary storm the night before we got her. She's the sweetest little thing - not at all storm-like - and she and Cosy Joe, our beautiful ginger tom, are bezzie mates already. Can you believe that the animal charities are struggling to find homes for black cats? Apparently, they don't photograph well for Facebook and so people don't want them. I despair.
Then the work kicked in and I found myself working from 7am until 4am on an alarmingly regular basis. Hopefully that won't happen again as I've strengthened and expanded my team thanks to all my lovely friends mucking in and helping me. We verified about 10,000 quiz questions for TV shows this summer. That's a lot of questions, but it's given me an interesting little business idea. I'll bore you with that later.
I even had to belt over to Riga for a business meeting at one point.
That was August. Gone. Bah! No Happy Camping. Double Bah.
Work has quietened down a bit now though and so we could get the Happy Camper out again. We headed to the New Forest in it with our friends Sammy and Lewis. Love the New Forest. We had an awesome time there, especially when the camp site emptied out as the kids went back to school. Love home ed :D
September needs to be more fun than August though, so we have trips planned to Menorca and to Bucharest. Yippee!
What's that you say? I haven't mentioned Thomas in this post. You're quite right. That's because I'm saving the best for last...
One thing that probably concerns all home ed parents is whether or not their children are learning much. I know that Thomas is learning at a hell of a rate because of the questions he asks. But, I've been watching him this summer and surreptitiously testing him to see how his three Rs are shaping up. When he left school, his reading age was barely higher than it was when I sent him to school four years earlier. He wouldn't read and he wouldn't write, telling me that he was too stupid to do it. (Let's not even go into how angry I am that my son should come out of school feeling like this...). Anyway, he now reads and writes confidently and happily. I'd estimate that his reading age is pretty much where it 'should' be, which by my reckoning means that his reading age has probably increased by about three years in the year that he's been home educated.
Nice one, Thomas! His maths was always excellent - despite the best efforts of his dreadful infant school.
He's also been learning to swim and isn't afraid of the water now.
I honestly couldn't be happier or more proud and can't wait for this year's learning shenanigans.
