Home Education has been the topic of many conversations this Autumn. This isn’t unusual as the start of the school term often brings our educational choices to people’s attention but it has been even more prevalent this year with the closure of schools for months and more. One consequence of this disruption to the school system is that seemingly more parents are opting to educate their children at home; either because they’re worried about their children’s safety in schools with the virus still spreading, because they’re not happy with how safety measures put in place will affect their children’s education or because having their kids at home for a prolonged period of time gave them the opportunity to realise that they can and do want to educate them at home.
Whilst answering the common questions (which I’ll get to in a bit) I’ve been able to reflect a little bit on what home education looks like in our house compared to what I thought it might look like 6 years ago when I was just starting out with two fairly undemanding and eager toddlers, no job and bags more energy. I remember reading about beautiful Steiner rhythms to shape your day (I’m not a huge fan of Steiner but I took the elements which I thought would suit us such as routine, lots of time outdoors, being creative, marking the seasons..etc) and found various ‘kinder’ curriculums focused on the natural world, creativity and gentle learning.
I fought and fought to implement these rhythms and routines to our days and weeks before finally coming to the conclusion, several years and another child later, that actually…I’m really terrible at sticking to routines. And what’s more, the effort involved in trying to stick to these routines led to a whole ton of unnecessary guilt and stress as I felt I was failing as the picture of what I thought home education should look like. When I let this idea go, it was like a weight off my shoulders. Now as it happens, as the kids have gotten older and started various scheduled activities as it were (such as dancing, latin lessons, football and forest school), I have had to stick to certain routines. But I no longer attempt to force a routine on a life where spontaneity often rules and where actually, such an approach actually produces some of our best and most productive days and moments.
Another admission I’ve had to make is that actually, whilst I’ve chosen to home educate, it doesn’t mean I always have to like it. In my ideal world, a gorgeous community based school would exist where my children could attend 2-3 days a week, spend lots of time outdoors and in small groups and I could leave them to focus on my own things (be that work or pleasure) on those days. Unfortunately, I think that the structure of the UK school system would leave one of my children permanently in trouble for his, ahem “boisterous” tendencies, one struggling with doing things not at his own pace and one who would love the academics of secondary school but wouldn’t have enough time to pursue her passions.
When I speak to friends who are teachers, I’m saddened by how the government-mandated measures prevent them from teaching how they’d like to and I think that teachers are an absolutely incredible breed for continuing to do what they do, to the best of their ability, despite the circumstances. they find themselves in. But given that I do have the privilege of choosing another option for my children, I’m going to do that. It’s just that I don’t necessarily always want to (cue more guilt for not being a happy home ed Mum who loves every minute of it…!) or know exactly that I’m doing the right thing. But I have learnt a thing or two over the last 6 years so I thought I would answer some of the common questions that myself and other established home educators, are often asked in case it was helpful to anyone out there.
Do you have to follow a curriculum?
Quite simply put, no! The Education Act of 1996 simply states that “The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable a to his age, ability and aptitude, and b to any special educational needs he may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.” This is basically it. So, within a state school they will follow the national curriculum but at home, it is up to you to define what constitutes suitable, efficient and full time for your child. This will obviously change over time. For example, your 4 year old (arguably) needs no formal education, much research on learning through play shows the importance of play and many countries don’t start formal education until 6 or 7 accordingly. However, your 11 year old will probably need to be doing a little more than playing all day… (although there’s a whole other discussion about unschooling that could be had here)
How do you know what to teach them?
Again, this will depend on the age and ability of your child. For me, I spent the early years (5-8) focusing on reading, writing and mathematics alongside a whole lot of crafts, baking, outdoor adventures and play. However, now the older two are almost 9 and 11, I talk to them regularly about what they’re interested in and we do work on that. In the last 18 months we’ve done a WW2 project, work on the Victorians, a science Climate Change curriculum, started learning Italian, about the Bronze Age and the Periodic Table and Sophia has done an adult online course in Fashion History. We’ve also done a lot of creative writing, age-appropriate mathematics, art, music and physical activity. We use Twinkl and other online resources to get information and resources to aid our learning and my catch phrase tends to be that it’s not about teaching yourself, but about facilitating learning! You don’t have to know it all to help them find things out.
Do you get checked up on?
Personally, we’ve never had any contact from the LEA (Local Education Authority) or Babcock (who are contracted to stay in touch with home educators in Devon). If you deregister your child from school, they are likely to get in touch but there is no requirement for you to meet them in person (unless your child has additional needs) if you don’t want to. Some families find it helpful but others would rather be left alone to do their own thing and a lot of the home educating families I know haven’t been contacted or made contact themselves.
What about the social side of things?
Ha! This question is the one that makes home educating parents laugh the most around here. The Home Education community in Devon is vibrant and thriving. I used to say that the danger was not spending any time at home as there were so many meet ups (educational and social) and groups on offer from rock climbing on Dartmoor to science sessions in halls to Forest School and beach meets and a whole lot more. I’d argue as well that because groups are rarely segregated by age, social skills are much improved as your children will be spending time with a range of differently aged children which comes with even more skills to learn. (Just to add that unfortunately at the moment, due to covid, the community isn’t able to be as full and welcoming as it usually is but I have every hope we’ll be back to normal at some point…)
How do you cope with having your children around all the time without a break?
I don’t! I love my kids but man, they drive me crazy! Personally, mine are in Forest School once a week, my folks very kindly have them fortnightly and I like to run or go to the gym 4/5 times a week to get some headspace and quiet time! I also work 2 days a week (flexibly) which gives me some time to step out of Mum mode. All families have their own arrangements in place but I know that a lot of them make sure they carve out some child-free time to get that bit of breathing space they definitely need!
That was a little on the epic side, apologies for such a long post but hopefully it might have made interesting reading for some of you. At the very least, it’s a change from talking about the global pandemic eh?! If you have any other questions about home education that you’re dying to ask and I haven’t answered, drop it in the comments and I’ll happily answer any more!
the starlings gather here 