Introduction
I’m Jade, mum to Kairi (almost 4) and NaminĂ© (just turned 2). We live in Ely with my Husband Ryan and our Mini Poodle Coco. We are 4 very different people with very different interests and we love to share our journey over on our blog www.mummieswaiting.com and social media.
How long have you home educated for and what made you decide to do it?
We have been home educating seriously since Kairi turned 2. Though I am a true believe of the thought that we all home educate from birth, 2 was the age where I really started to track the girls learning, offer them more education based experiences and really put effort into helping them learn.
We decided to home educate for many reasons, I have worked in Nurseries and Schools and, although I enjoyed my jobs, I do not agree with the school system and how children are herded through like cattle. Like myself, my husband would like our girls to be able to follow their own path. Bullying in schools also comes high on our list of reasons not to send the girls to school and the fact that after taking away registration, breaks etc they only get 2-3 hours learning a day, which would easily be done at home.
Our biggest reason is that we know our children, we know that while other children may thrive in school, we do not currently feel that Kairi will, we have watched her thrive with us for the past 4 year and are astonished daily by the things that she has learnt and explained to us. This was how we knew HE was the correct decision.
Briefly describe your home ed style. Do you have a ‘typical’ week and what does it include if so?
We are very child-led, if they want to play with he kitchen we will slowly move our play to writing shopping lists, adding up the totals and weighing all the ingredients out as we bake a real cake.
A typical week for us includes a lot of travelling as we don’t like to sit still. Currently we attend one active class and 3 for socialisation. Thursday we will visit family and our ‘spare time’ we fill up with messy play, activities or work books.
What was your highlight of home ed last week?
Last week we talked about money, I spoke to the girls about the shield that can be found on a £1 coin and explained that with newer coins they all have part of the shield. We looked round the house for parts we needed and made the whole shield. Nothing more was said.
A few days later Kairi asked her dad for money to buy a t shirt, when he replied ‘what money?’ she answered that she needed ‘the pennies with the shield’. I was absolutely amazed as I didn’t believe the information had gone in. It made me totally remember why we home educate and reminded me to trust our children with their education.
What is your favourite thing about home edding your children?
I love the quality time with them and the opportunity to watch them learn, but my absolute favourite thing is when they teach me something, they’ve learnt it all by themselves and they tell me, they are so proud and i’m so proud too. Its a wonderful feeling.
What do you find most difficult and why?
I struggle with talking to people about HE, it’s a subject where people have such strong opinions and although most of the time wont say anything, you can feel them looking down on you as they speak.
What advice would you give to other home educators?
If you are thinking about it, take the plunge and do it. If you are already doing it, remind yourself often about how much your children have learnt, what you’ve taught them and how they could cope in the world around them if you left them right now. You have done an amazing job so far and the fact you worry about their future, means you wont let them down.
As well as finding Jade and her family on their blog, you can find out more about them on the following social media platforms:
www.facebook.com/mummieswaiting