I’ve been told before that parents other than home educators visit here and some of the posts they read are still useful to help them understand and keep a healthy mind towards their children’s learning whilst they go through school.
I’m really chuffed to hear that! Because education is education wherever it’s happening and whatever you’re doing, home educating or not.
Of course, in these strange times, most families are forced to do ‘school at home’, which is not the same as home education where parents have a very different approach as some of my books and blogs explain. But with those parents in mind particularly I thought I’d re-post this little piece that was written for ‘school holidays’ to help reassure those who are worrying, especially about the children regressing. And it applies to home educating too!
Firstly, the children won’t regress during this not-at-school time – as much as schools like to threaten that – what is regress anyway? The children might not be keeping up with the school test scores but is that really educationally useful? (Article on testing here) You might like to think on that whilst they’re busy with other things that are equally educationally developmental!
Secondly; it’s a great opportunity to spend time engaged with the children that you haven’t had before – term-time or not. We should equally be spending time not engaged with the children. This is all part of parenting – and as some fail to understand – education is very much dependent on parenting!
Thirdly, there’s no point in stressing over it – instead we have to accept the circumstances and ask how we can make best use of them. Most of what we do with our children will further their skills and knowledge in some way or another, from story telling to playing with money, from gaming to doing star jumps, watching stuff together, chatting – it doesn’t have to be academic. Small things can make huge differences.
Taking that further, there are four very simple things to do right now that can have a huge impact on your children’s development, but which might be overlooked whilst you’re worrying about school stuff.
They are:
- Read to them as much as possible, be a reading family; encourage reading by reading yourself – doesn’t matter what
- Talk with them and respond to their thoughts, questions, ideas
- Encourage their curiosity (which is their inbuilt desire to learn) by facilitating activities that involve; exploration, variety, investigation, experimentation and creativity in all its many forms
- Be active as much as possible, essential not just for body, but heart and brain health too. You can do this in the house as well as out!
These can cost nothing but your time, but by doing the above at some point every day you’ll be furthering their education in ways you may not understand but which make an important difference.
Ross Mountney's Notebook 