Five!

This week just gone Acey Spiros Alexander Johnston-Squire turned FIVE! Yep, this time five years ago I was sat, cradling my tiny baby boy not being able to stop staring at him (and ringing the NHS every time he cried - well, being an 18yr old unexperienced mum does have some drawbacks)! Little did I know then what an amazing natural parenting journey I'd be embarking on, although without any clue on how to raise or look after a baby, I stubbornly insisted on using cloth nappies, breastfeeding and no pain relief during labour. At this time I knew nothing, it all just felt right! during these five years, I have watched that little acorn grow into a small oak tree, it hasn't been an easy journey - it has has it's ups and very low downs, but I have watched him break his first smile, say his first word (I believe it was 'mmmmba' which is a very good word indeed), take his first steps (this happened at the big green gathering), learn to feed himself etc etc, and now he is teaching himself to read and write, draw, paint, how to act - how to be Acey. (I think he likes it). Our journey is still naturally unfolding, as I stubbornly insist on home schooling, and being mostly raw, and spending lots of time connecting with nature...having Acey changed the person I am in ways I never could have imagined, and I thank God every day for him, how blessed am I!

We had an extremely busy week, after getting back from camping, we went on a butterfly hunt and picnic with Taunton home education group at Thurlbear quarrylands, attended our sorry state of an allotment, had a visit from our friend Marcus and spent lots of time in the lake and star-wars bridge which is the best bridge ever because when you through stones at it, it makes a noise like nothing else on this planet! and laughing at an actuall huge tropical fish which was just lying in the middle of the pavement (yes I do wonder if I will ever grow up)..

For Acey's birthday my mother and I took Acey and his friend Vincent, who is Acey's longest friend (they met when they were just a few weeks old) on the steam train from Bishops' Lydeard to Minehead. It was such a lovely scenic adventure. The boys had great fun playing on the sand, and then we came home for a small tea party with family and a couple of Acey's other close friends. Acey had an amazing day, and especially liked his new octonaught paraphernalia. AND his cake shaped like a dragon! Here are some pictures from his special day;

and here are also a few taken from home ed group;
...busy making dens...

 ..and catching butterflies

And now we have another busy fun-filled week ahead!!
One last thing I want to share, before I go to tidy up the aftermaths of the birthday mess (as I have still not done it yet), is this video...this is somethig I feel very strongly about at the moment and would like to raise some awareness of! This is happening in the UK aswell as america, the psychiatric labelling and drugging of increasingly more and more children...(I'll post the video now before this turns into a full on rant)!

http://youtu.be/Wv49RFo1ckQ

cchrint.org for more info if you're interested...

Love and light xx

We've been camping and stuff.

Acey and I went camping over the weekend with my mum and her husband Malcolm at Charmouth in Dorset. Dorset is my favourite coast because I have alot of special memories from there, and because it is the Jurassic coast and it is very dinosaur-ey and contains alot of fossils. Fossils are one of our favourite things at the moment. Well mine, anyway!! (Acey's not quite as interested)! Acey had a lovely time, he played alot in the playpark in the campsite, and I'm thinking of changing his middle name to 'Danger' because he befriended an older boy who was being a bit of an acrobat, and decided to follow suit.. he caught some little fishies and studied them in his special bug box, made lots of sandcastles and we made a raft using things that had been washed up on the beach. It was pretty impressive! We did alot of cliff walking and kite flying and butterfly catching! And of course, we found some really interesting beautiful fossils :o) Getting home on public trasport was rather hectic (it took FOUR hours)!! but here we are... as promised I thought I'd do a blog post about what we've been up to, so here are some pictures from our weekend and a couple of photos which somebody else took of Acey a few weeks ago which I thought I'd share on here because I thought they were really nice. I can't wait to get a new camera of my own!!

One last thing, I have just read 'Free Range Education' and I highly reccomend it to any of my home ed friends who haven't yet done so. It is really nice to read stories from other home ed families experiences and has alot of  information regarding the law and home-education if you're not very clued up on the subject. Which has just reminded me of another stupid common home-educated related question which I often get asked;

Q. Do you have to be a qualified teacher to home-educate your child?
A. Yes you do. Luckily you become a qualified teacher as soon as you become a mother and you don't even need a certificate! ;)

peace out x

We're still alive!

Well, it's been ages since I last did a blog post, but I want to continue documenting our home-ed journey, just so that I can show this to any authoritive type people who may decide to come around and ask what we are actually doing. Because of our 'autonomous' style of education, which I don't really have anything to show for apart from alot of lovely drawings and a very inquisitive, well-socialised clever little (almost) five year old, I thought I'd better at least write about what we are doing, and post pictures (when I get a new working camera - if anyone has one we can have, ever the scab that I am, that'd be fantastic) of all our adventures. Anyway, I wrote this note on facebook the other day, which I was inspired to share on here...

A conversation between myself, Acey and a fascist old lady at the bus stop...
Acey goes up to her in his usual friendly manner showing her some unusual fruits that had fallen off of a tree and which he was throwing into the road so that the cars would squish over them. He is dressed up in a spangly waistcoat because he is going to his friend Danae's birthday party...
Old lady: What's your name then?
Acey: 'Acey'...
Old lady with slightly bemused look on her face: 'Oh, that's an unusual name'...turns to ask me ''how old is she''
Me: HE'S five at the end of this month
Old lady: 'Oh it's a boy is it? I thought that was a girl with long hair. Is he going to get his haircut soon?'
Me: Noo
Old lady to Acey: 'So, you'll be starting school soon then'
Acey: 'Well, I'm home-educated, actually'
Old lady looks away like she has just been slapped in the face...then looks at Acey disapprovingly and looks me up and down..
''I thought IT was a girl with IT'S long hair''...and then.. ''So, are you his big sister then?''
ME: ''Oh look, the bus is here - Jesus had long hair you know!!
Ahhh.....the joys of being a complete weirdo ;)

Yeah, this pretty much happens on a daily basis now... sometimes I don't bother correcting people when they think Acey is a girl... I guess I have mistaken girls with short hair for boys in the past before now (especially if they are not wearing a dress). I used to lie to people and tell them that Acey was going to be starting in the local village primary school in September, just to shut them up but I don't anymore. So here are some answers to people's common questions, starting with the most common one... in future when they ask, I am going to just give them a link to this blog page;

Q. What about socialization?
A. Oh my goodness, I know right?! HOW on earth do school children manage to socialize when they are stuck in a classroom all day with about 30 other children their own age day-in-day-out! Well, the only way out of that loophole I'm afraid, is to take them out of school, I'd say! We don't really have that problem that most school children have, because Acey gets to socialize with other home-educated children usually once a week, family, adults of different ages and nationalities, children at the park, communities, church-goers, healers, shopkeepers, artists, blacksmiths, vegans, carnivores, babies, new mothers, old ladies, goldfish, horses, dogs, hippies, librarians, pixies, fairies, trees... Oh and I'm sure he's about to make a whole load of new friends when he joins boy scouts soon too...so I'm not really the one to be talking to if you're having issues with socialization...sorry to hear it though!

Q. Is it legal?
A. Yip. Totally legal. As long as my child is getting some form of education, then it is perfectly legal. If I was sticking my child in front of the television, whilst painting my toenails and dancing around in frilly dresses all day I beleive that would be quite wrong, and the authorities would have every right to interviene, but we don't do that. Infact we don't even have a TV. In my opinion, what should be illegal under the human rights act is forcing a peacefully dreaming snuggly child out of bed in the early hours of the morning, forcing them into a dull uniform, giving them a bowl of un-lovingly prepared cereal, rushing them out of the house, making them go to a place where they have to sit behind a desk (sometimes on  a very beautiful day) with about 30 other children of their age group, some of whom they may not get on with, being forced to learn things from a very uninspiring text-book, being forced to respect an adult who probably doesn't respect them, being forced to do PE (urgh), having to ASK to urinate, feeling stupid if they perhaps are a bit behind the rest of the class, being diagnosed as autistic or ADHD simply because they are usually either too intelligent or bored, feeling peer pressured into conforming with everyone else, and then coming home and having to do homework!!! Someone should look into that...

Q. What do you do all day?! Do you have to follow the curriculum? Do you get given workbooks to follow?
A. We don't get workbooks to follow. Most of us don't want workbooks to follow. And curriculum shurriculum. We get out of bed when we feel like it, we have delicious green juice or fruit salad or blueberry pancakes, or even chocolate cake for breakfast sometimes! We go to the field, we go pond-dipping (which either involves the kind you do with a net and a magnifying glass, or literally taking off our clothes and dipping ourselves in the pond)!, we go to the woods, we go to the beach and find interesting things, we go to the library, we go to the park, we go shopping, we make yummy things, have picnics, go for long walks in all weathers, we read books, we go to home-ed group, we go to friend's houses, we have visitors, we go to Acey's nanna's, we go to Glastonbury, sometimes we just stay in and Acey plays with his toys, sometimes he draws and does spelling and colouring in. Acey learns through life. He knows what most wild flowers are, he knows the names of most herbs, he gives a great massage and reiki, he has taught himself to spell and can read a little bit too, but it doesn't matter if he can't. He's really good at drawing, he knows the name of superfoods that most school-teachers haven't even tried, he loves digging on our allotment. He has experienced community life, he has slept around a fire in a tipi, and in a gypsy waggon. He knows how to build dens and light fires, he knows how to forage, and he's just learned how to play the tibetan singing bowl, and he can work the computer better than I could a few years ago! Oh and he's a great singer too! ;)

Q. It must be such hard work! Don't you get bored? I think it's a brilliant thing, but I could never do it!
A. What....you couldn't parent your own child?! cos that's all I'm doing :) and I LOVE it!

Q. What made you decide to do it....I bet it's because you don't really want him to grow up. Won't it smother him, aren't you creating a rod for your own back? Won't it destroy his confidence?
A. See second question up. Do I really need to answer that?! No, it isn't because I don't want to see him grow up, I can't wait to see him learn and grow more independant and happy and healthy because he is nurtured in his own loving home instead of school (ie..institutionalizsed childcare)... and hey - guess what?! I get to witness this process every day :o) aren't I lucky?!

Q. What about the financial situation?
A. Ok, I'll admit..this is hard! Sometimes I think 'Oh, how I'd love to be able to go travelling, or go on holiday somewhere exotic once a year, oh how I wish I had a nice house by the sea, oh, I want that handbag but can't afford it :'( Yeah I am a single mum on benefits and soon I will have to work from home, probably on a very low income, yes I get lonely and upset and sad that I haven't got a supportive partner/husband who can bring in the money. But you know what? I wouldn't change my life for the world at the moment (unless I won the lottery). I'd rather suffer financially and be happy and free. Spending every day with my boy, knowing I am bringing him up how I feel is right, running around meadows, picking flowers, swimming in the sea, being explorers..... makes me feel so rich and blessed. :)

And one more thing; I don't judge YOU for sending your child to school. What is right for one person may not be right for another. But before you get all hot and flustered next time someone tells you that they are home-educated, please; go away and do some research. You sound silly when you ask all of the above questions as if yours is the only right way!

So yeah, anyway! Next blog post will be more about what we've been up to and less defensive, I promise.
Love and light xxx

(this is THE pond by the way)

Do I think the government pick on the most vulnerable people?

Yes, I do! and this blog post was going to be a full on rant about the fact that they are cutting benefits for single mothers (as well as alot of other people who need it most), and forcing us to search for a job when our children turn the measly age of five rendering alot of them in after school clubs and stuck with a childminder during the holidays,becoming mini robots as we all slave our asses off to pay taxes, so that the chancellor can have a nice car.  But what's the point? We all could moan about it, the people who are not allowed to retire until they're sixty six, and the many people who will be out of a job. but what can you do? Getting too bitter about it is a waste of energy. Of course you don't need to be a fortune teller to know that all this will cause is a higher rate of stress and depression, and no doubt more pregnancies. And one can only hope that David Cameron will be reincarnated as a single mother but in the meantime, what is the point in hating the government? After all, those who do not know love are the ones who need it the most.

But as a single parent home educating, where does this leave me? When I first heard that when Acey turns five in just under a year I will have to start looking for a job I really began to panic, thinking 'Oh no, I'm going to have to send him to school.' For me the most important thing in the world is bringing my child up how I want, giving him all of my love and attention. I weighed up the options;

• Find a rich man to marry
• Have another baby
• Move to a commune
• Move to Sweden (I think it is Sweden, where they recognize the importance of letting children be children and don't send them to school until they're seven or eight)

Of course, I'm only joking really. I'm too honest for the first one, couldn't cope with the second option, like my baths and my independance too much for the third and well, my family and friends aren't in Sweden are they?! I've managed to work a way around it, hopefully starting up my business from home, which I was planning on doing eventually anyway (just not this soon). It is scary, but we will make it happen. Loads of good energy sent this way, please folks!

So anyway, yesterday Acey and I went to a 'Somerset mother's circle' meet in Glastonbury, and met lots of other lovely children and their mammas who think like us. It was definetly what was needed as it is so great to meet other like-minded people who don't question the way you bring up your child when you do things a bit differently :) And I've noticed this before when being around other home-educated children, that there is a real sense of proper playfulness and freedom - just how young children should be! It really just confirmed that what I'm doing is so right for me and Acey. I love being his mamma.

Lastly, I just want to reccomend this book for other mums intersted in bringing their kids up holistically which I think is great - it's by Shazzie who is a huuge raw food guru: http://www.shazzie.com/ although it's not just about raw food, it mentions home edding, co-sleeping, breastfeeding, natural birthing etc and it's called 'Evie's kitchen.' I'll finish quoting a bit from the end of her book written by Kate Magic which really spoke out to me;

''In a culture that values career over family, losing weight over breastfeeding and making money over spreading love, holistic parenting takes ridiculous amounts of guts, determination, focus and compassion.''

Lots of love, and pumpkin soup xxxxx

Mad Rose

There is an old lady who sometimes gets on my bus called 'Mad Rose'. I couldn't say how old she is, although she is an alcoholic and due to all the drink she has consumed she looks about 70-ish. She has greasy long gray hair, wears clothes which look like something she has found from a bin bag outside a charity shop. She always smells of booze, and has bags full of white lightning cider, she swears, she coughs, she shouts, and pisses herself on the bus.

Today  I was feeling pretty damn sorry for myself. I had been to the dentist to have some fillings. My teeth still hurt even though I thought they would have been fixed. The fillings cost alot of money because I wanted white ones, instead of mercury. I don't have all that much money at the moment. Even though I don't have that much money, my IID (Irational impulse disorder) still kicked in dramatically and I spent £8.99 on some lipgloss!! I have been so lonely and was dreading coming home to an empty flat, when all I wanted was a big huuuge hug and someone to make me some hot chocolate. And then, who should get on our bus on the way home,  but Mad Rose!! 'Oh great, a journey home filled with piss and swearing' I thought - typical end to a not all that nice day! And to top it off, she came and sat on the seats right next to where me and Acey were sitting. She was coughing, and retching, people on the bus were whispering and giving her horrible looks. and just as I was about to look down my nose at her some more, I stopped and thought - what must this woman have been through in her life to have turned out this way? And instead of sitting there thinking she was the scum of the earth, I closed my eyes and sent out so much love energy to mad old Rose. And a miraculous thing happened - she turned to me and apologised for coughing!! And then she went on to say how she didn't want to end up like this, and that she got with the wrong man, back in her youth which turned her to alcohol, and that she knows it's not really the answer and wishes she could get out of it. I of course, was lost for words and didn't know what to say, so I just smiled and winked at her. And then as I bent down to help her pick up her bottles of white lightning which she had dropped and were rolling around on the floor, she put her hand on mine, and smiled at me too :)
Love can go a long way. The world needs more of it.

God bless Mad Rose x

The perils of living near a lobster

Ok, so it's slightly obvious that my neighbours think I'm a little strange. I am covered in tattoos, have had a vast assortment of different hair colours, until I finally settled for being blonde.. my boy has long hair, I have a box full of chemistry vases and test tubes (don't ask) in my back garden and they can no doubt hear the occasionall 'ommmm' drifting out of my window into their living rooms. See, I think that's all perfectly normal, but maybe in the eyes of society I am indeed a bit strange; I am twenty-three years old, and detest going to pubs, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't watch tv, I like knitting,  I hug trees....

....And yesterday I told my most nosey neighbour (who's daughter happens to be a social worker) that I am home educating my son! I can't remember what he said his real name is, but he is known to me as 'Lobster Man' ever since he invited me into his bungalow and jarred me almost to death with his brass horses, and his singing lobster!! Now, avoiding getting stuck talking to him is like trying to avoid the norovirus, or the bubonic plague when there is an outbreak of it sweeping the nation...pretty hard!

Yesterday as I was walking back from the park, where we had been collecting conkers, I knew he was waiting to pounce as his front door was open. (he had obviously seen me leave, and knew I'd be back). Just as I had nearly escaped to the safety of my flat, over he came asking if I wanted some books that his daughter was getting rid of, and then the question I've been dreading but knew would come sooner or later...''so does he go to school'' and then I said it, my words seeming to reverberate around the whole neighbourhood ''he is actually home educated!''
He then proceeded to tell me how important it was to go to school, and how he forced his daughter to go to college because ''you don't get anywhere in life without that bit of paper'' and that now she has a nice house and a nice car, all because she is a social worker all because she had that bit of paper.

So, yes - this blog post is a bit of a rant - what is so special about having a nice house and a nice car anyway? Sure, those things are indeed 'nice' but why are you a higher- up person in society if you have these things? does it make you more of a special person? Does it make you nicer or more important? It certainly seems to make you more respected, but would I care about being respected by people with such a narrow view point anyway? And with regards to 'that bit of paper' I've heard of many people who have been home-educated and gone on to do very rocket-sciencey type things at university. So Lobster Man can think what he wants - I will teach my boy that he can have whatever he wants in life if he works hard for it but I will love him and be proud of him anyway weather he chooses to be a brain surgeon or a busker in the street...as long as he stays true to himself.

On a lighter note, we have been having so much september fun :) here is our mabon table and some pretty leaf rubbings and drawings by Acey:

And we (ok, me more so than Acey) have been enjoying eating more raw food, and feeling alot better for it; This is what we had yesterday;

Raw cauliflower leaf salad: (this is pretty much the same as raw kale salad, although we didn't have any kale so substituted it with cauliflower leaves)

Massage the cauliflower leaves (or kale, or whatever) with some olive oil, lemon juice and himalayan rock salt (which is soooo good for you and is pink!!) and then add lots of other scrummy salady things. We had grapes, tomatoes, mushrooms, spring onions, broccoli florets and sesame/linseeds! it is very delicious indeed!

Mabon blessings...

It's officially autumn, and I like it. I really do like this time of year when all the leaves turn into beautiful earthy colours and there are pine cones on the ground and magic in the air. Today, Acey found his first conker of the season. Very exciting.

So yesterday, I got some apples given to me at my allotment from the lady on my neighbouring plot. All kinds of apples...a big bag of them! And so I made a delicious apple and cinnamon crumble, which we ate today after our special equinox feast of field mushrooms (horray! A dinner that I can actually get Acey to eat without bribing him)! As a really good project for Acey, I thought it would be fab to use the leftover apples skins, corrs and rotten bits etc to make some fertilizer for our veggies... so we spent the morning doing lots of pulverising until we had a mixture which looked like sick, as Acey described it. We also chopped a load up to make some bird feed with - and after being told by my very clever four year old that birds also like to eat nuts and seeds, we of course added a few of them in there too! Leaving an offering in this way really helped Acey to understand all about celebrating the seasons and how to be thankful for the delicious apples provided by mother earth...(as if he wasn't thankful enough anyway, when he ate the crumble)...

After going to our allotment, we decided that it would be lovely to go to our magic fairy garden, but just as we were about to head off, it started raining and thundering, so we instead got out the musical instrument box and Acey chose three musical instruments; A triangle for rain, my turkish drum for thunder and his pretty jingly shaky stick which sounds very much like the leaves blowing in the wind and we had a great jam, playing the weather instruments and singing songs about thunder!! After all that loud singing and music, the storm appeared to subside. I think we must have outdone it :)

So all of next week, we are going to be learning all about autumn, which is going to be soo much fun. We have already started adding to our mabon altar/ nature table check it...

Oh and one more thing before I go; me and my mum are in love with this moisturiser. Mine came in the post today and it is pure raw beautifully smelling nourishing antioxidant vitaman and mineral rich moisturiser full of life force! This website also does a few superfoods and such like aswell it is lovely! http://www.rawgaia.com/

Love, light and autumn sparkles xxx