I feel like giving up.....
My wife does not think it will work.., anymore or did she think it will work at all..?
Yes, my wife is the bread winner and I, the husband.., a man.., that is a male human being wants to home ed his two boys. Well, one is my son and the other is like a son to me.., after all these years no difference really! Love them both to bits!
I do not think the school system will be best for them! There is too much peer pressure and in today's world of technology the wrongs stuff can reach them really fast!
Sure I myself and home ed might not be the right thing for them! Maybe in this life they need the peer pressure to learn to survive and surely good things can get to them just as fast..?
We are trapped like millions of other families. Both parents got to work to provide in even the most basics! My wife manages a family business which at some point did make some good money, but it has become a real struggle lately and she spends (and will spend) more and more time away from home!
What do I do?
Well before I have to explain myself, I have to state that childcare is expensive and someone needs to care for the children! So far I have been doing a lot of that, but as most frustrated women will testify this isn't a really recognized job if you do it with your own children!
While they are in school I do several other things, but mainly what I want.., and that you can have a peak at.., at www.martiensbekker.co.uk
A better website is on its way!!!
Yes, I do make money during season when I have exhibitions.., but the season can be quite short and the winter months very loooong and money does not really stretch!
I have a huge workshop and have made some space for the boys where they can sit and entertain themselves after getting tired playing, cycling, target shooting and lots of other stuff boys should be doing. I hoped to make the space a bit bigger and use it as a home-ed school as well. When we are done with the days work they can do their thing while I can do mine. I can work at night as well and make up for time lost otherwise.
This can possibly work well in my present workshop here in Port Isaac, but it will mean that my wife and the boys's mum will have to still travel and spend weeks away from us!
If we can go and help somewhere as a family.., WOOFFING or something.., that would be ideal....
Time is passing... and so are we...!
Saturday, 1 February 2014
Thursday, 23 January 2014
Busy.., very busy.., wonder if I'll cope with educating my boys?
Maybe it's my reaction to a midlife crises? That would depend on how old I would like to get, would it not? If I wanted to be 200 mid life crises will hit me at a hundred! By then I probably would not know what the hell it is?
No, I honestly felt that if I could kick home-ed off with my boys and as soon as my lovely wife gets a chance to relax a bit more from working so hard she could maybe have a bit of quality time with them as well due to flexi hours of learning...
''Am I dreaming?'' I ask myself and maybe one sort of life form out there in space haphazardly tuning into our earthly Internet waves.
In the case of the slight possibility that any alien life out there in the great-beyond-and-all-around-us would pick this up, I will have to translate that question..
''Wa$m&% s*ib^ m£kj^%''?
I love Google Translate...!!!
Sooo, back on the lonely track of home-ed quest.., or so it seems on the Internet.., taking into account my outdated 'Interweb' search abilities.
Where is the good old days when I used to search the web with my two ton PC on the back of my pick-up driving off into the African sunset?
Those where the days when we used blow-up computer viruses with dynamite. Those who would carve these viruses from granite we would leave tied to a tree. Something for the lions....
It was Dynamite Virus Protection and if you were not careful it could blow your mind..., it only does it once though!
So here we are... [quiet]..., blogging away concerning home-education. Any suggestions.., advice.., from out there in space?
Well.., I'll wait..
Midlife crises must be a very complicated subject living in space?
I mean you travel this way and then that way and then again over there all at different light year speeds...
I have to admit that my Blogging was briefly interrupted with me sneaking into the kitchen raiding the boy's school lunch snacks.
You might think this is trivial information and I'm just wasting blogging space!
No on the contrary.., it is extremely important! If the boys are home educated will they still have lunch time snacks?
Brilliant question! This is the point at which any prospective home-educator should begin! Lunch time snacks!
Seriously.., it's all about creative planning! When and for how long will lunch time be? Redefine and renew those old 'classroom closet' thoughts!
I have to go and get some more of these snacks...
I wonder if a Pizza would make a good spaceship?
Will I be able to creatively install my boys with the wisdom to realize what knowledge can be used for?
I once started an intergalactic email service. Planning and everything went lovely.., things looked great.., but no matter how hard I tried.., I just could not get it off the ground!
Home-ed., though choice..?
Maybe it's my reaction to a midlife crises? That would depend on how old I would like to get, would it not? If I wanted to be 200 mid life crises will hit me at a hundred! By then I probably would not know what the hell it is?
No, I honestly felt that if I could kick home-ed off with my boys and as soon as my lovely wife gets a chance to relax a bit more from working so hard she could maybe have a bit of quality time with them as well due to flexi hours of learning...
''Am I dreaming?'' I ask myself and maybe one sort of life form out there in space haphazardly tuning into our earthly Internet waves.
In the case of the slight possibility that any alien life out there in the great-beyond-and-all-around-us would pick this up, I will have to translate that question..
''Wa$m&% s*ib^ m£kj^%''?
I love Google Translate...!!!
Sooo, back on the lonely track of home-ed quest.., or so it seems on the Internet.., taking into account my outdated 'Interweb' search abilities.
Where is the good old days when I used to search the web with my two ton PC on the back of my pick-up driving off into the African sunset?
Those where the days when we used blow-up computer viruses with dynamite. Those who would carve these viruses from granite we would leave tied to a tree. Something for the lions....
It was Dynamite Virus Protection and if you were not careful it could blow your mind..., it only does it once though!
So here we are... [quiet]..., blogging away concerning home-education. Any suggestions.., advice.., from out there in space?
Well.., I'll wait..
Midlife crises must be a very complicated subject living in space?
I mean you travel this way and then that way and then again over there all at different light year speeds...
I have to admit that my Blogging was briefly interrupted with me sneaking into the kitchen raiding the boy's school lunch snacks.
You might think this is trivial information and I'm just wasting blogging space!
No on the contrary.., it is extremely important! If the boys are home educated will they still have lunch time snacks?
Brilliant question! This is the point at which any prospective home-educator should begin! Lunch time snacks!
Seriously.., it's all about creative planning! When and for how long will lunch time be? Redefine and renew those old 'classroom closet' thoughts!
I have to go and get some more of these snacks...
I wonder if a Pizza would make a good spaceship?
Will I be able to creatively install my boys with the wisdom to realize what knowledge can be used for?
I once started an intergalactic email service. Planning and everything went lovely.., things looked great.., but no matter how hard I tried.., I just could not get it off the ground!
Home-ed., though choice..?
Thursday, 16 January 2014
Still brainstorming Home Education!
I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of Internet activity surrounding this topic... Don't get me wrong, there are many parents who do it, but not that much ground level communication.
One thing we really have to achieve is for our boys to meet other home educated children. This brings up a tender PC issue. Our boys are both as normal as what normality can be attributed to the average child is today's terms. It makes healthy sense that a parent with a special needs child might attempt home educating. We do not mind meeting such parents and their children, but just as it benefits special needs children to meet other special needs children so our children need to meet children of their kind...
Very sensitive topic... and I'm not just bring this in from out of the cold... we do have a very special person in my immediate family.., a young man of almost 23 years old now!
Well, that's the rather tired thoughts for tonight....
I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of Internet activity surrounding this topic... Don't get me wrong, there are many parents who do it, but not that much ground level communication.
One thing we really have to achieve is for our boys to meet other home educated children. This brings up a tender PC issue. Our boys are both as normal as what normality can be attributed to the average child is today's terms. It makes healthy sense that a parent with a special needs child might attempt home educating. We do not mind meeting such parents and their children, but just as it benefits special needs children to meet other special needs children so our children need to meet children of their kind...
Very sensitive topic... and I'm not just bring this in from out of the cold... we do have a very special person in my immediate family.., a young man of almost 23 years old now!
Well, that's the rather tired thoughts for tonight....
Wednesday, 8 January 2014
Teenagers!!!!
How do we survive them or should it be how do they survive us?
Our youngest is blissfully happy to go ahead with home ed and the older was at some point, but after the xmas holidays he seemed to have changed his mind.
The difficult part of our family is the fact that we are a 'stuck' together one. My wife and her son.., and my son and I. The biggest obstacle - at the moment is between the-one-who-is-like-a-son to me and me.., the-one-who-is-like-a-father..., obviously painfully so..., at times.
It is the the-one-who-is-like-a-father who is sets boundaries and who expects the-one-who-is-like-a-son- to live his age.., to be young while he still can be young.., is that wrong?
The-one-who-is-like-a-son has another influence in his life.., an influence I will never deny him which I thinks treats him as an adult.., a buddy system between the two.
We'll have to see what the next few months will bring....
How do we survive them or should it be how do they survive us?
Our youngest is blissfully happy to go ahead with home ed and the older was at some point, but after the xmas holidays he seemed to have changed his mind.
The difficult part of our family is the fact that we are a 'stuck' together one. My wife and her son.., and my son and I. The biggest obstacle - at the moment is between the-one-who-is-like-a-son to me and me.., the-one-who-is-like-a-father..., obviously painfully so..., at times.
It is the the-one-who-is-like-a-father who is sets boundaries and who expects the-one-who-is-like-a-son- to live his age.., to be young while he still can be young.., is that wrong?
The-one-who-is-like-a-son has another influence in his life.., an influence I will never deny him which I thinks treats him as an adult.., a buddy system between the two.
We'll have to see what the next few months will bring....
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
Thursday, 2 January 2014
Big plans getting small minds thinking big!
The system is sucking us in and in doing so destroying us as a family!
We seem to be stuck!
Everyday the same - the Great Struggle out of bed after getting-to-bed-too-late and not-sleeping-at-all desperately seeking the alarm - which in modern day is a mobile phone of sorts and upon finding it shutting it up as if there are still hours ahead before really having to get up.
Our eldest, Oscar fortunately manages getting up fairly swiftly most of the time.
It's dark though.., it's winter and cold.
It's 10 to 7.., it's crazy!
Oscar catches his bus an hour later and only returns 10 past 4.., and it's getting dark again!
He is 11 and we never see him!
When Oscar leaves.., Dawied is woken up. He sleeps really well and if he should hear Oscar getting up he'll be awake for a very long day.
Dawied is 9.., he walks to his school at 20 to 9 and sometimes only gets back at 5!
He is 9 and we never see him!
We do not have money. We work hard trying to get some.., but it never lasts. We are not alone.., there are many like us out there all over the world!
Why?
Why bust our bones trying to earn enough to provide in the basics and something extra to spend on the boys when we never see them?!
It's taking its toll on our marriage as well! Loads of misunderstandings leading into feverish arguments which in a prison would have been dealt with as if a riot!
''Teargas!'' I shout pointing at my wife, while her argument-warden beat the crap out of me with their batons!
I seems hopeless.., if we agree we will both be wrong...!
OK!
STOP!
We need to save this!
We love each other and.., need each other more than we collectively might think!
Step 1 - I must find out what the vacuum cleaner looks like!
Step 2 - the boys need to be taught that their beds do not actually rest on their toys and dirty clothes, but on their own legs!
No more serious...... THE RESCUE PLAN!
We will commence as off the end of this school year to Home Educate!
This program will set the stage for the Family Play!
It will take time.., time we now don't have.., but time we'll find by scaling down!
We must find some sort of equilibrium between everything else while home education stays priority...
Will we fall off the ends of the earth like early seafarers thought or will we just go round and round in circles as later seafarers proved possible?
We'll have to see.....
Today 2 Jan 2014
We asked our boys to write down why the would like to and why they won't like to be home schooled.
This roughly where we stand at the moment!
Sure, I've thought it through, but as it seems I'll have to think a lot more before we get there!
The system is sucking us in and in doing so destroying us as a family!
We seem to be stuck!
Everyday the same - the Great Struggle out of bed after getting-to-bed-too-late and not-sleeping-at-all desperately seeking the alarm - which in modern day is a mobile phone of sorts and upon finding it shutting it up as if there are still hours ahead before really having to get up.
Our eldest, Oscar fortunately manages getting up fairly swiftly most of the time.
It's dark though.., it's winter and cold.
It's 10 to 7.., it's crazy!
Oscar catches his bus an hour later and only returns 10 past 4.., and it's getting dark again!
He is 11 and we never see him!
When Oscar leaves.., Dawied is woken up. He sleeps really well and if he should hear Oscar getting up he'll be awake for a very long day.
Dawied is 9.., he walks to his school at 20 to 9 and sometimes only gets back at 5!
He is 9 and we never see him!
We do not have money. We work hard trying to get some.., but it never lasts. We are not alone.., there are many like us out there all over the world!
Why?
Why bust our bones trying to earn enough to provide in the basics and something extra to spend on the boys when we never see them?!
It's taking its toll on our marriage as well! Loads of misunderstandings leading into feverish arguments which in a prison would have been dealt with as if a riot!
''Teargas!'' I shout pointing at my wife, while her argument-warden beat the crap out of me with their batons!
I seems hopeless.., if we agree we will both be wrong...!
OK!
STOP!
We need to save this!
We love each other and.., need each other more than we collectively might think!
Step 1 - I must find out what the vacuum cleaner looks like!
Step 2 - the boys need to be taught that their beds do not actually rest on their toys and dirty clothes, but on their own legs!
No more serious...... THE RESCUE PLAN!
We will commence as off the end of this school year to Home Educate!
This program will set the stage for the Family Play!
It will take time.., time we now don't have.., but time we'll find by scaling down!
We must find some sort of equilibrium between everything else while home education stays priority...
Will we fall off the ends of the earth like early seafarers thought or will we just go round and round in circles as later seafarers proved possible?
We'll have to see.....
Today 2 Jan 2014
We asked our boys to write down why the would like to and why they won't like to be home schooled.
This roughly where we stand at the moment!
Dawied
I don’t
like it because we won’t play with our friends for long.
We won’t
have anytime to look around when we travel
I can spend
more time with Oscar
We can do
your dream – travel and see places
We can go
to places travel
I won’t
become a year 5
Oscar
We get to
travel
More time
to play
Less school
More time
with parents
Get to see
more places and more school trips
Won’t see
any of my friends
Won’t meet
any new friends/girls
We probably
will move
I won’t be
a year 8
We won’t
know new the places
Might miss
out on seeing my cousins
Sure, I've thought it through, but as it seems I'll have to think a lot more before we get there!
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