How does your garden grow?

My last post was some weeks ago and I’ve been very aware of my neglect of the blog.  Perhaps ‘neglect’ is the wrong word.  It’s been a semi-conscience decision. I follow a lot, and I mean a *lot*, of home education/unschooling blogs – from the practical-advice kind to the philosophical kind to the school-is-the-devil-incarnate kind … Continue reading →

Photo a Week – 22.06.13

Sound Bites – Good Riddance

“The old system where every child was locked away and set into nonstop, daily cut throat competition with every other child for silly prizes called grades is broken beyond repair. If it could be fixed it could have been fixed by now. Good riddance.”  John Taylor Gatto

Rites of Passage

Two weeks ago we went to my niece and nephew’s sports day.  The girls had never witnessed a school sports day before and Shahada, being pretty speedy, mentioned several times how she’d love to run.  Of course she couldn’t.  Not in any of the races anyway. My sister asked, ”Don’t you regret that they’re going … Continue reading →

Sound Bites – Rules, Schmules.

“Children who live surrounded by rules, instead of learning about principles, end up becoming adept at getting around rules, finding the loopholes in rules, disguising non-compliance, or deflecting blame for non-compliance (i.e. lying about what they did). These are the skills that they then bring into adult life.” Robyn Coburn

The Three R’s (Part Two)

My children could already read (to some degree) when we decided to home school.  In terms of what that means for me and helping them to learn, I’m very lucky…or unlucky.  It depends on your point of view. I’ve been spared the worry about the girls learning sounds, letters and blending.  They had the basics … Continue reading →

Time flies when you’re…

Where has the time gone?  It’s been almost six weeks since my last post.  Six weeks!  I’m not even sure I could tell you what we’ve been up to but I do know that it’s been a time to just ‘be’.  Although this hiatus was unplanned, it’s given me a great opportunity to reflect on … Continue reading →

The Three R’s (Part One)

I have a lot to say about the learning of reading, writing and maths so I’ve decided to break down this post into two parts in order to explore my thoughts in depth – bear with me. What can school teach my children that they cannot learn for themselves?  How to read and write?  Maths? … Continue reading →

Back to school…

Since de-registering from school, we’ve been staying away for a while you know, deschooling.  Last week we went back  to collect my daughters’ old school books and say ‘hello’.  The school supported our decision to home school so teachers and parents like to know how we’re getting on.  It was the end of the day … Continue reading →

You can go your own way…

So, we’re just over a couple of months into home ed.  If you’ve read any of my other posts you’ll know that I’ve been sponging up information from anywhere and everywhere about autonomous education.  I’m now au fait with numerous terms and ideas that, 2 months ago, I’d never even heard of or would have … Continue reading →