Years fly by...

On the 25th April 2007, our third child Reuben was born.

Just after he was born, Imogen and Jemima arrived at the hospital and came into the delivery room. We hadn't quite started home educating yet, but already wanting a real life education for our children.
We had an amazing student midwife, who let the girls get involved and hands on.

We always felt that the girls didn't have enough time to play,

or enough time to experiment with jay cloths!

Imogen proudly wore this waistcoat she had made on a trip to the doctors.

I've still got it somewhere.

And so began our journey into the unknown world of home education.

Lots of time to bond with Reuben.

We've done some amazing things, visited extraordinary places

and met interesting people along the way.

The girls have had so much to play, Bratz, polly pocket, Barbie, playmobil, lego to name a few!

But most importantly we have had lots of time together as a family.

Two years and four months into home educating, our family was completed with the arrival of Rosanna Ernestine.

Looking back I now wonder, how did I manage to home educate through morning sickness with a toddler too? In the early days of home educating with four children it was the negative comments that kept me going. How are you going to cope with a baby and a toddler and educate the girls? I had to prove to everyone that I could do it.

So really we've got to the easy stage!! No one in nappies, no more breast feeding. Got to be so easy now!
I still find it hard to think I've got to start at the beginning again with Reuben and Rosanna. Will I find it interesting and exciting doing the science experiments, painting pictures or pond dipping?

But then again do I want to miss out on more of this?

It's not always easy home educating, but it's very rewarding.
This time of year brings back strong memories as we wrestled with the decision to home educate, and bring about our life changes.

Jemima recently tried to make me promise that I'd never send her back to school. Of course, I can't ever promise that, what if I was ill. Jemima response, if you were ill I'd be at home looking after you.