Mended Teacups

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.