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23 February 2022

The shape of learning

It has been a long time since I posted anything in this space about my children's education.  I have half a post written about something else but I don't have the headspace to complete that this week, it requires thinking!  My head is a bit full at the moment.

Before I go any further I want to say that I am not against schools, my choice to home educate my children was based on their individual needs, I did not think that they would learn as they could do in a school setting.  We made the initial decision back in 2008 for Cameron and again for Alice in 2012, I am now in my thirteenth year of home educating.  

Cameron chose to continue his learning at a local college* which he started in September 2021.  This has been a huge period of adjustment for Alice and I as we get used to it only being the two of us at home.  This has followed a two year period of our lives which, like those of so many, was turned upside down and inside out by the arrival of Covid on our shores.  So many people said to me in those early days that it would not be any different for us, having to do learning at home, it was very very different and really really hard as it was for us all.  What I did not have to do was to get my children to do work that had been decided upon and organised by someone else.

Education in schools is usually based on a curriculum that has been decided on by either the school themselves or, more usually these days, by local or national government, depending on where you live.  A curriculum that covers subjects and areas of those subjects that it has been decided that children should be taught.  Who is to say that that is what children should be taught to give them a rounded education? Do they even need to be taught?  Where I live I do not have to follow the curriculum that has been decided on by my government, I could choose to teach them, but I don't.  My children choose what they want to learn and I facilitate that learning with them in ways that suit their way of learning.  

That does not mean that they spend their whole day online, gaming or watching videos of people gaming, far from it.  Today as an example, Alice started her day making her own breakfast, this was followed by piano and guitar practice and gymnastics exercises, we then went out to a new gymnastics class that a mum has set up for home educated children.  It was the first one for people to try it out, Alice loved it, it will be her second gymnastics session in the week as she also goes to one on Saturday too, she wants to do both for a bit to see how it goes.  When we got home we made dinner (lunch) together, ate it whilst playing a homemade bingo game to help her improve her multiplication skills and then cleared up together.  After dinner we reviewed the science experiments we did yesterday morning, sang a song together and I read another chapter from a book of Greek Myths to her.  I also read a chapter from our dinner time chapter book that I read every week day.

Our days flow the way they need to, depending on what we are doing.  I had talked to Alice before she decided to try the new gymnastics class as it would have an impact on how we usually do things.  It is usual for us to spend the morning at home when we have time that is focused on our main topic, at the moment this is Science, we do some maths most days, sing songs, I read to her, recite poetry, whatever Alice wants us to do together.  This is our together time, learning that is facilitated by me but always driven by Alice asking for me to do this with her.   If we go out we prefer this to be in the afternoons.

I have built up a huge range of resources over the years, we had a very structured way of doing things for a few years when they were younger.  It was requested by them so I provided it.  Alice is now doing much of what I did with Cameron at that time, adapted to suit how she learns and where she is at with her reading and writing skills.

I know when our own experience of learning has involved sitting in a classroom with a group of children being taught it is hard to imagine any other way of doing this.  I mentioned earlier that Covid had a big impact on us, before the restrictions it placed on all our lives we were out every day of the week at a group or class somewhere. We had an art class, followed by a forest school/singing group on Mondays, Piano lesson followed by a drama session at a local museum on Tuesdays, Wednesday we went to a French class in the afternoons, Thursday I ran a craft group once a month in my house, on the weeks we were not doing that we met with friends for a walk or a play, Fridays we had a day in the local town doing the weekly shop and meeting with friends in the library and then go swimming together at the town pool, Saturdays Alice had a gymnastics class in our local town.  We also met with friends to go mountain biking, for walks and storytelling workshops, we did Conservation work with local charities and were working towards two Awards one in the Arts and one based on the Environment.  In the evenings there was volunteering at Beavers for Cameron on Mondays, Scouts for Alice on Tuesdays, Archery for Cameron on Wednesdays or on Fridays once a month when he had Explorer Scouts.  It was busy but that was our life, it all stopped mid March 2020 and very little of this re-started during the two years since.  So being at home all day every day was very much not the shape of our learning or the life that we were used to.

I found ways to make things still happen when we could not meet up face to face, our beloved French class which we had been going to for five years when it stopped did move to being online.  A chance meeting with the Mum of a child who used to be in Alice's gymnastics class, who I knew taught French but had not bumped into for a long time even allowing for lockdowns, led to a new teacher and a class that we could do from home.  Lovely as our original class was it involved a lot of driving and took up most of an afternoon for a one hour class.  We are still doing that from home and Cameron can continue to learn French as we were able to fit this in around his college timetable.  

Two of the families who came to the craft group I ran moved from the area, so it was never going to be able to start up again in that format.  During lockdown we bought together a group online where we all created things together in our own homes, sometimes this was us all doing the same thing, sometimes it was based around a theme depending on what resources we all had to hand.   We have now started doing crafts with a family we meet up with once a week.  It is lovely to sit together and create, we are working on an embroidery project at the moment, we have made Christmas decorations, wee peg dolls and window stars.  In the summer months last year we met this same family for outdoor swimming in local rivers and lakes, I very much hope we can do that again this year when the weather warms up.

I feel very blessed to have been able to support my children's learning and education in the way that we have for the past twelve plus years.  I know that it is a privilege to be able to make that choice, it reduced our income considerably as I gave up work.  I started a very part time job two years ago and have added to my hours recently, as Alice gets older I will probably take on more hours of paid work.  We are not big spenders but I would gladly have gone without if we had had to, home education has enabled my children to learn what they want at their own pace.  This has been so important for Alice learning to read , although I cannot make the comparison with how she this would have been for her in a school setting I feel sure it would not have been as positive an experience for her.

You can find more posts here about the shape that learning has taken in our house over the years.

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* college in the UK is a place you would usually attend from the age of around 16 or older,  the courses are up to but not including degree level study, university is where you would go to study at degree level and higher.

17 comments:

  1. How interesting to read about how your days of study evolve so organically. Here, of course, there is a set curriculum that must be followed for home-schooled children. I've known several parents who have traveled that road, and almost all of them did an excellent job of it. I am sure my sons would have been better suited to home-schooling, but I don't think it was an option for my older sons or if it was I never heard about it, and with my youngest I was working away from home, usually gone 12 hours a day. I think boys especially would benefit from the freedom of homeschool, because no boy I ever knew was suited to sitting quietly at a desk, LOL. They need hands-on, movement activities to keep them engaged.

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    1. Thank you. I do feel blessed that I don't have to follow a set curriculum. There will always be folks for whom school is not the best environment for them to be learning so to have the choice on that is a blessing.

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  2. It must be wonderful to be with your children each day and being a part of their learning. When my children were young I had no idea you could homeschool - my health visitor back then put my daughter's name down at the local school when she was two to make sure she had a place - she never discussed any alternatives. It wasn't until much later that I learnt from my cousin in Oxfordshire who has 7 children that she home schooled them that you could even do this! They are such lovely well rounded children each following their own course in life, some went to uni some not but all are equally happy.
    I heard mutterings recently on radio 4 of this government are wanting to change the rules and tighten up on home schooling and even remove the option altogether. I do hope not as from your account it sounds a wonderful experience for both parent and child.

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    1. It is wonderful to be with my children each and every day, I always feel blessed.

      There have been mutterings about change the rules and tightening up home education for the whole time I have been doing it. We are a large and close knit community across the country and always come together to support each other when consultations are in progress. We made history back in December 2009 when the most petitions ever were presented to government on the one day, over a review taking place that year. The government changed the rules after that!

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  3. I'm always interested to hear about different options for educating children, they all learn at different paces and in different ways and it's good that there's a choice for what works best for them. I think more people might opt to home educate after having their children learning from home during the pandemic, it will have given them an idea of what it would be like to home educate, it will be interesting to see what happens.

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    1. More people have indeed chosen to home educate their children during the pandemic, the numbers in the online groups that I am part of went up considerably. I keep meeting people at things that we go to that tell me that is when they started home educating. We do all learn at different paces and in different ways, that is one of the wonderful things about how we are allowed to do it in this country, we have complete flexibility.

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  4. I was a teaching assistant in Early Years for many years and felt very strongly that children shouldn't be pushed into formal education until they are ready. The lack of creativity and inflexibility of the curriculum in school education is really worrying. Some children are not suited to school learning and home schooling needs to be an option for them. It sounds as though your children are having/have had fantastic learning experiences that suited them and will be of great benefit as they grow up.
    Best wishes
    Ellie

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    1. I totally agree Ellie, that children should not be pushed into formal education until they are ready. It is very worry when you hear announcements about things being introduced earlier and earlier into the curriculum. The lack of creativity is a real worry, I remember reading an article about having to train would be doctors who were aspiring to become surgeons manual dexterity skills as they were coming to university without them. It is needed for so many jobs. Thank you for your kind words about my children and what I we are doing together.

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  5. It's wonderful to read about your home education journey. It sounds so similar to ours! I can hardly believe my daughter is now almost 15—where has the time gone. Like you, we amended our lifestyle to suit home-ed and as we feel ourselves edging towards the end of this particular journey, we have absolutely no regrets about the choices we made. We have enjoyed the natural flow of learning, of facilitating passions and interests. Each family finds their own way, of course, but for us home education has been a chance to grow together and all the memories I now hold in my mind, are incredibly precious. Thank you for sharing your words!

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    1. I love that your journey has been so similar, home educating is a way of life isn't it. I am sad that my son has moved onto other forms of education now but also immensely proud of the part I have played in that. It has been an amazing journey of growth for me too, I have learnt so much about myself in the past twelve plus years, I would not change what we have done for anything. It was the best decision we ever made and has put me in contact with some amazing and lovely people who I know will be in life long after my children move onto to lives away from the family home.

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  6. How interesting hearing how you have so beautifully and gently educated your children. All I can say is they are so very lucky to have you.xxx

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  7. What a great home learning journey! My sister has had her children home learning for over a decade and I am amazed at what they learn - so many skills and raw knowledge that they just wouldn't have access to in a public setting. My sister also does a lot of work to make sure they have access to a great range of opportunities (like participating in model UN's and mock court cases with real judges, for example). If the parent is enthused and willing, I think it is a simply wonderful journey.

    Personally, I have very divided feelings about home learning: I was homeschooled for a number of years and desperately hated the whole process. When I started high school (in a public school) it was a huge relief for me. I thrived in that environment; loved the structure and interaction with others. I did have access to a small homeschooling network when I was doing at-home learning, but it was not a good fit for me.

    From the bottom of my heart I believe home-learning can give children huge advantages, but I also know from the bottom of my heart that unless we feel there is a critical reason why our kids can't attend public school...that's where they'll stay because it is just not in my nature. I'm never saying "never" and almost feel like there is a 50/50 chance at some point the kids will end up doing at-home learning.
    That said, while I don't officially homeschool my children, I do encourage a lot of similar learning techniques informally. Teaching my kids to do laundry, they make their beds, do basic cooking (they had their breakfast oatmeal ready before I came out this morning). We do a lot of reading together, go on almost daily nature walks and a lot of the other things that are big advantages of home learning. Having very "unstructured" post-school time relieves my guilt (and yes I feel it!) about sending my kids to public school.

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    1. Thank you Elisabeth. It is a lot of work as the parent to facilitate opportunities for them, but we as the parent learn too along the way. I am really sorry to hear that being home educated was not a good experience for you. I am wondering though if you lived somewhere where you had to follow a curriculum that was set by the place you lived, that is home schooling in my book. Here in the UK because we do not have to follow a curriculum set by the government we prefer to call it home education as we can follow our own path. I would not want to have to follow a curriculum set externally to our home. Finding a network of folks who you fit into can take time, and if like we do you live rurally, you can be really spread out or now a good fit as was your experience. Like school education though there will always be folks who thrive better in school or who thrive better being home educated. I loved School too and glad that you found high school to be a place you could thrive. If children are thriving at school then that is wonderful, I am not, as I said in my post, against school as a place of learning.

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  8. I loved reading about your educational process. Our kids went through public schools in the US but we lived in a rural area and the school system they went to was quite strong and gave them many opportunities. At home we augmented what they learned at school with public library visits and researching any of their interests.

    If kids are happy then all is well in the world.

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    1. So true Karen, if kids are happy then all is well in the world. Thank you for your kind words.

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  9. Hats off to you SM! Home schooling my kids would be sure to send me potty :0 I do worry about the lack of creativity and music in the curriculum (my mum was a teacher and remembers life before the National Curriculum), but I know they get their crazy dose of this at home. I remember a friend of mine at University had been home schooled, and whilst I found it mad that she didn't know what Roman Numerals were (*!*?)(maybe she hadn't watched Indiana Jones films either?!), she was the most organised, independent and driven people. School is just a template, it does not fit all. Lulu xXx

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