How it all began for us

Since a lot of people reading may have younger children, I thought I'd do a post about how we started, and what life was like way back then (grin - we began home ed about 15 yrs ago)

When our oldest son was born I gave up work (I worked in publishing as an editor/author) to stay home to care for him; but I did continue doing quite a bit of freelance work. Then we had another baby or two, and suddenly Alexander was three and everyone was asking where he was going to go to nursery; and what school did I have his name down for.

We were living in an affluent part of North London, near one of the best grammar schools in the country (Henrietta Barnet) and also in the catchment area for (as it was then) one of the best government  primary schools in London.

But we were uncomfortable with the local primary school - I had a friend whose son was attending it, and we didn't feel happy with the multi-faith approach the school had - and the amount of television that was watched (and this was 15 yrs ago!)

Julian had been privately educated, and had a natural disinclination towards government schools; I on the other hand have fond memories of my goverment school primary education.  We briefly considered private education,  but with three children and expecting a fourth, that was never going to be affordable.

We had heard of "home schooling" - Julian had come into contact (before I knew him) with a church group whose children used the ACE curriculum. And while waiting for an antenatal appointment I read a magazine with an article about Education Otherwise, and I made a note of the address, just in case.

(There was no internet and phone calls were expensive in those days :-))

So we made the tentative decision that I would try to teach Alexander to read. After all, if I couldn't teach him to read, I couldn't teach him at all, right?

Part of the reason I was convinced that I probably could teach my children, is that I grew up in a tiny two-teacher school, and was used to seeing one adult dealing with ten or twelve children in several age groups. It seemed natural to me to do "whole class learning" so that everyone joined in according to their ability, not their age.  If I hadn't had that sort of childhood school experience, I might have been more daunted by the prospect of teaching children of different ages.

So I started teaching reading. I bought a couple of Phonics Ladybird Books from a bookshop, and could not make any sense of them. I realise now how phonic works, and that it does work well for some people, but it wasn't the right thing for Alexander aged three.

I tried again, buying the first couple of books in the Ladybird "Look Say" scheme - and suddenly, Alexander was learning to read.  He was bright and easy to teach, reading only took half an hour a day (I split it into two sets of 15 mins), which I could easily fit in round my other responsibilities.

I kept a "lesson diary" then - I must dig it out and read it, I'm sure it will be interesting.

Will write more on this later; but have to go now; we are having a carpet fitted upstairs, so Lucy has been temporarily evicted from her bedroom and is studying in the lounge. The younger five are watching a phonics video (Words and Pictures - it is an excellent series); and I need to find out where the rest are. . . .