Home Educating - the beginnig of new things

23 July 2008 was the last day of government education for Samuel and Oscar.
We decided to take them out of school for a few reasons: (in no particular order) Freedom - to travel and live where we want. Freedom - to learn about what we are interested in rather than what some government official thinks we should learn in a certain way, at a certain time in our lives in a room of 30 other kids. We've been told Oscar is severely dyslexic, so he's never going to do very well in a 1:30 ratio. We want a more holistic approach to education and learning - that includes lots of things that the schools don't cover. We want the boys to be curious and interested in the world around them so that they follow their aptitude and interests and therefore their career/life path is started earlier. I for one came out of school and had no idea what I wanted to do the rest of my life (what to study at Uni) once I wasn't being told what to do every 5 minutes of the day at school and I've forgotten a lot of what I learnt because I just wasn't interested. Home educated kids are renowned for doing really well at Uni because they know what they want to do and have been self motivated in their studies the whole way through, not just beginning at 17yrs. The top Uni's love home educated students.

So, we are getting involved in the rather large and rapidly growing West London Home Ed community, where there are organised things we can do every day if we want. We have hooked up with an online community of Home Educators who will be available wherever in the world we are and we'll hook up with the Home Edders in Sydney too - so many communities of kids that they are part of, such a broad range of friends around the globe.
The education they are getting is hands on. For history we investigate the Jurassic Coast, Stone Henge, Maiden Castle for a weekend, not just looking at them in a text book. They have private tutors for maths because Samuel wants to complete year 7 level maths this year (he's in year 6)- he can go at as fast as he wants.
Where once it was teachers who had the information to teach the children, that information (and more) is now readily available to all of us via the internet. My University studies are all online, so I can fit my life in around them; the same concept is for the kids the same online program is used by the kids 'school' community www.selfdesign.org . It very exciting to be using the resources and technology in educating in this way. The flexibility and freedom feels great! Come and join us in revolutionizing education!