Author of 'A Funny Kind of Education' and others, parent, home educator, with a tendency to skive in the natural world.
I’m stranded on a train, delayed for hours, miles from my destination. After the initial sighs and groans and irate phone calls round the carriage, plus a regular useless announcements tellin…
You hear it so often; ‘he’s so like his brother’. Or ‘isn’t she like her mum?’ In my case I was told I was just like my dad, which didn’t go down too well …
Smart phones are a fabulous tool. I’m not a social media addict or anything, but I like my phone around to look stuff up in an instant. Even that can be addictive I admit. But there is no dou…
As most of my regulars will know our home educated children could hardly be called children at all now. They’re well into their thirties, having graduated beyond their home educating days int…
I’ve been delving into a new book. It’s about gardening, or to be more accurate; not-gardening. (Stick with me – this is going to lead onto education). Not gardening as we know it…
January! And back to that time of year when the schools go back and many families are gearing up for the term time routine again. Although not every family. Thousands will not be, they’ll be …
It seems ages since the pandemic kept us all trapped in doesn’t it? I remember it clearly. Not only personally but feeling for all the parents who were dealing with small children in the hous…
I cannot believe that it is fifteen years ago when this blog first started! Back then, we were moving beyond having young children at home full time, hence I had the time to write! (Read it here) A…
This blog is not here to persuade anyone to home educate. I say that because I have received so many heart warming messages over the years, about my work here and in the books, to tell me that it w…
I’ve just been reading this excellent book. ‘Against the Grain The journey and journals of a Home Educator’ by Juliette Proffitt. Wish it’d been around when I started home e…
I am angry! I’ve listened in hope to the next round of political balderdash getting angrier by the minute. I am angry at seeing the same types of elite and privileged, mostly male, mostly whi…
parenting, home education, thoughtful living
I still get asked this question even though it’s seems so far away from doing it now. I had to look back at this blog from a while back just to remind me: the opportunity for the children to …
Can you imagine home educating without the internet? It would seem impossible, dependent as we are now on its resources, information, community, connection to like minded others. It’s become …
Following on from my post last time about a curriculum for kindness I thought I’d share this again, as it seemed so relevant and something people often lose sight of when thinking about educa…
Ideas for education come to me from all sources, often from those you’d really not consider likely to be educational! Find it on amazon I’ve been reading such a joyous book. It’s …
Have you ever considered whether there are side effects to school? Even as a young green teacher I spotted some of them straight away. Ten years of teaching and I was so disillusioned by the things…