Mended Teacups

Are you in need of a restoring tonic when it comes to your home education? If so, then chapter 4 of “Another Way to Learn?” written by the lovely Sian is the one for you right now. With a career as a secondary school teacher behind her, Sian is now a home educating mum of three delightful girls. She and her husband and the girls live in rural Wales surrounded by green hills, a plentiful supply of rain and a characterful dog just in case there are not enough challenges in the day! Sian writes candidly and with warm humour about their journey from school education to home education. Listen in to the podcast to find out the back story of how she and Molly met (and realised they had been living in the same shared house many moons before) and some of our own thoughts about how we “de school” both our children and ourselves.

What do you reckon are the top ten most asked home ed questions? It would be interesting to do a poll. However, queries around the socialisation of our children must be right up there at the top. In the third chapter of "Another Way to Learn?", Juliet English dives straight into this topic. A social worker by training, Juliet is a mother of seven, grandmother, foster mum, director of Streams and co-ordinator of the Learn Free conference. She is a woman of extraordinary capacity and great depth of wisdom and experience. There could not be a better placed home educator to talk us through this hot potato of socialisation. Listen in as we consider the topic, connect with Juliet via the links below and get hold of a copy of “Another Way to Learn?”. It's available from our website or any other book retailer or from your library. You could also join up with a few other home educators in your local area and form a book club to read it together.

I wonder what springs to your mind when someone mentions teens? And then home education and teens in the same sentence. Maybe it's lengthy conversations as you discuss life, values, ideas, current affairs and faith around the dinner table, accompanied by good food, music and candle light. Maybe it's standing for hours on a cold sports pitch showing up while your teen gets caked in mud; maybe it's trying to block out loud and jarring music; maybe it's a houseful of laughing young people, overflowing with interesting concepts, deep questions and quick quips. Or, maybe it's battling with mental health concerns, trying to walk in dark places alongside your teen, determining to champion them even when the rest of the world doesn't seem to understand. Maybe you are living the highs and lows of the teen years now, or maybe they are yet to come. Whatever your point in this journey, Dr Kat Patrick, home educating mum of four, speaker, blogger, teacher and CEO of Dreaming Spires Home Learning has written a fantastic chapter inspiring us to explore delight-led learning during the teen years. Join us as we chat through some of our own home educating experiences during the teen years, both past and present.

Over the next few months we're going to be taking a gentle amble through “Another Way to Learn?” We'll introduce you to each chapter and it's author and reflect on our own home educating experiences around the topic. This week we'll introduce the lovely Jessica Girard, who writes beautifully on the early years of home educating. Grab a cuppa and listen in to how Molly's and Jessica's paths crossed, find out a little more about her life with little ones on the stunning and fascinating island of Guernsey and join our trip down memory lane as we remember those long ago times with little ones.

Welcome! Whether you're a faithful listener or completely new to Mended Teacups Home Ed Podcast, we're so glad you're here and allocating a few minutes of your precious time to join us. Our hope is that as you listen in you'll be encouraged to continue, day by day, in the profound work that you have undertaken to home educate your children. In this episode we have a catch up of the summer holidays (doesn't that seem a while ago now?) and offer a few tips for those of you who are just stepping out and beginning your home education journey. We are hoping to record on a slightly more regular basis this year, so do let us know if there are any topics you'd like us to cover, or any other ways we could encourage you.

In the last of this season's podcasts, we reminisce slightly on days gone by, but mostly look towards the summer and how we can most cherish our days. We also share a little more about Another Way to Learn? our new book for home educators, which will be hitting the book shelves in September. Endorsed by Leah Boden (Modern Miss Mason), Lyn and Steve Richards (Making the Right Impression, 2007) and Jacqui Wakelam (Mum Heart UK) it's had its first review which is everything we had hoped it might be. So, check out the website, follow along on social media and pre order your own copy. We will be back in September and look forward to sharing some more of our home ed adventures with you then. In the meantime, have a wonderful summer; a different pace, time outside, adventures small and large, maybe seeing some new places and spending time with friends, maybe picnics or parties. Make time if you can to nurture and replenish your own body, soul and spirit to set you up afresh for this profound mission you have embarked upon - raising up the foundations of the next generation.

We once took a family ramble up a relatively small mountain. The weather was fine, the banter good humoured and the snacks plentiful. The view from the top was out of all proportion to the height we had climbed so the effort we put in was well worth it. However, there were parts which were hard for little legs, where our younger two needed help and when a rest was necessary. We all hope that this is a picture of home education; we know it will be tough at times, but when these seasons come we will work together, find a good way through and the view from the top will be worth it. However, what happens if seasons come when it feels we are trudging though boggy ground every day? When whatever we do doesn't seem to make much difference? Do we continue and be miserable, do we go for the school option or might there be another way forward? Listen in to our conversation and find out.

Have you come across the Miss Read books? I've been a fan of hers for years, and her semi autobiographical novels chronicling the daily happenings in a small, rural, two teacher school during the 1950's shaped my own vision for our “home school”. In “Village Diary” she writes, I, for one, am always glad to see the end of this most miserable of terms. In it we endure, each year, the worst weather, the darkest days, the poorest health and the lowest spirits. But now, with Easter in sight, and the sun gaining daily in strength, the outlook is much more heartening. This certainly resonates with me, and I always feel my spirits rising as Easter approaches bringing with it longer days and warmer weather. In keeping with this optimistic outlook we are reminiscing today about some of the hopes we held as we started home educating, how these have found fulfilment, and also some of the many unexpected surprises along the way. We also have an exciting announcement… so make yourselves a cuppa, listen in and be encouraged!

We're recording in person again! It's so much more fun chatting whilst sitting on the same sofa rather than in separate houses. So, we hope our enthusiasm for a subject which can cause consternation comes across today. Make yourself a cuppa and join us as we talk through how we've explored science in our homes, from toddlers and mess through to teens and iGCSEs.

A belated happy New Year to you all! We've been hibernating for most of January, but are just beginning to peek our noses out into the podcast world again. Helen and I planned to record this episode via zoom, and then, just as we were winding up some history reading, we heard a knock at the door. It was none other than Helen and one of her daughters, complete with flowers, waffles and big smiles! It was so lovely to see her and catch up in real life over a mug of hot tea and the last of the (somewhat burnt) chocolate brownies. We hope you enjoy our conversation as we offer suggestions to help get our days off to a good start. And maybe we can all surprise and encourage a friend this month in the same way Helen did me!

Advent has flown by; a daily mix of the reality of our present, broken world, gloriously interrupted by generous rays of light reminding us that we are indeed living in the tension of the now and the not yet. We've had some fabulous outings, enjoyed meeting up with friends, thrown ourselves into Christmas crafting and cooking and taken time out to sit and read aloud together. There are many things we've not done but we are celebrating our wins. So, dear home educating friends, how are you at the end of this year? Whatever your circumstances and however you may be feeling, please know you are daily doing an extraordinary thing, teaching and parenting your children. Together, we are raising up the foundations of the next generation. Amidst the excitement and celebrations, the mess and mayhem, we hope you can find some time to sit quietly and in a very un-British way, accept the praise and affirmation due you, for a job well done. This mini podcast episode comes with our love and encouragement. May our celebrations, though imperfect, be filled with laughter and smiles.

Advent is upon us! This month of December can be like a helter-skelter, landing us in a exhausted, yet hopefully happy heap on the eve of Christmas. It is usually filled with delicious foods, much loved traditions, twinkly lights, and sparkly-eyed children. It can also be somewhat fraught with to-do lists, busyness and bustle ... or is that just us?! However, Advent is not merely a preparation for Christmas. It is a separate season in itself, a little like Lent is to Easter. It encompasses the tension between the brokenness of our world now and the glorious hope we have in Jesus. It allows us to grieve deeply for the pain around us, while knowing that there is redemption in Jesus. It is time to deeply engage with a God who did not stay far removed from His creation, but came down as a helpless, vulnerable baby to share in all the everyday joys and challenges of life. During Advent we can hold the ideals of what we'd like our families to look like, alongside the reality of our everyday day lives. It is a season which invites us to both weep deeply and rejoice wildly. And of course there is so much fun with little children around. We'd love to share some of our reflections on this season with you. Hope you enjoy listening in to our conversation.

I'd love the fruits of what we pour into our children to metaphorically look like an abundant harvest! But it is hard work. As it happens, we'd both had hard days the week we recorded this. I'm sure we're not the only ones! We hope we can encourage you as we share some of our home ed experiences both from the perspective of being in the trenches with our younger children, and as we look back from what we've learnt with our older ones. Find more links and encouragement in our blog - mendedteacups.wordpress.com

How has this first half of the autumn term been? Gentle walks through golden woods, blackberry picking under warm blue skies, hot chocolate and read alouds? We've had some wonderful moments like that, but also a lot of busyness and struggles to settle into the first “normal” term for a long while. Our calendars have been so full we've not even managed to co ordinate recording a podcast. However, last week we had a zoom chat and it felt good to catch up and share some of our home ed thoughts again. We hope you're encouraged, reassured and even inspired as you listen in, and we're looking forward to chatting with you again soon!

We got together in real life, to record the first podcast of this new season…season 5! Do join us as we look forward to the year ahead and share some of the ways we plan for and celebrate a new term. We'd love to know any special rituals you have. As always let us know via this site, or on Instagram or Facebook. It's great to be chatting with you again… pour yourselves a cuppa and listen in!

Do you have any special traditions to mark the end of term? Or to mark specific days in your home ed year? Whatever your rhythms are, celebrations are the order of the day here. We'd love you to join us for this last episode of the academic year as we share how we celebrate our families' achievements big and small. We hope you have a very good summer break, with times of rest and refreshment, fun and celebration.

Today we’re looking at how we get support for ourselves, as home educating parents. We’re aware that the rise in families deciding to home educate has coincided with a time of isolation for us all. This is not how it usually is, and for those of us who have been treading this path a while we have missed our network of friends, but know they are all there, waiting for us. However, for those of you at the beginning of the journey, it might feel quite lonely; it has been so much harder to meet up and make new friends. But....hang on in there! There are lots of other like minded families out there, and there are ways to connect. Listen in as Helen tells us the inspiring story of how our local home ed group began, almost twenty years ago, and we suggest ways we can develop our own home ed friendship groups. We hope you’ll all be encouraged to reach out, and that many more grass-roots support networks will develop across our nation. For more information, check out our blog - mendedteacups.wordpress.com

Join us for an episode in our occasional series on the great and the good of the home ed world... Those that have gone before us, who have challenged conventional thinking and whose influence still lives on. John Holt was an American educator, writing such classics as “How Children Fail” and “How Children Learn” in the 1960s. After hoping for reform in the public school system, but seeing none, he became a leading advocate for the homeschool movement, and is arguably a founder of the unschooling approach. Listen in on our conversation and see if you can spot any of his ideas in your home ed philosophy. As always, we love to hear from you, and we’d especially appreciate any thoughts and encouragement from the unschoolers amongst us. Let us know if Holt’s ideas have influenced your learning. Find out more in our blog - www.mendedteacups.wordpress.com

I think we could all do with an infusion of joy and hope at the moment. Easter provides the perfect opportunity for this. For those with a Christian faith it is the highlight of the liturgical year, literally the crux of our faith. But for everyone, it is a festival associated with hope and new life. We’d love you to join us as we share some of our Easter family traditions, discuss how lent and Easter might look different for home educating families, and explore how we can help our children to hold pain and suffering alongside hope and joy. We hope that, in the midst of our weary world and tired families, your celebrations will be overflowing with fun, rest, sunshine, hope and chocolate!

Have you ever thought of the difference between an inheritance and a legacy? While an inheritance is material in nature and may diminish over time, a legacy is a rich handing down of qualities and values which have been cultivated and reflected in a person’s life, and continue to influence following generations. Helen’s grandmother died recently, aged 103. We’d love you to join us for a truly uplifting conversation as Helen shares stories of the rich heritage her grandma left, and how this has influenced both her and now her own her family. More information can be found in our blog - MendedTeacups.wordpress.com

Teaching a child to read can seem daunting; some take to it like a duck to water, most fly when the time is right, but for a few it is an uphill struggle. One of the joys of home ed is that we can follow our child’s lead. Pour yourself a cup of tea and join us as we share some practical, fun tips we and others have used to help our kids learn to read and write. If it’s not an easy journey for you, we hope you’ll be encouraged and reassured as we share honestly about our journeys to reach this milestone.

I wonder if the thought of teaching English to your child fills you with delight or with dread? Do you have language-loving children who are vociferous readers and copious writers? Or would your child far rather be outside, playing with Lego, doing just about anything else but reading a book? Is your child dyslexic? We’ve experienced just about all of these between us, so come and join us as we share some of our experiences as well as lots of practical tips on teaching English to our children.

As we look ahead to an unusual Christmas, Molly and Helen discuss some of their family traditions and think about how and whether to review the year that's past. Check out our blog - www.mendedteacups.wordpress.com - for more information and links to the books and movies we reference.

This year Christmas will be different. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it will not be as good. While there are many things we will miss, especially all those fun parties and spending time with family and friends, can we redeem Christmas 2020? Join us as we share our joint love of the season of Advent and how an understanding of this might help us to not only make the most of, but also be thankful for a 2020 Christmas.

Life with small children has its own set of demands and wonders. As mums of older children, it’s easy for us to look back on those days with rose-tinted glasses, but if we prod a bit deeper we can remember the exhaustion, the sleepless nights, the sheer physical demands of a baby’s complete dependence and the non-stop chatter of toddlers. They are such precious times, too, and the season really is a short one, though it can seem like eternity some days! So, if you have little ones this is for you, in recognition of the wonderful, unseen work you do every day: wiping noses, washing hands, putting on wellie boots, clearing up milk spills and tending to sibling squabbles. You are laying the foundations of their lives. Well done! Keep going!

We will no doubt all feel differently towards this second, winter lockdown. For some, it might be a welcome respite, a time with a slower pace in an often hectic life; for others it may hold huge anxiety with concerns over finances / increased pressure at work / family tensions. For many of us, we may feel somewhat heavy hearted at the thought of not seeing family and friends for yet longer. We were not made to live in isolation and part of the life blood of home educating is the fun and learning we do with others. However, as home educators, we are by nature a resilient and resourceful bunch of people, strong enough to live life daily against the general flow and creative enough to educate each of our our children individually. We can, to a certain extent, set the tone of our homes for this next season. So, come and join us as we share a few ideas as to how to lift the atmosphere of our homes during the next few weeks, and encourage each other to make the most of this time.

Geography is such a fun subject to share with our children. As we often say, our aim isn’t to teach our kids everything they need to know before they leave home, but rather to inspire a love of learning, nurture their natural curiosity and enable them to become self motivated learners. Our world is so vast and beautiful, with so much to explore. We hope you catch some of our enthusiasm as we chat through some of the ways we have enjoyed geography together from pre school through to GCSE. For more information and to find links to resources mentioned, see our blog: mendedteacups.wordpress.com

Two of Molly’s children are dyslexic, so they have had plenty of opportunities to explore all the complexities wrapped up in this particular learning challenge. It does present some big hurdles but also can be seen as a gift, a way of seeing the world which is unique. Grab yourself a cuppa and listen in as we try to unpack dyslexia, offer some practical tips and reflect on a positive approach to our “out of the box” children.

With the covid pandemic, lockdown and now schools restarting the issue of friendships seems to be particularly pertinent. Good friendships don’t just happen, and as home educators we need to be intentional about helping our children develop and maintain good friends. Come and join us as we go back to basics... What makes a good friend? How can we be a good friend? How many friends do we actually need? It can be a difficult one to navigate so we hope you feel encouraged by the end of our honest chat! Find links at our blog: mendedteacups.wordpress.com

Easing back into a term time rhythm after the glorious freedom of long summer holidays can be hard any year, but this time around it may be especially tricky... Or you may be longing for some sort of structure and so are raring to go! Come and join us, maybe with a cup of tea at hand, as we chat through some tips from veteran home educators which may help us all to begin the new academic year smoothly and with the assurance that we are giving our children the best possible foundations in our uncertain world. Check out our blog to see the links to resources mentioned: mendedteacups.wordpress.com

In our last episode before we take a few weeks’ break, we share some book and blog recommendations which might help re-inspire us in our parenting and home ed journey over the summer. Check our blog for all the links mentioned: mendedteacups.wordpress.com

I love the long summer holidays, and they are usually heralded by various annual events such as sports day, a home ed camping trip, end of term celebrations and bar-b-q’s. All these mark the end of our academic year. They feel like mini rites of passage, allowing us to move from one season to the next and have some well-earned time off. This year we are without any of these, but I would suggest we are just as much in need of rest and restoration; maybe even more so. In the next two episodes we will offer some thoughts and suggestions on how we can make the most of the summer holidays, with plenty of resources which might help fill our own drained teacups. All the links we mention can be found in our blog - head over to www.mendedteacups.wordpress.com

“My child won’t sit still... how can I teach him/her?” is a question that has been put to us, and one which I’m sure many of us identify with. This is a subject close to my heart (Molly) as we have been particularly blessed with some high energy, wriggly children. So, do join us as we discuss some practical solutions, some educational foundations, and some ways in which we truly can see this energy as a gift.

Ah yes. The great outdoors. What a beautiful and inspirational place it can be. Many home educators love to incorporate Nature Study into their family learning, but perhaps you find it a bit daunting to launch into. In this episode, Molly and Helen have a chat about how they've encouraged their children to enjoy the world around them - although neither of them have been particularly formal about it.

We hope that despite, or even because of, all the challenges of this time, it will have been a season when family relationships have deepened. When that which is important will have come to the surface, some good memories will have been made and some fun been had by all. As schools gradually start to reopen, or look towards doing so, many will go back into the routine of school. We hope there will be good things both you and your children will have taken from this time. For some, however, having dipped your toes into the world of home ed, you would like to continue this particular adventure. We try to answer some of your questions in this episode.

For those of us for whom home education is our normal lifestyle, the challenge of having children, books, craft activities, science projects, outdoor gear, sports equipment, laundry, dirty dishes, and toys all competing for the same space can be quite overwhelming. Is it possible to create order out of such potential chaos? I don’t think it’s realistic to have an ultra tidy home while we have the blessing of children within it; mess is a sign of life being lived, fun being had and learning being accomplished. However, we each need to find our own level of what is “good enough” for us. Come and join us in our (none too tidy) homes as we chat through some of the ways we have tackled this excellent question as our families grow up.

As we caught up before we set about recording, we began by acknowledging that we both feel weary and heavy-hearted. Day to day life in this new reality can be draining, and the recent uprisings in the States bring deep-rooted injustices to the surface, which we too need to face. So join us as we try to grapple with some of what is going on around us - and how, as mums, we are in an incredibly empowered position as we raise up the foundations of the next generation.

In this time of Covid and lockdown, it’s been interesting to see the change in some of the ways in which we communicate. At one end of the spectrum, local communities are coming together and friendships are being formed amongst neighbours. At the other end, those from across the country - and even the globe - are able to come together via platforms such as Zoom. One such example of this was the Learn Free home educators’ conference. This is usually held in Coventry but as this was now not possible the organiser, Juliet English, took a leap into the world of virtual conferences. In this way, many more were able to benefit from four days of talks, online topic-themed chats and small group Zoom meet ups. It was wonderful to have a UK based conference, with the benefit of some international speakers too. There was quite a buzz around the community board and how lovely to “meet” some other home educating mums. So, come and join us as we share some of our highlights. The talks are on the conference app for six months, so it is possible to join now and listen at your leisure ... cup of tea in hand, of course!

Home educators have coined the term “de-schooling” to describe the change in philosophy and approach to learning which needs to happen if a child is transferring their place of education from school to home. This doesn’t mean that one is wrong and one is right, but that they are different. There would usually be weeks and months for this to happen, but in 2020 Lockdown you don’t have that luxury. We’d love you to gain a glimpse of the joys of home educating, to develop a gentle rhythm and experience the wonder of watching your children delight in what they are learning. Home ed is not an easy option for any of us, requires daily sacrifice and stretches most of us beyond what we had thought was our capacity. But for many of us it is worth it! So we hope this short conversation might help any of you doing this for the first time to navigate this change of mindset. And for those who are full time home educators ... keep going! It is very different now, but you are helping your children to put down deep roots which will enable them to cope better in the further storms of life.

A fun few minutes in which we both share our enthusiasm for reading aloud to our kids. We could have gone on for much longer, but we didn’t! Come and join our conversation and then continue it at home.

This is a great question, and whether we home ed or not, we all know that head spinning feeling of questions and needs being expressed from all sides! We are no experts, but we offer some of our thoughts from our years of home ed to this common dilemma. And a question from me ... why is it children always need something urgently as soon as I get on the phone?

We’re all learning new things, from how to do our supermarket shop and how to make bread without yeast, through to how to deal with the much larger threats which face us. Here are a few of our lockdown lessons, some light-hearted and some deeper. We’d love to hear from you... Let us know what you’ve been leaning and we can encourage each other.

I’m sure we’re not the only ones struggling to cope with all that is unfolding around us. Today we have some advice from an experienced counsellor and some practical suggestions to help us as we walk through this strange season. Listen in and be encouraged!

As we reflected on these past few weeks in lockdown, we both realised that despite, or maybe because of, spending the entire time together with our families, we’ve spent less quality time with each other. We’ve had to contend with shock, uncertainty, deep health and financial concerns and the overriding anxiety which has swept across our nation. However, this is also a time of opportunity; time when we can deepen our relationships. And for those of us who are believers in Christ, we can do this from a place of knowing that if we fear Him, we need not fear anything else. We can indeed find peace that passes understanding in Him. So, join us as we chat through some ways we’ve found which might help us connect with our children during this season.

At a time when each day rolls into the next with very little difference, we can easily feel overwhelmed and lacking in purpose. In this episode we suggest a few ways in which we can establish a gentle rhythm to our days and weeks and thus add meaning to this home season.

With the worry and uncertainty facing us in these strange times of lockdown and global pandemic, how can we still celebrate? This episode is being published just before Easter - how can we enjoy this time and make it different when we can't go anywhere and it's tricky to get special meal ingredients? Molly and Helen discuss whether and how to celebrate when life feels topsy-turvy.

The second of our mini schools shutdown podcast series. A much asked question at the moment is whether our children will have fallen behind their expected levels of attainment when schools start back. Join us as we address this with a perspective that sees opportunity in this time. Whether you are a long term home educator or a parent unexpectedly landed with the task, we hope you find something to encourage you. Please visit us at mendedteacups.wordpress.com for further information and show links.

We are all living through extraordinary times; times of fear and anxiety, times of loss and sickness, times of financial disaster and daily uncertainty. On top of all of this, schools have closed indefinitely in the UK and elsewhere, and home education has been thrust upon already overloaded parents. While I know teachers are doing their utmost to provide some continuity, the day to day education of our nation’s children is now firmly the responsibility of us parents ( though I believe this is true at any time). Even for us who normally home educate our children, we are having to adapt to the times. It is not easy. However, there are opportunities within this. As I have chatted briefly to friends (at a distance) on our daily walks so many have said that, despite the multitudes of challenges, they are enjoying having a slower pace of life and being able to spend more time with their children. We cannot know what the future holds, but we can do our utmost to make the most of this unexpected and unwelcomed season. As we chat through some of our own struggles and attempts at solutions, we hope we can encourage you in some way as we all journey through this time together. Connect with us at mendedteacups.wordpress.com

A lovely friend joins us to share her experience of the various ways her children have made use of courses via the internet. Subjects range from Middle Ages Literature to “fun” maths. Come and learn along with us about another way to enable our kids to fly high... Apology: We keep talking about "Medieval Literature" in this episode, but the course title is actually "Middle Ages Literature". Sorry for our error!

What comes to mind when history is mentioned? Dusty old text books? Memorising dates for exams? Confusing over who won what battle and why it mattered anyway? Teaching our own children history - and learning alongside them - is such a fun and rewarding experience. Come and catch some of our enthusiasm as we chat about a subject we both enjoy. Living history at its best.

Mothering is undeniably hard work, and educating our own children adds an extra layer to the demands placed upon us. Most of us instinctively give out to others before we take time for ourselves, but we need to remember to nourish our own bodies, minds and spirits too. Motherhood is a marathon not a sprint, and in this episode we chat through some ways in which we can create time for “soul care” within our days. A tea cup has to be refilled in order to continue to offer refreshment! So pour yourself a cuppa and take some time to be re-fuelled. See our blog for more information and relevant links: mendedteacups.wordpress.com