Writer, Home Educator & General All Round Multitasker

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As a home educator and a writer, daily life becomes a juggling act and I'm still working on the skills required to make everything balance. Finding the time to write is often difficult - I don't have a set time like many writers. Finding five minutes here to think and thirty minutes there to write is an example of my writing day. And now my eldest son is 16, and moving into GCSE territory, the work pace will increase. And I do have to nag. It's funny though, you don't tend to think of your teachers as nagging you at school. But it is a different story when you're home educated. I'm mum, and I'm not a teacher, merely a nag!

GCSE English is our focus for this year. Armed with a degree in English Literature, I thought this was my forte. Yet can I interest him in Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Keats or Thomas? No. English is a great subject for also exploring history and Geography but my son has no interest in World Wars, The Tudors or The Romans and don't even think about the Vikings! It's not that he hasn't had such education thrown at him, it's simply that he doesn't find it interesting. Oh yes, and all museums are "boring."

The one thing my son is interested in, seems to be Asian culture. For years he's had a longing to visit Japan and now says he'd love to live there. So, when I asked him how he thought he might achieve this he simply said, "once I've ploughed through this lot," pointing at his GCSE books, "And gone to college, etc, I'll look into getting an IT job there." Now, whilst I had the usual mothering instinct which told me to feel sad about my boy moving away from home, the first thing I felt was relief because for the last three years I've been nagging him to study, and finally it sounds as though he's had his moment of realisation. Perhaps now I can stop pushing.

So, today in the post, my son received  a surprise. A fantastic writer, home educator and tutor called Catherine Mooney, has sent us a new copy of her GCSE level essay writing course. This is intended for my son. Her books are rather lovely with funny illustrations which really do liven up the education material, making it appear far more interesting and fun than the usual, drab books you might buy. She runs an online tutoring service for anyone interested in studying GCSE English and the prices are very competitive in comparison to other companies such as Oxford Home Learning. I do know that many home educators are favoring her material right now. Her website is:
http://www.catherinemooneytutoring.co.uk/index.htm

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