How does time slip by so sneakily without you noticing!
It’s classic isn’t it? One minute you’ve got babies, next you’re launching into home education and before you know it, you’ve got teenagers on your hands wanting their independence when you’re not ready. Such is parenting; dotted with the gut wrenching milestones of letting go.
If you’re anything like I was you won’t believe that can happen! The thought of your littlies being older and little people in their own right is almost unimaginable. But it will happen.
This is how it was with mine. I look back on it and wonder what all that knicker twisting angst was all about! Hence my desire to write and reassure you all that it all turns out okay.
It’s also what has happened with my book ‘The Home Education Notebook’ where I gathered those stories about home educating, and education per se, to share support and help you reimagine your children’s education. I can hardly believe the book is now over five years old.
So we’re celebrating with a new edition.
This has been a book that so many readers have told me has brought them support just when they were needing it most. When having their greatest wobbles, when those inevitable doubts about home schooling creep in.
Before you blame home education exclusively for those doubts I’d like to remind you that everything and anything you do whilst raising children will incur doubt and decision making – it’s NOT just because of home educating!
I’d also very much like to tell you that I know what it’s like to have those moments of insecurity and doubt – been there, done that, had the meltdowns too. And is why I wanted to share them through this book to help you navigate them.
It’s full of articles to reassure you about home education and covers all those aspects we all fret about; like timetables or testing, or curriculum, or how the kids learn anything. About different approaches or simply ordinary days. What education is and what it’s for anyway, and the always-crops-up issue of socialisation. I basically collected all those things everyone worried about and through the stories of our home educating days, contacts and experiences, attempt to lay those worries to rest and bring reassurance and confidence, calming those doubts down to manageable levels.
But what’s special about this new edition is that it has a new chapter about some of our home schooling contemporaries, what they’re doing now – most of them in their twenties – and how they got there. Something families who’ve graduated from home educating always get asked. After all, everyone wants to know how it all turns out!
Many lovely messages I’ve received have said what a comfort it’s been to have the book by their side, physically, even with all the online communities which are available for support now. It’s like having a consistent and calming voice, they say. And that’s lovely to hear. I always appreciate people taking the time to tell me.
With this new edition I’m hoping to bring that comfort to many, many more.
Available from 21st March. But you can pre-order your copy from Eyrie Press right now by going to this link.
Ross Mountney's Notebook 
Congratulations on the new edition, Ross! Hearing about “where they are now,” I’m sure will be a wonderful inclusion for those starting out on their journey. I know I always wanted to look forward to see what might potentially unfold. Sitting here with my newly-turned 15-year-old I can vouch for those “I’m not ready” feelings, but also for the fact that everything turns out okay. I hope you are keeping well!
Thank you so much Alice. Lovely to hear from you, thank you for being here. Goodness! Fifteen! Doesn’t it go quickly? I always say I’m glad I’m not ageing at the same rate!! 😀