Wednesday 9th February 11

Up early as we had a visitor booked... Dave the Education at Home Assessor.  However, Gill and our non-home-schooled child had an adventure in town; they went in on the bus and got stuck in town as there was a bomb scare so they got out and walked all the way to the Steiner School.  Apparently town was full of sirens and traffic backed up.  Gill got home quickly by taxi, via Heslington, at about 9.30am.

Dave the Assessor is independent of the City Council, and a very experienced ex teacher, and he arrived on time at 10am.  He talked to our home-schooled child, and us, and found out about all aspects of his weekday activities, what he enjoyed doing, different subjects, and we told him about the help we were getting from Maria and Simon, and going to Cafe Scientifique.  We discussed GCSEs and College, University and a lot more besides.  He was a lovely chap, and made us feel a lot better about what we've done.  He was completely satisfied that we were doing the right thing, and doing enough education and other beneficial activities.  We were all very pleased and in good spirits for the rest of the day.

I had a late lunch and got a bit stuck on facebook because I got drawn into a discussion about a conspiracy theory which I had vaguely heard of, but was a bit incensed by the way someone tried to involve the Rio Earth Summit in it.  Apparently, there is a group of people who caused World War One, World War Two, financed Hitler, caused the Ethiopian famines, and hijacked the Rio Earth Summit for their own ends.  I think it sounds like a mix of nonsense and paranoia, but it is interesting to se how some people think.

I also had a good phone conversation with Philippa from UK Aware, discussing whether I might be able to get involved. 

But I escaped from the confines of the house and went to St Nicks to learn how to work the laptop and projector in preparation for Saturday's Rotters training, which is full, with at least 25 people booked., I was shown what to do by fundraiser and computer expert Graham.  I came home via a pile of willow logs.  Then I did some chainsawing and splitting, and stacking.

A quick tea and out at 7pm to go to the Green Drinks at the 3 Legged Mare.  It was a lively discussion, with Jenny and Tom arriving soon after me, then Kit and June, Julian, Tracey, Melanie and Richard.  I really enjoyed this gathering.

Left at about 10.30 and came home via where I'd seen a stray, unwanted, unloved pallet, which followed me back as I think it knew it would get a warm welcome!  Ha, it will do in due course!

Wednesday 2nd February 11

A hardworking day, dealing with the untidy front garden, riddling more of the accumulated sawdust and sawing up most of the logs and wood that I've collected over the past few weeks.  The sawn up logs were split and stacked either on a new stack of 'green' or wet logs, or if dry (like the wood from Mandy) next to the front door for almost immediate use, or on a pile which doesn't need much drying and should be ready by the summer or autumn.  The green wood will take a year or two to completely dry.

One of the best things to happen in our son's home education for a while was that today he discovered that there was speech recognition software on Gill's laptop, so he installed that and 'trained' it with his voice, by reading out a load of sentences presented to him on the screen.  Then he got on with his science homework from Maria, and finished 8 questions.  Had he been writing these, he'd have probably got two done.  Yay for speech recognition software!

And Yay! for Richard at Country Fresh who always brightens my day!  I cycled down there, via a Freecycler who had bits of used candle to give away, (always good to have a bit of candle wax to help light the stoves), and I popped in on St Nicks to give Ivana a sack of riddled sawdust for their compost toilets, and then on to Richard to buy broccoli and onions, and pick up compostables.

The only other significant thing which happened was that we got a hate letter from someone we know which was full of disgusting slurs and accusations.  Gill was so angry and wanted to go and remonstrate with the sender but I persuaded her to leave it.   I'm used to criticism and I wasn't too bothered... sad, for the sender, but I've far more people in my life who like me, think I'm doing the right thing and have the right approach to life.  I've never said I'm perfect or get it right all of the time, but I don't think anyone should have to receive treatment like that.  I am currently composing a 'page' about the assorted criticism I've received and this letter will definitely go in that.  I wonder why some people read my blog?  If reading something makes them angry, why oh why do they read it?  Some people are daft.  Or maybe I've missed something?  Maybe it's like the thrill of watching a horror film... something else I don't understand, or do!

At 9, I watched a good programme with our little science expert, about the science of waves.  Really interesting stuff... I learned lots too!

Tuesday 1st February 11

Up early as Gill took our little one to school and I had to be up for Justin to come and do the second day of sorting out the electrics.  He did a few more tests with the power off, and then a load with the power live.  One of the problems was apparently our outside lights, which are connected either with hifi speaker cable, or something called 'festoon cable' which is used to string temporary lights up, and the lamps just screw directly into the cable.  Ideally we'd need this replacing with proper cable, but we can't afford to do this so Justin has disconnected the most dangerous bits, such as the garage 'spur' and given us a certificate for the bits which are safe.

I worked with our eldest on a project about the Romans, and I think I've suggested something he likes the idea of.  So I helped him develop that, chivvied him along.  Justin got to the loft where there was a socket which had been damaged by an impact, so he was going to drive up to B+Q to buy another, but I suggested that I went instead, and he said that would be a better use of his time.  So I bombed up there on my bike and spent £1.48 on a new 'back box' which was the part which was broken.

At 1pm I had lunch and at 2 I rolled up to St Nicks for a meeting with John and Edward, to review the new arrangements with my volunteering as a Rotter.  The meeting was short as all is going well.  I had a productive chat with Catherine about the compost training I'm presenting on the 12th February, and then I had 3 things to discuss with Ivana.  I was cycling away by about 3, and as arranged, popped in on Maria to discuss the science lessons she's giving our home-schooler.  She loves doing it, and can take him up to GCSE in Chemistry and probably physics.  In return.... and I'm so pleased with this, she's asked me to dig out her compost heap. I'll bag it up and then either I or she will spread it on her front garden.  Woo hoo!

I got back to an empty house as Justin had finished and Gill had gone to pick up our youngest and had taken our eldest with her.  I was able to go on the net for the first time today, as for the rest of the day, the power had been on and off, so I hadn't bothered.

Once done, I did a bit of sawdust riddling... I now have about 6 sacks of riddled sawdust, a mix of recently produced white/yellow particles and the stuff underneath, on top of the tarp, which has started to decompose and is dark coloured.  This is ideal compost-toilet cover,and is good for any compost heap which has a lot of nitrogen-rich materials, such as grass cuttings, fruit, veg or manure.  I wonder if I could sell it?

I had soup for tea, with a pile of pasta shells and broad beans in it.  Lovely, and exceedingly simple.  At about 6pm I sped off on the bike again to Langwith College to the People and Planet meeting.  I wanted to see how the Waste Food Feast meeting went today, but it seemed that maybe it didn't happen today.  However, we did some planning for the Go Green week, which I'm going to do some stuff in.  Should be good.  I was reminded that Phoebe sent me a document about composting at the University which I said I'd comment on, so that was my work for this evening once I'd got home.  I did however get distracted by a very good programme about explosives.

Friday 21st January 11

Up early but I'd have liked a lie-in, but as Gill was taking our youngest to school, I got up and ensured that our home-educated child got to Maria's on time for his science lesson with her.  Once Gill came back, I went to the bread shop for £4 worth of yesterbake bread (2 big loaves, 4 bags of assorted rolls, 4 iced spirals and 2 bags of flapjack offcuts) and I posted a big parcel of home made dried fruit to Tracey Smith, in swap for her book 'The Book of Rubbish Ideas' which she sent to me to review here!  I haven't started reading it yet, but hope to get around to it soon.

I also read our gas and electricity meters, as I'd received a gas bill and the last two readings were estimates.  I buy both gas and electricity from Good Energy, which supplies 100% renewable electricity, and the gas bill helps pay ROCs to people with solar panels.  The way I pay my bills is to pay a whole year annually in advance, and this means I can easily work out our annual consumption.  So, over the past 12 months, this household of 4 people has used 65 cubic metres of gas, which equates to 726kwh, and cost £65, with £40 standing charge... so our annual gas bill is £111.61.  We use more electricity than gas, 2009kwh last year, which is 5.5kw per day.  The national average is 10 to 28kw/day I was told.  This makes our annual electricity bill £342.84.  I will pay by bank transfer next week.

I enjoyed lunch, and after this bagged up some very well rotted (and dry and powdery!) compost from a rotating barrel tumbler.  It will need riddling but the majority of it is really lovely stuff.

Gill had already gone down to town by bus and then out to the Steiner School, and was awaiting an interview with the class teacher and anther staff member.  I cycled down, getting there just in time for the 3.45 interview.  It seems that our boy has settled in to this new school well, and has made friends and is already pretty well integrated into his class.  We need to fill in a form and work out our gross income to work out our financial contribution, but this should be relatively simple.  We were away by 5pm, Gill and Junior got the bus and I cycled quickly home and put the oven on, as Gill rang and said she'd bought oven chips in Iceland.  We don't have chips very often... maybe once a month, but now and again it's quick and easy.

At 6.45 I took our eldest down to Heslington for his computer graphics lesson.  I picked up 2 loads of wood in the intervening hour and then walked back with him after 8.

I'd been invited to a party this evening but I decided to stay in, and was glad I did as my authority was welcomed when some behaviour happened which merited intervention.    So another busy and full day.

Thursday 20th January 11

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.

Thursday 16th December 10

A busy morning, dealing with the arrangements for our youngest son's schooling. 

In preparation for today's event, Gill made a load of small quiches with goats milk and goats cheese, after I'd been out to buy the milk.  I grated cheese as we'd promised to bring that, and I collected together a bag of dried fruit together. 

The YorkDistrict Home Educators were gathering for a Christmas party at 1pm at Rawcliffe Pavilion in Clifton Moor.  This is really convenient for us, as it is less than 5 minutes walk from a bus stop on Rivelin Way, with the No. 6 bus, which also goes along Tang Hall Lane, which is 5 minutes from us.  The only disadvantage is that this journey with the No. 6 takes 50 minutes, winds it's way through Heworth, Layerthorpe, town, crosses the river, almost gets to the station before doubling back, crossing the river again, going past the hospital, through the Burton Stone Lane/ Burton Green area, and eventually gets to Rivelin Way. 

So I reckoned that if we left the house at about midday that would be about right, but there were major shenanigans and messing around, so I announced that I had got all the mini quiches, cheese and fruit and was ready, and went outside the front door, as I reckoned my presence inside wasn't helping my mental health OR that of any family member.  I stacked logs for half an hour whilst things calmed down and people got ready.  When the bus came, about 5 minutes after we got to the bus stop, I got a family Day Rover for £7.40.

We got to the event just after 1.30 and there were others still arriving.  Our eldest immediately found a group of boys his own age and was all smiles and laughter, it was so good to see.  Our youngest was determined not to enjoy any of the event and therefore didn't.  I enjoyed chatting to one of the other dads and a few mums, and helped by doing a short spot of 3 ball juggling workshop, and lots of clearing up at the end, taking 2 sacks of paper plates and food waste back home on the bus to put in the tumbler.  It was good to meet some other home educators, and although I'm only slowly coming to terms with this change in my life... and not really enjoying it, this event will have helped me move towards acceptance.

When we got back it was dark.  I lit both stoves as the house was cold.  Tea was yesterday's nutloaf and I made a sauce with the rems of the leek and potato soup and some dead pasta and cauliflower. It was delicious!

I kept myself to myself this evening, didn't interact with the children, thought it best not to, and just let them do as they wanted.  I fielded a phone call from Jonathan, a teacher at the Steiner School, about us coming to see the school and discussing our youngest going there.  I also had a crisis message from a friend who's an alcoholic and has an Aspergery boyfriend who had put the phone down on her as she'd admitted to having had a drink, which although he's a drinker himself, he disapproves of.  Complicated, and I'm not sure I was able to help much, but I did ring and listen, in case I was able to help.

Monday 6th December 10

Well, although I had a headache for much of the day, it was a good day.

I got up at 10, as I'd been up til 3 doing the balloons thing.

Had a long time on the laptop, was pleased to see a handful of people had joined my 'event' and, hopefully, had written or emailed James Alexander, to ask him not to do the balloon release.  I got a thank you message from the Marine Conservation Society thanking me for my actions and caring.

I tried to do some work outside, but I got chilled to the bone and had to come in within the hour to defrost.  I can't remember it being so cold!

I had a chat with the Press about the balloon launch, booked tickets to go to Cafe Scientifique on Thursday with my eldest son... it's a talk and discussion about 'dark matter', just his sort of subject... almost way over my head!  I got back to the home education Yahoo Group thanking them for their welcome, and found out about the Christmas party which is luckily on the number 6 bus route, from just round the corner.

Before tea I walked with Gill round to her GP surgery; she was afraid of falling over as she has tumbled several times, so we had some nice chats on the way there, waiting, and walking back.  I made a tea with some squash soup over some dead pasta, and enlivened this with the last of the 'stove-dried' tomatoes which I preserved in extra virgin olive oil after semi-drying on the stove.  They were yummy, and made the old pasta bearable.

In the evening I attended the LETS meeting, with Melody and Sue, and Claire from Grace Preserves came along too, as a prospective member.  Sue was going to walk back to where she lives but I suggested she come back home to warm up, and then get a taxi.  She didn't leave til about 1am.  I then got on with other things!

Thursday 2nd December 10

Another quiet day, although we did attempt a 'family conference' to discuss home education choices with both the boys, but the discussion was inconclusive and not an easy meeting.

The best things I did today were to cycle down to Country Fresh to get some vegetables, and pick up two smallish bags of recyclable materials, visited Debbie, who's got a bit of 'flu, stack a load of logs outside the front door (both stoves going 24/7 at the moment) and make tea.

I spent quite a bit of time on the laptop, and was really blown away by this video, which explains the ecological 'tipping points' really well.  Anyone who wants to understand why I feel so passionate about living a low carbon lifestyle should get their head around this set of concepts, and this 12 minute film will be a good grounding.

Monday 29th November 10

Well a very snowy day, it had snowed heavily overnight, but this didn't stop me doing what I needed to do.

My first appointment was at my dentist's in town, so I set off in good time and had no problems with cycling until i got to Deangate, which had deep slushy icy snow, broken up by assorted vehicles and was difficult to cycle through.  I fell off once here, which was funny as I was expecting to come a cropper somewhere along the route, and it happened just before I got to my destination.

So, had my teeth cleaned and I bought more TePe interdental brushes and cycled home, without incident.

Then we had a meeting at home with one of the teams who's helping us, to discuss home education.

Then we had lunch. 

I managed to chat to someone high-up at York College who may be able to help with the Waste Food Feast, and he gave me some good advice about what might be possible and what wouldn't.  I hope he gets to the meeting tomorrow.  I also made initial contact with someone from York St John University Student Union, as I want these students involved too.  Looks like the Waste Food Feast is slowly coming together.

Sometime during the afternoon a neighbour came round asking for a wheelbarrow of logs as they have a chimera thing in their back garden, so I reluctantly let them have a few, but I really don't feel able to let many logs go, as we need them to keep the house warm... there is no such thing as a spare log here.  The same can't be said for compost or dried fruit, I'm happy to get rid of some of those!  But I like to keep relationships sweet, so it was more of a social thing than anything.

In the evening I had a headache and I went to bed for a couple of hours but got up at 10 when the boys went to bed, as they woke me up.  Gill and I watched a programme on BBC iPlayer about bullying; very interesting.

Tuesday 23rd November 10

An odd day as we have decided to home educate our eldest child, as of today.  Gill spent quite a bit of time doing the required admin with the Local Education Authority and the school, and we'll be contacting the local home schooling group which is very active.  I've done a party for them, and I hope we can get involved in this group.
I'm not brilliant with major changes like this but I expect I'll get used to it.  Between us, Gill and I have a lot of expertise and learning, and we have a lot of contacts who could do some specialist teaching.  I am extremely disappointed that the school has been unable to accommodate our child's needs and has been unable to deal with the dreadful behaviour of some of the other pupils.

Anyway, we look forward to exciting and positive times ahead, and most important, happy times.

I did quite a bit of work outside... stacking logs, filling the leafmould pile, a bit of compost heap management, taking down bean vines and bringing in more dry beans.  I even found a meal's-worth of potatoes.  I had an appointment with the GP practice nurse for an asthma check and flu jab.  On the way back I collected a large sack of gubbins from Freshways.

In the evening I had a use-it-up meal and did some more apple prep for the dried apple production line.  I watched a great programme on the ultimate environmental absurdity, bottled water.  I had an email enquiry from a Tesco marketeer asking me to do a blog post about how Tesco is green.  I could hardly believe it!  I'll consider writing this up over the next few days.

Thursday 17th December 09

A very enjoyable day... I did a good gig which was well appreciated and then went to a party and had several good chats, and plenty to drink!

So, up fairly early to help Gill with morning stuff and then more bits and bobs around the house, spoke to Rachel who is a parent who home educates and is driving from Pocklington to Great Ouseburn, where I was booked to do the Christmas Party. She agreed to come by and pick me up at 12.15, so we could get to the party for about 1pm. She arrived, driven by her partner Tommy and travelling with 3 of her young sons, a bit late, and heavy traffic meant that we didn't get there til 1.20... but still plenty of time to do my circus show, have party tea and then do the balloon activities. I had a great time and several of the children also told me it had been lots of fun. One of the organisers wants to book me again for a science day... although these children are home educated, they regularly get together for group activities and special events, and they often use Great Ouseburn Village Hall as it is equidistant to Harrogate, York, Pocklington and Easingwold, where the different families come from.

The children were very excited as during the 1-4pm event, it started to snow heavily, and some of them hadn't seen much or any snow... Getting home again was very slow, as the traffic was mega heavy and I don't think the snow helped either. But I was back by 5.30.

And at 7pm, it was the St. Nicks Christmas Party. I took a bottle of the Blackberry and Elderberry 1994 which is uncannily like Port, and had a lovely time, including about 4 glasses of the 'Port'. A good day.