Easy Like Sunday Morning

I just wanted to give you a snapshot of a perfect Sunday morning: DS#1, "Dragon-Tamer" is researching a maths problem on the internet beside me, DD, "Pony-rider" is sitting on my knee on the sofa, looking through books. DS#2 "Motor-biker" and DS#3 "Baba Zonee" are playing a pretend game on the floor with their wooden …

situations vacant: home educator – flexibility essential

I remembered being told early on in our home education adventure that flexibility, and the willingness to lay aside my own plans in favour of the children's individual interests and particular learning needs were amongst the most important characteristics in a home educating parent. I can't say that I embody these qualities naturally, but I …

Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer

Now the good weather is here, there is an endless round of picnics and activities, which sometimes take all day. It can be tempting to over-compensate with educational activities, feeling that all that social time is 'wasted': maths and handwriting before we leave the house, memory work in the car (captive audience) and to feel …

Romans in Britain @ the Northampton Shoe Museum

We were part of an educational party visit yesterday to the Northampton Shoe Museum, with a hands-on activity on the theme of the Romans in Britain. The Northampton Shoe Museum is more properly named the Northampton Museum & Gallery - there is more in it than shoes; however, I must confess to having expected the …

Unschooling by Default

When I first started home educating and read that most UK home educators start off with a formal 'school-at-home' style and gradually become less and less formal, eventually becoming unschoolers, I scoffed. That won't happen to us, I thought - after all, I was planning to qualify as a teacher... Needless to say, all my …

Summer on its way?

Perhaps I'm being over-optimistic, with having to scrape thick ice off the windscreen yesterday morning, but that's the Brits for you: the slightest suggestion of sunshine and we're off out there, threatening to remove layers of clothing! One of the beauties of home education is that although it's often home-based, we're not tied to one …

ICT on the Run

We have had the dubious priviledge of having had to have some ad-hoc ICT lessons over the last few weeks. I run the National home education network "the Home Education UK Network" Support, encouragement and virtual community for home educatorsamongst others on the Ning platform, which recently announced it was cutting its free service. So …