It’s always extremely daunting to publish a new book. You never know how it’s going to be received. So I’m really heartened by the lovely messages I’ve received so far in support of ‘A HOME EDUCATION NOTEBOOK to encourage and inspire’ which was recently published.
I wrote it in support of all you home educating parents for I remember myself what it was like on days when you had a mega wobbly and needed a bit or reassurance. That’s what I’m hoping to supply with this.
So if you’re feeling that right now consider getting a copy of your own to have to hand. Meanwhile, here’s a little taster:
There’s no doubt that some days we lose the plot!
Parenting can definitely make you lose the plot regularly. Being a home schooling parent there’s times you begin to wonder if you ever had a proper plot in the first place.
This book is intended for those very times.
Firstly, don’t worry. We’ve all felt like that, even the most experienced, matured home educators whose grown up young people seem to be the epitome of success. And secondly, don’t be put off by them, thinking you’ll never get there – success comes in many forms and you can be successful too. Thirdly, don’t feel plot-less alone; talk about it with others and you’ll be able to swap stories that help you get back on track.
Meanwhile, the stories here are intended to bring comfort and support till you do and hopefully remind you what the original idea was.
When you decide to home educate you probably already had the idea that school wasn’t going to be right for your family. Or you may have tried school and discovered that as a result. There are so many different reasons parents home educate; some to do with their child’s well being and happiness, others to do with approaches to learning and education in general. But although you may know what you don’t want, your plan about what you’re doing in place of school can wobble on occasions.
Now, this isn’t a book to tell you what to do with the kids all day. The best way to find that out is to connect with all the others who are already doing it and those who have done it, research, (maybe read my other books) and adopt others’ ideas until you establish your own.
Instead, this book is more to help bring you back to your core intentions when you’re wobbling. And give you some company and encouragement until you do…
Becoming sucked into the way schools do education is often is what causes us to lose sight of our own core intentions and plot and make us forget what we want for our children within our own individual circumstances. And I guess you wanted something different from what schools provide or you wouldn’t be home educating.
With so many following that mainstream path you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t get seduced into thinking you ought to be doing school too. You can also feel alienated from the ‘real world’ (a term school users will often use as an accusation – disputable which ‘real world’ is the most real), and wonder sometimes why on earth you’ve chosen to home educate.
Well, this is to remind you that you’ve chosen this path because you thought that was best for your child – and you do know your child best.
It’s also to remind you that HOME EDUCATION WORKS. You chose this route because you thought it would be better – and it is in many circumstances.
It’s been going on long enough now for there to be home educated adults out in the ‘real’ world working, living productive, happy lives, contributing to society, who have ‘normal’ social lives and plenty of friends. And as someone once said to my daughter; “you couldn’t tell” they’d never been to school. We weren’t sure how to take that at the time, but we had a good laugh over it.
There’ll be quite a few things you need to laugh over. It’s often the best response!
I’ve shared many of these home education moments along the way, some on my blog, some even pre-date it, before my books were published. But as it’s so time consuming to trawl back through all that to find comfort and reassurance when you need it, this is a collection of them in one place with edited and added material. My home educating friend and publisher told me that she had a book on her bedside table for those wobbly moments so she could dip into it and feel reassured. And that’s what we wanted to produce. It’s set out in fifty two stories, one to dip into each week of the year.
I know how lonely it can feel sometimes stepping away from the mainstream, even with the wonder that is social networking which we didn’t have when we first started. I know personally how you can doubt, worry, wobble, cry, lose the plot and feel you’re losing yourself sometimes even though you love home educating, love your kids and on the whole love what you’re doing.
I’ve been in that situation too but there is one absolute truth I can tell you for certain; it was bloody WORTH IT! I have no regrets, not one single one…
Hope you find that as encouraging as I have found your supportive comments. Thank you!
And if you live in the vicinity of Boston in Lincolnshire do come along to Waterstones next Tuesday evening and say hello, it would be lovely to meet you.
Ross Mountney's Notebook 