The first time I heard about Home education it intrigued me but the idea of being responsible for how much my children learned scared me. As a mother of one tiny baby I have to admit that the thought of him walking scared me so I wasn’t really ready to give schooling a lot of thought.
Ben learning about weaving
Next time it came up was a couple of years later. My immediate reaction was: ‘ I could never do that!’. This exclamation was not meant in a nasty way. I admired those who did feel they could and was perhaps a tad envious at how easy and comfortable they appeared with their choice. My children were going to go to school however and started at age 3 and age 2.5 respectively. Both immensely enjoyed their first experience with nursery and pre school. Both went to small village schools within a small community.
Exploring the woodland trail
For my eldest Primary school followed. He started a term later than the rest of his class as we had moved in the summer and there was no space for him initially. Still he started on the first day that he was legally obliged to receive education.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when my second child was starting the term after his 5th birthday, we now live in a town and they were both attending the rather large local infant school. Things had stopped being happy and it was also the week that we decided to de-register our children. Never became right now and although I have a healthy amount of nervous excitement I also have an absolute trust in my ability to be my children’s teacher and guide. After all we have been taking care of all their other needs and even some academic ones since they were born, it is just a bit more of the same.
In our first weeks we are still finding our feet but already our children are calmer and more motivated to do things. Gone are the morning stress sessions and epic tantrums ( theirs and mine 
) in our race to be in time.
I am under no illusion that it will be easy and straight forward but then being a parent is not like that. The best thing for me happened towards the end of our first week when my 7 year old came up to me and said: ‘ My tummy aches are all away now mama, I like being home for school.’
Mastering weapons
I do not think school is wrong but I do believe that sending my children to school is the wrong thing for our family at this point in time. This may or may not change in the future, any decision I make will always be with my children’s best interest in mind.
For more information on Home education see our Home education subforum or have a look at the Education Otherwise website.
About Anne
I have a lot of admiration for people who opt out of formal schooling. I really can’t imagine ever feeling that would be right for our family – I am certainly not disciplined enough or patient enough for it! And I don’t think I’d know where to start with teaching them things that I don’t know either *laugh*
Sounds like you’re going to have lots of fun times ahead and I’m guessing it’ll be as much of an education for you, as it is for the kids! How wonderful! What an exciting journey for you all! xxx
Welcome to the wonderful world of home ed. Its lovely to read that your son is so much happier now.
It sounds like you are approaching it with very realistic expectations but I can promise that the ups very much outnumber the downs. Best of luck with it and very much looking forward to hearing about how you get on.
Be grateful that you have that choice. Regardless of what I would personally think would work for our family It is nice to have options. In Germany children between. 6 and 16 have to be at school. The parents are responsible for that . If a child fails to attend school the police and social services show up on your doorstep. And the parents can be sent to jail.