Mended Teacups

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