Far Out Crowd Blogs

Home Ed GIVEAWAY!!!

2010-08-23T23:06:00.000+01:00

Hi all, just wanted to let people know about the NOTBack2Skool giveaway I'm doing

>>>OVER HERE<<<

at the moment.

Feel free to pop over and enter!

☻☻☻☻☻☻☻

Hands Up 4 Home Ed

2010-08-02T13:08:00.003+01:00

Hands Up 4 Home Ed

PLEASE HELP Hands up for home ed

- I started this up in the 'Badman times' I feel we're still getting criticism undeservedly and would really like to make this fly so we can show it as a source of positive thoughts and views about our HE.
share it around.
send in your hands and what you want to say to me by email and I...'ll put it on. (details on the blog)

Let's put our hands up for home ed , share this as many places as you can

What Grit has to say - Same words, different worlds.

2010-07-31T20:44:00.001+01:00

On the 27th July The Guardian started an article about Khyra Ishaq by saying

Ministers must urgently review the law on home education to prevent further tragedies, the independent review into the death of Khyra Ishaq recommended today .

How dare they ? it leaves me speechless!

Rather than talk about it myself I'll leave it up to Grit on her blog Grit's Day
She is a really good advocate for us and says very eloquently what I would love to be able to say half as well ;-)

Grit says:

In this home education world, I meet many women, too. Not one of them is weak willed, ignorant of the law, unaware of their responsibilities, or distracted from what they see is the reason why they choose what they do. The education of their children, the health of their family, the fulfilment of a lifestyle. I feel fortunate to meet these women. They are strong, intelligent, independent. They do not accept social values uncritically. They demand answers to the most dangerous question of all: why.

Read Grit's article here grit's day: Same words, different worlds

Edit : another article which says 'The case of Khyra Ishaq was tragic. But to blame home education would be naive and destructive' Home education: precious, not dangerous

'Unschooling' Lets Children Dictate Their Learning - cbs11tv.com

2010-07-28T17:55:00.000+01:00

I found this article on Paula's blog.

Seven year old Elijah Parent and his 6-year old sister, Sadie, are bright, curious and eager to learn. But, their learning won't take place in a classroom or come from a prepared curriculum. Instead, it's all about what they want to learn. "That's the most beautiful thing; you can teach a child how to seek out information that they want, so they can fill themselves with the knowledge they desire," said the children's mother, Sarah Parent.

read the article here 'Unschooling' Lets Children Dictate Their Learning - cbs11tv.com

Ben's Science Blog

2010-07-18T13:59:00.000+01:00

I think a lot of us know Elaine over at Our Day which used to be Elle's Treasures blog, well Elaine has a son called Ben and Ben has started a science blog that I wanted to share :-)

One of his experiments caught my eye, I must do it with my youngest. It's an experiment to show how flouride in toothpaste stops our teeth being attacked by acid. You can pop over to Ben's blog 'My Science' to have a proper look. I think it's so good that one of our youngsters is sharing his ideas. If there are any other home edding teenagers out there I'd love to share your ideas :)

Do you want this blog to carry on?

2010-07-06T01:28:00.001+01:00

I'm wondering, does anyone actually use this blog page anymore? Is anyone actually using the link button and the blog list?

If you do use this page and would like to see it continue please could you pop a comment on this post please.
We are currently only getting an average 2 hits per day.
If people would like it to continue I'll put some extra effort in to get the blog busier again; if people aren't using it then I'll close it I think, we are probably all reading around and belong to other blog rings anyway?.

Thank you so much for letting us have your blogs on here in the past :-) and if you can, let me know about your thoughts for the future. . . . . maybe a facebook page? ;-)

Unschooled Teenager

2010-05-30T12:21:00.000+01:00

Chinese skipping :)

2010-05-29T20:47:00.001+01:00

Wangari Maathi - "I will be a hummingbird"

2010-05-20T23:17:00.003+01:00

Do the best you can :)

what are we ? Identity

2010-05-17T19:18:00.003+01:00

This post from Three Degrees of Freedom really struck a chord with me, especially this bit

To choose to box me into one area, for example, to call me a home educator (and nothing else) is to deny me a wholeness. To corral me into one enclosure is to make me less of a human. It may help you to define me, but it doesn't help me to be myself in all my complicated glory.

so true isn't it , we are so many different things to different people and home ed is wrapped up in all aspects of our lives.

read the rest of this post on Daenae's blog

thank you for letting me post about you :)

Another good read from Mieke

2010-05-17T11:23:00.001+01:00

This is really worth a read, it is so very well said by Mieke on Duchess Discloses:

So, what's wrong with emotions?
I was genuinely surprised by the starting lines of Graham Stuart's initial response to Neil Taylor-Moore's open letter, where he said "it may contain more emotion than insight".

Watching him argue the EHE case in both the SC and the House of Commons, I've often thought how he stood out from many of his fellow MP's, and especially the likes of Ed Balls, Diana Johnson etcetera. I have my own private little conspiracy theory about the latter ones, as I am convinced they are not born from human parents, but produced in a secret robot factory, where they were fitted with a rather limited text programme. . . . . . . .

Read the rest of the post on her blog

thank you for letting me post about you Mieke :)

DCSF statement about funding - our experience

2010-05-16T12:58:00.001+01:00

We've had a bit of an interesting if exasperating situation recently and I'm wondering if any of you have any thoughts or advice ?
First of all I saw Andy had posted on EMHE the good news about the new DCSF statement about funding . . . .wey hey !

Education Otherwise has just had the following statement confirmed by DCSF:

"Parents of home educated young people between the age of 14 and 16 who
have the offer of a place at college 2010-2011 subject to funding can ask
their local authority to pay the college fees.

In all cases where the LA agrees to pay the fees, the LA is guaranteed to
be able to recoup the money by including the young person in the
Alternative
Provision census in January 2011"

We were so very thrilled, this was the way to go we thought to get our lovely girl onto the course she wants without having to wait until she's 16, the other option we have is to find the money ourselves so we thought it was well worth a try anyway, so I rang Derby LA home ed dept. I asked to speak to Jane Gregory, who I must say always seems very supportive, she wasn't in and they said she'd ring back that day so I left my numbers. That day we heard nothing.
We rang again the next day and I was put through to Jane with no problem, we passed pleasantries and then she waded straight in to "I guess you are ringing me about the new DCSF information on the EO website?"
I have a feeling she'd spent the previous day either talking to other people about the statement or that in response to my first phone call she'd been checking up on the position Derby are going to take over it.
Basically the long and the short is that the LA can.in their wisdom agree to take the money out of the schools budget and fund somebody, they can then claim then claim the money back as stated in the DSCF info. The important word there is CAN not will, or should, or are obliged to . . . . that would have been nice, imagine if they were obliged to fund us !
Jane told me that Derbyshire's current take on the situation is that because there isn't any funding available directly for HE there is no pot ready to take the money out of, and because the govt no longer have a labour PM and this funding is a result/left over of the HE review which was a Labour initiative, Derbyshire in their wisdom have decided they aren't going to pay out for anyone until things at 'the top' are more settled.
If they do decide to pay for anyone it is only for colleges within the county and Lana's was in Notts but I don't suppose Notts LA would fund somebody who doesn't live in their county.
It seems then that is it, no funding except at the whim of those who don't want to part with it.
Back to the drawing board.

Dx

No ... it's Michael Gove

2010-05-15T08:55:00.000+01:00

From Alice on If Not School blog

The new Education Secretary will be Michael Gove.

And here is a link to the LibCon agreement.

LibCon agreement

There's no mention of HE but I guess there wouldn't be at this level.

They also agree to:
"The scrapping of ID card scheme, the National Identity register, the next generation of biometric passports and the Contact Point Database."

Loud cheers all round!!

All washed up - from Shepherdlass

2010-04-09T22:07:00.001+01:00

Time for a huge sigh of relief - the draconian home education clauses of the CSF Bill have failed to make it through the "wash-up". My boundless thanks to those, like Graham Stuart and Lord Lucas, who've supported us in our fight to retain fundamental rights and to all those wonderful home educators up and down the country who've been the best mutual support system anyone could hope for.

borrowed from Shepherdlass who is one of the far out crowd bloggers.

thank you

2010-02-24T00:53:00.000Z

welcome to parenting 24/7 for coming along to join our blog roll :-)
Look forward to getting to know you xx

Blog for victory!! Blogroll

2009-12-29T23:06:00.000Z

A combination of a comment added to this post, and calls to boost the promotion of this petition has led me to think this blogroll might be good plan - it equally might not, but nothing ventured nothing gained - please spread the word and get as many home education blogs on this roll as possible, both to show that we are keeping on keeping on, and that we will continue to defend our rights.

This blogroll is intended to celebrate the diversity in home education in the UK and the passion we share for defending it. If you would like to contribute to this blog, or to have a blog added to the blogroll, please contact me

Thanks, Mandy :)

micro pigs

2009-12-09T02:47:00.000Z

couldn't resist sharing micro pigs with you :-)

see more at Little Pig Farm

I'm sure it must be someone elses turn to post here! ;-)

2009-11-24T19:30:00.001Z

but as they haven't...this is something I have linked to before on my own blog but if anyone missed it, here it is again.

clicking on that ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ will take you to

a really neat quiz type game that also has the added bonus of helping to feed REAL people.

WARNING: This game may make you smarter.

It works by you answering multi-choice type questions on a variety of subjects including ...

ART

Famous Paintings

CHEMISTRY

Chemical Symbols (Basic)

Chemical Symbols (Full List)

ENGLISH

English Grammar

English Vocabulary

GEOGRAPHY

Identify Countries on the Map

World Capitals

LANGUAGE LEARNING

French

German

Italian

Spanish

MATH

Basic Math (Pre-Algebra)

Multiplication Table

...and for each answer you get right, ten grains of rice get donated to the united nations world food program
I know ten grains of rice doesn't sound like much, but this game is surprisingly addictive and it soon starts adding up :) Its cool - check it out
Mandy x

If you can't laugh what can you do?...

2009-11-07T23:05:00.003Z

Home Education Review: The Badman Song - youtube video by thephantomcorrector

I know there's not a lot to laugh about at the moment, but I thought a little laughter can go a long way...

Instructables pumpkins

2009-10-31T21:00:00.001Z

Yes, that's a pumpkin! Well I was impressed anyway! Whether you 'do' Hallowe'en or not, these are well worth looking at. They're on a site called instructables.com which I just found out about tonight from a friend and which looks to have all sorts of ideas and 'How to's' on just about everything :-)

Reflections on a Home

2009-10-27T01:33:00.000Z

A time when we are all feeling unsettled, a time when the gov't in their urgency to control everything are attacking our very existence, a time when we all need to focus on what is right for us and our precious babies.
I read a Far Out Crowd blog and it made me cry but it also made me want to fight for what we know is right. I'm sure the author of this article will be happy with me sharing it with you all, please go and have a look at Reflections on a Home.

hello

2009-06-06T17:20:00.004+01:00

Well.....I havent even said hello on the main group yet lol..sorry...I'm slacking.

So anyway, hello all :-) (oops pressed something and it published by mistake...so here is an edit lol)

So when I post, will it say who I am lol, like a username? I'm still abit lost with blogging. Is there anyone from North wales on here by some chance? :-)

A bit of autononmous learning from our house

2009-05-05T14:17:00.007+01:00

We have only been home edding about 2 years and it is still a big learning curve for all of us. Finding what works is the key and sometimes things are planned and sometimes things are very much spur of the moment. I love the fact the the girls can ber creative when they want to and that the older child can teach the younger child things too.

These are photos DD1 took while teaching her sister about fractions and she decided to turn them into fish.

These are of their lego city they have been creating.
These are the girls price lists from the girls beauty salon they set up last week. I will be kind to myself and our friend Cheryl and not show you the pictures of our makeover by the girls!

Happy May bank holiday

2009-05-04T09:29:00.003+01:00

Hi All
We've been feeling poorly for the last few days and I was hoping we'd be feeling well enough to go out today, but it's not looking likely. Don't worry it's not swine flu. We don't know any mexican pigs anyway. The weather's blooming typical too, and it's going to get colder, wetter and windier. Just as well we've got indoor stuff planned for the next week.
Lizxx

ranting and rambling...

2009-05-04T02:58:00.002+01:00

helloo :0)
I'm a bit rattled. Our LEA who I've always got on with in the past (4 years) are 'suggesting' that I keep a dairy and apparently we need to do more formal/structured work. They are also coming back in September to 'see how we're getting on'.... I'm not happy about it at all. I feel they are flexing muscles and tbh I feel like I'm somewhere between a rock and hard place.

far out crowd blog - by popular demand ;-)

2009-05-04T01:20:00.002+01:00

Hello there Farouters, I've sent you all an invite to become an author on our blog here, so now instead of just being a blog list it's a blog too, it always has been but we've not used it much , Eleanor posted a few bits on in our infancy but maybe now we're all 'into' it enough to add some 'stuff'.

I'll leave it up to you what you'd like to blog about . . . . everyday stuff, pics, make you laugh or make you cry stuff, chatter stuff, anything that takes your fancy stuff. Ooooh and just to encourage fiona it'd be the perfect place for current review stuff or any political stuff too (Moi try to get you blogging fiona? as if I would ? *grin).

Hope to see you here!

dawny xxx

2009-04-23T10:08:00.000+01:00

do leave comments , we like to hear what you have to say :-)