De Schooling

Everyone is sick here so there's a lot of lying on sofas and watching TV going on this weekend. It's given me a few quiet moments to reflect on our journey so far.

We've been Home educating for just four short months and yet, I feel that I am once again the expert on my children. I no longer feel the need to consult with a teacher to find out if they're learning and progressing. I've found the confidence to judge that for myself. It's a liberating feeling.

My thoughts tonight are on how I feel that the de schooling process has played a major part in this confidence boost. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about please use this link to learn more about the process. Home-Ed Info

I truly believe that de schooling is as valuable for the parent as it is the child. The recommended time is one month for every year the child was in school. As my son didn't suffer in school, we didn't think it really applied to us. So, we started out setting work each day and organising them the way we meant to go on. By the end of week two, it was apparent that this was not going to be popular with George 1. He learns very much through assimilation rather than sitting down and being taught. If you can catch him on the hop and spend 5 random minutes having a discussion with him, he'll learn more than in any number of hours sitting down and being talked at. George 2 is different. He likes to sit down for quite extended periods and through games and music, be taught. The beauty of HE is that I accommodate both their very different learning styles at any one time.

When de registration happened, George 1 firmly believed that all learning was boring. He had no interest at all in anything that I had to say. He rarely asked questions and definitely avoided being 'tricked' into learning. He even declared that he wants to be a magician because magicians don't need to study and learn. We found out about some magicians at that point. Most of them had in fact been to university and studied maths or sciences. We also talked about the need to be able to set a scene and maybe tell a story so some literacy skills would be useful. History could teach him a lot about how things were done in the past and how magic has changed from myth and legend, to court entertainers, through to our more daring and wow factor magicians. Understanding money would be useful for running a business, angles and reflections for use of mirrors etc etc. Suddenly, learning became a whole lot more interesting!

He will now regularly read the dictionary - just for fun! He got his WW2 book out because DadaSmu mentioned Hitler in passing. He brought his new protractor set out today and asked DadaSmu to teach him how to measure angles. His own thirst for learning is growing and my desire to 'teach' is dwindling.

Through singing and making up boardgames, George 2 has learnt his 2x table, how to count to 30 and odds and evens.

I am so proud of us! We're once again a family unit, me as the nurturer and carer and educational facilitator, them as the children, the learners, the growing force of the next generation. It's a true privilege to be such an integral part of helping the rising generation to grow and flourish.