Today we finally decided to home educate one of our fraternal twins.  I say we but really I mean me! My husband is supportive of the idea but ultimately it has been my choice because I am the one who has to leave my son every day at a place in which he is unhappy.

You have to keep a fairly open mind about the subject of home schooling.  Most people would think it was illegal and I can inform you it is in fact legal. There will be many who would argue that state schooling is the right or the best way for children to learn.  As with all things family related, it is a personal choice based on the individuality of your children and their needs and unless you are informed about a subject then it’s difficult to give an accurate argument.

Our fraternal twins are aged 7 and having successfully completed the first three years of infant schooling at our large local school we decided to take advantage of the natural break in the education and make some significant changes to our family life before the twins were about to start their next phase as juniors. The junior school did not have the outstanding reputation or OFSTED report which its infant school had and we were not too thrilled for them to be continuing on into the junior part of the school.  This all played a part in our final decision.

During their infant education we had another set of twins (identical twin girls now aged 2) which added to the pressures already on our family.  We decided to move to a rural setting in the country to hopefully eliminate or at least minimise the daily strains of busy family life that living in commuter belt brings.  We were fed up with battling the traffic and trying to keep up with all the school activities and after school clubs.  It had all become a chore rather than a pleasure and we often found ourselves shouting at the children telling them to hurry up here and to hurry up there.

In making the move we gave great consideration to home schooling because of the rural setting we had found and thought we could try it if we couldn’t find a suitable local school.  We soon discovered that our local school was completely different to what we had been used to and when our daughter said that she really wanted to go back to school so she could make some friends we thought we should investigate the possibilities.  Having met with the head master who extended us some time to discuss the school and its values and show us around we took the twins along to get their thoughts.

Our son had always said he was finishing school at the end of the infants.  Although he does very well academically at school and has made a few really great friends, he has never truly liked school.  We have always had worries and issues with him and the school environment.  The teachers would inform us that he was the model pupil, well behaved and mannered, focused and worked very well.  At home it was a different situation and often all his frustrations would come out. It seemed to me that he was too frightened to relax at school and therefore couldn’t enjoy it and it would prevent him from playing certain types of play just in case he was told off.  He would hold it all in and be miserable but wouldn’t express his true feelings to the teachers but would unload on me at home. He would spend school holidays a much happier child but would start to stress and have sleepless nights before schooling would start again.

In light of the above we persuaded him that a new smaller school could be a much better place for him and that he may actually enjoy it.  I’m not discounting his twin sister’s needs here but she is a completely different character and was very enthusiastic about starting a new school and we knew that we would have very little problems with her settling in.  Thankfully, she has social skills second to none and we call her our social butterfly.

To cut a long story short for the time being, we are 5 weeks into term and our daughter is happy and our son is unhappy to say the least so with much more research and consideration we have made our decision as to home school our son with the view that his twin sister may follow suit.

How our First Day went

Having got our daughter to school without her twin brother and our twin girls settled on the sofa due to a sickness bug made a good start for the first day of home educating our son.

Firstly, understand that you do not need to follow the national curriculum.  You can follow many different learning styles and from my research and understanding we are just going to go with the flow for a while and see how the autonomous learning style unfolds.  I asked the question “what would you like to learn today?” He answered “maths and history please”.

At 0930 he did a Maths Brain Training Session on his Nintendo DS.  About half an hour of mental arithmetic in the peace and quiet of his own surroundings without any distraction from disruptive children.

At 10am he was sat happily on the computer using the BBC primary history website.  Not only was he learning history he was covering IT and reading in the process.  Natural questions would arise from the subject matter to which we would “Google” the answers.  There were games and quizzes on the knowledge he was discovering. He covered World War II, followed by Victorians, Romans, Ancient Greeks and finally Vikings and Anglo Saxons.  He was two hours happily absorbing information.  It gave him an insight into what he may like to study in more depth tomorrow.  He also said he learned far more today than he does at school.  Very encouraging start I feel.

I told him to stop for lunch and to rest his eyes.  The girls were napping again due to illness so at 12.15 we got the International Monopoly Board out.  He was the banker.  We were acquiring maths skills as well as geography knowledge all in an hour’s fun.  During our play more natural questions arose and he wanted to know who the first president of the USA was.  The answer wasn’t enough he wanted to know more so back to the computer and he spent some time on the Whitehouse website looking at photographs of all the presidents over time and analysing when and how long they were in office for.  He seems to have a natural talent for remembering dates.

At 13.00 he was back on the BBC Primary History Website.

When the school day was over for his twin sister and she was back at home they played and argued and generally caused noise and uproar in the household.  Everything as it should be.

All I need to do now is prepare for tomorrows home learning.  He has requested worksheets on the Victorians, Maths and some Science.