Very good week so far – Mum and Dad came for the weekend – some pretty heavy discussions on the topic of HE. We first talked about it a few months back when we went down to stay with them and it was still a germ of an idea – I said that it was something I had found out about and was gathering information on with a view to considering – so very much non commital!! Since then of course I have found out loads more and have really got into the idea -so much so that unless something very dramatic happens I have no intention of sending Monster to school at aged five. Mum came up to stay a few weeks ago and I told her that we had pretty much decided this – she asked all the usual questions about socialisation etc and listened to everything I said – she has since mentioned it a couple of times of the phone but has always been clear to state ‘I agree with what you are doing and I support you 100%’ but then she does like the dramatic statements my Mum. She does keep chucking questions at me and saying things like ‘well you will have to do some socialising with Monster otherwise you will have problems with him’ so it is apparant that she is not as behind the idea as she would like to think! Anyway up they came and they have obviously talked about it at home as she was desperate to bring the topic up and have my Dad air his views. Which are in a nutshell that the kids should go to school, it will harm them by not letting them have contact with others, they will be over protected and over mummied, he went to school at 4 with kids aged 4 to 14 and it never did him any harm etc etc etc!’ so we had the long discussion about why we want to do this, why we feel it is best for OUR children, rubbished the ‘is it legal’ questions (although he remained unconvinced despite seeing it in print and his final word on the matter was ‘well why are parents getting jailed for their kids playing truant then?’) talked at great length about how i will ensure they are ‘socialised’ although the argument about that is not really one i agree with anyway. My mum was at her worst – she veered between agreeing with me and then agreeing with Dad, basically putting herself on the side of the person with the last best point – at one point i accused her of not actually having an opinion and asked her point blank ‘do you think Monster should go to school – yes or no?’ she really struggled but ended up saying ‘not at the moment’ and then proceeded to drag Ady into it. He was good and said that ‘it is not something Nic has decided on a whim, she is doing it with the kids best interests at heart, she has looked into it and i agree with her reasons, however if something happened to her and i was alone then the kids would go to school.’ My Dad seconded this and said that if something happened to both of us and they looked after the kids then they would go to school – so bascially i better survive to ensure what i think is best for the kids happens!!!
I asked Dad to read some of the books or leaflets that i have got and said i felt he was arguing from a position of ignorance and i would value his opinion more if he was prepared to be more educated about it but he declined and we agreed to disagree. Having spoken to a couple of people on Muddle Puddle and Fluff I feel that I am no different to anyone else who embarks on HE in that no one seems to get instant support and understanding and at least Dad can see that i am doing what i believe to be best for Monster – and to be honest I am confident that in ten years from now any doubts will be blown away by looking at the happy, confident and succesful teenager i hope to be a mother to!

Took the kids out for lunch before Mum and Dad went home and Monster was child to be proud of in the restaurant – Teeny had a bit of a fit about being in the highchair but once she started eating my spaghetti carbonara she soon cheered up!!

The rest of the week I have worked and Lynda has been in – we did the christmas shopping on Tuesday – lovely to be just me and Ady without kids for a few hours even if we were just shopping for and talking about them! Monster has been doing a fair bit of arty stuff this week and some hama beading too!

Today was great -we went to K’s house (someone I met from Muddle Puddle) and spent a few happy hours with her and her daughter R. R is 5 months younger than Monster but is a really bright little girl and I would say an ideal match for him peer wise. They played nicely together and despite a few tantrums (new for him really, thought i had got away without them – wrong!) and an initial refusing to go in their house he was good, Teeny just sat and mashed up sandwiches and mince pies but seemed happy! So nice to meet someone in the flesh with a child of similar age intending to do the same as us. K is really nice and we have arranged for them to come to us next time. Looking forward to it!

Saturday morning and all is calm for now! Kids are sat infront of the Fimbles eating their lunch – the request was for letters (alphabites) so they both have those and some fishfingers – well it means i don’t have to cook again later!! Mum and Dad are due to arrive in the next hour or so which will be great – have not seen Dad since September although Mum came up for a long weekend about three weeks ago. Looking forward to having some long chats about where our life is going to take us over the next few months – all a bit shaky at the moment – this will make more sense in a month or so but basically we don’t know where we will be living or what we will be doing in six months time – thank god we have already made the decision to HE otherwise worrying about finding a school for Monster would be high on the agenda and would also come into the equation if and when we finally buy another house.
Have been fairly lax about doing anything organised this week – Monster has been alternatively being either Buzz (Lightyear) or Rudolph (the red nosed reindeer) so he has not taken much entertaining other than the occassional agreement for me to be Woody or Mummy Reindeer. Teeny is just exploring everything at the moment – her vocalising seems to increase each day and some very real sounding words are emerging now. Next week I aim to take up all the nice people who offered to talk about their religions and get round to sorting a full list of questions to get us started. I also want to make a scrap book type thing for Monster – partially to start organising what we are doing and building a record of stuff but also as a tidying idea too! We also need to spend some time making a birthday card for Teeny to send to Cbeebies – think I need to practise my skills at drawing Fimbles and Teletubbies – so far I am only good at Brum or Bob!!

Today I worked so Lynda was round to play with the kids. I overheard them talking about which was the odd one out – Lynda was showing Monster groups of blocks where one was a different shape, size or colour and he was picking out the odd one – very impressive and also very reminiscent of one of the bits on Sesame Street where there would be four kids – three leaping around like lunatics and one reading a book or something similar with a catchy little tune about ‘one of these kids is doing his own thing!’. Later they went for a walk around the block and this afternoon Monster carried on playing with the blocks and Teeny clambered around the place and climbed upstairs about three million times. I tried to do some crayoning with her but she just ate them! Monster hijacked the game and did a fairly good replication of writing his name copying my letters. He also drew an excellent circle, great straight lines and crosses and recognisable impressions of squares, triangles and rectangles! He has been ‘Buzz’ today – worn the Buzz outfit everywhere – including their walk! and we have all had to address him as Buzz and be other Toy Story characters – Teeny is Jessie, and Lynda was Zurg – I think I was Rex in the end!! Still it beats the Rudolph obsession – he certainly has no issues with imaginative play!! A new precocious child story from bedtime last night – read him Mr Snow and used the usual line about needing a wee to escape the room. He was having none of it so I elaborated with ‘Mummy really, really needs a wee wee Darling. I need a wee or I will go pop’ He stroked my cheek, looked deep into my eyes and said ‘You are a drama queen Mummy!’

So here we are, the intention to start HEing Monster and Teeny was made about two months ago and I have spent the interim period signing up to countless yahoo groups, asking loads of people about their ideas, opinions etc, spending a fortune on Amazon on all sorts of HE books and generally veering between wonder at what the hell we are thinking about and relief that the dread of Monster starting school in a year or so has now been removed. Oh the joy of saying ‘Okay then you can’ to him when he says ‘ me not want to go to school Mummy, me just stay here with you!’. So our first *real* project is to learn a little about religion – something which interests me anyway and will be a great ongoing project for the future, one to test exactly how we are going to go about this whole HE business and so on… have made a fair few contacts on the Muddle Puddle, EO and Fluff groups who are happy to answer our questions (once we know what they are!) about muslims, jehovahs witnesses and various other religions, some great recommendations for sites to check out, some further reading and of course the possibility of some sort of hama bead related products!!!