Fabulous Friends and Beautiful Children

I know, I know, I’m a blog slacker! The thing is Intrepid Readers is that I haven’t had the heart to sit down and put my recent thoughts into writing. I don’t want to fill my blog every other day about politics, media, what is being said about home educators, what is being done to hurt so many good families, I’m sure even I would get sick of my own voice if I started on any of that. And it would depress me, and I don’t like that feeling! I’m a happy, skipping through meadows kind of person. Lets go hug a tree, etc, etc.

A few days ago a new surge in the persecution of home educators reared it ugly head in the media, but instead of raising my blood pressure I realised something that made me smile.

Crazy lady! I can almost see you looking at me like I’ve grown a spare head! Let me explain…

I am truly blessed. I have made so many wonderful friends over the last few months, people I have never met in person, people I probably will never get the opportunity to meet. In the face of everything we’re going through we make each other laugh and smile, we send each other hugs and support whenever it’s needed, and boy is it needed more than ever right now! We chat about our children, their work, share pictures of those beautiful home ed moments.

It is a wonderful thing that although we’ve been brought together by something so threatening as the CSF Bill together we are fighting to protect our children’s rights and even when this is over I know that these lovely people shall remain my friends for many years to come.

To my friends, old and new, thank you from the bottom of my heart! You have made this whole situation more than bearable!

And my fabulous family. The thing that I’m fighting for. It hits me like a ton of bricks every single time I stop and take stock of what I am so lucky to have. There is so much that I could take for granted, I’m learning not to!

Since we began out HE journey, seems a life time ago now, the way we did things was just how life was. It all seemed normal to us, completely natural, until Ed Balls came crashing into our lives and made me feel like a freak for wanting to spend time with my own children. (I shall not start ranting! Paper bag, breath…) So only recently have I begun to fully appreciate what I have and the time and opportunities that I have to live and learn along side my children.

For those of you who have nosed at my website or visited my old blog you’ll already know what a massive fan I am of Charlotte Mason and her educational philosophies. One of which we live our whole lives by… Education is a life.

My beautiful children and their lust for learning makes me come alive. I wake up in the morning wondering what they will want to know today, I share their excitement, in fact I probably get more excited than they do! I share their joy when they discover something for the first time. I so strongly believe that we have never truly seen the world in all its glory until we have allowed ourselves to view it through the eyes of a child. That feeling, I can’t describe it, when my children share with me something they’ve seen or done for the first time, it’s as though I see it for the first time too.

These days I don’t get worried anymore when someone says in the street “No school today?” my heart swells with pride when Niamh confidently stands there and informs them that she and her brother are home educated and that she thinks its great, thank you very much. Thats when I know we’re doing the right thing for our family, something that suits us and the kids down to the ground. We love it, they love it, it’s just… right.

See why I can smile even through bad times and horrible media coverage? It has made me grateful, its made me thankful for my supportive husband, wonderful children and fabulous friends. They can throw what they like at me and mine, I am so proud to call myself a home educating mamma, so proud to say my children are home educated, so proud to be a member of such a great community. They can try to impose all the legislation they like on us, but they’ll never take any of these things from me.

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