The trial has ended

When I started this journey, I gave myself 6 months as a trial. I de-registered after the October half term and I set Easter as our trial period. Some of it was to save face I think in case it didn't go well. It was also so that I didn't have to think about it again until this point. I'm glad I did that. I'm glad because it gave me an end date to work towards. I'm glad because it stopped me constantly asking the boys if they were happy or threatening to send them back. (I'll be honest though, there were a few instances of that early on) So, where are we now? We're still very much on the journey of a lifetime without a map. We're travelling through unchartered waters and discovering new places all the time. We've already discovered several new worlds. The key one being the world of us. We've grown together as a family in ways that I couldn't have dreamed. Instead of getting on each others nerves as some might expect, the opposite has in fact happened. We've become tolerant of each other. I have developed more patience than I thought I could ever have. (I'm not perfect I hasten to add and I can still lose that patience occasionally)The boys have developed a greater respect for family rules. Simple changes have occurred that have made life infinitely better. For example, putting rubbish in the bin instead of on the floor. That's been a wonderful change. They're also more conscious of money. They rarely ask for things now. The odd ice cream when we're out but nothing much more. Their behaviour when we're out has also improved. There's less madness and more interest in where they are. I feel like I've reclaimed my wonderful little boys. George 1 was at school for 3 years and I always felt like I didn't know who he was. For 6 hours a day he was in this secret world, doing things I had no idea about and midway through reception, my beautiful boy was left there and this monster came to live with us. We've since found the lovely boy again. Yes, the world of us is definitely the best place to be. Another world that we've discovered but have yet to really start exploring, is the world of learning. I get the feeling that we could spend a lifetime visiting this place and never get to see the whole of it. It's an exciting world, one that when we first started visiting, we were all a bit frightened of. So many paths to take, so many methods of travel. We tried structured, it was quite simply too soon and we didn't get far. We tried autonomous, it was chaotic and we kept getting lost. Now we're trying a combination of the two. The boys name their topic of interest and I direct them to aid discovery. It's working well for now and when I look at how much we've discovered on a daily basis, I realise that we're getting along just fine. Occasionally we leave the world of learning to visit the world of us (or is that the other way around?)and gain strength from being together. So, where does that leave us at the end of this trial? It leaves us still travelling. Still laughing, still tolerating and most importantly still learning. We're going to continue on this journey together. The six of us plus my Mum who plays a major role. Along the way we'll hitch a lift with others and hopefully be able to offer lifts to someone else. It's so exciting to be doing this. So exciting to see where we go from here. We quite simply don't even have time to discuss school now. We've got three exciting topics to study over the next few months. We'll see where they lead us and what we find along the way. Thank you to everyone who is supporting us on our journey. We know you're there for us and we feel uplifted by your support.