MY BOOKS

Below you’ll find details of: my books on home education; A HOME EDUCATION NOTEBOOK’ to encourage and inspire, ‘A FUNNY KIND OF EDUCATION’ the funny tale of our home ed days, ‘LEARNING WITHOUT SCHOOL HOME EDUCATION’ a guide for parents, and my book on coping with motherhood; ‘MUMHOOD HOW TO HANDLE IT WHY IT MATTERS’

A collection of stories, blogs and writings from our home educating days, just to comfort and support you, now all in one place so you don’t have to go trawling around looking for reassurance when you need it most – I remember what that felt like! (See the page ‘Stories of a Homeschool Life’ for a taster).

Listen to an exclusive reading on You Tube here.

“A warm hug, a revitalising experience and a must have.” says mammajai ” A Home Educating ‘Bible’.” says Sandra 

(currently unavailable – returning soon)

Would you like a real life insight into home schooling? Are you watching your child deteriorate and regress in school; personally as well as educationally? Ever wondered what it was like to home educate instead? Now you need wonder no more… (watch and listen to an extract here)

When our children were becoming unhappy, unwell and switched off in school we wondered what on earth could we do about it? We couldn’t possibly home educate…or could we?

This is the story of the excitement, panic and hilarity of life with kids when you home school. A story to move hearts and minds and get you giggling. And change your view of education forever.

“At last a book that dispels the myths surrounding home-education and demonstrates the lifestyle perfectly, I was nodding my head in agreement throughout.”

Julia Pollard. Home Educator and mum of five. http://classroomfree.blogspot.co.uk/

“A thought-provoking and entertaining account of daily life as a Home Educator. Ross’s passion for this alternative to schooling weaves through every page without preaching to the reader…a delightful and amusing memoir which challenges conventional attitudes to education.”

Kate Adams. Reader in Education and author of ‘Behaviour for Learning in the Primary School’, ‘Unseen Worlds. Looking Through the Lens of Childhood’ and ‘The Spiritual Dimension of Childhood’.

“Ross’s work is so inspiring, if I had kids I’d be home educating them.”

Mark Boyle. Founder of the Freeconomy Community http://www.justfortheloveofit.org/ and author of ‘The Moneyless Man’.

You can order it here and read reviews.

November 14, 2014 at 12:22 pm Victoria says:

Wow, I am now sat with tears streaming down my face. I had a very similar conversation with my husband a couple of days ago and have decided to take the plunge! My five year old son has just started school, although he doesn’t seem desperately unhappy, I can’t bear the despondent look on his face every day when I collect him. I asked him if he likes school and he said it’s boring, I asked him if he asks questions all day like he does at home, he said no, everyone is too busy. This last comment made up my mind!:

September 26, 2014 at 8:40 pm Atlas Educational says:

Fun read. Many parts mimicked (almost exactly) the conversation my husband and I had about the choice to homeschool. Still no regrets!

August 29, 2014 at 8:30 am Kevin says:

Have just seen Chelsea’s great video on youtube. Funny to see her all grown up when I’ve just been reading about her as a little girl. Well done on your parenting!:) Loving your book. Almost finished it. It’s really helpful to hear a first-hand account of the ups and downs from someone who’s been there before. We also found your ‘Learning Without School’ brilliant. We’ve just taken the step into home-education or ‘Uplearning’ as we’ve decided to call it (as in ‘upcycling’). You can see what we’re up to here… uplearning.wordpress.com You get a mention in our first post! Thanks for all you do!

LEARNING WITHOUT SCHOOL HOME EDUCATION

This book is a guide for parents wanting to home educate and support for those already doing so.

It explains what home education is all about, gives help with making the decision to choose that route and getting started, and how home education works. It shows how children can learn at home and suggests ways you might approach it for yourself.

The book deals with curriculum, subjects, timetables, testing, exams, discusses both autonomous and structured routes to learning, shows what home educators’ lives are like and where children end up, and offers ideas for building your own philosophy of education. It answers all the questions parents ask concerning home education and would be of interest to parents everywhere who are thinking about their children’s learning.

You can buy it from Amazon here, where you can also read reviews and see the contents on the ‘Look Inside’ facility. Or buy it directly from the publisher here.

MUMHHOOD How to handle it. Why it matters

Did you know that Mums are part of the most incredible and valuable workforce on the planet?

Most of us don’t, not even the mums themselves! And because of that we get little recognition and support, particularly for the monumental life upheaval, physically, mentally and personally that we go through to do what we do.

This book is an attempt to set that straight. It’s especially for mums and is full of love and support and ideas you may never have thought of about mumhood before. It shows how simple it is to be a good mum, how important that is, and how to look after yourself while you grow into the mum you want to be.

Click here to buy your copy and read reviews or read on below for a sample…

Becoming

It would be so easy, wouldn’t it, if simply having a baby taught you all you needed to know to become a mum?

Having a baby does of course make you a mother in the physical sense of the word. But as most mums find out a little way down the mumhood road there’s a lot more to handle than that. Adjusting to motherhood also takes a lot longer.

Just like baking a cake doesn’t make me a cook, becoming a mum requires many more ingredients, experiences and skills than just giving birth. Not to mention practice. It doesn’t just happen overnight and doesn’t always happen naturally either.  And becoming a mum who knows how to handle it and feels valued in doing so, is even more complicated.

That’s why this book is here. This book is to help you understand these difficulties. It is to guide and support you in your mumhood because, just like your baby, you need time and encouragement too. This book is intended to nurture you while you do it for I suspect that you’ll be so busy nurturing your baby you may well forget to do that for yourself.

Something very important

From the beginning, before all the more complicated bits, there’s one aspect of being a mum that really matters. Yet the remarkable thing is, it’s an aspect that most mums don’t know about, they don’t appreciate, nor even think about it much. It’s rarely mentioned when anyone ever talks about motherhood. It’s not rated, not respected in social circles – definitely not in male circles or politics, even though it is political really (not that I intend to bore you with politics here). Yet it is a simple and fundamental truth and basic ingredient for growth into a satisfying mumhood.

And that is: understanding its enormous value.

Looking back over our lives we usually recognise the things we do which are of value. It might be getting good grades. It might be helping a friend. It might be having a job or career. It might be love from, or loving, a boyfriend or partner, or our own parents. All these things we do we recognise as being of value.

Yet what most people fail to acknowledge, or even see, is the enormous value of being a mum.

Why does that matter?

Because mums are a group of the most important people on the planet.  It is mostly mums – (and I say mostly because, although there are some absolutely great dads playing a vital role in the raising of their children, it is still mostly mums who do it) – who are responsible for seeing to the early growth and development of not only a child, but a new member of society, of the human race.

And why is that great?

Simply because this new person has the potential to contribute something. And they are part of a generation who will be responsible for the next generation, who will be responsible for the next, and so on. And, in the wider picture, these generations of children will grow into people who are responsible for the planet on which we live, thus being in charge of the perpetuation of all life. And this all starts with the nurturing of babies and children, most of which is done by the mums. This is what mums do. How great is that?

Your work with your baby and child is going to have an effect on everyone ever after.

So you can see how important your role as a mum is. (More on this later). You’re a parent now and through the parenting of your baby or child you will make a difference to the world.

That is its value. That’s why mumhood matters.

Understanding, recognising, and appreciating the value of your work as a mum has a huge effect on how you feel about it. This in turn affects what you do, how you do it, and your overall contentment as a mum.

When I say contentment it doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong with you if you’re not content with being a mum – not everyone is. Or that everyone should be content with it all of the time, or that you have to be a mum to the exclusion of everything else. Mums may be mums, but they are other people too. Contented mums are contented people who do other things, have other work, are not necessarily with their children one hundred percent of the time (also important) to the exclusion of everyone else. They are not servants to their family, nor are they any less of a person because they may not be earning.

When I say contented mums I mean mums who feel able to make choices about what they do and feel good with their choices, who are confident with who they are now, what their work is about and why it matters, who are balanced rounded people in their mumhood and therefore able to make a good job of it, rather than someone smothered by the enormity of it.

For it is an enormous step becoming a mum, there’s no doubt about that, and to become at ease with it takes time and involves lots of readjustments to life, lots of rethinking, lots of re-prioritising and lots of mood swings.

This book is here to help you cope with all that….

Pop over to Amazon to buy or see the list of contents on their ‘Look Inside’ facility.

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