As yesterday’s blog on different ways to home educate was on fb, I’m reposting it here (with explicit permission!) so that it can be easily found as part of the blog hop 
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Posted by Aspire-Chaos to Calm-Connecting & Reconnecting Families on Tuesday, 14 February 2017
It was when i was carrying my eldest E almost 13 years ago that i started researching education options, i didn’t know about HE then but it didn’t take me long to stumble across it after looking at private schools, Waldorf/Steiner, Montessori, progressive schools and all the rest in between. I knew straight away that that would be the path for us.
What style/philosophy do we follow? Well it has been a bit of a mix, starting with Waldorf/Steiner with my eldest, she didn’t show any signs of wanting to do any formal learning, although well ahead in her speech and comprehension she just had no interest in the more formal stuff, preferring to play, do art, go to classes and socialise (insert a snigger here)
At 7 we introduce formal learning and even then I was up against her battle to not want to do it. It was tough for me to take a step back and trust that it would work out but it did. As she got older we started adding in maths and English as part of a structure (for me more than her) E went to Explore Learning (the tutor centre) for a time and she did well there.
When E was 6 i had K a whole different character, as she grew and developed her own way it became clear that she preferred to learn at a younger age and the Montessori method worked well for her and still does, in some way she has been easy, or is that i have just become more experienced? Probably that.
As time has gone we have got far more structured in our approach, most likely due to me becoming self employed, i feel i need to establish some kind of routine but also K has always needed much more of a routine than E ever did. And that is what i love about HE, that fact that i can tailor the educational style to the child is great! It makes it far more enjoyable for everyone. We still stick with structure in English and maths and the rest of the time being child led, i remember one time E focussing on a Tudor project for 2 YEARS!!!!! Yes 2 years……..what we don’t know about Henry the viii…hahaha.
It is great for them to follow their passion something they would not necessarily have the opportunity to do in school, they are heavily focussed on their swimming and drama and i love them having the opportunity to do these things alongside voluntary work and HE meets.
E now attends Inter High, an online high school which she enrolled in back in September, it seems to be going well, we hope that this will benefit her in working towards some kind of iGCSE or equivalent, She is off to do PGL with them this year too. This gives me more time to focus on K now she turns 7 this year, i can see where her strengths/weaknesses lay.
I also host Aspire an HE meet for families in our borough, that has brought about some great connections with families and some firm friendships made….for more info on any of the things we do please do get in touch, however you choose to HE, no one can tell you it’s your journey.
Today’s post is with Nevine and her purple sheep and tomorrow we’ll be visiting Lydia at a new adventure
Find the rest of the posts here. And if you’d like to join in, drop me an email
