Friday 2 July 2010

Acid, balls and phloem down the village hall

Don't tell me that home ed kids sit miserable and alone at the kitchen table everyday, worn half dead with the hourly parental beatings.

Or how their spooky hippie-creationist-evangelical-abducted by aliens parents keep their children at home as psychological props because, well, because they're all mentally ill.

We heard that crap already.

We were very composed in our response. No-one ever swung by with baseball bats and an assault rifle, did they?

No. We merely demonstrated in blogs like this what a fantastic mixed bunch of humanity we are. We simply showed you ourselves, and how there are many ways of forming a home education experience. We told you where we meet, how we get together, and how you can see bits of us washing up routinely inside your local village hall.

Next time you pass, peer in through the dusty windows, and see what we're doing.

Alright, it's possible you do see a goat, so I won't entirely rule that out. It's Marvin, who likes to bring his animals. But I bet you won't see any type of strange goat slaughter or naked dancing druids while a bloke bangs an antler with a stick. You won't see that. Any stories about that happening are made up, OK?

You might, of course, see what looks like a terrible bloodied breast, emitting acidic volcanic lava. I'll give you that one.


And the horrible ritual slicing of eggs. It is merely curiosity. No baby quails were sacrificed in the ordeal.


Alright, you might see some balls being thrown about. There was a bucket.


And I admit there was a small amount of fire. But we had an extinguisher.


And the phloem. Mustn't forget that.


I could include the fruit batteries, the fake meteorite, the demonstration of light waves passing through water, the bug table, the aeroplane test, the egg in vinegar, and the crystal growing and slime, made from borax, glue and water.





You might see all of those things.

You might scurry on past the village hall, and conclude there is something weird going on, and those home ed types are probably shape shifting lizards in disguise.

Hmm. Thinking about it, maybe you should believe that. Yes. Better stay away!

Then I don't have to tell you that it's a home ed Science Fair. If you knew that, everyone might want to join in, and there aren't enough teabags to go round.

9 comments:

R. Molder said...

I just realized how much "stuff" one needs to acquire to do home ed and wow, you should just set up a small school for 3 more students or so and charge a fee to pay for the supplies!!!!

sharon said...

But no smoking behind the bike shed?

Grit said...

hi rachel! well, i don't provide all the stuff, that's for sure! in a meeting like this, each family brings along the science they've been working with, sets up a table, and shows it off to everyone else. Then we all can see each other's experiments, hear everyone's ideas and we all have practice in presenting to individuals, and to larger groups.

it requires not so much stuff (home made volcano = painted papier mache, vinegar and bicarb; lightwaves through water = torch, jars of coloured water) but it does need ORGANIZATION! i am eternally grateful to those who do organize, because i am not very good at it.

and to anyone wondering... it's straightforward to do in scope: hire your local hall for 3 hours, divide the rent between the families, set the theme, all turn up. voila.

sharon, the very thought! there were no bike sheds. i checked, just in case anyone was up for a snog.

Big mamma frog said...

Rachel,
the main thing you need to home ed is a tolerance to the mountains of potentially useful/educational/interesting 'stuff' that will accumulate on every flat surface in your house...plus an understanding that whatever you do your house will never again be tidy until the little perishers leave home. {g}

Big mamma frog said...

p.s. most of that 'stuff' we use for home ed is free/cheap/scrounged/found/created. It's amazing how resourceful you can be when you set your mind to it.

MadameSmokinGun said...

It all looks incredibly orderly. I didn't know you could gather that many Home Edders in one space without huge spills of paint or glue or glitter or popcorn or yoghurt or wee on the floor.

Maybe that's just MY kids then.......

Kestrel said...

It did look very orderly! We need a science day at the home school meet here. What a great idea!

kelly said...

We're doing this in September! (my brain wave, or fart, depending on how successful....)

Glad it went well. There's hope then!

Grit said...

thank you for your comments, people. i can thoroughly recommend the science fair theme. it put the bats up everyone's nightdresses in the preparation, but the kids all turned out magnificent displays. my only regret is that i cannot steal the glory for the idea, the organisation, nor even the hire hall. all of that rightly belongs to sarah.