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“Whatever!” Surviving Home Education with Teenagers

The teenage years can be quite a challenge, however you decide to educate your child. If your child has been home educated for at least a few years before reaching adolescence, then they will probably be accustomed to the lifestyle. If you are lucky, your teenager will also have learnt how to educate themselves with [...]

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Back to School – or Not?

From my experiences of helping to run a local home educators’ support group, I know that the school summer holidays can be a decision time for those families who are facing problems with their children’s education. Sometimes it is the act of going away together that gives parents and children the opportunity to talk about [...]

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Job Juggling and the Home Educating Family

As lifestyle challenges go, combining earning a living whilst at the same time home educating your children, has to be one of the toughest. I’m assuming, for the purposes of this article, that you’re not one of the few home educating families where the parents can afford to go out to work and employ someone [...]

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Listening to our children

Why is it important to listen to our children? For them: It helps them to think. Providing a sounding board encourages our children to verbalise their thoughts, thus assisting them in making sense of the world. It shows our respect for them, because they can then see that we value their opinions. It demonstrates our [...]

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Free range education and its lessons for the adults.

I’d like to invite you to think for a moment about those activities that you enjoy doing most now, as an adult, and see if you can remember how you learnt to do them.  Were you taught in a formal way? Did you teach yourself? Did you learn through performing tasks, reading about it or [...]

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Top Tips for Successful Family Holidays.

• Give everyone in the family the opportunity to voice their opinions on where they want to go and what they want to do. Distinguish between “needs” and “wants.” For example, if one member of the family says “I want to go to Scotland” but others don’t agree, find out what it is about Scotland [...]

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Does your child need to downshift?

As a parent, how do you spot the signs of stress in your child? When is it time to intervene and to help your child simplify their life? 10 years ago this year I was in a terrible quandary. Both of my sons were showing signs of stress. My youngest son (then age 6), who [...]

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How is Home Education Sustainable?

“What is home education?” someone asked, “And what on earth has it got to do with sustainable living?” This voice came from a few feet behind me whilst I was browsing in the shop at the Centre for Alternative Technology. The shop stocks, amongst other things, a wide range of books on various aspects of [...]

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