Greetings from the sunny South West of England! The weather has finally warmed up, we’re enjoying some more relaxed learning outdoors and chatting with neighbours as we all finally come out of hibernation. It’s generally been a cold, wet spring here, so these beautiful blue skies are very welcome.
Having time away from something can often give space for creativity and new ideas to emerge. So it has been with this little blog space; as I begin this new season, I’m going to endeavour to write in three, short sections. The first will be some observations of the countryside around us with seasonal jobs and opportunities this provides; the second will be a practical home ed tip, based on something we’ve done recently, and the third will be some more reflective thoughts. I hope this will tick at least one box for each of you.
Wherever you are, I hope you can find time this week to restore your own soul and seek out the beauty that is around you. Molly x
Nature notes and homestead jottings
This wonderful warmth, following on from well watered soil has caused a proliferation in our gardens, fields, rivers, woods and hedgerows. The hawthorn, also known as May blossom, has been beautifying our hedgerows with its frothy white flowers. I’ve dried a few of its new leaves, to use in tea over the winter months.
Nettles, wild garlic and watercress (from the river) are just about at the end of their spring burst. I’ve dried and made pesto from the wild garlic, hopefully benefitted from nettle and mint tea and we’ve enjoyed the watercress in salads and soups. I’ve not worked out a way to preserve it.
As it’s half term this week, I’ve had a little more time to plant out many of the seedlings which were in our small polytunnel. This can often be a bit dispiriting, as tender plants which have done just fine inside are suddenly at the mercy of slugs, birds and escaped chickens. I often feel I feed the wild life population more than my own family!
Home education journal
The above picture is of some of the children in our home ed co op. This is a new venture, started by a small group of us in January. It is aimed at children of secondary age, and we seek to have our Christian faith underpin our days together. So far, we’ve enjoyed dance and drama, which culminated in a fantastic production of “Noah” before Easter, science, and are currently doing an Alpha course led by a lovely couple of local church leaders. It’s hugely worthwhile, but has obviously been a fairly steep learning curve for us adults, too. We’ve got new plans in the bag for this half of them, so I’ll keep you updated.
Musings for our time
I enjoyed giving my talk at the Learn Free Comference , not least because I met some lovely mums and it was a good interactive session. In fact, we stayed talking for long after the recording ended, which makes me wonder if it’s a topic for which we need to give more space for discussion. So, here’s one more nugget from my notes for you to ponder over.
As home educating parents, we often talk about our home ed philosophy, ie our “why’s” for home educating. Here are ours, mainly in picture form. Or, if you’re curious to know more, listen to a podcast here.
It is relatively easy to talk of faith and character coming before academic or other learning achievements if we are fairly confident these other will follow. However, what if it’s a choice? We can either push towards some basic qualifications or try and maintain a teen’s mental health. What if, to preserve relationship, academic achievement has to be placed on the back burner? Is it really enough to strive towards building strong relationships of love and trust, giving every opportunity for our daughter/son to know Jesus, and helping to develop those Issachar Eyes, to be aware of the times we are living in and equipped to make wise decisions alongside this? I would say a resounding yes! We simply don’t know what is around the corner; the future for all of us is uncertain at the best of times, and I don’t feel these are those times. So, if our days need to be spent in “doing life” together, if our limited energies need to be invested in the training of character rather than battling over algebra, if much of our academic work revolves around readalouds, getting a grasp of history and geography, a love of nature, an understanding of poetry and art and of how people have lived in different time periods around the world, then that’s the option we go for. My mind goes back again to Psalm 1, comparing the man/woman of God to a tree who’s roots are planted in streams of water. I sense we are going to need deep, deep roots to hold us steady in the times ahead and for us, it’s worth sacrificing other more transient goals to put these down.
I often pray the following verse for my family…substituting woman for man, when I pray for the girls and myself.
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.”
Psalm 1:1, 3 ESV
Mothering through the seasons 
Thank you, Molly, for your wise and thoughtful ‘Musings’ which very much chime with our family situation now – trying to help a deep-thinking teenager hold hope for the future is difficult in these days!
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That’s a challenging one…may you have wisdom, courage and grace as you walk it day by day. X
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