HES FES 2014

There are loads of fantastic camping things to do as a Home Educator with other families, but HES FES is the one we have been to 3 years running.  A number of other local Home Educators have been going there for many years.  It is full of workshops and activities for children and adults ranging from Copper beating, to hula hoop making and circus skills.  I also run a Zumba class there.  It is a whole week, so a real holiday for us.  We manage to go together as a family as it is during the school holidays, and my husband is a school teacher.

This year was the first year our children decided to take part in the cabaret.  I was so proud of them as they opened the show.  They had both practised a lot in the run up to HESFES and it was the thing that they were most excited about.

End of Year Report

I thought it would be fun, and a nice record to do a not-school report for my kids, since they won't get them any time soon.  (To be clear, I'l be writing it in school style with my tongue firmly in my cheek, but the essence of this still stands)

Evan has made huge progress this year in his ability to connect with others.  Ranging from developing new friendships without adult support; relating to known adults in a competent, relevant and fluent way; and willingly show skills to known and unknown people.  This was particularly exemplified in the final term with the excitement he found in performing in his ballet exam, and on stage at HESFES, doing both a dance routine, and a loom band demonstration. His understanding of the needs and feelings of others has taken tremendous steps forward.  He shows this through his need to help Autumn when she is upset, and come up with plausible helpful solutions to the difficulties she has encountered.

Evan is developing his leadership skills, and is able to see the relevance and importance of listening to the ideas of others.  He is able to compromise his intentions and goals in order to gain support from others, and give them an opportunity to play an active part in the game.  Evan's core friendships have also developed and he has become adept at playing different roles with different friends, and also in different environments, according to that which would seem most helpful to him and his friends.  For example, when attending Forest school, he enjoys his time with friend Tom, and doesn't play so much with his other good friend Oscar, who seeks out different playmates at this time.

This year has been the year of new things for Evan.  He began ballet and tap classes along with Autumn and his friends, which he thoroughly enjoys, and is eager to improve his skills.  He practices around the house regularly.  He worked on projects, such as Rivers, Tigers and Guinea pigs.  In which he partook in some formalised learning through worksheets, as well as more concrete learning like in the rivers project, and here, here, and here.  Whilst he enjoyed these projects, much of the learning that goes on is much more fluid (pardon the pun) and unplanned.  Evan also began Forest School which he thoroughly enjoys, along with his friends and sister. This experience is challenging him to develop friendships and demonstrate leadership qualities in less familiar surroundings.

With regards to his academic achievements, Evan continues to be fascinated by science and engineering.  He constantly seeks out opportunities to satisfy his hunger to find out how and why.  His progress reading has been in phases.  There are times when he is really interested in working on Reading Eggs program, but struggled to make the connections between that and reading other things.  He has also worked through the whole of "Teach my monster to read", a phonics based program which built on some of the things he was learning with Reading Eggs.   A new reading set of reading books enticed him to read to his sister, and he enjoyed this.  He found it difficult to read books where he was expecting something in particular to happen, as he liked to make his own version of events rather than connecting the pictures and writing more closely.  This is definitely something to bear in mind with regards to exposure to new reading opportunities.  He has done a number of reading eggs worksheets as well, though I don't feel this added much to his confidence and overall abilities.