Category: Home Education
#TellNicky Children's education shouldn't be a battlefield
This weekend, Education secretary, Nicky Morgan announced a ‘war on illiteracy and innumeracy’ According to the BBC, this means that All children in England will be expected to know up to their 12 times table when they leave primary school, the government has announced. Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said pupils aged 11 should also know…
Getting back into the (home education) groove.
It feels like absolutely ages since it’s been anything resembling normal here, and for once that’s not just a feeling. We went to Christmas camp in the second week of December, and since then, there hasn’t been a day when the whole family has been well. Honestly, it’s been weeks of misery and illness, and…
Pokemon driven home education
Today has been a craft and pokemon day. Smallest made paper chains and was disappointed that I couldn’t find the instructions for the paper lantern craft. she also ran Pikachu battles. Later on she started doing some drawing. Who’s that pokemon? Small was very impressed by this artwork. So much so that he voluntarily came…
Following their interests (home education the lazy way)
There is a technique sometimes referenced in home education circles called strewing, in which you casually leave educational resources round and about to sucker entice your children into educating themselves. I like to think of myself as an extreme strewer. I’m not, of course. I’m just disastrously untidy 😉 But today it worked well in…
Home education on the rise – a cause for concern?
Only if you’re a Labour politician. To: Department for Education Home Education 210289 Barry Sheerman To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to collect information on the (a) number, (b) religion and (c) ethnicity of children being homeschooled in England. Answered by: Mr Nick Gibb on: 20…
Parenting spoons
Not the parenting *of* spoons. Not quite. No, this is about the resources we all have. Anyone with chronic illness or disability has probably come across The Spoon Theory (If you haven’t, go read it. I’ll wait.) Are we all caught up? Now, I’m not going to say that parenting is like a chronic illness.…
Unschooling with Animal Crossing
So this year Small is old enough to be in high school. (When did it start getting referred to as high school here instead of secondary?) Mathematically speaking he’s several years ahead of his peers. In terms of reading he reads extremely well, if sporadically. His writing is excellent, if a little quirky (you can…
Dear Microsoft, about this game you've bought.
I understand that you’ve bought Minecraft. Not just the game, or even a development license, but the entire development studio, lock, stock and barrel, minus the guy who came up with it in the first place. Now, I can see why you think it’s a good move. It’s a really popular game. Although I’m seeing…
Not starting school.
Smallest isn’t starting school this september. I *think* that the letter we had implied she would be due to start this time – she’s 5 in November, so would presumably be one of the oldest in her year. I think there are a lot of things about school she’d love, but overall, I think that…
How to use Reading Eggs to help your child learn to read.
At the weekend, I posted a picture that I’m incredibly proud of, so I’m going to take this opportunity to share it again. This is Smallest. She’s 5 in November. She hasn’t started school – we home educate. And she’s reading her first book. We don’t do school at home. No formal sit down lessons.…
