Live Oxfordshire

Don't just be in Oxfordshire - LIVE Oxfordshire

  • Home
  • About
  • Work with me
  • Family Life
  • Oxfordshire
  • Body and soul
  • Reviews

Home schooling – only for the very brave…

October 19, 2015 by Milla Leave a Comment

A friend of mine recently took her five year old son, about to go into year 1, out of school because he was being pushed so hard he was beginning to hate learning.  Encouraged by her own Scandinavian upbringing (which doesn’t put children into formal education until they’re 7) she was more than happy to remove him from his school and try her hand at home schooling him – an idea that I fully endorse, but honestly couldn’t do myself. I swear to God, I don’t know how she does it, especially since she also has a three year old at home to care for.

As I mentioned a while back we have ditched TV almost entirely (we sometimes watch a family film together at the weekend and, very very occasionally, I put a TV programme on when I am about to completely lose my sanity, but that’s less than once a week now <smug>) so on the days The Boy is not at preschool I try to embrace the philosophy of home schooling and do some enriching activities with him.

gingerbread dough
2 batches of scrummy gingerbread biscuits ready to freeze

Today we did yoga together (Cosmic Kids yoga on Youtube, review coming soon) moved on to stage 2 of our papier mache dragon head for Halloween, made the dough for some gingerbread biscuits to go in the freezer (yes, I am thinking ahead to Christmas already. So shoot me) and had a snack. I looked at the clock. Not even 11am yet and the house is a total bombsite. Holy crap – we hadn’t even got to lunchtime, I’d run out of enthusiasm for enriching activities and, oh yes, the baby has just woken up so now I have two of them to entertain. It’s a dreary grey mizzle outside, so hardly enticing for a walk or outdoor activity, especially when we have to walk to Sir’s martial arts lesson later anyway.

Enjoying this? READ  5 ideas for parents to enjoy the little things
papier mache dragon head halloween costume
Amazing what you can do with egg boxes – The dragon head progresses

Seriously P – how the hell are you doing it? I’ve had to sit The Boy down with the CBeebies reading app on my phone so I can write this blog before I lose my mind. I guess feeding the baby, having lunch and making dinner will take up some time, too, but I won’t be engaging with the children whilst I cook and clear up. How do you get any housework done when you don’t have any child-free time during the week? I am in awe. The Girl’s nap times on preschool days are the only reason we can actually see the floor in this house. Not to mention bearing the full burden of your childrens’ education on your own shoulders.

Hat off, missus. You’re a better woman than me.


Would you consider home-schooling? What would persuade you to give it a try? Or perhaps you already are – how do you find it? How do you keep them occupied in meaningful ways? Where do you find your ideas? Please comment and let me know

Related

Related posts:

Insecure parenting Jack-in-a-bed Ten gender-neutral gifts to buy a three year old clothesonkidsroundandroundThe clothes on the kids go round and round – the art of second-hand parenting!

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: brave parenting, children, cooking, costume, education, home schooling, learning, lessons, no TV, papier mache

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

Facebook
Facebook
Instagram
Pinterest
Pinterest
Google+
Google+
YOUTUBE
Twitter
Visit Us
Follow
Click to email me

Do you know what you’re looking for?

Have you met Milla yet?

An image of Milla, Live Oxfordshire

Milla is a middle-class (note the pearls), rising middle-age (note the wrinkles), self-employed mum of two (note the slightly manic expression) with hippy tendencies and a serious chocolate dependency issue. She lives in South Oxfordshire and writes about whatever she can, whenever she can.

mumsnet
TOTS100 - UK Parent Blogs
TOTS100
Tots 100 Awards

Categories

Follow

Copyright

© liveoxfordshire.com, 2016. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to liveoxfordshire.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Living Arrows
BritMums

Copyright © 2021 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in