Last week we went to our first home education event. I was a bit nervous because I think most of the home educating families already know each other, but I needn’t have worried – everyone was very friendly and, to follow on from last week’s post, apparently completely normal!

The children ranged in age from under 1 (Joe fell madly in love with the baby and stood for quite some time just staring at her, while she beamed gummily at him and flapped her arms excitedly) to 13. Harry was very shy, as I expected, and didn’t speak to anyone, but all I want to do for now is to get him along to things – actual interaction will come when he’s ready.

You probably won’t be surprised to find that I wasn’t quite so reticent and had a good chat with quite a few other parents. They were all lovely (one shares my first name, another was wearing a top the same as mine) and told me about other events and activities coming up. (I was particularly pleased to hear there’s a forest school Harry can attend – although it’s full at the moment – Harry would have loved Joe’s outdoor preschool so much, so it’ll be great if he can go to something similar himself.)

The actual event was a first aid course aimed at children. Arranged by the British Heart Foundation, it was hosted by Community First Responders and it was great. They showed videos featuring a mum falling off her bike, a woman fainting and a boy bleeding, and then showed the children what to do in each situation. We were supposed to practice the recovery position, but when I lay on the floor, Harry and Joe just dived on me, but we can work on it.

I’d been a bit wary about taking Joe, but I think he asked just as many questions as Harry and enjoyed it even more (except for the ‘bleeding’ video – he didn’t like that much).

I was so glad that we went – it was valuable in many ways – and we’ll definitely be going to more meet-ups and events. In fact, there’s one this Friday… hopefully without any bleeding.