Further adventures and beautiful places – July 2024

---

“Anne’s beauty-loving eyes lingered on it all, taking everything greedily in. She had looked on so many unlovely places in her life, poor child, but this was as lovely as anything she had ever dreamed”

Anne of Green Gables, Lucy M Montgomery

---

Hello Friends,

How is life treating you? As I chat with friends and neighbours it seems that challenges, sadnesses and concerns about the future are facing many. I hope that whatever your particular circumstances, you are able to take time this month to look up at the night sky and be awed by the stars and galaxies set in place, to look down at a patch of earth and see the intricate design of flowers, weeds and tiny bugs, to look around and enjoy the green of summer trees, of birdsong and of still vibrant summer borders, and to take time to drink tea and know you and your precious ones are deeply loved.

July continued to be a busy month, with a trip to Manchester for GHEX, and a week in Cornwall at the Lizard with family followed by Creation Fest. We were made very aware of the reality of the spiritual battle we are in, when we had a near miss with a trailer hurtling through our tent in the small hours of the morning. I am certain an angel propelled me up and I was able to jump out of the way before it came to a stop where I was sleeping. If it had come at my husband he wouldn’t have heard anything as he is partially deaf. There were black feathers placed in lines all over the Creation Fest site, a sure sign of witchcraft. We know our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces of the devil; a reminder to keep alert in our praying and to know that He who is within us is greater than he who is within the world.

While that incident rather marred the week, the rest of the time was lovely, especially our few days on the Lizard spent with much loved aunt, uncle and cousins. We walked the coast path, swam in the sea, ate pasties for lunch and watched the sun go down. The weather was glorious, the sea sparkled and the ice cream was delicious!

I hope you too are able to soak up some summer sunshine and every day beauty; until next month,

Love Molly x

---

Nature notes and homestead jottings

July is a lovely month in the garden; vegetables ready to pick and soft fruit in full flow. I’ve picked lots and made some jam but mostly popped them in the freezer to eat with muesli, granola and kefir for breakfast over the next year.

---

Homeschool journal

July saw the UK’s turn to host the Global Home Education Conference, a part of GHEX, in Manchester. Amazingly I was asked to speak on a couple of the panels. I honestly thought the organisers had come across my email by mistake, so didn’t even reply initially! I then declined, due to both the practicalities and also a fear of going out of my comfort zone. However, I knew I’d made the wrong decision. The organisers were very gracious, and with a mix of family and neighbours stepping in to look after Sparkly Eyes, Dancing Toes and myself set off one sunny morning on a bus from Bristol to Manchester.

It was such fun having some time away with her. We stayed in a Premier Inn, had supper at Weatherspoons and explored some of central Manchester, particularly enjoying the trams and grand old buildings harking back to the city’s wealthy industrial past.

The conference was amazing. It was held at Manchester Central, a very smart conference centre converted from the old railway station. I suppose it was where I would have arrived when I came up to Manchester over thirty years ago with a view to doing my nursing training there. There were speakers and delegates from all over the world. It was a stark reminder of the freedoms we still have for educational choice in this country. Many live in fear of the authorities and I met families from other European nations who have to keep quiet or have even had to flee for fear of imprisonment if they continued to educate their children at home. We need to be vigilant, to pray and to continue to stand our ground. For updates on home education and the political scene, do check out The HE Byte.

I was very encouraged to hear and meet speakers who have been giants in the “home schooling” world. The theme of the conference was “Home education works” and I was part of the panel addressing how home ed works during the challenging seasons of life. We could only stay for one of the two days, so I couldn’t be on the second panel, but was glad to see it was addressing home educating children with additional needs.

Dancing Toes was a star and spent the day selling books, while managing to explore the area a little more during lunchtime. It was a fantastic couple of days in so many ways, and despite a very long and delayed bus journey home, we were buzzing for days!

Back at home, we wound up the rest of our studies by the time we set off for Cornwall, mainly sitting with snacks and finishing our read aloud (the last of the Wulfgar series, excellent living books based on the Saxon period of English history) and Wordworth poetry (linked in with our visit to Dove Cottage).

We had our last home ed co op for the year. I am so grateful for this group of families. It’s not always plain sailing as we work through issues with our teen children (!) but I’m so thankful we have the commitment to do that and for the richness they all add to our lives.

Home educating children/teens who have an extra layer of challenges is not easy and there have been years when I’ve wondered if I would ever find the joy in it again. However, this last year we really do seem to have found our groove, for which I’m incredibly thankful, and while I’m very glad to be taking some time off now, I know we have a good rhythm into which we can slot back next term.

---

Musings for our time

I snapped the above photo as it encapsulated in part our home ed year. My photo doesn’t do this border (The Bishop’s Palace) justice, but it was the richness and depth of colour, both flowers and leaves, which really caught my eye. As we prepare our children for an increasingly uncertain future, one in which they may well not have the same freedoms we have enjoyed in which to live out their Christian faith, it seems to me that our focus needs to be on building firm spiritual foundations, equipping them with critical thinking skills, and filling the treasure stores of their minds with a wide range of literature, poetry, art and music, as well as a good understanding of the scientific method, of logic and of the wonderful order of maths and science.

This of course takes place over much longer than one year, and our reality is very far from this ideal on many days. However, I find it helpful to have this goal in mind as I pray and plan for the term ahead.

---