Why Home Schooling Is Right For Us!

Let me begin this post by saying I am not looking for approval, neither am I looking to give advice or information on how others school their children.  I wouldn’t do it to others and as much as I know ‘most‘ people say things with good intention, this is a decision we have made as a family and one that is right for us.   So, while I appreciate a constructive discussion please don’t use this post to start a school v home school rant. 

I shall tell you why…

This was not a quick decision for us*.

*For me personally though it was an easy decision as its something I always wanted to do with all of the children.

Life is a matter of compromise though and family life needs to take into account everyones views and opinions.  With our boys it was a decision to send them to mainstream school that we both agreed on (although we did have a brief stint of home schooling with our eldest due to bullying issues) and likewise this decision is one that both myself and their dad have taken together for the girls.

I love being with my girls, watching them grow and showing them new things.  Painting, drawing, mixing and matching, sorting colours and objects, going out and about discovering new adventures whilst learning.  Learning should be exciting!

Having always wanted to be a mum means that I feel this IS my job … for the want of a better term, my calling (if you want to label it).

Some people aim to be a nurse, a doctor, musician, ballerina, teacher or artist.  I aimed to be a mum and I think I can firmly say with 6 of them under the belt that I well and truly knocked that one out of the park!

The girls are completely chalk and cheese, they simply couldn’t be more different if we tried to make them so.

Amelia is a little tom-boy wrapped in an angelic persona who loves to climb and play with cars, roll around in mud and make slides with her mattress.  She loves rock climbing and splashing in dirty puddles, she wants everything blue or grey and thinks Paw Patrol and Horrid Henry rock!  She will repeat words she knows she shouldn’t and has the attitude glare down to a T!

Evie is a typical pink princess who loves Disney and dolls and playing house.  She loves being cosy and warm while reading or snuggled up watching a movie while eating sushi and planning her next shopping trip!  Making lists is a big thing for evie and she is a obsessive stationery addict like her mummy, she wears pink and floral clothes and loves dress up, her favourite programmes include Shopkins and Power Puff Girls.  She will tattle when she hears someone say an ‘S’ word (her way of saying someone swore) and hates loud noise or nasty smells but loves having her nails painted!

That being said they both also have so much in common in that they are both very intelligent, have a fierce sense of family loyalty and love to be creative.  They always love to have their hands on something whether it be a jigsaw, pen and paper, paint or project.  Evie has a passion for French and we have been learning it at home, likewise Amelia loves to doodle so we saw the opportunity to help her with letters and words so that is something we have been focusing on at home too.

Amelia is 3 so not school age for another 2 years and Evie is 7.   We made the decision to remove them from nursery and school and start home schooling as there are numerous things we find they are to study or are studying at school that are completely irrelevant to modern life and there are things that are not taught at school that we feel should be.

We want the girls to be confident individuals who have a love of the world around them.  Seeing the girls have a passion for what they are learning makes me smile but most of the time they were coming home from school and not smiling anymore.  We had tears on a night before bed and tears on a morning when it was time to get up.  Weekends were a dream as the girls were happy to create and write and draw and learn with me all day but come Sunday night I could feel the sadness start to fill the room as they knew it was almost the start of the school week again.

Both girls learn more with a hands on approach and instead of reading everything from books or boards they pick things up by touching and feeling and doing.  Some children thrive in a class situation but some thrive more with one to one attention and I feel that, for the benefit of my children, this is the right decision for us.

I reached out to some other home education bloggers to ask why they thought it was the right decision for their families too:

I am an ex teacher but left the system just before deciding to home ed my daughter (now 9). I decided to home educate her because it is a better fit for her needs personally and generally offers a more personalised, flexible education than she could possibly get in a school setting. – Katie from Living Life Our Way

I have been home educating my two children ( 11 and 7) since last Summer. It’s the best thing I have ever done. My son, who was targeted by bullies, had no feeling of self worth at all and suffered with high anxiety, has transformed into a relaxed, confident and inspired young man. We have settled into a fantastic routine that includes our book work, trips out, play dates and sport. The home ed community around us is incredible. We have made friends that I’m certain will be friends for life, who we enjoy all sorts of activities with. Both children are well ahead of their peers academically as they receive one to one tuition from me and are able to take their time processing anything they struggle with. They are able to learn at their own pace without any pressure. I could talk all day about it – sorry! – Vikki from Family Travel With Ellie

I home educate my 7 year old and plan to home ed my 2 year old when the time comes. My eldest attended mainstream school for 2 year and was let down at every turn. The school system is very much a square peg round hole type of scenario. If you’re a round peg you’re fine but anyone who doesn’t tick the boxes and meet the percentages is more often than not, let down by the system. Home education allows you to tailor everything to your child who, as a parent, you know better than anyone.  – Georgina from Gee Gardener

I home educated my son following a very difficult transition from primary school to secondary. His granddad died the night before his first day and his school were not very understanding, they just wanted him to get on with it. I became concerned for his mental health so deregistered him from school. We enjoyed around 18 months of home education and we had a really supportive home ed community in our area. After 18 months my son decided to return to a different school and it’s going ok. I wouldn’t hesitate to home educate any of my children in the future if I felt it would be beneficial. He has fitted academically into school with no problems, it made no difference to his levels. We had a thoroughly enjoyable 18 months learning together.  – Colette from Truly Madly Cuckoo

We have literally just de-registered our son – he was in year 5. He’s been struggling with different things since year 3, and began asking to be home schooled a while ago. We actually started to consider it seriously, and then since Christmas his anxiety levels have been high, so after much deliberation we took the plunge two weeks ago. We feel he’s just not suited to a school environment and learns better in his own way. – Kelly from School Run Shop

We never went into mainstream school, we have home educated from the beginning, but it’s a ‘switch’ for us as we both (and all our family) went to school.  It works for us because we know our daughters interests, we know how to help her thrive and we know that school failed both of us (in many ways) so why not take that switch and try something different for our children. – Jade from Mummies Waiting

XOXO

Debbie

Thank you to all the lovely ladies who contributed to this post and I hope to have a home education section set up soon so that we can chronicle our journey.