I always thought it would be ‘cool’ to be home-schooled. I was bullied at school and now I’m homeschooling my children.
It isn’t always easy and it isn’t for everyone but right now it is right for me and more importantly it is right for my children.
My children are 4 years old, 2 years old and 3 months old so only one is of school age at the moment.
From the first day of my daughter starting school in Reception last September I hated it.
I hated the thought of her being bullied, she seemed fine but I wasn’t convinced.
I was bullied from the age of 5/6 years old when I started a new school in Year 1 up until leaving high school. I didn’t want this for my children.
I used to tell my parents I was fine, that I’d had a good day at school and what activities I had done.
I didn’t think they could stop the bullies so I simply didn’t tell them.
In the end I chose to home-school my daughters for several reasons and yes my fear of her being bullied was one of them.
Mostly though it was because I didn’t feel that the school she was attending was offering her the right education.
We looked at the school before sending her and it did in fact seem fine but once she started Reception last September it soon became clear it was not.
She had been to a school the previous school year as well as 2 private nurseries.
We found she was learning more at the private nurseries than she was in either school.
Maybe this was because the ratio of adults to children was better or maybe I was imagining it.
Either way my daughter was bored at school, she said so herself.
She would come home wanting to ‘learn’ because in her words “all we do is play mummy”.
I understand that at 4 and 5 years old they learn a lot through play but the school and her teachers were not even willing to anything with her to help her feel more settled.
I removed her from the school and started to do what I had done the previous year, teach her myself.
This time it was different though, she was 4 years old, she should be in Reception.
I searched the internet for a list of things that a Reception class child should be able to do and sure enough Bella could already do the majority of them.
I was impressed.
She was clearly a clever little girl.
We don’t just sit at home playing games all day, watching TV and being lazy.
Homeschooling my children means we do actually do ‘lessons’
Mathematics (addition and subtraction)
English (learning the alphabet, reading and writing)
Music and Drama (singing, dancing and dress-up)
PE (swimming and football mainly, she used to go ballet and tap dancing once a week too)
Arts and Crafts (gluing and sticking, painting, drawing, making masks, robots and jewellery)
Baking (usually some variety of cakes but we also make our own pizzas)
Basically all the things you do as a parent anyway at this age is teaching them, I just chose to do it full time.
We go to the local park, soft play centers, museum as well as trips to the zoo and sealife centers and other places throughout the year just like children do in schools just we get to do it as a family instead of paying over the odds for my daughter to go with school.
Do I think she is missing out on anything by being homeschooled?
No I don’t but I do constantly have people telling me that she is, but that is their opinion and this is mine.
I was bullied at school and now I’m homeschooling my children and that is my choice just like it is other parents choice to send their children to school.
Will my daughter be going to school in the future?
I hope so, I hope I can get her a place in a good school who will provide her with a good education and will provide her with any support she needs but until then I will continue to do what I do now.
I want what’s best for my children and the health visitors seem happy with her being at home and have said she is a bright young girl so I see no reason to stop what I am doing.
Bella loves being at home, she gets to learn as well as spending the day with her two younger sisters who she adores.
Destinni is 2 and loves to copy Bella, she will gladly ‘write’ her alphabet or her name when Bella does hers or sit and read a book with me.
I love homeschooling, I get the pleasure of doing what teachers do but I do it for free.
