Finding Our Feet Again in 2022

In a previous blog, I wrote about some issue we had been having with our son. By the start of 2022 with the help of a family support worker, we got our son’s temper under control.

We started working on little projects week by week, for these I used a company called Pawprint Badges. We would work towards earning a badge in a week. Each project we had English, maths, science, cooking, geography, history tied in. We all started enjoying Home Ed again. A few of the project we did were Martin Luther King Jr, Burns Night, Chinese New Year, Mother’s Day, Easter. The list goes on. These Pawprint Badges are amazing, and we still use them now. Not as often as we did but more for long term projects rather than short term. 

At the end of the 2021 our son had asked to raise some money after he did a Charity run with his Cubs group for a Christmas fundraiser, at the time we didn't know what he could do and who for. When the war started in Ukraine, we decided it would be a good time for his to raise some much-needed funds, he was very effected by what was suddenly happening out there and wanted to help in any way he could.

My Mother-in-Law and Father-in-Law live in Latvia, and they knew of a charity that were working on the front-line helping refugees.

Our son challenged himself to 8 days running 2km a day to raise money for Ukrainian refugees. He ended up running 20km and raising well over £1200, this money went to Baltic Global Initiative in Latvia.

It was fantastic to watch him doing something that he loved and was passionate about. He had so much support, our friends ran with him on a couple of days, people in the park he ran cheered him on and gave him sponsorship. The junior park run he attends helped raise some fund and the local 5km park run were very supportive when he went to run that too. He even got into the local newspaper. 

We are still so proud of him a year on for his achievement, it wouldn't have been something he could have done if he was at school. 

In May 2022 we took a 3-week trip around part of Europe, the main aim was to deliver our caravan to my In-Laws in Latvia where it could be used for refugees. 

It was our first trip to Latvia in 9 years, such a amazing learning opportunity for our children. They had 18 Alpacas at the time and our son took great pride in learning all their names and learning how to look after them. My daughters spent a lot of time helping to look after the chickens and generally playing and helping around the land. 

We Spent 4 nights travelling to Latvia, via France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, and Lithuania before hitting Latvia for 10 days and then heading south to Austria via Poland and Czechia where we stayed in Prague. Our Stay in Austria was so beautiful, we explored the mountains up the side of a couple of waterfalls and a dam. On the way back to the UK we had a night in France, unfortunately we didn't get to see much in France as the trip from Austria took longer than we planned. 

It was an incredible journey and an amazing opportunity for our children to learn about different cultures, languages and try food they had never eaten before and learn the layout of Europe. 

Travelling is a huge part of how we dream our Home Ed to go, we think it is one of the most important things we can do for our children. To provide them with opportunities to learn from and wide range of people.

Whilst we were in Latvia, we visited the charity that our son had raised money for. He got to meet some of the volunteers and find out where the money he raised had gone.

Later in the week he got to meet the founder of the charity and received some chocolate from Ukraine as a thank you for his hard work.

I will add some links to the bottom of the page to things we found really useful to have in the car to keep the children entertained for 8-10 hour stints in the car. We unfortunately failed on the route planning for the drive to Latvia, forgetting we had a caravan to tow, our 6-hour journey to the next caravan site turned into 10 hours most days.  

In September 2022, I decided it was time for a change, we had lost our way a bit after our trip and struggled to find our feet again.

My children’s English tutors (a married couple) went away for a month, and we turned to online tutoring. Our children took to this well and decided that they preferred the online tutoring to their 1-1 tutors, the cost side was a huge benefit to us to swap to the online. Over 5 weeks we would spend £40 rather than £250.

With the online tutoring we don’t follow the live lessons as we prefer to be able to pause it and take our time to go through the lessons. We currently do English, maths, and science. Later on, we might add a few more of their classes. The website we use has so much to offer. 

Things we found helpful on our road trip around Europe. 

These tablets were a life saver for us when our children got bored of their DVD players. We didn't allow screens before lunch, it was only after our lunch stop that we turned on a film or they were able to use their tablets.

https://amzn.to/3L4HDIB

Our children love playing Uno, it was one of the most used card games we took with us

https://amzn.to/3JgRSbi

This table was fantastic for our youngest, we loved that she could draw with her white board pens and wipe it off. Our middle child also used it regularly. We have since bought 2 more of our eldest children for long car journeys. 

https://amzn.to/3ygfUwU

For our eldest children, we used these. They are great, it meant they could draw in their sketch books and play card games through the journey. 

https://amzn.to/3L1soQu

We packed a box with all the card and mini board games they wanted to take on our road trip and put it under their feet. Next time I think I would take a box for each of the children and fill it with things for them for the day, including snacks and drinks, books, kindle, tablet and games.

I love these boxes I use the around the house for everything, I also found they fit perfectly in the foot well of the middle of our car under my children's feet. 

https://amzn.to/3EZdZAD

We have had portable DVD players for a long time now and highly recommend them, our children love watching their favourite films on a long drive. 

We purchased them headphones so they could watch the film they wanted to watch without having to listen to the film playing on the next DVD player. 

https://amzn.to/3kLkikq

Please note that I earn commission on any purchases made through the links provided.