Woman's Hour - 22/03/2010

With Jane Garvey. Including: The Children, Schools and Families Bill is currently in its final stages and is now with a committee of the House of Lords for detailed scrutiny. A part of that bill is attempting to regulate the education of the estimated 20-40,000 children currently learning at home. Are the suggested regulations a necessity to protect potentially vulnerable children kept away from school by their parents or are they actually, as Home Education charities claim, a sledgehammer to crack a nut? Jane Garvey is joined by Fiona Nicholson, Education Otherwise trustee and Graham Badman, ex-director of Children's Services, to discuss. With the ever-increasing stresses of modern life - rushing from work, tidying away toys, cooking dinner before unloading the fourth load of washing - many mothers crave 'me time'. Whether it's a mini-break or a spa day, a bubble bath or a walk in the park, is alone-time for mothers an essential or a luxury? And should mothers be finding ways of relaxing with their children around? Jane tackles the topic with two writers who have six children between them, Lucy Cavendish and Jennie Bristow. Quilt making, originally a method of making use of old fabric, has developed into a contemporary art form. Grayson Perry and Tracey Emin both use the technique in their work. A new exhibition at the V and A in London investigates the stories behind some of Britain's oldest surviving quilts, such as one made by women on a 19th-century convict ship. Jane is taken round the exhibition by its curator Sue Prichard and the quilting expert Linda Seward.