Welcome

If you have found your way here, then either you are a friend or family member come to check up on us lol ( Hello! ) or you are someone curious about or considering home education. (anyone else - well not sure why you'd want to be here lol)

The question I get asked first probably 90% of the time is about home education is - "Is it legal"? - so lets get this one out the way - yes it is - the "powers that be" haven't yet been able to take this legal right away from us - the law in England states that "education" is your legal responsibility as a parent - not school just education - so in law - even if you send your kids to school it is still YOUR legal responsibility to make sure your kids get an education.

For a further explanation of the legal situation and any consultations that the powers that be decide they need to have with us home educating parents - please check out the link to Education Otherwise or EO as it is also known.

You may along the way discover that home ed families are VERY political and many are active in many areas with regard home ed and parental rights - don't let this put you off - we have discovered how precious our children are and the truth about education and we want to do all things to keep the right to continue - after all - who's kids are these anyway - ours or the "states"?

Although we have learned LOADS over the years about home education, we have never really put anything back "out there" so to speak - recently a dear friend reminded me that i enjoy writing and often the content of my emails to said dear friend often ends up more of a political or spiritual rant - and the subject of home ed is something I feel really passionately about - so why not combine the two?

After a bit of consideration I have decided to join the blogging craze - I have kept away until now due in all honesty to the fact I know I can start things and not finish them or keep them up due to schedule ;)

However, to be honest when I considered the possibility of getting rid of a mountain of paperwork which never gets nowhere near as organised as I would like ;) it became more appealing - then, I discovered I could enter the blog as a yearly report to the "powers that be" I was sold.

So grab a cuppa - come on in and have a look around

The Aims of This blogsite

• To keep a running journal of some of the events and learning activities we get involved with.


• Ramblings regard home educating our 6 children and how daily events create inspiration for learning.


• Hopefully some help and ideas for those new to home education or not.


• Offer information for the Local Education Authority in lieu of a visit to our home.

Our Home Ed Journey

Neither of us had a great experience at school - I (mum) loved learning - just hated having to go to school to do it - and from the 2nd & 3rd year senior I was absent more than not :( and on days when present would "act up" to get sent out of the classroom - where I would go missing always to be found in the library.

I remember a music lesson where my teacher was explaining the music notes and their names - upon hearing "this is a whole notes whose name is semi" - my ears pricked up that didn't make sense ?!?! Surely semi in latin was half - like in semi-circle?

After asking the teacher why this was - I was severely reprimanded (even got a detention for being disruptive) I was told not to try and lead the teaching ?? My bad -

SO it became very obvious to me very early on that "education" their way was not about learning and experiencing and asking questions it was about being good quiet mushrooms - kept in the dark and fed on poop.

As I grew up - I realised that school is an institution that exists purely to subdue to masses and to dumb down their thinking - to fill future vacancies according to the economic measures of the day -

But I never knew there was an alternative..

So how did I come to find out about home education - well in 1992 I was visiting the Nottingham Central Library - looking for a book on animal right - when I was hit on the head by a book (straight up lol) it was called "you dont have to send your children to school" by Gareth Lewis and his family - this book peeked my interest.

A few months later I was at the rainbow centre (now called the sumac centre)- a local meet and focus centre in Nottingham for veggies (great food ;), animal rights activists, pacifists and general revolutionaries ;) and I came across another book called - the compulsory schooling disease - how children absorb fascist values by chris shute - scary stuff - I recommend you read both books if you get the chance.

I have always been a believer that the signs are out there if only we take time to look objectively - I didnt have kids at this point but boy had I made up my mind.

1998 - we are blessed with baby #1 - and within 14 months baby #2 - and then everyone is discussing nursery and school waiting lists - I knew I was going to home educate even then, and so the work began - I was first online around 1999 (remember Y2K lol) and began researching everything I could about home education, all the various styles - all the time just flyingby the seat of my pants lol


I concentrated in the early years on building relationships with our children, building good habit and upright character, we practised attachment parenting and positive parenting - and I loved every minute of it.

At the two to three year old stage I also included activities that would give the kids readiness skills that would set the stage for "proper education" later on.

So I started with Jack and Mollie, and so it went until I am now

juggling (dropping some huge balls along the way ;) the education of 6 children and loving it (even on the rough days ;)

more to come................

Our philosophy:

We have read many home educators educational philosophies and are truly impressed with the many reasons we all come up with to justify something which at the end of the day is still a right in this country (one of the few we have left).

We dont necessarily think we need a "philosophy" that justifies in that sense - but if I had to give reasons - our journey would explain it better - however briefly these are our reasons

• Spiritually - I believe it is my duty to educate our children and not that of the state - and although I am not a religious person as such, I do believe I have to live with my choices longer than this life time so I take these choices seriously weighing up all sides to come to an ethical choice I can live and die with.
  
  
• Politically - I believe it is my duty to educate our children and not the responsibility of the state - In fact I feel their interference in my raising our family is highly unecessary and in fact unethical - I do not believe in government as something which has a right to make these choices on our behalf.
  
  
• Emotionally - we enjoy being with our children and helping them (and us) explore and learn as they grow and develop.

Ways to Home Educate

Styles of Learning

first of all we thought it was a great idea to watch our kids and learn HOW it is they learn - a pretty good page of information on learning styles is at EZine articles

as for ways to home educate these are probably as diverse as the people who do it - generally though we fall into a few categories

school at home - and/or curriculum/textbook learning

this is probably more common among new home educators and those homeschoolers in the US where home schoolers really "do" school - personally i dont see the point when you have the freedom to choose why choose a model that doesnt work lol ie school room type environment - it probably serves the adult rather than the child - but to each their own.

As for the curriculums they are wide and varied and attempting to choose is an awesome task lol - due to lack of finances i have often searched for free curriculums to cannibalise lol and used what suits us or visited sites which offer free samples and enough information for me to "get the idea".

Most home educators we have met us what they call "methods" the ones we have come across usually com under:

charlotte mason method - ambleside - a free online charlotte mason curriculum - absolutely first class - calm and relaxed - concentrating on good literature and narration among others. To get a better idea about visit this charlotte mason site - if ever i follow a curriculum i think this would be the one

classical method - based on foundation stones of grammar, rhethoric and logic - for more info try this classical education site

child led or unschooling method - not an easy one to pin down lol - basically it is individual to each family although they may share a common belief in no textbook or curricula learning - often using life and projects. for 3 great articles on unschooling try this page

we probably fall between this and the next one -

eclective method - when you use various methods to make up your own method it is called - this article at theHomeSchoolMom.com has loads of information

then there is my favourite

the unit study method - this is really fun - pick a topic and make everything fit around it - (more of ours to come lol) for a better explanation that i could offer without rambling ;) try this one