Why I chose to home educate.

Why I chose to home educate.

Below are some of the reasons that I chose to home educate.

v It feels natural. An extension of parenting that allows you to journey with your children as they grow.

v It gives my children the freedom to explore and learn.

v It allowed my children to follow their interests – Child led learning.

v To enable my children to progress at a natural pace for them. No holding back or pushing.

v Gives us the time to develop life skills.

v It encourages learning in the real world with people of all ages and backgrounds.

v Gives us more opportunities to travel and explore the world.

v Took away the pressures of excessive testing and exams.

v There are no time limits of activities and learning that is being enjoyed.

v Children get more 1 -1 time.

v Allows us to enjoy and practice our faith.

v Gives us the opportunity to live as sustainably as possible.

Some bonus reasons my children shared:

v We get to have more experiences.

v If we don’t understand something, we can get it explained in dept lots of times.

v We get to do work on the beach and in the woods.

v I can be myself and not worry what others will think.

v I have more time for my interests.

These are a few of my top reasons. Having a background in teaching I just felt that the classroom was becoming more restrictive to children and teachers. It caters for one type of child who learns in a specific way. This learning style is directed at the ever increasing number of tests and assessments that students are given year upon year. Creativity was not celebrated the way it should be and children are not encouraged to question or be critical. I can still remember at a parents evening when I was told my 7 year old boy asks too many questions. As a teacher I can understand that it is not possible to allowed unlimited questions from 20+ students but as a parents and educator it broke me. That inquisitive nature was being crushed. 

Home education for me was allowing my children an opportunity to learn in a style that suits them, at a pace that suits them, in many different stimulating environments. They have taught me more about teaching than all of my training and education.

It is definitely not the easy option and I cannot possible say if we will be home educating in 5 years from now. Seasons and family needs change and we have to go with the flow. It is not for everyone and I give my children the choice to attend school if they want. Whatever happens, I aim to instill a love of learning in my children and equip them with skills that will help them navigate as they grow up in the 21st century.  

How can we make children enjoy maths??

Maths is one of those subjects that not many children say they enjoy and for many it is a chore or struggle when asked to do maths work. This is the issue for a few of my children and I have been observing them and trying to understand why this is.

One claimed to me just the other day that MATH stands for Mental Abuse To Humans!!
For someone who enjoys maths I was shocked to hear this.

Years ago when I was in school teaching 4 year olds, maths was a fun lesson. We would relate numbers to objects, play games, count objects, make a pretend shop and more. I can hear older children now saying that once they get past a certain age the fun, relatable aspect of maths is gone.

This is where I feel that maths has lost its flare. Children cannot relate maths to the real world. They can't understand how algebra will be useful to them, how fractions will help them later in life. It is here we lose them.

Going through different maths curricula the past few years, I can't help but feel for children. They are boring, repetitive and often don't explain the process enough for understanding to a degree that can be used in their lives. Maths is a core subject and therefore tested regularly from the start of school, for this reason maths techniques are often taught in a way to answer questions on tests, not taught for understanding.

I am trying to make maths fun for my children. I am doing this by relating it to real life and about things that the children are interested in. Teaching fractions just calls out for cooking, sweets and pizza. With 5 children, sharing out portions equally is a skill they all want (to make sure no one gets more!). The children have created a business plan for an entrepreneur fair they are working towards. So many maths skills involved. The thought of making money was a big incentive here.

Some of the ideas we have used to make maths more enjoyable over the past week are:

For my 10 year old working on the mean, median and mode I found creating data around his passions made everything click and made it more enjoyable. Gathering data of the depths certain sea creatures can go allowed him to research animals which he enjoys and compare them to each other.

For my 9 year old working on area, instead of just worksheets; I gave him a tape measure and asked him to work out the area of rooms in the house.

For my 12 year old who was not enjoying algebra, we used algebra and formulae to uncover some fascinating facts about the Burj Khalifa skyscrapper.


Real life relatable maths is the way forward to create engaged students who have skills that will assist them in their lives. Using percentages to teach about savings and money management. Fractions and ratios to help with cooking and meal planning and many more ideas that will help them in the future.

This is not home schooling....this is pandemic schooling

 This is something that has been playing on my mind as post after post talks about home schooling.

As a home schooler pre pandemic this does not look like a normal  home schoolers life.

We see friends, have meet ups, go to activities, explore museums, complete work at the beach or under a tree in the park.
Home schooling is not done in isolation.

People seem to think I should have it sorted as a home schooler
Admittedly we have resources and curriculums , but we are NOT used to be stuck in the house, feeling anxious and having no contact with people.

I have been struggling myself working so I can only imagine how out of sorts my children feel.

This is a time to 'unschool', follow the child's interests, meet emotional needs.

Learning happens all day, everyday and worksheets are not needed.

 Maybe all your child will learn in in this pandemic is that you meet their needs with empathy. Children model behaviour and this will be one of the greatest lessons they can learn... To be empathetic.

Your house will never be a school. A child will not act at home as in school, so take some days off if needed. De-stress!!! Even if  schools are sending work after work, know that they understand the situation.

 Look after yourself and your children's emotional health, build relationships.

I know that our daily life even pre pandemic does not mirror that of a school; does it mean my children do not learn and will not succeed?? I hope not and personally I feel that the curriculums in the UK need a drastic overhaul to get upto date with the 21st century (that is a different post entirely). My goals are to follow my children's interests while instilling in them skills and attributes needed for the 21st century. (Critical thinking, questioning, research skills, skills needed for collaboration, education for sustainable development, empathy etc).

So parents at home with children who are usually at school. Don't panic. Your children will not ruin their future or get behind from a few months off.

A child learns at their own pace, can you ever say a child is behind? I don't think so. Schools follow levels set by governments that dictate all children of a certain age should be able to do and should know XYZ.  You just need to look at the first 5 years of a child's life to know that this is not the case.

I am praying for this to end and for things to change in education for everyone as we move forward.

Easy psychology study for children

We are in lock down and I have decided to share some psychology study resources for children to have a go at.

Many questions I get asked when people find out I have studied psychology are:
How does my brain work?
Can you read me? (This one makes me laugh)


I think that it would be beneficial if children learnt more about the brain; how learning happens, how memory works, the different kinds of memories etc. I think it could help them with how they approach learning, exams and much more.

This is a simple study based on Murdoch's serial position curve.

In this time I  think it would be a great reason to call friends or family to be participants.

I hope you enjoy

Writing prompts for children.

Writing prompts for children:

Kids are human and are understandably worried and anxious about the coronavirus situation.

They may not feel like they can focus on school-work while there are big changes happening around them.

I have put together some writing prompts to help them focus on the beauty of the world around them, the things that are special to them and to get down on paper what they are feeling and what is inside of them. 

Parents: There are no right or wrong answers, overlook spellings and punctuation. This is about your child getting down on paper what is inside them.

 Give them a small notebook, it would be lovely to look back at the questions and answers in the future. 

Notallclassroomshave4walls.blogspot.com

1.    Describe your family. Who are they? What do they do? What is special about them? 

2.    Describe your favourite place. Where is it? What does it look like? How does it make you feel when you visit your favourite place?

3.    Look out of your bedroom window and write about what you see. Take notice of the little things.

4.    What are you most thankful for?

5.    If you went to a desert island, what 3 items would you take and why?

6.    Who is your best friend and why? 

7.    What is your favourite animal and why? 

8.    Where is the place where you feel most safe? Why do you feel safe there?

9.    What is the best present you have ever received and why?

10. Who makes you smile? 

11.  Write about things that you do that makes people around you smile.

12.  Write about your favourite character from a book or film.

13.  Write about something you are proud of achieving.

14.  Write about someone who inspires you and why?

15.  What is your favourite food? Try and describe it to someone who cannot see? How does it look? How does it smell? Is it hard or soft?

16.  What makes you angry and why? 

17. If you were given 1 million pounds, what would you do with it?

18. What is your favourite colour? Think of as many things that you can that are that colour.

19. What do you want to be when you grow up? 

20. What would you like to learn about and why?

Intergenrational learning

The idea of intergenerational learning is not a new one. The passing down of knowledge from elders to youngsters has been around as long as history is documented. This still happens in many cultures but in other, this is an idea that has been put to one side and I would argue that so many opportunities are being missed out on because of this.



Socialisation is a skill that would benefit from intergenerational learning. There is a generation of young people who we struggle to communicate with and understand. Is this because they are not being given the opportunities to learn socialisation skills with people of different ages? Schools in general segregate children by ages and they are spending six plus hours, 5 days a week with people the same age. Talking and being able to communicate with those of different ages is true socialisation. Not only would it help develop the language skills of youngsters, it has been proven that when the elderly talk with children it helps their cognitive functions.



The world as we know it is moving at such a pace technologically and the younger generations are at the fore front of this. They could be helping the older generations keep up to date. However, it is not just the younger generations that we can learn from, other global issues such as environmental challenges call for us to look for solutions and I would argue many of them come from the older generations who lived more sustainably and carefully.



I recently has my 75 year old mother in law from Algeria to stay for 6 months and she taught me skills that are very beneficial in my effort towards being more sustainable.  She is from a generation and country where you don’t waste anything. Things are re-used, recycled and home-made. Food is bought locally, is seasonal and always made fresh.



Not only do I think that intergenerational learning is important for learning knowledge and skills, the impact on the community and creating empathetic tendencies in the younger generations towards the elderly and fostering relationships would benefit society greatly.



Intergenerational learning is something that I believe should be included in school curriculums. Education is so much more than memorising facts, learning skills, taking exams and focusing on the individual. I would argue the benefits for individuals to shape themselves and society as a whole would be great.

The classroom: is it a good learning environment?

Is there an environment that is better for learning than others? Can certain factors increase potential memory absorption. Are traditional classrooms hindering learning? 

When we think of a classroom with 20-30 students, the carbon dioxide they breathe out can create high levels, especially if the classroom is poorly ventilated. So the mid morning slump that you often hear teachers talk about is real! When the children arrive they have a good amount of oxygen in their bloodstream, this is why the best work is often done in the mornings. After a couple of hours the carbon dioxide levels in their bloodstream are increase considerably. Even with breaks for outside playtime, the air is the class is not being replaced so the same thing will happen when they return to the classroom.

According to medical research, increased levels of carbon dioxide in the blood stream decreases the cerebral metabolism of oxygen and in turn has an impact on thinking abilities. Put simply, the brain is deprived of oxygen.  Scientists at University College London found in studies that higher levels of carbon dioxide reduces memory, impairs concentration and lowers decision making capacities.

Classrooms often reach average carbon dioxide levels above 1000ppm, as observed across elementary classrooms in Texas, Michigan, Washington, Sweden and England. In a 2002 study, 21% of classrooms in Texas had carbon dioxide concentration over 3000ppm (Corsi, 2002).

One of the issues is that there are many schools still operating in older building, where the classrooms are dark and have small windows that do not allow efficient air circulation. When interviewing a state primary school teacher from Cardiff,Wales recently, she told me how the windows in her classroom did not open and at the beginning of the day the room is freezing and by 11am it is too hot. This affects the children's behaviour and concentration levels.

What is the answer? Oxygen levels need to be kept at certain levels. There should be regulations to check the air quality in classrooms. There should be opportunity for sufficient ventilation and the children should be getting breaks outdoors once an hour, Finish schools often do not have the children indoors for more than 45 minutes at a time. This gives them opportunity to refresh the oxygen in their systems.

Somethings else I think would be beneficial to classrooms is having plants in them. Plants as we know absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. It has been shown that plants have a positive affect on brain functions.  Plants play a role in cleaning the air.

Scientists at NASA in the 1980s discovered that plants were adept at removing chemical such as Benzene Trichloroethylene from the air making it cleaner for humans. Plants can reduce carbon dioxide levels by 25% in buildings. (Study by Dr Fraser Torpy - director of technology, Sydney - Plant and indoor environmental quality research group.)

It has also been shown that plants can reduce noise levels - they can absorb sound. This can only be a benefit in a bustling classroom. Plants are also a great visual for increasing creativity. 

As a start for this topic, plants and well oxygenated classroom would make a massive difference on thinking and learning ability in classrooms. The next thing I would like to research and look into is how colours can have an influence on mood and behaviour in the classrooms. Can some colours encourage better behaviour and creativity??

References:

Ciphr.com/benefitsofplants

Not