Hi! Home educators come in all shapes and sizes. We are just one
family in the UK, not necessarily typical in anything we do. You
may find this site useful if you are:
a) curious to know what children, who are legitimately out of
school, do all day
b) looking for ideas/inspiration to home-educate yourself, or
supplement what your children do in school
c) interested in education for 'Gifted & Talented' children generally
There are no 'gizmos' on our site because we assume most visitors
will want information - fast - rather than fancy graphics. Most
of the text is by me - livened up with original jokes written
by the student.
a) Well, if you want a job done properly ...
b)If you want the job done at all, if you happen to live in an
area where schools are honest enough to say they cannot offer
a place to a child of high ability because they do not have the
facilities
c) At home children can work at their own pace, at their own level,
and follow up the cross-curricular connections
d) Our offspring's self-esteem is up
e) Stress levels - for all of us - are down
f) We can be flexible with our time
g) We are lucky in our country that qualifications are by public
examinations, which anyone can take
It depends which 'friends' you mean. The ones who threw verbal
punches or the ones who'd trip up at the top of the stairs students
who had given good answers in class?
We have never been sure of the educational value of that kind
of experience. In schools it is often called 'bullying'. Out in
the real world it is called 'harrassment' and 'assault'. We think
missing out on that kind of socialisation is rather a good thing
actually, and funnily enough we do have a social life of our own.
We don't have to keep terms, but we do. We like keeping the
distinctions between:
a) term-time (which is mostly for set work)
b) vacation (a chance to do independent work like projects which
need to be organised over a longer timescale)
c) actual holidays
There is a time to work and a time to relax. There is scope for
parents to define tasks and scope for children to take responsibility
for their own education.
During term the parent sets an agenda for each day. What order
the tasks are done in, and how much time is taken over each, is
up to the student to decide. We usually find we are through the
day's work about the same time that children from the homes around
us are returning from school. But if it is a really nice day,
or we want to do something special in the afternoon/evening, we
can start early and be finished by late lunchtime.
Q: What do the numbers one, four, and seven have in common?
A: When written as digits they consist of straight lines!
It has proved remarkably easy even for a mathematically-challenged
parent to match anything offered in regular classrooms round us,
armed with:
a) a battered secondhand copy of an old-fashioned textbook
b) one of those useful revision guides for undergraduates about
to go up to uni who need a quick tour round maths before they
read subjects like engineering
c) the free(!) facilities of the University of Cambridge's online
mathematics enrichment project
We like Rayner (OUP 1988) for the very reasons lots of school
teachers do not: because it does not attempt to jazz up the subject.
There are no pretty pictures, just clear explanations of basic
procedures. Of course you do have to be self-motivated to use
it well - and have the self-discipline not to sneak a look at
the answers before you have answered the practice questions!
Q: Which animal has the highest water content?
A: The reindeer!
Q: And what is a coca-cola drinker's favourite subject?
A: Fizzics!
It took less than a year to cover KS3 biology, chemistry, and
physics (except that they are not called that in the National
Curriculum) with no more sophisticated equipment than kitchen
materials and a toy store chemistry set. Thankfully, the British
Association supply project worksheets which readily lend themselves
to extension and enrichment work - and awards. Mum telling you
that you have done well, and here's a gold star to stick on your
wall chart, is one thing. A certificate to frame and a cool badge
to wear, which someone else has awarded, are something to be really
proud of.
For first-class demos, and contact with other kids who think science
is fun, there are more events put on by the Royal Institution,
the Science Museum's outreach team, and local museums and commercial
laboratories than we could possibly get to. For answers to tricky
questions there is a free service from ScienceLine.
Q: Which vegetable is the most sporty?
A: The runner bean!
Exercise does not have to mean getting cold and muddy on a windswept
school playing field. (That is if the local school has a playing
field and more than 10 minutes available for any class to spend
on it.) There are clubs for children who are good at football
or whatever, but that's not us. We have opted for running and
swimming, which almost anyone can do and which cost very little.
It has been worth investing in some kit:
a) real, but inexpensive running shoes (not fashion trainers or
plimsolls, which offer little protection to young joints and tendons)
b) fleece jog-trousers and tops for the winter (muscles work better
if kept warm)
c) a pre-payment card for the local swimming pool (so we're not
scrabbling for change every time we fancy a dip)
d) swimming goggles (children do not like chlorinated water hurting
their eyes any more than adults do)
Q: Which animal is the most musical?
A: The tuna fish
This is the one subject where we buy in tuition because, on the
whole, music is not learned from books. The relationship with
a tutor is so important that people will travel very long distances
to have lessons with the right teacher for them at that point
in their lives.
For us Associated Board grades have been an excellent introduction
to the whole business of taking public examinations. There are
written papers in theory and practical tests for performers. Time
limits for written exams are generous, and centres are well used
to dealing with private candidates of all ages.
Music-making is also a very social activity. The Anglican choral
tradition provides one of the few opportunities in our society
for children to engage with adults on equal terms. Our parish
choir is no match for cathedral or collegiate outfits, but it
does offer amateur music-making of a very high order. It is amazing
how children willingly commit themselves to the concentration
and discipline required by the weekly round of rehearsals and
services: the emotional rewards must be great indeed. When one
of the boys was in tears after a service once, Mum was convinced
something must have gone horribly wrong until he managed to sob,
"It was so beautiful!"
Self-expression does not have to mean paint, charcoal, and
collage. Photography combines art and design, physics (optics),
chemistry (if you use silver technology), ICT (if you go digital),
and history (there are excellent resource packs available from
the National Museum of Film and Photography).
A kit from a toyshop to build a working model of an internal combustion
engine proved a hit - and to think that after two years design
and technology in school, our son still did not know how to use
a screwdriver!
Q: What do you feed game machines?
A: Dice crispies!
If the offspring were not good with computers, you would not be
reading this! The only tool needed to build hardware is a screwdriver.
Software can be used to draft and redraft essays, spreadsheets,
or musical scores as many times as needed, e-mail friends, build
up a network of contacts who can answer questions we can't, and
surf the web for ideas from other educators across the world.
Q: What do you give a sick fountain pen?
A: Penicillin!
Literacy as a separate subject was the first thing we dropped
when we embarked on home-educating. If reading, handwriting, grammar,
and spelling are already up to adult level, what is the point
of practising them separately? They come up naturally in every
other subject - which is why mastering them is so important in
the first place. We make sure there is a balance between reading
and writing, speaking and listening, using a fountain pen or a
keyboard + mouse, etc - and get better at using language by doing
it.
Being able to read our own choice of books has been one of the
greatest joys of home educating. We have found it is the classic
authors which offer most for a confident reader to respond to:
Shakespeare can be read on so many levels! Plus, it is part of
our national cultural heritage. (We do read other literature too
- see below). Chaucer in Middle Englishh? No problem! It's fun,
very amusing, and brings medieval history to life.
Teacher: Most German past participles have the prefix ge-.
Student: So that's why the German for 'ghost' is Geist: Ge-ist!
Wir haben einmal deutsche Freunde gefragt, wie man auf Deutsch
home-educated sagen sollte. Sie antworteten, wir könnten
ruhig ein englisches Wort dafür benützen, erstens weil
es in Deutschland so etwas wie Heimschule einfach nicht gibt (der
Hausunterricht ist gesetzlich verboten, denn da herrscht die Schulpflicht;
in England haben wir nur eine Unterrichtspflicht) und zweitens
weil die Deutschen Englisch so cool finden!
In der Schule hatte unser Sohn Französisch gelernt, dazu
auch ein bißchen Italienisch. Als Hausschüler wählte
er Deutsch als seine Hauptfremdsprache. Als Lehrtexte dienen Bodo,
das Glücksschwein und Hägar der Schreckliche sowie Gedichte
von den berühmtesten deutschen Schriftstellern (Heine, Goethe
zB).
Not being bound by the National Curriculum or Common Entrance,
we have been able to dabble in a little Ancient Greek and focus
on learning not so much the classical Latin of the Roman Empire
as the Late Latin which became the lingua franca of intellectual
discourse from the Baltic to the Atlantic for a good 1500 years.
To the kind of mind which likes the strict logic of algebra or
the orderliness of scientific theory, Latin is very appealing
because it is such a tidy language; to the kind of mind which
appreciates literary nuance, Greek is attractive because it is
such a subtle language.
Appreciating the history of our own country and gaining a perspective
on world history we think is more easily done by taking things
in chronological order rather than flitting between topics. Is
medieval English history a tad boring once you've seen one castle?
Then get the offspring to research and serve up a medieval feast
- and volunteer to help eat it!
Q: Where do gardeners grow shallots?
A: On shallotments!
Q: What is a runner's favourite subject?
A: Jography!
One might think it self-evident that mapwork and land use etc
should not be confined to the classroom. Unfortunately, while
the offspring was at school, that is precisely what happened.
We learn most of our geography in the field: indoors is for reading
theory and writing up investigations.
Knock, knock! - Who's there?
Wendy! - Wendy who?
When d'you open your Christmas presents?
#1 most boring subject at school, in the last year consisting
of revision of revision of revision. Offspring's verdict is that
RS (relaunched as "Divinity") is quite fun now - still
#1 least liked subject, though!
Q: What do you call a dangerous trunk road?
A: A dual courageway!
Philosophy, economics, citizenship, PSHE, cooking ... they are
all important, but we don't timetable any of them because they
all come up quite naturally in the normal course of events. And
not being a school, we can give them the time they deserve.
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