Our Background
Before I had our children I had been a primary school teacher in a state school and on marrying and having my first child I did not have any other expectation than that they would go to school. I knew the low standards in schools generally were a huge concern, but I purposed to overcome them by at least making sure they could read before going to school. I did wonder how we would cope with the increasingly secular content of the curriculum, not just RE which strangely at that time was no longer the biggest issue. More currently it had been the witchcraft that was stealthily imposing itself on school life, with a very innocent activity called 'Circle Time' and staff meetings where we were trained in guided meditation. Yoga for relaxation was coming soon along with incense being burnt in classrooms to help children relax. though I loved teaching I had been glad to leave that environment. I was also vaguely aware of older teachers muttering about 'the dumbing down of the curriculum' but I was young and fresh out of college and didn't understand that part yet.
A word about circle time
Circle time is now so well established that I doubt there is a school that doesn't do it, but very few teacher's understand what is behind it or why they are doing it, other than what they have been told, which isn't the truth. What is wrong with circle time? Firstly it makes us all equal. Educational Psychologists talk about the POWER of the circle. It has a constraining power that makes it difficult for anyone to disagree with anyone else, or to act contrary to the others in the circle. It's sold as a nice pally time when we all share and learn together, but reality is different. Those in the circle are effectively under the power of the leader. They pretend there isn't one, but there is. Everything must be tolerated, except those things deemed intolerable by the leader. Sound suspicious?
I thought home-educators were weird people!
So with that background I didn't relish the thought of my children entering the system, but what other options were there? The only home-educated people I had met had been rather odd characters and I didn't want my children turning out like that! Fortunately, my husband had had a rather more positive experience having had close contact with a home-educating family. When an opportunity arose for us to meet such a family I was pleasantly surprised. They were not at all weird, in fact I liked the way the children naturally spoke about that they were learning. In their family, education seemed to be integrated into the whole of their lives rather than a separate compartment of school versus home. I began to think seriously about home-educating for ourselves and this was rather spurred on by the fact that my eldest who, although three by now, had still not spoken his first word and was due to start school in the September, two weeks after his fourth birthday.
Resistance to home-educating from family and friends
Choosing to home-school was not easy. The first hurdle was to explain to grandparents and close family members that we were going to break out of the mould. This was hard for them. My mother was a teacher too and thought school was the best place for children. Thankfully they all sort of accepted what we were doing, helped by the fact son 1 was still not talking! Despite my being very concerned by this fact it did at least help in this respect! They could all see he wasn't ready to go.
Is home-education school at home?
The second hurdle was to work out how home-school would work in practice. I had in effect been home-educating since they were born, but still saw their reaching school age as a major mile-stone and back then we didn't really have a plan worked out other than to get them reading! So we started and it was a disaster! I was trying to replicate the classroom in the home and it wasn't going to work. For a whole year I tried and I would have had more success banging my head on a brick wall as son 1 wasn't having it! I can see why now - it was artificial. The result was that I made myself ill - for three months I was washed out, exhausted and physically and mentally drained (partly, admittedly as Son 2 hadn't slept through the night for 2 years!) Something had to change!
Home-schooling is a completely different way of educating
During this three months a new family came to our church. One day the door opened and in came 2 adults followed by 4 children. That was wonderful in itself, but what was more wonderful is that they home-educated their children. Two of the children were older than my two and therefore their mum had a little more experience of home-schooling. When she heard of my predicament, she told me that perhaps I'd like to look at the Robinson Curriculum as that's what they used.
Our home-school was transformed!
We looked - and we liked and we started to use it and we never looked back. The burden of doing school at home was lifted. I was still not sure how it would all work out, and carried many doubts and fears over the years. BUT, the Lord has been faithful. I can honsestly say that our needs have been more than met - often times before we actually knew we had a need!
I especially liked the idea of Robinson - that of keeing school simple, as I was not a young mother, being nearly 40 when my second son was born, and to be honest I was pretty exhausted most of the time, running around after 2 small, lively boys. I was freed from nightly/weekly planning, endless sourcing of good materials and was free to enjoy my children. This was REAL teaching!
Socialisation
The question we all dread! It used to worry me, but I've given up now! For some of you it may never be an issue. For us, we knew of few other families near us who home-educated. We were blessed with the lovely family who introduced us to RC, but they travelled extensively and eventually moved to the other side of the world. We have relied on pen friends and grandparents and other elderly folk at church who have befriended them, plus their elderly singing teacher. Now they are older it is getting easier. They have penfriends who we spend holiday time with and they e-mail each other regularly.
Our boys have become each other's best friend. They are totally different in every way, but compared with a lot of school children who hate their siblings, our two will still enjoy spending free time with each other for which I thank the Lord. They (now!) rarely argue but encourage each other, which is lovely. I think school splits families up and makes each child a separate entity. Home-schooling unites a family - they learn together. So if you don't have much contact with other children, keep praying about it, the Lord will meet your needs. In the meantime, make the most of what you do have - at least, each other and rejoice in it!
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Welcome!After studying for an Early Years Specialism degree (B.Ed. Hons), and teaching in mainstream education, I home-educated my own children, after my husband and I were persuaded of the need to take responsibility for bringing up our children 'in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.' (Ephesians 6:4) We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
This costs the purchaser nothing extra. In this way I can continue to provide free resources. Thank you for your support. Looking for a read-aloud?
Here's one I heartlily reccomend for ages 10 +. Search
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The First book from Christina Eastwood - the first in a triology - only £5.99 (ages 8 to 13).
Now available in PRINT!
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See here Now available in PRINT
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