home education
Unschooling & Home education
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10 things you need to know before you begin home educating in the UK
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Home Education/Homeschool Burnout. Causes, signs and coping strategies for exhausted mums.
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The Ultmate List of Home Educating Styles
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Thinking about not sending your children back to school this term? What is Not Back To School and how to join the growing movement.
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How to be a better Un/home school/educating mum.
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We’ve had an awesome couple of weeks. So much sunshine, visiting and playing with friends and rich conversations. These recent days have been a great example of doing more when you wonder if you’re doing enough! We went for a walk. With friends and chatted about metal detecting finds. We discovered Castle an Dinas, and…
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I read a post by another unschooling parent this week and realised just how often this concern comes up in home education. I want to talk about it too so I’ve copied the title as it fits just right. Every home educating parent wonders if they are doing enough at least a few times during…
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When I was little my mother used to say it did me no harm to be bored from time to time. She was right because aside from learning to sit with the uncomfortable feeling, it really did help me to use my own imagination and find things to do. Sometimes I am busy with one…
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Knowing leads to understanding. Getting the joke or the message. I love sharing books with my children but it’s the conversations – the communication and the doing that interests them and causes learning to happen. When I likened a dandelion to the girls, as being the sun (petals) the moon (gone to seed) and the…
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There are some days as a mother I find myself frustrated. Choosing change is never easy yet, I have changed. Things I once accepted, no longer feel right and as a parent I have evolved. My children were always at the front of my mind and considered in every decision I made and still are.…
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Are we preparing them for adulthood? Today my 5 year old asked if she could make her own hazelnut spread sandwich rather than wait for me to do it. Negotiating a step, cupboard, twisty lid, knife and bread bin while I got a lie in. My 10 year old debated the pros and cons of…
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When I try to explain Un/homeschooling to those who ask about it, I often wonder if it doesn’t sound as if we’re doing nothing much. When life is happening it’s easy to reply when asked “What have you done today?” with “Nothing much.” Same as when you pick your kid up from school and ask…
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It never fails to amaze me where a journey or rabbit hole can take you without even leaving the house! The imagination and curiosity that can come from a few words read, that lead to a conversation and then the desire to see for oneself. This morning we finished up reading Queen of the Falls…
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Nothing could be more beautiful than watching children thrive without unnecessary pressure. Sure we have a rhythm to our days. Some days we even have a schedule to keep to, if appointments or errands demand it. The girls may have goals that they are working towards that require commitment or time keeping. And even competition…
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While driving along in the car today, I was thinking of a way to explain and encompass just how a Home Education really works and why. We give it that name but really what we’re referring to is the human right to thrive, grow and achieve. To fulfil a personal purpose and desire to obtain…
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And learning is a part of life. When Winter broke open a MEL science kit today with her sister, we didn’t call it a science lesson. She knows what she was doing was scientific but she was more interested in the hydrophobic sand and finding out why it does what it does. She understands that…
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16000+ hours of extra time with each other in this beautiful messy life! I love that we don’t miss out on that. When I watch my girls about their business around our home it makes me smile. How fortunate I have been to watch all my children over the years. I’ve watched them play, learn,…
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There are times during your home educating journey as a parent, when you wonder if what you’re doing, is what others do. Not that it troubles you in your sleep but you do wonder. Whether you’re new to everything or your child has reached a new phase in their life, as they grow and change…
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We’ve begun to wake up from the “Slow.”We’re still in the middle of winter but we are starting to find our rhythm and flow again. No one is rushing however we are doing a little bit more, discovering new things. We’ve watched a film about Mikkelsen and Iverson in the Arctic. We’ve watched David Attenborough…
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I often get asked how my children learn without a curriculum or what I mean when I say we learn, year round. It is my view that we are all, “never not leaning”. Learning doesn’t stop at a predetermined time. So, with opportunity and conversation we can learn all the time…every day of our lives.…
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There is no “behind” in home education. There is no one to be behind for a start! Just as it would be quite ridiculous to try to compare apples to oranges it is just so, comparing school to learning at home. All fruits, all children but totally different. The school model is recognised and acknowledged…
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Teenagers are wonderful and awkward and frustrating and amazing. They are impatient, emotional and kind. Still just as in need of us parents as ever before but in ways we couldn’t have prepared for. They no longer hang on our every word or think us super heroes. They need more sleep, more space and less…
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Sometimes as a parent I find myself sitting on the sofa almost unable to move because a) I feel depleted and b) because I have no inspiration. It comes and passes in phases. There and then not there. It can truly be hard at times to find the “Gee-up” button. Sandra Dodd’s words of encouragement…
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“How will your children learn to cope in the Real World?” is a question that many home educators get asked at some point. “How will they learn to deal with problems, pressures or bullies?” This is a problem for people with a school mindset and home educators need spend no more time trying to construct…
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Real life learning happens in sporadic, choppy bursts. An idea or interest builds steadily and is discovered time and time again. Passion and knowledge take time and can be revisited and indulged in between anything and everything else that life gives us to play with and wonder at. Learning is not confined to boxes, unit…
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Learning is so much easier for people to enjoy when they see it as living life fully. It doesn’t have to “be on the test” or completed during a set time, by a certain age. Over the past weeks I have heard several (yes, several) young adults talk about feeling like they will have “wasted…
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Hearing what we say and observing it’s impact is worthwhile and insightful. Sometimes we don’t need to speak if what we have to say adds nothing of value. Silence can shape a moment in time. Speak carefully and thoughtfully so that you communicate exactly what you intend to leave behind. Juliette Proffitt I read so…
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People who are new to or considering home education often have the same concerns. What does a typical day look like?What about socialisation?What about exams? These questions are reasonable and valid. What they are really asking though is “How?” How do you do it and why? Why do they do it differently to you? How…
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We have to be careful with the word “freedom” and how it is interpreted. I use it in context often, when I say things like; “We choose to home educate our children because it offers our family more freedom.” What I’m referring to are choices. Values. Options and flexibility. I am not saying that there…
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I was going to write about my thoughts on unschooling teens so far…as in, this is relatively new to me! Then I realised the answer need not be complicated. If you are a parent with teenagers you’ll know that there are times they don’t communicate with you in the way they used to. There may…
Beautiful Messy Life 