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Why I home educate.
Dec. 9th, 2015 10:12 pmApologies in advance if this is a little short/underdeveloped. I thought our last Wednesday (all-the-activities day) of term would be a great day to talk about HE, but I went out at 9:45 for Judith's drama, got home after her football at 3:45, went immediately to Benedict's parents evening at Long Road, came home via 5 Guys for tea and Hobbycraft for supplies, getting home about 8:20 and got distracted by art so I'm a bit tired.
When I first moved to Cambridge about the only people I knew were a home educating family. I missed being around small children and I liked the family, so I spent a lot of time with them, and saw them interacting with other HE children, learning at home and outside, and generally growing into lovely adults. The little boy I sat on my knee and taught to knit is now a father looking to home educate his own child, and I see his wife on mailing lists and such, although I've never met her.
Then I had a child, and I wasn't sure how I wanted to educate him. We talked about it, but didn't have a lot of confidence, so he went to the nearest school, which turned out to have been a bad idea. By that time, though, I was working in a school so rather than pull him out, we moved him to my school. There he had an absolutely fabulous succession of teachers, but I'm going to shout out to his year 2 teacher, who took a violent, unhappy, underachieving 6 year old and helped him become a calm, happy, educationally thriving 7 year old. He and I were very happy at that school, a friendly community, so when he got to 11, we looked at schools some more. We thought about private education then, either DIY or more official, and we applied to a variety of schools, but he ended up at the nearest again.
This was, again, stuffed full of enthusiastic and talented teachers who were very good at helping children achieve their potential. It also had a head who was keen to encourage interests and offer opportunities, plus it was in special measures, which means more money and more opportunities for the children. Then they turned academy and got a new head. One who thought it was OK to schedule an evening talk for one time, get all the students into the hall waiting, and then postpone half an hour. One who said things like 'if a course isn't financially viable, we won't run it'. One who casually ignored or disrespected his charges and turned an exciting school from focussed on individuals and education to one run more like a business. This will be relevant later.
Now, during this time, Judith got to the age where she would go to playgroup. But we had a good routine, things we did at home, toddler group, knitting group with a few other little ones who came. I didn't want to totally change that, but I wanted to add something more aimed at education. So we signed up to a monthly HE art club. And she loved it. She loved being around those children, she loved being with me a lot of the time. And so did I. So slowly, we added more in. More activites at home, more HE activities. I got pregnant and couldn't get out so much but then afterwards, the three of us did groups, either in special places - the Whipple, Shepreth Wildlife Park, the Botanic Gardens - or in more homely settings. We kept exploring the world and adventuring and slowly adding more contact with other people both for social and more academic pursuits. When it came time for school, we didn't even stop to consider our options, we were already immersed in education for both little children, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Now, it's time for Andreas to have registered for school already. And he does do a couple of groups mainly or just for him, and he will do more as he gets older. But we're happy as we are, able to be more flexible about travel and days out, and doing our groups, and growing and learning and learning and growing.
At the same time, we noticed that, had B less time to go with the new management of his school, I'd be pulling him out because I wasn't happy with it, and I started to think that 'we do this as long as it's working well and then we look for the best alternative' was probably going to lead to HE until sixth form at least. Although some of the teens I see on a weekly basis are starting to look at A levels and equivalent, so who knows? For now, it's working and we're happy.
Also, no early mornings. It's enough of a cliché that HE is great because you don't have to get to school for 9am that I had to put it in there, but really, it's just icing on the cake.
When I first moved to Cambridge about the only people I knew were a home educating family. I missed being around small children and I liked the family, so I spent a lot of time with them, and saw them interacting with other HE children, learning at home and outside, and generally growing into lovely adults. The little boy I sat on my knee and taught to knit is now a father looking to home educate his own child, and I see his wife on mailing lists and such, although I've never met her.
Then I had a child, and I wasn't sure how I wanted to educate him. We talked about it, but didn't have a lot of confidence, so he went to the nearest school, which turned out to have been a bad idea. By that time, though, I was working in a school so rather than pull him out, we moved him to my school. There he had an absolutely fabulous succession of teachers, but I'm going to shout out to his year 2 teacher, who took a violent, unhappy, underachieving 6 year old and helped him become a calm, happy, educationally thriving 7 year old. He and I were very happy at that school, a friendly community, so when he got to 11, we looked at schools some more. We thought about private education then, either DIY or more official, and we applied to a variety of schools, but he ended up at the nearest again.
This was, again, stuffed full of enthusiastic and talented teachers who were very good at helping children achieve their potential. It also had a head who was keen to encourage interests and offer opportunities, plus it was in special measures, which means more money and more opportunities for the children. Then they turned academy and got a new head. One who thought it was OK to schedule an evening talk for one time, get all the students into the hall waiting, and then postpone half an hour. One who said things like 'if a course isn't financially viable, we won't run it'. One who casually ignored or disrespected his charges and turned an exciting school from focussed on individuals and education to one run more like a business. This will be relevant later.
Now, during this time, Judith got to the age where she would go to playgroup. But we had a good routine, things we did at home, toddler group, knitting group with a few other little ones who came. I didn't want to totally change that, but I wanted to add something more aimed at education. So we signed up to a monthly HE art club. And she loved it. She loved being around those children, she loved being with me a lot of the time. And so did I. So slowly, we added more in. More activites at home, more HE activities. I got pregnant and couldn't get out so much but then afterwards, the three of us did groups, either in special places - the Whipple, Shepreth Wildlife Park, the Botanic Gardens - or in more homely settings. We kept exploring the world and adventuring and slowly adding more contact with other people both for social and more academic pursuits. When it came time for school, we didn't even stop to consider our options, we were already immersed in education for both little children, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Now, it's time for Andreas to have registered for school already. And he does do a couple of groups mainly or just for him, and he will do more as he gets older. But we're happy as we are, able to be more flexible about travel and days out, and doing our groups, and growing and learning and learning and growing.
At the same time, we noticed that, had B less time to go with the new management of his school, I'd be pulling him out because I wasn't happy with it, and I started to think that 'we do this as long as it's working well and then we look for the best alternative' was probably going to lead to HE until sixth form at least. Although some of the teens I see on a weekly basis are starting to look at A levels and equivalent, so who knows? For now, it's working and we're happy.
Also, no early mornings. It's enough of a cliché that HE is great because you don't have to get to school for 9am that I had to put it in there, but really, it's just icing on the cake.
