H.E. day

Today we went to our local Home Education group, which gives Harlan chance to play with other children in a fairly large group (five children today, sometimes more, sometimes less) while parents chat and swap ideas. We've been able to offer help with science subjects, so hopefully we are contributing something to the group, and I'm hoping to use the space in the room to do more crafting with Harlan - without cats and dogs poking their noses into PVA and paint! We're hoping to start a similar group nearer to us, either once a month or once a fortnight, to complement the existing group.

By the time we got home Harlan was getting rather tired and overwrought, so I produced a kit for making a Halloween mobile and we sat for a while doing gluing with pom poms and pipe cleaners. He's gotten much better at following instructions and waiting for things to dry, rather than randomly squirting glue around and pulling previously glued items apart! Once he had created some bats and spiders - complete with googly eyes - I attached them to some lolly sticks and tied the whole contraption to the light fitting in the front room, where my husband keeps walking into it!

We ended the day with a few games of Snap! which is his current favourite game. For his birthday last week he was lucky enough to get some animal snap cards and the Gruffalo ones we bought him, which can be used for snap or rhyming word games. We played with both sets of cards tonight, but he got so over-excited that we needed a few stories before bedtime to calm down again!

Tomorrow we are at a party for his friend's birthday, but in the evening we will be having movie night - another wonderful birthday present, consisting of a beautifully patterned box containing "tickets", a DVD and popcorn. I'm looking forward to the three of us cuddling up on the settee in the dark, munching on popcorn and watching a film, sounds like a great night to me.

Life is changing

The boy has turned three. It crept up on me, it seemed as though I would have a toddler forever but of course he is now officially a preschooler. Except he won't be going to preschool. He currently goes to his beloved childminder two days a week, as my health isn't always good and I need the rest, but come Christmas things will be changing. R will be going back to teaching, and will be gone five days a week. We've been very lucky to have him around so much, even if it meant finances were tight, and we'll miss him when he's gone - all the while being very proud of the work he's putting in to make a better life for the three of us.

The boy's routine will be changing too - he will be leaving his childminder as the others his age will be off to nursery and preschool. We think that, for our family, the best thing to do will be to find a playschool we love, that he can attend part time. I don't want somewhere that pushes learning and prepares children for school, although I know all of them will do that to some extent. I want somewhere he can go for a few hours, have fun, then come home. This coming week will hopefully involve lots of visits to local nurseries and playgroups to find the perfect place for my little man.

We still intend to home educate him for the first few years of primary school at least. I feel that, by not sending him to preschool, we are making our first leap into H.E. but the truth is that it's the first time our decision is being noticed (and sometimes questioned) by other people. Harlan has always learned from/with/around us. At the age of three he can recognise some letter and words, count forwards and backwards, know shapes, colours and name a huge amount of animals. So he is not lacking in education, despite the fact we are yet to sit down with a workbook.

Today has not been a good day for me health-wise, so R has looked after Harlan for most of the day and he has entertained himself mostly with his birthday presents. When I came downstairs we did a bit of crafting, making cardboard dinosaurs and playing games with them - what are they called, what do they eat? Aside from the things I try to set up to initiate learning, he learns a lot from asking questions and having them answered. And boy, does he ask a lot of questions!