Yes, there are daily challenges

For which you're rewarded with a three-hour model-making session and a theatre production. (You just have to love the kid that makes it.)

The universal lesson

Cooking! How much mileage does this give us? Last week it was chemistry, maths, physics and geography. This week it's history, French, religious instruction and chocolate mousse.

Our school gathers

A moral assembly, with added view. (And even better, all the doors are locked and the audience can't get out.)

Introducing another family member

If she's with us, she home educates. She's led us to wikipedia; drawn us in story; focused our discussion; taken us to see her for real. (And if you are looking for a literacy lesson, I would show you her diary. But it's private.)

In this world, we meet all different types

And I am so grateful to them, for putting up with us.

Who has control over the education?

Children. They build it for themselves. We support them.

Home education: Liberation

Arseface the Dolly agrees. She comes with us everywhere.

OK, there are a lot of woods, fields, and strange paths

But they're FUN, dammit.

It's not all sports, fields, play, friends and woods you know

I believe sometimes a computer is used in this home ed la la land. We recommend the boffins at Nott'm.

'But the outdoor visits! How can a home educated child do those?'

Without shoes, usually.

Apparently, home ed kids are 'isolated'

Well, I guess they're in the middle of a river. Does that count?

'Home educating parents are mentally ill'

You may be right there. I'm the sort of person who laughs at a giant teapot. (In my defence, 500 other ill people did the same.)

'And I don't get how a "home educator" can ... provide training in about 10 sports'

So far? Lessons in swimming, ice skating, tennis, skiing, sailing, horse riding, gymnastics, trampolining, and windsurfing. OH NO! You're right! That's only NINE!

(But to make that joke I had to miss out the term the kids spent doing archery. And the bloody ballet and dance lessons. And the adventure weeks involving ropes, orienteering, raft building, fencing, quad biking, roller blading, hiking...)

'Home schooling is an aberration ... it is cruel to children.'

I'd love to see the person who wrote that stand in front of my children and say it.

Garden day

I gave up flowers, and grew children instead.

School desk

One we don't have to clear up at the end of every day. (Thank goodness for that. I have no idea where anything goes.)

It's a maths lesson...

How many minutes can you spend on the swings before the warden comes round to lock up at 6pm? He is at the end of the park, averages three miles an hour walking pace, and has a dodgy leg which slows him down on the gravel. Then add the amount of time you can keep him talking if a) he's in a good mood and b) he's hungry. And if it's not maths, it's called Living in the real world.

Another one of our classrooms

'Children who are not in school have a narrow view of the world'

Lady, methinks this blog tells you otherwise.

'A child in school mixes with other children'

A child who is home educated is chained to the radiator. These ones must've escaped.

Want a small class size?

Look around you...

This world is exploding with rich resources for talking together, for learning, for interacting, for exploring. We don't want to close those options down, send our kids to sit in a room with thirty others, dress them identically, and tell them yes, you'll be spoken to as a group, put your hand up to answer, get used to it.

We live and learn together

And that includes all our wonderful extended family. Even the odd ones.

Let's go to the seaside

No forms to fill in, no-one to plead with, no-one to convince of the educational merits, nothing to feel guilty about. (And then we compared the properties of mudstone and limestone.)

A library visit takes two hours...

I am so very pleased to have this luxury on a morning when the place is quiet. We can chat with the librarian, browse the shelves, and decide which fifteen authors we'll entertain this month.

What do you want to be?

Historian? Geologist? Botanist? Linguist? Scientist? Explorer? Child, you are the expert. Lead us where you want to go, and we'll support you as you travel.

Life is rich with sensory experience

We live and learn with touch, movement, exploration, feeling, thinking. For that, we don't need classroom walls.

We call this being social (and learning about physics)

I suppose the press could use it as an example of unruly youth. You decide.

Apparently, 'school gives many opportunities to do things'

Er, like theatre, outdoor visits, museum tours, workshops, field studies, work with professional artists, scientists, linguists, and the opportunity to take an active daily part in society... things like that? And as for the theatre, we can just go and get the tickets ourselves you know.

Thank goodness we don't set the alarm for 7am

Now we can take advantage of summer nights, and go dancing at dusk.

Someone said home ed kids can't socialise

I thought about that. And I still don't know what they mean. Maybe they're referring to one type of society. Maybe they don't know about the many different ways of being social that we all have. Maybe they just live in a very narrow world.

Imagine, what you could do, where you could go

Does home education make us happy?

We have time to take the winding paths

Our classrooms are everywhere

Home education: a world of possibility

I always did hate seeing kids wear uniform

The sight of their individuality gives me pleasure everyday.

Maybe home educators are just bolshy?

It's true that we can be a difficult bunch. Home educators usually don't accept things uncritically. We don't immediately give approval or sanction simply because everyone tells us it's normal.


We like to think it out for ourselves. Then you could say, independent, strong-willed, active, adventurous, outgoing, determined. And I'd say these are formidable qualities to pass onto the kids.

Yes, home education can be tiring

And it some days it feels like you don't get anywhere.


But exploring the places we find uncomfortable can mean we learn more, grow wiser, have more perspective, become better at managing change and difficulty, than if we just sat and did nothing.

School can be a big source of tension

If it is, remove it. You'll find many different ways become possible.

Everyday we can try something new

I want to make a wooden horse.
OK.

We have time to make the little things

We have a passion for learning

Because learning and life are inseparable. What joy to live both flamboyantly.

Does an education happen to a child?

Or do they go out and get it?

Our children have time to think

And what a precious time that is.

Imagine a world, where we do not question what we're told

How many school rules translate to an adult life? Walk on the left? Enter by this door only? Sit here? Maybe one rule: Do not question authority. Maybe we should question it more often.

Waiting for class to begin

Normal behaviour, wouldn't you say? (And our class size here is twelve, thanks.)

We spend a lot of time not judging ourselves

Oh go on then. I give myself 10 out of 10. And all my kids too. They get 10 out of 10 as well.

There's not one 'right' way to do something

Find your own way. And if it goes wrong?


If you never make mistakes, you never make anything.

Really, who'd say no to a classroom like this?