A few days ago I wrote a piece about what happened when two social workers visited us at our home.
It's been quite stressful since, because they just waltz right in whenever they feel like it.
The funny thing is that when they come, they interrupt the most important thing they were 'concerned' about: the education of my children.
Because of that we didn't get as much work done as I liked and with the home education assessor coming to our house last week for re-assessment, it's given even more stress.
It's hard enough to show them the work we've done since we are un-schooling without them looking over our shoulders.

photo: lordalford.com

Backed in a corner at first but now I'm ready to fight!

When they initially came here, they mentioned my three year old and that he 'had to' interact with kids his own age and he should go to pre-school. At first I had no problems exploring the possibilities, but had a good think about it over the weekend and the more I thought about it, the more sick I felt. Even my friend Brian said he got nauseous just thinking about my boy going to any kind of school and it's not even his kid!
He's so innocent and pure, creche or playschool or pre-school or whatever you want to call it, would take that right out of him.
He takes all his clothes off and acts like he's a dinosaur because dinosaurs don't wear clothes either. I'd say this wouldn't be appreciated in school and called inappropriate, while to him and us it’s nothing more than innocent child’s play (he doesn’t do this outside the house luckily though).

There has been, what they call a 'family support worker, installed to 'help' us.
So far, the only thing she's been doing is tell me that she thought I should send the kids to school so I can have some time to myself...She said literally: "You can drop the little one off at school on the way to the kids school and you'll have time to yourself."
When I said that I am not going to send my kids to school just because I can have me-time, and that I had very good reasons for not sending them to school and that I don't feel like I'm making any sacrifices, she just stared at me.

In the week after the 'incident' with them I hardly slept (still don't). I kept going over their words again and again.
And then it hit me!
I didn't just start homeschooling one day because I felt like it.
It has been a long, long process. My eldest went to school until she was 13. I found out about the possibilities to home school in Holland when she was 5 years old. Unfortunately, in Holland you have to apply for education outside school before they turn 5. So we had no choice. When we came to Ireland I didn't know that homeschooling was even an option until shortly before she turned 13.
I may only have been a homeschooling parent for the last 2.5 years, I've been reading and studying about home education for about 10 years. Just like I have researched and studied every other choice I've made for my children.
So they may have a minor degree in social studies, done in either 2, 3 or 4 years. If you'd translate my work into a degree, I'd be holding at least a masters.
Besides this, I realized that they only work according to their instructions and by the book, so thinking for themselves is out of the question. I outdo them in that too.
It'll just have to become a battle in which I use my brain against theirs....
I'm ready.

I feel they are meddling more than they would officially be allowed to.
A few days before their visit, I got a phone call from Tusla here in Ireland.
Tusla is pretty much child protection but has different departments.
Until not long ago, registration of homeschooling families was done by the board for education.
But when I pulled my kids out of school, they had just changed it to Tusla.
So basically what this comes down to is that now all of a sudden, home education is assessed by people who work for child protection. While education usually has nothing to do with child protection.
Because of this, the people working there are a different kettle of fish all together.
The assessors could have been child psychologists in the past, or social workers, or teachers....
Anything really. They can and will have a completely different view on home education than someone in the board for education.
Anyway, the man called me for an appointment for a follow-up assessment for the children.
They had sent me a letter about this about six months ago with the words: "The assessor will contact you shortly."
So 'shortly' means six months with them.
Isn't it a funny coincidence that a few days after he calls me, the social workers show up?
Also funny is this: When the social worker asked me if the kids were registered as home schooled, I told her about the up-coming assessment.
She then said: "Oh, so you will see, what's his name? Eh, Terry I believe in this area..."
The funny thing is, the assessors can be working anywhere. They have no area. Someone from Dublin could have the same assessor as someone from Galway.
So the fact that she told me who was going to come to my house, showed me that she'd already spoken to him.
For six months I hear nothing and suddenly they're in a hurry. Hmmmm...

There's another thing I feel they are involved in and shouldn't be. When they were pushing me to send my son to pre-school, I told them I am going to the mother toddler group that just started that week.
It's at an indoor playground and because I have two homeschooled kids at home they have to join us.
The people there told me this is fine as long as they don't interrupt anything (there's a playground outside too and they can sit at the table with their games or something). This was fine the first 3 weeks and now last week the lady that works there came to tell me we're not welcome any longer if I bring the older kids because 'the toddlers might be afraid and parents might complain'. So that was that.
I think the social worker went behind my back and talked to them in order to force me to send him to pre-school instead.
Well, the joke is on them because I have a friend who agreed to take them so I can bring the little man to his play day.

The Assessment for homeschooling my kids - this is the ugly tail that follows these people

Here in Ireland we have to register our children if they are homeschooled and after sending in a form with questions an assessor will contact to make an appointment to go through all that's on the form.
We just had the assessment a few days ago and I will elaborate on that a bit more later, but what I can say is that I could immediately feel and see the social workers involvement.
I believe the assessor was pushed to do his review this soon (usually you never hear from them maybe once every 2 years).
I also think he was made to turn down everything I said.

This story has a very ugly tail.
I am truly getting sick of their involvement for nothing more than an incident where someone decided to call the police for my daughter who tried to reach me at the gas station. I am seriously thinking to leave this all behind. I didn't want to do this at all,
but it's starting to feel more and more like I have to.
They're leaving me no choice.