h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We have found that home educating our two boys is great. We really enjoy their company (it's amazing how many people don't actually *like* spending time with their own children!)

But there are other benefits too...
We don't need to stick to conventional 'term time' - we can have holidays whenever we like - which saves us a fair bit of money. Equally well, if we needed to relocate (for employment reasons or whatever) - it is easy to just 'take school with us' instead of having to find a new school we're happy with and then get settled into it. (We don't even need to live in a posh catchment area either.)

The boys don't need school uniforms either. And because they're not part of the 'peer-pressure' culture we don't get demamnds for the latest designer trainers either.

In fact the lack of peer pressure is good in lots of ways - the children can develop their own personalities much more freely. They also don't get the idea that it's 'uncool' to work or study. Instead their natural curiosity seems to thrive in a home environment. They also seem to be very secure and self-confident, socialise well with people of any age, and they don't have any of those playground problems either - bullying, bad-language, etc...

Of course it's not all good news - there's a price to pay...

My wife has to stay at home. (Which is fine for us, but for some families it would be a very BIG issue!)

Also, the local education authority (LEA) *may* want to stick their noses in. This isn't normally a problem in the UK, and you do have a legal right to home-educate - but some other countries take a very different stance!

Additionally, we have found some resistance in the family (my in-laws specifically) - and many people still regard it as 'very odd'.

You don't necessarily need to know everything - but you probably will need a fair bit of self-confidence and determination. (We know of several families who have tried it and not made it work, but equally well we know of many more who would never want to send their children back to normal school)

But of course it's not for everyone. Some parents wouldn't be able to cope with educating their children.

But don't automatically believe the 'experts' who say that "education is a matter for the proffessionals" - the fact is that school-life has changed dramatically over the past few decades and the system is much more of a 'sausage machine' than it used to be. (I don't want to insult any teachers here, I think they do a very challenging demanding job under difficult circumstances - I'm full of admiration for them. If anything I'd criticise the 'system' - and to some degree this 'high-pressure' society we live in too.)

So. If you can, consider it. It can really work!

Nice to know the articles getting talked about!

Pearl