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FEBRUARY 2025
05 February 2025
07 February 2025
14 February 2025
21 February 2025
28 February 2025

Wednesday 5 February 2025.
Richard writes
An Extra Blog

Thank you for all your comments after our blog last Friday. The ones we have had are 100% in favour of us reverting to running in line with school holidays. We always listen, so, starting with the Spring half-term holidays we will now be taking some breaks. We will also revise the dates on our English counties pages as to when the information will be appearing there.

This means that our first year is now 15 months, finishing on 27th March 2026 (the birthday of one of my sons), immediately before Easter. We will then start our "actual" journey around England on Monday 20th April 2026, which happens to be Molly's birthday, and the journey will end in the week beginning 17th July 2028, which just happens to be my birthday. You couldn't have made it up.

To sum up, there will be a new Making with Molly this Thursday (6th), a new Owlbutcast and a video about Berkshire next Monday (10th), another story on Tuessday (11th) an Eating with our European neighbours next Wednesday (12th) and a Making with Molly again next Thursday (13th). We will then take a week's break (Spring half-term) before returning on Monday 24th February and going all the way through (Monday to Thursday) until Friday 4th April when we will take a two week break for Easter and by then our Friday videos, Walking with Molly, will have started (Friday March 21st)

We return on Monday 21st April and go through till Friday 18th July, taking a week off from Monday 26th May.

We will give you our programme from September at a later date, The weekly blog and Music Makes Pictures will continue weekly the whole time and Owlbutcast will be on a regular fortnightly schedule, happening during a break if that fits with the fortnight. I hope this explains things and, as I said, we were delighted to hear from so many of you and have taken your advice.

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Friday 7 February 2025.
Molly writes

It's me again, and I would like to make more of a regular appearance on here and share with you as much as I can about the seasons, the moon and pagan festivals across the year. I hope to raise more of an awareness and in turn a connection to our beloved mother earth, who needs us to love her, desperately.

Back in October's blog that I wrote, I mentioned the festival of Samhain, in light of the more common day known as Halloween that was happening in that month. I thought I'd write this week's blog as the first pagan festival of this year has not long passed us. Imbolc, the "b" is silent. Imbolc is a Gaelic word which means "in the belly" and is thought to refer to the lambing season. The month of February is not just celebrated by pagans but it's also seen as the Lunar New Year which is celebrated by many, mainly in the East Asian cultural sphere such as China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. I personally celebrate my own new year at this time too. December is too busy with lots of end of year celebrations to be thinking up any new intentions for the coming year and January is a time to slow down and reflect, so it makes perfect sense for the beginning of February to be the time to start implementing action towards new intentions.

The moon this month is known as the snow moon. In most places, a beautiful layer of glistening snow coats the ground, yet despite the cold, things are warming up, daylight is stretching and the very first signs of spring are emerging. I myself, have noticed the daffodil bulbs sprouting their green leaves ready to bloom and catkins dangling from some trees. In some places this month's moon is also known as the budding moon, as at this time, most trees are producing buds, a small sign that spring is just around the corner. Imbolc, is a festival that celebrates the first signs of spring. A much better time to be thinking about new beginnings and new possibilities than during the forbidding January. As the days become longer, may our spirits shift in response, feeling more prepared to move out of the quiet contemplation of winter and into the brighter half of the year.

I am feeling very excited to see what this year brings. Thank you for your support along the way, Richard has shared with me some of your comments and they inspire us to keep going. It makes it all worth while hearing from those that value our work and the impact we are having on the children.

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Friday 14 February 2025.
Richard writes

When Molly and I set out on this journey we were well aware that it was one which would take us partly into the unknown and with unforeseen problems. These problems would not be in helping children learn; between us we have over 50 years of doing that. They would not be in putting learning material on a website or in the public domain; I've been doing that all over the world for nigh on 30 years. No would they be in enthusing children with the awe and wonder of nature and getting them outside; Molly's been doing that for some years and indeed holds a qualification as a Forest School leader.

No, the big question, with the unknown answer, was have we got the format right, are we working toward our ultimate goal and basically, is it all feasible. As such we knew that we would probably have to make changes, however small, as we went on. You asked us to take school breaks and we listened and are now going to be doing that. You have also been very kind with your comments about the content, format and delivery of what we are doing. We will continue with things as they are now.

However we have decided to make one change to our future plans. It was always our intention to have something happening, something on our site, for each weekday. Friday was going to be a "Walking with Molly" video where Molly, dragging her trusty cameraman along behind her, would take you on a weekly walk to some location and show you things that you might find in a similar location in your area.

We now feel that this may be a step too far, especially if she doesn't put the cameraman on wheels. No, seriously, in order to keep the educational, learning quality of the other four days at a high level, we feel that the Friday video would stretch us. It is not being discarded but it will now happen next year when we are on our "real" journey. This will actually be more exciting for Molly as well as for you, because, except in certain places, she has no idea what she will find.

But, we didn't want you to be upset at not seeing us five days a week. To be more precise I didn't want to get upset by discovering you were not getting upset. Therefore, starting on 21 March 2025, as was originally intended, we will be having something we are going to call "Friday Fun". As you know we both believe learning should be fun so it will fit in perfectly. As to the form it may take, you will have to wait and see; maybe till next week when we've sorted out our thoughts.

By the way (BTW for Gen Z - no idea) be thankful that I had to write this as earlier this week I read of a headteacher who was placing his top set pupils in detention if they didn't get 90% in Maths. This page could well have caught fire. In my mind, it's child abuse apart from showing no idea how to foster learning and support improvement. I just thank the lord he was not managing the Women's England cricket team during their recent ashes series. Most of them would now be in a prison with a couple in solitary confinement. I do think their management was at fault too for keep on claiming they were just a little away from the Australian level. Realism, encouragement and mentoring I have found work best with young people, indeed everyone.

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Friday 21 February 2025.
Richard writes

It's been half-term week and we have been on a break; sort of I suppose. There have been no uploads to do except a new education podcast on Monday and a new Music Makes Pictures, together with this blog, today.

However we've been planning, independently and together; writing, mainly independently and trying to get ahead of ourselves with some filming, sometimes very successfully and sometimes less so but it was a nice afternoon out.

Thank you for continuing to view our videos and for your comments. We look forward to you joining us again next week. One minor change, all videos will now be available from 9pm the night before their official day, so you can, for example, view our Thursday video from 9pm on Wednesday night (UK time).

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Friday 28 February 2025.
Richard writes

We've been out filming quite a bit this week, trying to get ahead of ourselves with some of the videos. I've realised, although I probably knew, that with our job we have to improvise quite a lot. Some times what we want to film, nature isn't ready to provide, so we need to do something else or while filming one strand we see the possibility for filming another for later use.

For example, we went to film the elder bead worm video and Molly saw a tree that would be good for bark rubbings so she did one. We were filling collecting some materials for another video when we came across a Eucalyptus tree and Molly did a little clip about that.

All of this adapting and improvising reminded me what is fundamentally wrong with the formal education being undertaken in our schools. It's too rigid. The late Sir Ken Robinson once said, and I may have quoted this before, when giving his thoughts on our system that "the answer is to personalise and customise education to the needs of each child and community. There is no alternative."

I still haven't worked out exactly how this can be done but the system we use goes nowhere near allowing for that. We have set lessons. Teachers prepare, and are expected to adhere to, lesson plans. But, as with our filming, life and learning doesn't happen like that.

I'm sure you know how much we both believe in child-led learning. This cannot happen if the teacher has prepared a plan prescribing what will be taught. We need somehow, and as I say I haven't got the answer yet, to be able to adapt learning to an individual, impossible in the formal education most mainstream schools offer. We should find a way to guide the young in their learning not direct them and while I fully accept that home education will not work for all children it does allow such flexibility. I haven't fully researched it but I am led to believe that Steiner schools use such a child-led system. I will, one day when time permits, look at their ethos more fully

My other concern, leading on from this, is that if a child spends their most formative years in a structured, neatly planned environment it will in no way prepare them for life, the real world. That's not how life works. You may think you know what will happen, you may think you have plans, but an out of control person can derail that plan and you need to react. Personally I'd be delighted to be asked to leave the White House.

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