Exercise doesn’t have to mean Sport!

Jun1

I’ve just got back from an exercise group I do. It’s nothing too serious, just various forms of leaping about to great music that gets us moving, and laughing and puffing! But it has a seriously beneficial effect on my fitness which is the point. And, even better, it has nothing to do with sport.

Sport is always all over the media and I get sick of it. I know I’m very much in the minority here; sport is generally most people’s thing, especially football and the powerful seductive machine it’s become – and big business of course! But just because it does nothing for me, wasn’t very good at it not being competitive at all, and there isn’t a sport I want to do, it doesn’t mean I’m a couch potato who doesn’t exercise, am not fit, and don’t appreciate how important exercise is for health and well being.

But exercise and keeping fit, doesn’t always have to mean Sport – a misconception many people are under.

I really feel for all those children like me – those who just are not interested in or don’t enjoy sport. Being a minority, it can be easy to think of yourself as weird!

So this is a plea to take a moment to appreciate that not all children will be into sport. And not all children will be good at it. But they can still be good at moving around and getting exercise. The point being that everyone can be fit and healthy without necessarily being involved in any kind of sport or competition at all.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that exercise is more important than sport because everyone can do something active – at their own rate, in their own way, of their own volition, and especially important: without judgement or competition.

I just wanted to put that out there among you because I know that there is a good chance that some children will be made to feel bad about themselves because of sport. And I fear that there have been far too many children in the past – and probably it still goes on – who have suffered in the name of organised sports, from things like; not being good at it, from derogatory remarks about their skills (or lack of), from not being picked, from not winning, from feeling inferior and useless. So we should make sure that doesn’t happen.

It is of course essential for us all to exercise. It is essential for the very core of our health – our mental health as much as physical. But exercise does not have to involve sport. Great if there’s a sport you love, your kids love, and you are involved and excited by it, and therefore encouraged to do it regularly – you’re already exercised. Splendid!

But for those of us who are not like that, all those children and young people who are also not like that, we all need to know that being fit and healthy does not always need to be equated with a sport and you’re not less of a person for not liking or wanting to be part of sports, team games, competitions, or what everyone else is good at. Some children recoil from team games, it’s agony for those who are shy or reserved, or lacking in the necessary skills. They’ll come to it later – or maybe they won’t. It doesn’t matter.

What matters is that the habit of being active becomes an enjoyable part of everyone’s lives, children and adults, not something kids dread. It becomes part of your family’s routine because, not only is it part of maintaining good health – it makes you feel great too. It would be wonderful if children, early on in their lives, actually get to feel that terrific buzz of endorphins that exercise and movement gives you, so that they continue to make it part of their lives throughout. That they realise it doesn’t have to be about winning or losing, and doesn’t have to involve sport unless they want it to, it doesn’t have to involve others unless they want it to.

So while all these summer sports splash themselves across the media please also let your children know that they are not less of a person for not being interested. While finding something else, just as important, that gets them going, maybe social, maybe not, that keeps them fit, that’s fun to do, and ultimately makes them feel good.

Do you Home Educate to The Gender Gap?

May1

I’ve been reading (wading through actually – I had to concentrate) a book about the brain.

It’s called ‘The Gendered Brain’ (by Gina Rippon) and is a deep investigation into the historically and ingrained belief in a perceived difference between the female and male brains.

I say perceived because actually, after a thorough investigation into the the mass of research, especially more recent evidence resulting from neuro imaging, the fascinating conclusion is that the differences between the female and male brains are negligible. There are in fact more similarities than differences. Which therefore begs the question; where does the gender gap in expectation and achievement of our young people come from?

The conclusion they draw, after extensive examination of all the research, from past to present, and the debunking of so many damaging myths evolved mostly from badly reported media coverage of scientific findings relating to brain research (neuro bollocks they delightfully call it), is that it is mostly learned from interaction, cultural influence and life experiences. The gender gap does not evolve because male brains are bigger and better than female brains.

This has huge implications on the way we raise and educate our youngsters.

In the light of that fact, if we examine the way we behave towards, respond to, teach, influence and educate our young people, we may well find that it is us who are contributing hidden messages about gender all the time, it is so culturally ingrained, and we may well be doing so about related achievement too.

The author says that it is important to “register the gendered bombardment that is coming from social and cultural media, as well as from family, friends, employers, teachers (and ourselves) and understand the very impact it is having on our brains”.

They say that right from tiny babies, and possibly even before, children become alert to the rules of social engagement in their world, which continues throughout childhood, adolescence and the whole of life. And an explanation for the gender gap may be based not in having either a male or female brain, but is a “tangle of brain based and world based processes” we pass through as we grow. These can lead to damaging self fulfilling prophecies and stereotype threat that will lead children to believe that they are good or bad at something simply because they are either a girl or a boy. When they should instead have a strong sense of their identity and aptitude based upon their personal skills and individual ability to learn and achieve whatever gender.

I thought I was fairly aware of our behaviour but I can see, after reading this book, that we respond to the new boy and girl babies in the family differently. It is somehow, so deeply rooted in our culture to do so. You only have to walk around a toy shop, or child clothing rail to see it publicly encouraged. And I am quite appalled how easily we succumb to these insidious stereotypes, even though I liked to think we were very conscious about the way we parent. Clearly not enough – I’m ashamed to say!

After reading this book I realise we have to be more mindful than ever about not promoting gender differences in choices or stereotyping in a way that may inhibit our young people’s self esteem and consequently achievement, as it is youngster’s self esteem and identity that plays the biggest part in their later achievements and not whether they have a brain that’s encased in either a female or male package. Such a vital point to keep in mind as you home educate.

The author says that it’s the gendered world that predicts a gendered brain; the lessons learned from our social experience, rather than our biological make up. And that gendered influence is extremely powerful even in today’s enlightened society; “gender stereotypes are a real brain-based threat that can divert brains from the end point they deserve”. That’s well worth keeping in mind.

And consequently worth asking how gendered is your parenting and educating climate, and whether you are falling into the unconscious stereotyping I was. Whether you’re inadvertently promoting the idea that some things will not be for your child simply because they’re either girl or boy.

Children’s wellbeing and schools bill

Apr2

Oh dear! Even after all the amazing efforts of so many it seems that The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools bill is going to become law eventually. And I feel incredibly sad.

The thing that makes me saddest of all, apart from the fact that this may impose restrictions on the freedoms to home educate in the way that we want and see fit for our children, is the ignorance of so many who have initiated the bill’s content and their total inability to acknowledge a wider picture of education, what it is, how it happens. And the diversity of ways in which it can happen – in alternative ways to school. There are now plenty of grown up home educators to prove it.

I have long felt that schooling has been about schooling the populace to do what the government wants. This bill just seems to me another perfect example of that, of controlling those free thinkers who do not always do what the government wants. Using the term ‘wellbeing’ in the Bill’s title makes me cringe with the hypocrisy of it.

Maybe that’s just me being cynical!

Anyway, it is what it is and we have to learn to live with it, and home educate with it. So I’ve identified a couple of articles that do a much better job than me of explaining what this all will mean as we move forward.

The first; Ed Yourself has a long history of bringing us excellent information. Here you’ll find their article What Wellbeing Bill means for Home Education

And here on the brilliant Home Ed Daily you can read another excellent and calming analysis of what this bill is going to mean for home educators. Their calm conclusion is very reassuring.

Meanwhile, among all this turmoil I hope you have a gentle spring~like Easter, getting outside for your own true wellbeing, away from political turmoil and all the current tragic news and enjoying spring, whatever the weather!

Wishes for a Happy Spring Holiday

Every day with a child is a chance to influence a future

Mar1

Since it’s Mother’s day this month I thought I’d bring back up this idea from way back. For it still is true and is so remarkable when you think what it is you do when you’re a mum, and I think you need reminding how incredible you are!

Actually, it involves fathers too, and they quite rightly have their own day of celebration. So this is for all you parents.

Have you ever considered what the title says: that every day with your child, presents an opportunity to influence a future?

Have you ever thought of it like that? Possibly not when continuous days with children can be extremely wearing, doing activities at their level a bit boring, and their endless energy totally exhausting!

But if you think about it, every moment you spend with children influences a future. Their future. Your future. Society’s future. The earth’s.

Why is that then?

Well – children are so readily influenced; so believing and naive and absorbent to learning. The experiences they have with you, however large or seemingly small, make an impact on them. They are like little computers gathering input from the things around them, from the things that happen and are said to them, and assimilating that with what has happened before. Small children don’t even have the filters that come with maturity to distinguish right from wrong, good from bad. They just absorb it all. Take it fairly literally. Digest it. And what they perceive becomes part of them.

So whatever experience they have with you, whether it’s fun or loving, wise or trusting, harsh or unjust, exciting or dull or dismissive, it moulds their understanding and view of the world, their education and even their personalities to a degree.

All interactions with our worlds shape who we are and what we do with our future. And the biggest influence on that shape comes when we are young, through the people we’re with.

Like your child with you.

That’s the way in which being with children has the opportunity to shape the future; we’re shaping a future being.

No small responsibility then!

But it needn’t be daunting. For it is quite simple really. Simply being with children – and being simply a good parent – does the trick. And don’t panic about that good parent bit – you probably already are or you wouldn’t be reading this.

Being a good parent is about being engaged and positive and fair, encouraging and caring, showing them what an unbelievably exciting place the world can be, what a myriad of fulfilling possibilities there are, how incredible all aspects of the planet are, how being loving and caring of the planet and the people in it will bring love and care back to them, and how to deal with aspects of the opposite in a way that dissipates harm rather than expanding it. Just showing how a simple acts of kindness and goodness makes life good – that’s enough to shape a good future – make it simple and sweet. (And that will also include a bit of ignoring at times too, so don’t worry – they need their own head space and down time as you do).

These are the ways in which we have the opportunity to enhance a future. Everyone’s future, for the way in which our children grow up will impact on everyone if you think about it broadly. As they come into contact with others, they will send out little ripples of influence out into their world too, impacting on those around them. Their learning will expand from them and help others learn. It is a wonderful, ever evolving cycle and it starts with parents. And perhaps it’s even more influential if you are home educating parents showing the world a diverse way of doing things. Diversity is always good – it helps the world to grow.

That’s what you’ll be doing as you parent your children. So if you celebrate Mother’s Day, celebrate parents per se, celebrate the incredible opportinity you have to make small impacts upon the world. And celebrate the important irreplaceable job you do as a parent.

Enjoy a Happy Parent Day. You deserve it!

Showing others the way

Feb2

I was visiting a little local museum the other day. And there was such a lovely hubbub of children and parents, busying with all sorts of activities. This being a school term weekday I could only imagine that they must have been home educators. Apart from the fact that you kind of recognise their vibe.

I couldn’t exactly describe that vibe, I just know it when I see it; the engaged buzz, the curiosity of the kids, the keen and respectful way they all speak to each other; adults and children alike! You know what I mean? I so wanted to join in!

There were one or two disapproving looks coming from other members of the public, and I could see one of the HE parents cringing with guilt for disturbing the reverent peace in there. (I remember feeling like that early on – almost guilty for being out in public in school time!)

But cringe you shouldn’t for you’re doing an amazing thing and it might be that the vision and example of home educating families out in public like that, may rescue another family from being stuck in school when it’s not working, when the parents may not have otherwise had the courage to go ahead. The sight of you, doing what you’re doing, might just be providing that little bit of faith and encouragement another parent needs.

This reminds me of a little story I shared not so long ago about the time when our home educating days had actually come to an end. Imagine that! Hard, I know, when you’re completely immersed in it, the idea of it being over seems impossible, especially when you can feel so exposed, judged, criticised sometimes. Or just noticeable – when all others are in school. When people seem to feel entitled to comment. Or you’re getting vibes of disapproval like these. But be bold with your home educating, for it may be you’re secretly helping another along the road, you never know:

Here’s a conversation my eldest, Chelsea – now well beyond her home educating days, had on a coach the other day.

She was aware suddenly that the folks behind her were talking about education. Then home education came into it and her ears pricked. She earwigged for a bit;

“I home educate my two children; they’re almost teenagers now,” said parent 1. This provoked the inevitable sceptical murmurs from parent 2. And the usual comment: “Well I would worry about the social side of it.” Along with other slightly disapproving remarks that suggested inevitable failure. Chelsea could sense parent 1 feeling the need to defend herself.

So she couldn’t resist chipping in at this point.

She turned round. “Sorry to interrupt, but I couldn’t help hearing your conversation. I was home educated,” she told them. And put them straight on the social bit! Told them how many others did it and there were plenty to meet up with, how she would be out and about in groups, doing shared activities etc – just like you’ll all be doing.

They chatted on a bit, although parent 2 had less to say at this point, probably realising she couldn’t continue to denounce something she knew nothing about. Then she had to get off the coach and that’s when parent 1 tapped Chelsea on the shoulder.

“Do you mind if we chat a bit more about home education?” She asked. “It’s just so interesting to meet an adult who was home educated, you so rarely do.”

And she and Chelsea chatted on for a while about how it panned out for her, whether she ever got asked about it, etc. And of course the other inevitable; the GCSEs, what effect it all had on her future.

“It just ceases to be relevant after a while,” Chelsea told her. “They came up when I wanted to go to college, but I got in anyway and went onto Uni from there.”

The parent still asked about exams.

“Put it this way,” Chelsea went on. “I didn’t do GCSEs or A’ Levels, I still went to college and Uni, I did a foundation degree, I’ve been in work continuously and have my own business. I’ve never been asked about it recently, and now I’m doing a Masters.”

I think the parent was reassured.

So you see, however immersed in your home education you are now, there will come a time when it your family will be beyond it. You will no doubt have taken many a diverse route along the way, but it will cease to matter by then anyway.

And there may also come a time when your young ones are at the point where they too can reassure someone else coming along in their wake.

Meanwhile, be proud of being out and about with your learning. You may not know it but you might just be helping another family step away from a path that is not working for them, and be part of thousands of others who are successfully demonstrating that education can be developed in ways other than those dictated by the system – a myth the government is doing its best to hang on to!

A Philosophical January

Jan2

How do you fancy starting January, and your new home educating year, by getting a bit philosophical?

Ask yourself this: How are you going to start your new home educating year? And what do you want it to look like?

It’s a good way to begin another year. Not necessarily to make rigid resolutions. More to have a loose idea of where you want to go and what you’d like to manifest in your home educating life. After all, we’re often instructed to set intentions in other elements of life so why not with home educating?

I remember pondering this question one morning, before the children were awake, so it was very, very early. Early enough to see the light begin to climb up above dawn’s parapet and illuminate the condensation on the window. I’d opened the curtains so I could watch it highlight the land and warm the first stirrings of life. Mine included!

(And the cat!)

It began to work and ideas were kicking in. And one question I’d been mulling over a great deal at that time was: What are we raising our kids to do?

Many parents, especially those of school children, become so desperately engrossed in the idea of results and outcomes and tangible measurable achievements, that are recognisable or quotable to the mainstream public, that they begin to believe that this is what education is. And never even ask that fundamental question; what are we raising them to do in the wider scheme of things.

But when I deeply thought about it, I discovered that the answer was something bigger than schooly things like grades and outcomes and ticking boxes, wider than just the academic results you achieved from a system that upheld that as the only thing of importance.

What we wanted was to raise our children to have a warm, loving, intelligent, caring and connected life. A life that fulfilled them in positive ways. A life that not only connected them to others but to the planet they were on, in an understanding, productive, and empathetic way. And a life that contributed much – to their well being – to society as a whole, – that made it worth them being there.

Were results the only way to get there?

The small things that we sweat over them learning like times tables, or neat writing, or grammar or manners, or test results, or completing the next level in their science work, are really only small things.

The big things are how they feel, how they behave, how they treat others, how they care about the impact their actions have both within their nearest world of family and the wider environment and its people. And the way we educate them about those things comes directly from the way we, and the loving others that are around them, behave towards them. How we behave towards others. How we behave towards the planet. The importance we attach to those things. The importance we attach to understanding them.

Sometimes, I found, we lost our way.

Sometimes, I found, our home education could become too intense about getting them to learn things, academic things, things that the system deemed important (but we didn’t), that we spoiled that loving, curious, warm, caring relationship we wanted with our children and their learning. And we needed to stop, stand back, and think a moment about what we were really raising our kids to do, what were we raising them to be, and what example were we setting as to what was important, and why.

There is a time and a place for stopping and reflecting and being philosophical for want of a better phrase. And no better time than the start of the year.

Educating can be warm, caring and curious and still be successful. Our parenting needs to remain warm, caring and curious. And it is always worth taking time to think about whether you’re getting too bogged down in the smaller academic minutiae that others deem important, but which can easily lead you away from that more caring perspective and your own core reasons for doing what you do. The way you want to do it. The way you want your home educating year to go. How you want it to look.

And that’s why it’s important that you regularly stop and question!

(You can read more on our educational philosophy and what we wanted if you scroll down the page above: ‘About Home Education’)

Meanwhile, here’s wishing you a very Happy New home educating Year!

Warm winter habits

Dec1

I’ve just got all my numerous layers off after a winter walk along the dripping lanes and village pavements. The roads are awash with mud and the gutters still thick with remnants of autumn leaves, debris and general flotsam battered down from trees and gardens by the storms and winds we’ve had. Grateful to be back in again I head for the kettle.

That’ll be my walk over for the day and freedom from guilt (and even anxiety) about stopping in all day. For despite the lure of the fire and the uninviting lashing of weather at the window, I still have to leave the computer or whatever I’m doing and push myself out at some point. Because I know, if I don’t, there’ll be a payback later. Not only will I be stiff and achy from being still too long, I shall have stiff and achy spirits from being indoors. Spirits that I know will readily spiral down to some dark cave below floor level, accompanied by an irrational temper and irritation that exceeds anything PMT throws at you! This is what lack of outdoors time does to me. Actually does to everyone, especially kids.

It’s SO important to get outside.

.I know I go on about it a lot. But there really is no substitute for outdoor time – I’m a huge advocate for it. Especially essential when you’re home educating, have no other reason to go out, and would otherwise not choose to on bad weather days.

I know it’s hard. I know it’s sometimes a mammoth undertaking to get them all togged up and out when they’re resisting, when you just get out the the door and the baby has pooped their nappy, or someone’s supposedly got a bad foot, or their wellies are hurting. You begin to wonder why you’re bloody bothering. But, have faith, it will have an impact – invisible perhaps at this moment of being at the end of your tether, but trust me. There are numerous benefits you wouldn’t even guess at.

Google ‘why children should get outside’ and you’ll see what I mean. It lists them and links to many articles worth a read. Not only about the physical benefits, but also the mental and emotional benefits, the cognitive and social too. Benefits you may not have thought of. Exercise and outdoor time affects not only their bodily muscles, but their heart and brain too. Not only how fit they are, but also how intelligent they are. Were you aware of that?

And, in reality, the bad weather rarely lasts ALL day. There will probably be brighter moments, or moments when it’s not so fierce. It also pays to remember the old adage: there’s no bad weather – only the wrong clothes! Charity shops are great for those extra coats etc.

So many times I battled to get my youngsters out – even into their teen years, (see the Story in ‘A Home Education Notebook’ in chapter 24 called ‘The Outdoor Miracle’ where I even got the teenager singing) – and then when we got back the indoor grumbles were forgotten.

It was always worth it.

Not only for this moment either. For if you set good habits whilst they’re young, it’s more likely to continue into later life, giving them a generally healthier life over all. It also sets such a good example. If you advocate for being outside; it influences what they think and do far more than anything else in their lives.

I see so many reports of children being over sedentary and under exercised it’s truly worrying. Best not to let yours be among them. Habits cultivated when they’re young are more likely to be remembered and returned to even if there are gaps in practising them.

And when you get back you can return to all those lovely Christmas things you’ll no doubt be doing for the coming celebration.

And when it comes, may yours be a happy, healthy and joyful one.

Merry Christmas

And if you fancy a peep at my rambles do link up on Instagram!

The risk of Comparison-itus

Nov2

I know I’ve gone on about the wonders of the internet for home educators and how it has completely changed the the prospect of it, but you see, the internet wasn’t really a ‘thing’ when we started all those years ago, particularly not available in the rural area we lived in.

So I have the comparison with home educating without it!

Consequently I have enormous appreciation of all the incredible opportunities it affords to find information, find out everything you need to know, challenge the total monopoly the government had over the education of our children, challenge and make public our misgivings about a system that doesn’t work for many, and most essential of all; to be able to connect with others doing the same.

No one need home educate in isolation now – which it could be pre-internet. You can tap into groups, communities and support with a click or two. Find others who think like you instead of feeling an alien for your ideas. Wonderful!

I guess most of you coming to home education now could not even begin to imagine life without the Internet. Let alone trying to Home educate without it. But think for a moment how it would be without that instant connection and support. Would you actually be brave enough to opt out of mainstream schooling and go for it? This ability to connect means you can immediately find your tribe, make contact with others like you, make it feel more like a normal everyday thing to be doing, rather than being the only one in the neighbourhood perhaps, who was considered just a bit weird!

You can almost instantly find others just like you, doing the same as you, who think like you.

But you still have to remember, of course, that actually no family is just like you. No two kids are the same, even in the same family. Definitely no two are the same in the Home Ed group you might go to. So you have to be careful not to catch the awful disease that is comparison-itus.

You might remember it from play group or toddler group, or whatever early years stuff you might have done, where there are often parents trying to top you with their child’s developmental milestones. You only had to say with such pride and happiness how your little so and so had managed to sleep through, or have a dry night, or dress themselves, whatever, and someone would come along and burst your proud parent bubble and top you by saying theirs did it weeks ago.

And this can also be a downside of social media or any connections you make on the net. It can be very easy to feel that everyone is doing it perfectly and you’re just muddling along in a mess, messing up and failing your kids.

I’ve been accused of doing it too.

As much as I’ve wanted to be encouraging, uplifting, yet remain balanced, I’ve inadvertently made it out to be all easy and roses at times and as if I’m doing everything right (Certainly did NOT – take a look at chapter 7 in ‘A Home Educating Notebook’ where I describe a bad day. And the mood and the tantrum I had in chapter 19 of ‘A Funny Kind of Education’). Even though I tried my damnedest to illustrate the warts and all, it could come across a bit perfect online.

So, when reading about other people’s home ed days, you need to remember that everyone has their bad days, everyone’s kids have their foibles, and never to compare yourself to those who appear to be doing perfectly. they won’t be. And….

There is no one perfect way to home educate.

Anything goes. Everything is a trial and error for everyone. Everyone makes mistakes, messes up, gets it wrong, but keeps going anyway. Every kid and family and circumstance is different. There is absolutely no need to compare yourself to anyone else, or to try and top others either for that matter.

Few of our Home Ed days were as perfect as this one when we’d gone out to do some field study, but it’s the good ones I tended to write about!

Our whole home educating community (online and off) should always remain supportive and not comparative or competitive and if you find yourself in a group, or connected to someone online who isn’t, I should withdraw. There’ll be plenty of others who are.

Comparisonitus is infectious. It can contaminate your best home educating days and steal away your enjoyment. You do not have to try to be like anyone else. You can learn from them, be discerning about what you choose to practice in the light of others’ experience, use people’s experiences to help keep perspective, be generous in what you offer to others to try if they wish, but there need be no judgement about it, and therefore no comparison.

Home Educating is an amazing, fulfilling, inspirational thing to do. But everyone will do it differently. Succeed at different times, rates, with different achievements. There is no right or wrong (short of abuse of course), no better or worse. No perfect way to do it.

Enjoy the benefit of the internet as you connect and learn. But make sure that you never play a part in spreading this insidious habit whilst you do so!

Let our home education be comparison-itus free!

Home Education from those who know

Oct1

As those who’ve been with me awhile will know I’m quite a long way beyond our home educating days. So it was an absolute honour to be invited to take part in this marathon home educating event called ‘Let’s Talk Home Education’ which took part on Facebook last month.

It was a gathering of parents, researchers, academics and other professionals, brought together by home educator Juliet English to promote the positive side of home educating when sometimes the community feels that we’re constantly having to overcome the opposite.

And positive it certainly was. It was truly wonderful. Most importantly because all the individuals taking part knew what they were talking about through direct experience. Unlike so many who seem to feel qualified to comment when they’ve never had experience of it themselves! And I include politicians and journalists and the Education Authority in that!

However, all the speakers in this amazing event talk from their experience of home educating directly, about so many aspects of it, from the personal, through the academic to the political, and including those who’ve done considerable research into its effectiveness. So it’s well worth taking the time to dip into it and have a listen. From the totally new to the OGs as we’ve been called (original generation – made me laugh!), there’ll be something there to inspire.

Find it here (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLifXspG9qFQ1A0RsHThGQ8n9oPJy2CV7M)

Or here (https://www.youtube.com/live/C989-8zgvT4)

Or go directly to the Home Education channel on YouTube and search Let’s Talk Home Education

Enjoy and do share as much as possible so we can build an accurate and informative picture of home education within the public sphere.

And congratulations and thanks to the organisers for their mammoth effort.

Not necessarily Back to School!

Sep1

Thinking about home educating? What a turmoil of emotions that thought will no doubt be promoting within you. It certainly did me. All the what ifs and buts. All the fears of ruining the kids. All the worries about what other people will think.

But we did it anyway, and this was even before the wonderful resource of the Internet to tap into.

A week into it and all those catastrophic thoughts and emotions had completely changed.

This is what I wrote in ‘A Funny Kind of Education’ and I thought I’d share it here in case it helped.

I’d left the children with my mum, who was so supportive of our decision and even promised to help by having them with her one afternoon a week so I could get some work done or just have some space. It had been quite an intense week so I chose the latter, speeding off on my bike for exercise which I’d always relied upon to keep me sane, (admitting I might need it more than ever now!}:

“The wind rushed through my hair like cleansing fingers massaging my worries away. The land was bathed in that soft apple light that autumn does absolutely best. And the air was filled with the sweet scent of moist earth newly turned from the plough.

I cycled along smiling like someone with a guilty secret. Around us was this beautiful world and I just wanted to show every little bit of it to the girls. I wanted to show them that learning about it is beautiful too. That learning can be full of fun and full of love and not the dull dreary days shut inside that they’d come to expect through schooling. I will take them places; museums, galleries, nature reserves, cities, exhibitions, zoos. We will enjoy real life relationships across a wide spectrum of society, not those unnaturally cloistered within the confines of age groups.

They will be respected.

My legs turned the pedals as my mind turned the ideas. Our first week of home educating was through and it’s been like living along the yellow brick road. Education has become a golden opportunity in our lives now as it truly should be, instead of the awful drudgery it had become.

I must have pedalled five miles without noticing. That’s how I want their learning to be!“

So did it stay like that?

Now that we have gone beyond it I can honestly say that it did. This isn’t to say that it wasn’t without its ups and downs, worries and strife at times. All life is like that. (You’ll read about the warts as well as the roses in my book!) But for the most part it was a delight. And there was never ever one single second that we regretted it!

You can read our story in ‘A Funny Kind of Education’. For a more ‘how to’ read see ‘Learning Without School Home Education’. And for more stories and continuing support see ‘A Home Education Notebook’

I wish you all the joy of it that we had!

And if you’re free on Saturday you might like to pop into this Facebook event and learn a little more. I’m scheduled to drop in during the afternoon. Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/events/d41d8cd9/lets-talk-home-education/1069947058455139/

or here: https://youtube.com/live/rIZj9Mgc97Q?feature=share