Of course all my plans could come to nought

The daylight hour has changed, so evening flicks me into a different time. I think it's time for tea but the clock says bath. Strange. British Summer Time. All my coordinates are awry. I'll make the best of this displacement, probably by stopping to stare at the clock, wondering where the hours went. Then I'll reflect on the last few days and weeks and slowly plan ahead for the days and weeks to come.

Evaluation, assessment, planning, strewing, call it what you want, isn't seen by everyone in this home ed world as a good thing to do. In fact, it's the sort of activity I never knew could stir up so many hornet's nest politics. Not surprisingly, it's taken me a while to confess. I'm a planner, an evaluator.

Hey, I may lose friends. But really, I have to lay down heavily on the side of the strewer. In fact, for this job, you may need to equip me with a clip board and biro. And here's why.

Because I don't feel I could educate my kids at home without jotting down what each has done, is doing, wants to do. By routinely rounding it all up I know what books they're read, the art they've created, the places they've been enthused by, the interests they're exploring.

For one, I have a terrible memory. And am depressed, easily. So when the month ends and begins, I'll look around and think What the heck have we done? Nothing. We've done nothing.

I'll think that partly because I genuinely can't remember. Also because unless I write it down, record it and think about it, then it won't count. Call that an oddball psychology, but don't shoot me. Because without it, I might throw in the towel and get Squirrel, Tiger and Shark in black and white and down the local school.

Apart from my own sanity, then there's that education thing. I need to keep track of where Squirrel, Tiger and Shark have been in their thinkings, askings, wonderings. I need to think next what I can put in their path to extend their ideas, encourage them to look at old knowledges anew, find out something in a place we haven't been before, and push us all out on a limb into a strange new territory. I believe that's my job. Both to encourage them in the areas they're interested in, and to challenge them, poke them with sticks to go on into new places, because the adventure and the risk might be rewarded with new insights and knowledges.

But does anyone else need to be involved? Anyone outside this family, do they need to be a part of the achievements, interests, goals and ideas of Squirrel, Tiger and Shark?

Now I'm genuinely torn and in my head is a ragbag of thoughts which possibly don't much hold together.

I believe the evaluation, reflection and plans for the future should come entirely from Squirrel, Tiger, Shark, Dig and me. If Shark is interested in marine biology, then that's what she should tell the world, and if anyone wants to know how well she's doing in English, with her consent I'd list the books she reads about fictional fish, real shipwrecks, study guides to oceanography and every book she can lay her hands on with a passing reference to water. And it's not my problem to nail that huge enthusiasm down to National Curriculum attainment targets, and neither should it be. Part of me says No, no-one needs to set the terms but us for our achievements, and No. You don't need to know.

But like every other sane parent out there who believes their child is the most wonderful creature that ever stepped foot on this planet, I am so mightily proud, that it's all I can do to restrain myself from taking out a full page ad in The Independent telling you that today Shark just finished reading Ibbotson's Journey to the River Sea.

So I naturally want to involve you and everybody in our home education. I want home education to be shared everywhere, understood everywhere. Get this. I want to shout out the successes of it from the rooftops, ask you all to consider it, make everyone wonder why, really, why schools in their present guise exist, what are they here for, what are children doing there, term after term, year after year? And I feel I can do this job better if I can state out clearly how home education here works. What are its troubles, successes, achievements, drawbacks, how it can chuck you face down into a pit and progress so astonishingly well that you wonder why isn't everyone drawing out their kids from schools right now to take a part of this amazing opportunity?

So my thinking, planning, evaluation - did the month go well, did Squirrel, Tiger and Shark find anything new, did they learn exciting stuff and how best can I push all that on - all spills out of my displaced hour.

Because of it, I feel on safer ground. And with the achievements I can see round here in this home ed thing, I might even carry on, as far as our plans can go.