Our Thursday Photo #39

I’m very aware of how much both girls are growing up and changing each week, but occasionally something really makes me stop and think about it. 

This week, the trigger has been lots of talk about school. I overheard a conversation earlier in the week about the problem parents face when taking school age children on holiday. 

Some people were willing to take their children out of school to avoid the price hikes during holidays and all of them were complaining about the fact that they could be penalised for doing so. 

We’re not yet in that position ourselves, but it got me thinking about how I’d feel when we were. 

I do appreciate that there are cost considerations and that for many of us, this can be prohibitive when it comes to a foreign holiday. 

By the same token though, in wanting to take our children out of school purely to avoid cost considerations associated with going away during school holidays, are we undervaluing their education?

I wonder what Malala Yousafzai’s opinion would be on this debate. Having fought for her right to an education, would she find a the right to a cheap holiday somewhat trivial in comparison to the importance of being educated? 

For me, I think the consideration will be more around whether I will be able to get the girls back into the same school if I remove them from school for a year to home educate them. 

I would like to travel for a year with the girls towards the end of their time at primary school and educate them as we go.

I would of course cover all their curriculum subjects for the year, but it is my opinion that they would learn a lot more by getting out into the world than staying at home and reading about it in a textbook. 

It seems that Libby has school on the mind this week as well. When a friend of mine called over for lunch, Libby was explaining to her that she was going to school soon and asking me which school she was going to go to. 

It’s difficult to explain to a two year old that I currently have no idea which school she will go to, but that we’re doing our very best to make sure it’s a good one. 

It seemed like a very grown up conversation to have with her and perhaps made her come across as more mature than she is.

This evening, we talked about taking the bars off her cot bed so that she could get out. She wasn’t keen on that idea at all and wanted to keep her cot, so perhaps she will stay a baby in some ways for a little longer. 

Talking of babies, Lia is now crawling quite proficiently, but only when it suits her. She isn’t managing to pull herself up to a standing position yet, so I think walking is a long way off. I’m quite pleased, it’s going to be chaos with two of them mobile. 

Our Thursday photo #39 was taken whilst they were both having a rare treat of watching the television. As you can tell, they were both rather transfixed!