Home Education During A Pandemic

What strange times we find ourselves living in now. Two weeks ago I was very much in the minority, and now I find myself just one of many parents educating their children at home.

Schools are closed to all but the children of key workers and those whose home lives are unsafe. And so thousands of parents are tasked with ensuring their children are occupied and learning at home.

We seasoned home educators are isolated now too. We’re not used to being forced to stay home. Many spend their days out and about, taking classes, visiting museums, meeting with friends and family. We’ve lost those experiences too, so please know that home education isn’t really what you’re experiencing now.

We’ve also never had so many awesome resources to draw from. The upside for us of so many being forced into home education is the number of companies offering free or reduced subscriptions; clubs and groups running classes online; and museums and zoos opening their virtual doors to us all. It has reignited my love for home education! But, again, know that this isn’t normal for home education. We usually have to buy our own resources, source classes that suit our children and their varied ages, and pay for educational trips out. There is no government support for the elective home educator.

But none of this means that you can’t get a taste of the freedom and joy of home education.

30 Days Wild | 4: Secrets and Lice

Our garden faces the wrong way, so it doesn't get much sunshine during the day. The area that gets the most and longest sunlight is the decking and vegetable bed, which is fortunate for everything trying to grow there. The lawn, however, spends much of its time in shade. Brilliant for preventing sunburn, but not great for basking. First thing in the morning though, it can quite glorious out there. This morning, we made the most of that sunshine by going out straight after breakfast. 

30 Days Wild | 1: From Tiny Acorns...

The other week I spotted 30 Days Wild being shared in a home-ed group on Facebook, and it grabbed my interest. We need to get out more - not just into our garden - so it seemed like the perfect way to inspire us to explore.

On Education

My Year 1 Class Photo

The reality of our decision to home educate hit me during the past few days, as I watched my Facebook feed fill up with posts about school places. We haven't even looked at schools near us, let alone found out when places needed to be applied for, so discovering that all that decision making had bypassed us was a bit of a surprise. If B was going to go to school, she would be starting in September, despite only being a few days over 4 years old. That was something I never wanted for her. Compulsory school starting age is the term after a child turns 5. That would be the following September for B, and yet, we would have had a fight on our hands to get the go ahead for her to start Reception at age 5.

Today I read this article entitled 8 reasons why summer babies face an uphill battle at school and in life.

Statistically, summer born children do worse at school than their autumn born classmates. They're at a higher risk of ending up on SEN registers. They are more likely to lack confidence and be unhappy at school. This isn't because of the time of year that they were born, but due to the huge difference in development and ability between them and their classmates who are almost a year older than they are. A year's difference in age is 25% of a 4 year old's life. That's a big difference.

52 Weeks of Memories | 9: Fun

We had fun in the forest: getting muddy, making new friends, exploring, and swinging in hammocks at Forest School. This was organised by a group of Home Educaters, and was a great way for us to get to know some other families who already home educate. Just one way in which B and M will socialise in the future is by mixing with other children - of all ages - who learn at home instead of in school.

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