Since Looby and I started our home education journey in September last year, I've tried to come up with as many different topics as I could to inspire her to break boundaries and explore areas other than horses (the girl is mad about horses)!  As we approach what is, effectively, half way through year nine, we're now beginning to think about what she's going to study at GCSE level from September and science is at the very forefront of our learning choices, Looby loves science, it's the only subject I employ a tutor for, and the reason for that has been watching her enthusiasm, she's also a natural with tech although I'm not sure she'd admit it.  She's a natural problem solver and knows more about coding at the age of 14 than I will ever do.

Over the last 10 or so years I've been lucky enough to be part of the Thinking Digital community in Newcastle, tech and digital matters are part of who I am, being a photographer after all, is one of the oldest jobs in tech and so I've joined the #prettycurious campaign which is run by EDF and aims to help to inspire more girls into STEM careers.

Did you know that just one in four people working in core STEM roles in the UK are women?  EDF Energy has set an ambition that 30% of its STEM graduate and apprenticeship intake will be women by 2018.  They are already ahead of their targets but they still have more work to do.  

Being part of the tech community in Newcastle has proven just how male dominated it still is, don't get me wrong, there are some amazing women in tech out there but when I attend the Thinking Digital Conference yearly, there's definitely a higher men to women ratio and I believe that our daughters are the ones who can change this.  Women as a whole are the most amazing problem solvers, we can multi-task successfully and we're great at reading instructions and building things.  Looby herself is my chief Ikea furniture builder, it's all the building blocks of a brain which is made for a STEM career.

I know many of you who read my blog have daughters around the same age as Looby (and Abigail who is just about to sit her triple science GCSE's) and I wonder as parents what we can do to inspire our daughters and our daughters daughters to take the world of STEM careers by storm.

Now there's a chance you are sitting there wondering what the heck STEM is so let me tell you -

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and if you want to know more about that you can check out the following resources with your teens - 

• The #PrettyCurious website - a great resource for teens and parents
• The Future Me avatar and quiz for teens – encourage your child to take the quiz to find out which STEM careers suit their interests. They can also create a shareable and personalized Future Me avatar https://www.edfenergy.com/prettycurious/futureme/quiz
• The Parent's Quiz, what's your view on the right career for them?
• https://www.edfenergy.com/prettycurious/parent-quiz
• Experience a day in the life of an architect at The Shard in a virtual reality film
• https://www.edfenergy.com/prettycurious/futureme/virtualreality

Of course I do not know what the future truly holds for Looby, as parents we can advise and help but ultimately it's up to our teens to navigate their own path, I do know though that over the last couple of days since receiving a Little Bits droid kit she's been so enthusiastic about building her droid and making it do all kinds of things, including chasing Holly Bobbins around the lounge, much to Looby's amusement (not so much Holly Bobbins).  At one point her droid came up to me and shouted "Hello Mammy" I'm not even sure where I would begin to try and teach a robot to talk and carry messages.

Whatever path she takes though I can at least say I helped enrich her life with science and technology, our world isn't standing still and by 2023 it's expected that the job rate in STEM will double over other traditional careers.

I’m working with EDF Energy and BritMums to promote the #PrettyCurious programme. Visit Pretty Curious  for more information and advice.”

So Proud of Them

I should start this post by saying that if you don't like reading mums go on and on about how proud they are of their daughters then skip, skip away to the next one because I might just be about to get emotional in a "Proud Mama" way.

Yesterday was such a great day, Looby and I went to meet with Fiona who represents the LEA in all matters of home education, we've been waiting for the day when we got the LEA's seal of approval to continue Looby's home education and yesterday was that day.

Fiona was impressed with Looby and I was so proud to watch my daughter speaking so eruditely about her home education journey, sometimes as her mum all I see is the door slamming, the storming off and the comments like "You're always trying to educate me" (yep, Looby, that's kind of the point).  It's encouraging to see how well she's absorbing the things we talk about, how she's responding to her science tuition and now seeing just how well she's doing with her online English/Maths and Science courses, well it just makes me proud.  She's just written her first article on her own blog since the Christmas break, go read it and leave her an encouraging comment, blogging is the thing she enjoys least of all but it's so important for her to continue as that's her evidence of learning and it's also her life's progress, she's going to look back in 10 years and be so happy that she recorded her own history.

Getting the nod of approval means so much to both of us, it means we have a year now to focus on the learning, to not have to worry about if we're doing the right things and we know we have the support if we have any queries about anything.  I can't wait to start planning more adventures.

Meanwhile, I sat and watched on Twitter last night as Abigail's votes for 16 motion was passed by Newcastle City Council and they as a city council will now support votes for 16 in all referendums and elections, my girl, campaigned and fought for this motion, it was debated and it passed, I cried tonight when I watched it all unfold, to be tweeted by the Lord Mayor herself saying I should be proud of her, it's unbelievable really.  She's such a force for good fighting for the rights of young people when she herself is not even 16 until May, each day she's doing long days at school, then doing ridiculous amounts of homework and revision for her GCSE's on top of that, there are no actual words to say how proud I am to be her mum, she's one to watch for sure, if she's done all this before 16, imagine what she's going to achieve by the time she's 25!

Abigail and Looby, despite being only 16 months apart in age, they are polar opposites, yin and yang, Abigail's dad will tell you of his young daughter, a massive thirst for knowledge sitting requesting to be read to with a pile of books bigger than her from such an early age, she rarely sat still where as Looby was always a dreamer, definitely the easier of the two when small but Looby had a creative streak, she would dress herself from being tiny making each individual outfit work despite wearing things you would never imagine would go together.  In every way shape and form, my girls are different although I would say they both can be feisty and determined but that's not such a bad thing.

The amount I love them is immeasurable and to have two teens who are such wonderful examples of young women is something I am so grateful for, we have given our daughters the room to be the people they wanted to be, we have surrounded them with good people from all ages, genders and different backgrounds and it's because of that we have been able to have such open and honest discussions with them both, we have brought them up to believe as we do that people should only be defined by their actions towards you and nothing else, they are shining beacons of the future and examples of hope, both together and separately I believe they can change the world in their own unique ways.

Abigail and Looby, my loves, my life, my world,  if you've made it this far, you should know that your mama loves you more than the stars, the universe and all of the other undiscovered cosmos's, may you always have the space to be yourselves, may you always see the world as you do right now and whatever happens, never let anyone darken your hearts or dull your sparkle.

Educating Looby, 3 months in...

Christmas days are magical days, especially when it snows prior to the big day, it really makes me feel so much more festive, I think watching the snow fall when you are cosy and warm and everywhere is twinkly and bright, it's my nirvana, couple that with cuddles from Holly Bobbins and a big cup of hot chocolate topped with squirty cream and marshmallows and it's the nearest thing I think I'll get to absolute perfection.

This year has been my favourite countdown to Christmas for as long as I can remember because Looby has been here and we've really been able to embrace the whole countdown from decorating our house together which took many days to building (or trying to build) an epic Gingerbread house from our friends at Biscuiteers.

Let me just say now that Looby and I shall not be entering into any professional competitions anytime soon, it took 3 people to secure the sides of the house so that the walls didn't fall in whilst the roof had to be held on for 5 minutes.  Some people are ace builders of Gingerbread houses, I can say now, I am not one of them but we did end up with lots of tasty sugary icing dowsed gingerbread and the house is actually standing this morning so I think we've achieved our goal.

Just as we were erecting our gingerbread structure another heavy snow shower happened, now I should just say that the rest of the country have had snow days for the last couple of days whilst we in Newcastle have had approximately 2 heavy showers so I was a little shocked when I saw Looby and her friend wheeling 2 major parts of a snowman up our path and we have a chubby short snowman now sitting outside of our door.

So that's been this weeks quotient of art covered and Looby is also working on a horse related project about stabling and looking after a horse which her dad set her and as I write this she's doing 2 hours of science with her tutor after a morning of maths with her tutor, she's exactly where she needs to be with her educational level and the best thing for me to see is just how keen she is to learn just because no one is telling her that she has to.  I think the best and biggest difference about home ed to traditional education is that we are constantly learning, "school" never stops, she'll be writing a blog post at 10 in the evening or we'll be off doing grocery shopping in the mornings where she'll have a shopping list or where she'll work out what we need to purchase for recipes and then we cook together though I must admit, she's not the biggest fan of cooking or of cookery programmes but I feel she'll have enough skills to look after herself when she eventually does leave home one day.

Home education isn't a cheap fix, it requires time, patience and the financial ability to be able to pay for tutors and activities but it's 100% worth it to see how happy she is.  There are some days where I want to teach her things which she doesn't want to know or she just isn't interested in and that can be frustrating but we spend very little time arguing and I have nothing but appreciation for the time we get to spend with each other.

In January we're meeting with the representative from the local education authority and hopefully they're going to give us their blessing that we are doing exactly the things we need to do but you know what?  I have no doubt that it will all be fine because what I have now, is a confident unicorn who is bright and shiny and happier than she ever was, with home education, Looby really has come into her own.

Every Moment Counts

I was talking about this last week on my blog, how the moments of childhood pass so very quickly and pretty much every moment counts.  I've been trying to live more mindfully over the last couple of weeks, I've really slowed myself down, I've taken my camera out of high speed shooting again and I'm back to shooting the way I used to, mindfully, taking my time, and making sure that each precious  image I capture is exactly the way it's supposed to be.  In our lives at home I'm trying to be more aware and more present in the time we spend together and in the last week at least, by catching up on editing so I'm completely up to date, it means I have more time during the week with Looby, something I feel that is so important.  Yes we still have times of work but she needs those as much as I do on our home education journey.

This week I've been taking a challenge called "Every Moment Counts" it was set by Families online and when they got in touch to ask if I wanted to take part, I had to accept, a chance to take at least one mindful image every day for a week, it actually proved to be more of a challenge than I thought even though I do take photos every single day whether that's on my iPhone or on my camera.  I'm happy with what I did though, if anything it proved to me why living mindfully is the way forward, as someone who can be accused at living life at a million miles an hour it's so important that I slow down and enjoy the present, the now, the immediate because otherwise time does pass so very quickly and before you know it, well let's just say I don't want to get to 100 years old and have regrets.

So here are my seven moments from last week - 

1. Together, I caught them unawares, they really are the best of friends, Holly and Looby have a real sisterly relationship and from time to time they do get grumpy with each other but at the heart is real love and togetherness.

2. Tradition, last week we were learning about Hygge in our home education and Looby wrote the Hygge manifesto, Hygge is so full of tradition and gets the Danish through the cold winter nights and the darker times of the year, we really did learn a lot about them last week.

3.  Laughter, yes, Looby the comedian who thought I wouldn't notice that she'd put a giant bear in the trolley at Costco, she thought she was hilarious and much laughter ensued.

4. Three things - self explanatory really but Abigail came over and they're teaching Holly to be the ultimate agility dog, I have to say she's doing so well and enjoying it, Looby is buying weekly agility training things and how long, I wonder before we see Holly Bobbins at Crufts?

5. Colourful, there's no one more colourful than Looby and her new autumn jacket is proof that we don't need to conform to the dark colours of a uniform code anymore, it's no wonder that she's so happy since we started our home education journey.

6. Love - No explanation needed, Holly adores human sister Looby

7. Reflection, yep, we could have gone for a thoughtful photo but no, Looby is still trying to teach Holly to self actualise, Holly of course just thinks another girl and her beagle live on the other side of that glass!!

So there you go, 7 moments from the last week of our lives, some were just phone moments, a couple were with my camera but each one is special and precious, we can use technology for good I think, as long as it's not all the time, something which I'll be reminding myself of as we go through the rest of the year and beyond.  It's over to you now though, what are you doing to ensure as a family that each moment counts?  I'd love to hear your comments and ideas.

Home Educating My Teen, Our First Week

Oh, hey you, remember me?

Yes, I know, I was trying to blog more often you know but the first week back after summer always seems more than a little chaotic.

The funny thing is that Looby wasn't going back to school but we were settling in to our new way of life and anyone who's seen Looby in the last week or so has commented just how happy she is and how she's more like Looby again, hurrah for that I say, long may it continue.  It is amazing though, I think perhaps we're both so much happier and it was only a couple of days before we attended Home Ed trampolining where she made her first similarly aged friend.  I have no worries at all about Looby feeling any kind of feelings of isolation, she's made a new friend, she spent a day with her best friend from school at the weekend and then she saw all of her riding school friends yesterday, my social butterfly's wings have certainly not been clipped by the introduction to this new way of life.

What's amazing is that I wasn't sure when we should commence any kind of formal learning, the guidelines say that you need around 1 month for every year the child has attended school as a deschooling period and during this time you don't do any formal learning at all.  In Looby's case that would be 10 months which seems like an awfully long time to me so I decided that we'd just do things our own way, it usually works!  I feel and so does Looby that she's learnt more in a week about  real life than she ever learnt at school so that's already a win and within the first couple of days she set up her own blog and now she's blogging on a daily basis, please go over and give her blog a read, it's quite early days but she writes eloquently with a bouncy kind of style which makes for easy reading, she's more amusing than me and let me tell you, her blog about why she's home educated made me so proud, she also has had way better reader stats in a week than I ever had when I started blogging, she's a whizz!

This week is our first full week and we have lots of interesting things, we're at the Theatre tonight and tomorrow we're helping out at a dementia charity tea dance, home ed is brilliant because there are no boundaries and my financial aim this week is to accrue the funds needed for our cultural trip to Gdansk at the end of the month.

I need to sort my working times out, I am much behind currently as I wanted to spend as much time as I could with Looby but it's still early days and we need to work out how it's all going to work, it's probable that I'll just end up editing, sending newsletters and speaking to clients in the evenings and early mornings but that's fine, it's all doable, with my job, the brilliant thing is that I am mostly a digital nomad from Mon-Friday, I can literally work from anywhere on the entire planet!

I think I'm happy with life at the moment, I said yes to lots of great work things last week, nothing personal came up but there was always a chance that would happen, I'm just going to have to make sure I keep making my mark in a work sense so that I don't completely get forgotten about.

So this week, watch out for more blogging, more vlogging and definitely some new and interesting adventures, home educating is going to be the best ride we've ever been on together.

There's No Turning Back Now...

I make no apology for the fact that my blogging has been utterly sporadic of late or that I've written very few posts over the whole of summer.  It's weird that sometimes it just seems impossible to grab five minutes to sit down and collect my thoughts but unfortunately that is the way it's been.  I can't remember the last time I was actually up to date with work and as of right now, I have 2 weddings and 4 photo shoots to edit.

It's not that I've fallen out of love with blogging or indeed writing, in fact, nothing could be further than the truth, it's just simply that I need an extra hour in the day!  It's only a few weeks since I started vlogging but I really love finding my feet on a new platform, it's a task to build up a new following but I'm on a mission to conquer Youtube before the end of the year, come subscribe to my face if you already haven't!

I cannot quite believe it's the first of September or that in just 5 days my son will be 21 or indeed that in 24 days my youngest will be 14!  Yesterday I sent off her letter to deregister from school, no going back now, home education here we come!

I wonder if blogging is going to get easier during our year of adventure or if it will end up being like that random year where I only managed to write 34 posts....surely not, I hear you cry?!

Well dear readers, what's going to happen over the next year I just can't tell but I am excited by the possibilities and whilst in some ways, everything is changing, in many ways, I'm going to have to work even harder to support us all whilst simultaneously being responsible for Looby's education.

So, what's on the cards for the next few months, well in a work sense I've just announced my "Last day of summer" Mini photo shoots taking place at King Edwards Bay on 23/09/17 and yes, technically it is actually the first day of autumn but I'm guessing I couldn't fill a whole day of photo shoots on a Friday!!

So if you want a mini photo shoot then, it's £100 and you'll get all of the edited digital images to print and keep forever!  Just send me an email,  sessions are available from 10 am until 4 pm and they're 30 minutes in length.  

It is of course that shooting these crazy days are the thing that sustains us, my income comes from working hard and to the best of my abilities, our lives are what they are because I work more hours in a weekend than there actually seem to be, but you know what, I wouldn't change it for the world, I'm actually a bit rubbish at a life without deadlines, I work better under just a little pressure,maybe that's why I'm single parenting, running a successful and award winning business whilst home educating my 14-year-old, or maybe I've just lost the plot!!

I have big plans for us, we're undertaking a project about tourism in Poland and we'll have a cultural trip to go along with that, we're also going to be working on many forms of media and I'll be helping Looby to set up a blog/vlog when she gets back from her well earned holiday with dad, she's currently in the sunshine in Tenerife, lucky girl.

I also want to do a project on farming since that's what she wants to do and I'll hopefully arrange a stay on a working farm for us and hopefully, Holly Bobbins can join us for that one!  Oh and towards the festive season we'll be studying Christmas around the world with a cultural trip to a Christmas market, it's just as well the English/Math and Science program we are doing is online and accessible wherever we are.

So I want to end this blog post with a note of great thanks, thanks for your continued patronization of my business, thanks for your continued friendly faces entrusting me with your special moments and thanks to all of the people who've helped and advised about our home educating adventure, I really feel, now more than ever, the very best, is yet to come.

When did I start looking like an old man?

This image has had skin smoothing applied for your own protection, it was far too crinkly beforehand!

So you've probably ascertained from the lack of posts that I'm super busy at the moment, either that or I've fun away to sell cupcakes to koalas on a deserted island (I wish)...

No, for shame, between travelling, planning more travel and working 23.5 hours per day, I know, I'm a rebel, half an hour of sleep, I'm such a slacker! (those hours may be an exaggeration but still...)

I don't know what's going on with me exactly at the moment but I can tell you this, every time I look in the mirror (or run past quickly) I see my face and wonder how I became to look so much like a fugly old man, yeah, not even a woman, I'm clearly becoming Bert in my old age.  I'm also getting wider and don't even get me started on the ratio of grey to not grey hair.  I think it's probably best that I just cover up all of the mirrors and if anyone asks I'll just say it's because I'm a vampire.  I mused earlier that it doesn't matter because I'm going to be single until I die so what I look like is unimportant and yet I think to myself, how can I have gotten to this point where I hate my body/face/hair so much.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for sympathy and mentally I'm actually in a really good place and love the person I am on the inside, it's just the outside I'm at war with.

So here's the thing, I noticed that on dating sites with most men the ageing process really kicked in once they were past the age of 42 and I think that's what happened to me, it was all going pretty well and then 43 hit and now I'm Bert, or Ernie, I haven't decided my old rotund man name yet.

I do feel like it's time to cut the carbs again, I just wish I didn't like food which tastes nice or cake, I mean, why even invent cake, it's just unfair.

In other matters I'm planning for Looby's great home ed adventure, so far I've worked out we're doing projects on Poland in September including a cultural trip, we're then going to do something around farming and agriculture and hopefully we'll go stay on a working farm and then in December we'll be doing Christmas around the world and visiting some Christmas markets.  I think this next year is just as exciting for me as it is for Looby, I mean, who gets the opportunity to spend a whole year with their teen daughter?  It's like the biggest adventure ever and I'm wholeheartedly embracing it, now don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are times when we'll argue and not speak, that's just par for the course when you have teenagers though.  Mostly I think what I'm trying to say is that it doesn't matter that I am turning into a rotund old man, I'm also getting the chance to live and breathe and travel and explore with my youngest daughter who I love dearly, things will most definitely never be the same again in that respect.

Work feels so good to me right now, I love what I do so much and yes, I see work as part of the journey because it's my life as a photographer and a writer which has lead me to the point of being able to facilitate this great adventure, I may work on average 16 hours a day at weekends but mostly I get the week to do whatever I want.  This week I have a couple of weddings to edit and then I'm caught right up to date, I have plans with Looby to go to Beamish, to decorate and hide pebbles around the North East as part of the Tyneside Rocks group on Facebook (it's seriously a cool treasure hunt and creative activity which costs practically nothing) we're also having a Caribbean street party for Looby and her friends and if there's any time left we are starting on turning her bedroom into the bedroom of her dreams, she's got some brilliant ideas and it's going to be a room she can sleep in, socialise with friends in and somewhere she can work and chill, I guess like a giant den and place where you can feel safe and as one, we all need a little zen space!

And so, back I go to working again, just a few more hours tonight and only 1 photo shoot tomorrow, oh and just in case you're wondering, I'll be taking time off in between to cover up all those mirrors...

Why I'm removing my 13 year old from school

On Friday Looby and I broke the news to the wider public about our decision to move from traditional schooling into home education, we'd held a BBQ for her closest friends on Monday and the lovely people at Biscuiteers had sent us a party box to help celebrate this monumental decision, if you haven't seen the video of the BBQ or those amazing retro sweet shaped biscuits (they're so, so good) why not have a watch?!

A few people since we've broken the news have asked why we're doing it and also have asked what we'll be concentrating on instead, will we be covering the curriculum, is Looby not going to do GCSE's, am I about to ruin her life? (that was mostly my inner voice) what are we going to do for the next year?....

I thought it might be a good idea to go back to the start, you see when Looby was just reaching school age I first had thoughts that I would love to home educate but I was 10 years younger, just getting better after agoraphobia and I was starting a business, I just didn't know then what I know now.  Fast forward 10 or so years and we've contemplated home ed several times, each time we've thought we'd give school just a little longer but it's been noticeable that Looby just doesn't enjoy or fit into traditional schooling, I call her my unicorn because she's different, she's not the same as all of her peers, it's not so long ago that she mentioned the first signs of bullying and I knew then that we were making the right decision.  Looby has always been a magical girl, she loves deeply, cares deeply and she's retained the wonder of childhood thus far, she's so much younger than Abigail despite there only being 16 months which separate them and whilst Abigail is an academic go getter, Looby cares about other areas so much more.  From the first day Looby could talk, she told me that she wanted to be a farmer, to this day she's focused on working with horses or in agriculture, she rides all day on Sunday's and takes care of the horses in exchange for extra rides, she's passionate about the horses and get's up way earlier than I ever could just so that she can be there to care for them and to help in all aspects because it's the thing that she loves most.

Home ed will allow us to concentrate more on the areas she loves and less on the subjects she doesn't care about but is made to study in a traditional curriculum lead environment.  In our home ed environment Looby will study what she wants to study with the exception of English, math and science, we are subscribing to Ed Place for those subjects and she will keep studying towards having those GCSE's as she and I both know, they're necessary not just for farming but for life in general.

We plan to travel as much as possible and that's going to take care of culture, geography and history, she's going to blog and vlog, taking care of art and IT, don't underestimate the skills needed to take the photos and to edit the video required for those two things.  We also think it's important to study a language and you know what, I don't possess that skill either so we're going to learn French together, I stopped learning French at the age of 13 and I'm determined to have that as a second language, isn't it always easier when you have someone to learn with.

Looby is a social child, she has friends from many factions of her life, not just school so I know that she's not going to lose out on any social activities, in fact, in home ed there are plenty of meet ups and chances to gain new friends who are also home ed.

Home ed will let Looby develop at the speed in which she should develop, it will help her hold onto childhood for as long as she wants whilst she'll develop into a young lady at the speed it's really supposed to happen instead of being forced into it by peer group pressure.

For Looby and I, a world without boundaries, uniforms and pages of rules and regulations is exciting, a world where we can wear fairy wings on Tuesday or even just not have to worry about the fact that her pencil case is fashionable instead of black!  At the moment our plan is that Looby will go to Newcastle College for year 10, it's much more relaxed, no uniforms, smaller class sizes and it still gives the chance to do GCSE's. She may however decide that she wants to stick with home ed and that's fine with me, most colleges and universities have home ed streams where you don't even need traditional qualifications to enter into further education.

I asked Looby last night what it felt like to know she was free, she said "exciting mammy, exciting" and you know what, that's the very best thing of all, my girl, my unicorn is finally free.