i have found a couple of websites that please me greatly

www.homeeducationspecialists.org.uk who provide distance learning courses for homeschoolers so they can be assured to be studying at the same secondary level and each subject is only £135 (which compared to a lot of other companies, is jolly good value)

and

www.headoftheclass.com who are completely free and give your child their own log-in to complete assignments set by you for daily completion

fabulous

a rant

if you arrived for work each morning and:

 greeted your boss with a 'hallo' and every morning got dismissed with a wave of the hand and told to 'go away, i'm busy'...how would you feel?

if your boss constantly accused you of lying...how would you feel?

if your boss dismissed any concerns you had and never addressed them....how would you feel?

if your boss behaved with no respect or manners and felt it was perfectly fine to keep polite behaviour for visitors but was a complete stresshead to you....how would you feel?

i suspect you would feel like crap every day

now imagine this is not a boss but a teacher of 30 impressionable children (and you have seen some of this behaviour yourself and heard the same from your child's classmates)

your child greets their teacher nicely each morning (because that is what they have been taught by you) and never gets the same polite greeting back

your child tries to tell their teacher something is missing etc (because they have been taught by you that an adult is who to go to) but gets told they are wrong

your child tries to tell their teacher they are injured (because they know that a parent would be sympathetic and have a look and administer the relevant treatment) but gets told 'no you can't put a cold compress on your foot' (that a friend has just landed on twice in PE) or that a classmate is being nasty to you but despite your teacher telling you they will do something about it, they don't

your child sees their teacher being perfectly lovely to parents but never sees that behaviour within the classroom (and you have taught your child that within the confines of your home you can let your stresses out but in public you should always 'bite your tongue etc)

i suspect your child would feel like crap every day

now i am not an idiot, i know 30 kids are a handful, they can whine, they can not look properly for something, they can be telltales, they can be rude but not all of them and not all the time...children respond to what you give out...give them stress, they will end up like you (if 30 kids stress you out, get another job)...give them patience, respect, time and trust and they will give that back to you

any wonder we are reverting to homeschooling? 

R.I.P.

famously appeared in ghostbusters and peggy sue got married and my kitchen cupboards

i am very sad

remember, remember the 5th of november...

we decided on chocolate apples instead of toffee...lottie's has bits of caramel stuck into white lindt and ellie's and mine have toasted hazelnuts mmmm

bonfire cupcakes...red velvet cakes, orange/yellow sprinkles on dark chocolate, orange matchmakers stuck on

we also had hotdogs, home-made soup, treacle tarts, treacle toffees

memory of the day: lottie skipping up the garden path saying "you only live once ellie" when i told her she could light a few fireworks

dia de los muertos

we made meringue skulls and painted them with food colour and edible glitter...these are lottie's

these are ellie's

our shrine and papel picado flags

the celebration tree has sugar skulls and calaveras 

we have photos of our deceased relatives...kay, h, nanny net, flo, stella, george, mary, james

we put items relating to the deceased...a hippo for kay (she loved them; even had a pair on top of her wedding cake), a dog lead for h (he loved dogs), knitting needles for nanny net (she made ellie some baby cardis), cooking tools for flo (she was a cook for the glasgow fire service), embroidery floss for stella (she used to embroider these beautiful tablecloths), hairdresser scissors for george (he was a barber amongst many other things), and i do not know what mary or james liked/did 

you leave a wash bowl, comb, flannel, soap and a mirror for the spirits to have a spruce-up whilst they are visiting...some bread and salt to season it for them to snack on...flowers to represent the shortness of life...and mother mary and jesus to watch over them

we ate fajitas and skull meringues with cream for dinner and i told the girls about these people so they know their ancestry

trick or treating costumes

egon was count dracula in memory of jerry nelson, who voiced sesame street's count-von-count

ellie was dorothy from wizard of oz

lottie was sally from nightmare before xmas

spooky lunch

witches noses (ie: purple carrots)

yellow inside (i never knew)

made into soup and served with home-baked black bread

halloween goodies

popcorn hands for trick or treaters

lottie's dark and milk candy corn ghost chocolates

lottie's pumpkin cookies

ellie's spicy fruit pumpkin cakes

crackers for our tea party...with a joke, stickers and a couple of tootsie roll miniatures