Home Schooled

Nearly a year in…..

 A while ago we moved to a small village in West Wales and our girls started at a new school. They moved to a small village school and for a spell all was well… Then the SUPER SCHOOL opened - a new facility which housed all kids from nursery to a-level, and my girls just started to hate it.

My oldest began to have panic attacks and bouts of anxiety. She came home from school at the age of seven telling me she was a failure because she didn’t do well at her tests. She was bullied - at one point being held by one kid and hit by another - all in the playground apparently under teacher supervision (oh, and when I brought this up I was told “boys will be boys” - that went down really well with me, as you can imagine).

My youngest went down a different route. She is a fireball at home - quick on the comeback with a wicked sense of humour. At school she was a muted version of herself, terrified of doing things wrong and being told off. She came home stressed and crying at the age of six because she ‘wasn’t doing her work fast enough’. When I approached the school to tell them how this was impacting her I was told that she was a daydreamer and just needed to get on with it, which frankly was a crock of shit.

All this time, I was at University too - studying for my first ever degree. It was horrible to watch my girls go through all of this stuff and not be there. I was watching school have a detrimental effect on their mental health. Mother-guilt was rampant. I wanted to quit uni and just keep them home.

So we did. I finished my degree and the girls came out of school. We thought we would try it for half a term and see how it went. Here we are, nearly a year later and the thought of them going back to a school system fills me with dread.

Now before anyone has a pop, I think teachers - most of them - are heroes. I just don’t think our education system is supporting our children. Or at least not mine.

Nearly a year in and I’ve got my kids back.

My girls are now happy. They are engaged with learning again; reading books, doing projects, asking to do maths sheets. We get outside every day and everything we do becomes a learning opportunity, it’s not confined to a classroom. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not easy. I still do mother-guilt. I worry about what the world has in store for them and whether I am preparing them for it, but I’d probably feel the same way if they were in school as all they seem to be prepared for there is passing tests.

So now I’m working on the other stuff - keeping them social, making sure they’ve still got a bunch of mates. Friendships that don’t involve me. Luckily we’ve just reconnected with a family from where we used to live who are also home schooling. We meet up and the girls soon became fast friends, they are now penpals writing back and forth and avidly watching for the post. The girls still go to their cubs group and are about to start at adventure club on Mondays with a group of other home schooled kids.

So far, I wouldn’t change it. If the education system changes, becomes more fluid and child-centred instead of result driven then maybe they’ll go back to school. Right now, this is working for us, so we’ll stick with it.

Being outdoors. Moving. Not being sat at a desk for six hours a day. Plus the beauty of having places to ourselves whilst everyone else is at school.

Home school lunch spot..