Up early, as Gill got up at 6ish and I asked her to wake me up at 8, but I couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up at 7.30 and had a shave and a bath, as I wanted to be very presentable today.
Gill took our youngest off to the Steiner School in a taxi at 8.30, and I set our eldest a task to do, some English language work to do, and at 9.10 I cycled off to the Steiner School for their enquirers day. This is part of the process of deciding whether our youngest will become a pupil there.
Gill had been chatting in the cafe, and when I arrived, one of my friends was there and she told us about her children at the school, and how happy they were. Then the enquirers sat in a circle and had two teachers introduced us to the school, the ethos, the school year, and the school day, especially for the youngest in the school, as most of the enquirers were there with very young children, including one 9 week old baby with parents thinking about which school he would go to, nice and early.
Soon we went on a tour of the school, starting with the 6 year olds in Year 1 (we just observed the kindergarten kids through windows off the corridor) and in each class we saw what they were doing, for instance how mathematics was being taught, poetry, zoology, two classes performed a song for us and when we got to the class our son is in, they showed us an interesting 'eurythmy style' method of looking at social interaction based on geometry. The class demonstrated this and then asked the visitors to join in. It was great fun!
But by now it was 11am and although Gill was able to stay on for the question and answer session, I had to cycle back and take our eldest on the bus to Rawcliffe Pavillion, for a gathering of the 'YorkDistrict' home educators. I got some lunch together and then on the No. 6 bus. we discussed about nouns, proper nouns, collective nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, conjunctions, gerunds, interjections, expletives, assorted punctuation and more! The long bus journey was soon over. The event was a general meeting, not the 'Chess/Bored' meeting which sometimes happens, and there were quite a few younger children there so it was quite noisy. We had our sandwiches and my lad had a game of chess with another boy... a close game, which our son just won. Then I had a game with him, and he comprehensively beat me... the first time he's beaten me, and he felt really good about this. Towards 3pm we gathered up our stuff... I took away a large crisp packet full of teabags and plate scrapings for composting.
When we got the bus, I was delighted to see my old friend John Huggins, whom I've known for over 20 years, but haven't bumped into for a couple of years. He was looking really well, and is a few months away from retiring. He got off at the Theatre Royal and I then resumed chatting with my boyo.
So, a successful and interesting day, but I was knackered, so after tea, I decided to have an hour's kip before going out to the City Screen to see the new Talking Heads film, with a live link interview with David Byrne afterwards. But when I got up at 8pm, I decided not to go, but to stay in with the family and enjoy a couple of good tv programmes instead. I'm sure I'll get to see the film sometime.
I also froze several batches of the tomato/onion base I made a day or two ago, and made the rest into soup.
Gill took our youngest off to the Steiner School in a taxi at 8.30, and I set our eldest a task to do, some English language work to do, and at 9.10 I cycled off to the Steiner School for their enquirers day. This is part of the process of deciding whether our youngest will become a pupil there.
Gill had been chatting in the cafe, and when I arrived, one of my friends was there and she told us about her children at the school, and how happy they were. Then the enquirers sat in a circle and had two teachers introduced us to the school, the ethos, the school year, and the school day, especially for the youngest in the school, as most of the enquirers were there with very young children, including one 9 week old baby with parents thinking about which school he would go to, nice and early.
Soon we went on a tour of the school, starting with the 6 year olds in Year 1 (we just observed the kindergarten kids through windows off the corridor) and in each class we saw what they were doing, for instance how mathematics was being taught, poetry, zoology, two classes performed a song for us and when we got to the class our son is in, they showed us an interesting 'eurythmy style' method of looking at social interaction based on geometry. The class demonstrated this and then asked the visitors to join in. It was great fun!
But by now it was 11am and although Gill was able to stay on for the question and answer session, I had to cycle back and take our eldest on the bus to Rawcliffe Pavillion, for a gathering of the 'YorkDistrict' home educators. I got some lunch together and then on the No. 6 bus. we discussed about nouns, proper nouns, collective nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, conjunctions, gerunds, interjections, expletives, assorted punctuation and more! The long bus journey was soon over. The event was a general meeting, not the 'Chess/Bored' meeting which sometimes happens, and there were quite a few younger children there so it was quite noisy. We had our sandwiches and my lad had a game of chess with another boy... a close game, which our son just won. Then I had a game with him, and he comprehensively beat me... the first time he's beaten me, and he felt really good about this. Towards 3pm we gathered up our stuff... I took away a large crisp packet full of teabags and plate scrapings for composting.
When we got the bus, I was delighted to see my old friend John Huggins, whom I've known for over 20 years, but haven't bumped into for a couple of years. He was looking really well, and is a few months away from retiring. He got off at the Theatre Royal and I then resumed chatting with my boyo.
So, a successful and interesting day, but I was knackered, so after tea, I decided to have an hour's kip before going out to the City Screen to see the new Talking Heads film, with a live link interview with David Byrne afterwards. But when I got up at 8pm, I decided not to go, but to stay in with the family and enjoy a couple of good tv programmes instead. I'm sure I'll get to see the film sometime.
I also froze several batches of the tomato/onion base I made a day or two ago, and made the rest into soup.
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