Our Home Educating Journey So Far!

We made the decision to Home educate our 2 youngest on Monday 27th February 2006. I say "we" but actually my husband had about 10 minutes to make his decision! It was the last day of his holiday and we were about to collect the chilren from school/nursery. William had been really struggling at school due to his learning difficulties and was always in tears when we collected him. Our eldest son Sam (also on the Autistic spectrum) had gone right through school, and it had always been a fight to try to get him the help he needed. I deeply regret forcing him to go through what must have been torture and vowed that I would never make the same mistake again. And so I suggested to Phil that we take William and Grace out of school and give them what they needed wrapped up in love and tenderness. If we were going to try this, even if temporarily, I needed Phil to make his decision quickly so that he would be by my side when we told the school. He said YES, again putting his trust in me!! We went to collect our children and we told their teachers they would be leaving at the end of the week, giving them a chance to say goodbye to friends. We were not really met with much opposition to be honest, their teachers didn't seem too bothered. We went home and tried to explain it to William and Grace, then aged 6 and 4. They weren't bothered about staying for the rest of the week, and so Tuesday 28th February 2006 became their last day at school and our Home educating journey began!


A Happy Snap of Home Ed 2006

 All of us relished our new found freedom and spent ALOT of time outdoors, exploring new ways of learning that did not involve a "classroom". It was hard for Phil still going off to work and missing all the fun, but we made sure that weekends just continued the adventure so that Phil would feel included in this new journey.
William's greatest struggle in school was writing, it affected him emotionally and physically caused him pain, so we very quickly took the pressure off him and didn't "make" him do it. Grace on the other hand couldn't wait to get started and would (and still does) constantly ask for written work.

We had our first visit from the Local Authority pretty quickly, I had no idea what to expect and was VERY nervous. Thankfully it was a relaxed and comfortable meeting and they were satisfied that the children were receiving an education.

Nature Trail 2007



Thrashing Grandad at Chess, aged 5, 2007.

 At the beginning of our journey, although alot of time was spent outdoors we also tried to follow some work, appropriate for their ages. But both of them are completely different and were not really fitting into those boxes. Grace was steaming ahead in areas where William, 2 years her senior, was struggling, and vice versa. Gradually over time I also realised that alot of the information that they retained and could recall was not from any of the more formal "sit down" learning I had provided. It was from trips out, books they had chosen to read themselves, and just general everyday life.




Occombe Farm 2008



I started to relax a little more and the events of April 2008, as explained in my first post, also helped to bring about alot of changes to our daily lives. I wanted the children to feel that they had the freedom to be who they really are, to follow the paths in life and learning that they enjoyed and that gave them happiness and contentment. I don't always get it right, and I frequently have moments of panic that they are not learning enough BUT they ARE!! They are just taking a different road for learning than most and one thats suits their individual personalities and needs.


Learning with Dad 2009




Sketching the view 2009

 One of the most frequent questions asked of Home Educators is "What about socialising?" Well we feel our children gain these skills with a huge variety of people of all ages. They are comfortable and confident around adults and equally happy to play with older or younger children, and even children of their own age! They see that everyone in their lives, young or old, has something different to give a friendship, always something new to learn.  For the first few years we did not join any groups. We hung out with all our old friends, but of course this had to be out of school hours. We came across a few other home ed families and also joined a free weekly computer lesson at our local library for children not in school. In 2010 we found out about a local group and I was invited to a Mums night out to meet everyone. I've never been very good at "group things" but I knew that the children needed it. We quickly went to several meet ups and felt so warmly welcomed by EVERYONE. The children fitted in just fine and with ease. And I found that actually I had needed it too. Some really good friendships have been made and I cherish that!

Rockpooling with home ed group 2010

So that brings us up to 2011. I wanted to give you a bit of background of how we got to the here and now. I think that for us, Home education has evolved gradually over time and although I feel I have found "the way" that works for us, I'm sure it will just keep on growing and changing. We look forward to it, and to sharing it with you.