January into February 2020
This piece gathers a small group of posts from early 2020. At the time, it felt like a fresh start: home education, slower days, more time together, and a chance to build something around Karta rather than forcing him to keep fitting into systems that no longer felt right.
Education otherwise
At the beginning of January 2020, we were busy deciding whether to home educate Karta.
It was not a small decision.
If we went down that road, most of my other projects would have to go on hold. They would only happen in the gaps, when there was time and energy left over.
Home education would take up a considerable amount of both.
But it would also give me plenty to write about.
More importantly, it might give Karta the space he needed.
A few days later, the decision had been made.
On Monday, 6 January 2020, we sent a letter to Karta’s school asking them to remove him from the register.
We were now providing him with a full-time education at home.
The focus, at least to begin with, was simple.
Reading.
Writing.
Arithmetic.
Back to basics.
For the first six months, the plan was to work through KS2 and KS3 maths, English and science, while keeping KS3 Spanish going too.
That sounds dry on paper, but the point was not to recreate school at the kitchen table.
The point was to give Karta a reset.
He would also have room to follow the things that already mattered to him. Videography. Ecology. The natural world. The things that made his eyes light up when no one was forcing him to care.
That was the bit I wanted to protect.
Canterbury, comics and ducks
A few weeks later, Karta and I took a trip to Canterbury to visit the comic art exhibition at The Beaney.
It was excellent.
The exhibition provided valuable insight into the work involved in bringing comics and graphic novels to life. The sketching. The structure. The process behind what can look effortless on the page.
That mattered because this was the kind of learning I wanted more of.
Not just sitting down and being told what to remember.
Seeing things.
Talking about them.
Following interest.
Letting one subject lead into another.
After the exhibition, we went to Boho and ate what may have been the best burger I had ever had.
Then we walked along the river and fed the ducks.
A simple day. A good day.
The kind of day that probably taught more than either of us realised at the time.
Making travel plans
By late February, I was putting together travel plans for Karta and me.
He wanted to tour Britain’s indoor and outdoor skateparks.
I wanted to visit a few races.
That felt like a fair trade.
The rough list looked something like this:
Adrenaline Alley in Corby.
GT World Challenge at Brands Hatch.
British Superbikes at Donington Park.
Graystone Skatepark in Manchester.
MotoGP at Le Mans.
Concrete Waves in Cornwall.
World Superbikes at Donington Park.
Some trips were for him.
Some were for me.
Most were for both of us.
That was the idea.
Education did not have to sit still. It could move around. It could happen in skateparks, museums, paddocks, cafés, riversides, hotel rooms, and long car journeys.
I thought I would write about each adventure somewhere.
Here, perhaps.
Or on Karta’s home education site.
Or on one of the other projects I had floating around at the time.
Who knew?
Maybe we would bump into people along the way.
The calm before everything changed
Looking back now, there is something strange about the timing.
We had just stepped out of one structure and were trying to build another.
There was a sense of possibility.
A plan.
A rough shape.
Then 2020 became 2020, and the world changed around us.
But at the time, none of that had happened yet.
At the time, there was just a father, a son, a letter to a school, a few books, a comic exhibition, a burger, some ducks, and a list of places we hoped to visit.
That was enough.
It felt like a beginning.
Until next time,
adieu.