Questions about Home education, what we do and what we did today....

THE MULLING BEGINS

We are often asked about our home education journey, what we do, how we do it, why we do it and so on. Some of these questions seem to be born out of curiosity, while other questions seem laced with a sense of shock. judgement and the occasional malice that possibly seems to stem from the fear of the unknown and not wanting to swim against the tide or go against whatever is perceived as the norm. 

I have thought a lot about it and I have decided that I need to write about our journey, not just on social media, but have a place where I can post any reflections that our kids or either of us have, as parents and as a family. I am happy to discuss why we do what we do and how we do it and would ask those interested in being open and broadening their mindsets to look at resources that I intend to post along the way, as we broaden and enrich our own knowledge along our journey. There's a lot of research out there to back environments that are creative and stimulate the child's and often the adult's (the parent/s in this case) curiosities and approaches tend to change depending upon what is required. 

We follow the autonomous approach to learning or child-led learning, which puts learning and how one wants to learn in the hands of the child. There are home educators who adopt different approaches to facilitating learning environments for their child/ children such as the structured, semi-structured, radical unschooling, in addition to, autonomous learning. The autonomous approach is also known as 'unschooling' in the United States and this is what we do and who we are - we are unschoolers. We / I follow whatever Arian wants to do in terms of learning and don't look at life skills and learning as being separate facets of learning. I also intend to write more in detail about our approach and our views behind this approach and other approaches at a later date, as I delve more / learn more about it.

FUNNING

What is 'funning' and who coined this term? This term is an abbreviation of 'fun learning' and was coined by our son, Arian, in March 2017, when we decided to remove him from the school roll at his behest, after a lengthy discussion 😃. He, as a six year old, didn't like the term 'homeschooling' and prefers 'home education' (HE) as it is known as now in Scotland. He felt that his learning didn't start and stop at a particular time, as in a school and, as is sometimes people's perceptions around schooling. He believed (and rightly so) that we are learning all the time and that he wouldn't like someone else to teach him, as sometimes that meant the adult or the older person or whoever was going to teach him could be bossy and not interested in a partnership. He wanted to have fun while doing it and wanted it to be a respectful and safe space. Hence, he came up with the term funning. 

It often perplexes people we meet as to why we decided to get involved in 'Funning' with our younger one, while our older daughter has chosen to continue to go to school. This is not confusing for us at all, as we understand that our children are different people just like my husband and I are not similar, just like we are all unique individuals.  We all have our needs and wants and it seems that children learn the most when they are happy and feel they can explore. Our daughter has her issues with certain goings-on at her school but has stated that she prefers that to being involved in funning, although she has a lot of fun with her brother, her family and friends. Our son, on the other hand, has stated categorically that he would prefer to be in an environment that's best suited to his needs and nurtures his yearning to learn at his own pace and find ways of exploring and teaching himself different ways of looking at things, a problem, a thought and so on.

We don't sit and teach him anything that he doesn't ask for or wants to learn. As I explain to many people very often, we learn together. Sometimes visiting family are alarmed by the lack of structured teaching, the lack of a syllabus and spending an hour reading, doing math and what not. I find that children, at least in my experience with my own children and other kids I observe at work, learn best when its hands-on and it's creative. I have also come across some very interesting books and research around children's attention span at this age and also why it's important to engage their motor, sensory, kinesthetic skills and ensure that learning is all-encompassing to aid absorption of information. Being outdoors, tree climbing and learning through play are extremely important and valuable tools towards building strength, conflict resolution skills, problem-solving, honing strategic analyses and more. I will endeavour to post resources around different ways of learning in future posts. 

WHY FUNNING?

Our decision to get involved in funning was a result of a combination of factors. My husband and I have been interested in home education / funning for many years now. I, in particular, know many families who follow different approaches to HE and it has totally opened me up to the possibilities of how learning can and should be. 

Our son experienced racial bullying during the brief few months that he attended school and he didn't have any support from the staff and teachers. There was a lack of listening and understanding around what bullying and racial bullying actually encompasses, how it can and does affect children, and sometimes well into adulthood, and that it almost always tended to occur when adults weren't present. This took a very heavy toll on his health and it affected him emotionally, physically and psychologically. We saw him turn from a happy, observant and shy boy to a scared, angry, incredibly sad and upset individual who felt misunderstood and often asked if there was something wrong with him. He was blamed by his teachers in a formal report and there was a lot of condescension exuded by one of his teachers towards him and me. My husband and I weren't listened to and our concerns weren't heeded when we put forth his views and persisted in explaining what had been going on for him. The school's inability and unwillingness to deal with bullying, diversity and the different forms of oppression coupled with denial, highlighted to us the severe lacunae within the system in addressing complaints, concerns and ensuring young people felt safe, respected and were at the heart of decision-making as per almost all of Scotland's policies around children and learning. 

Arian has always asked to be home educated and has often communicated his need for space and time to be by and with himself. He is a lad who has always been sure of himself with a remarkable certainty and we decided to listen to his views. We have observed and marvelled at the wonderful instincts children possess and as our kids often told us when they were younger "Only we know what goes on in our heads - no one else" 😄

WHAT IS FUNNING ALL ABOUT?

We have had many different reactions from people and family when we are asked which school he goes to and our son or we say that we do a lot of funning / HE. Some of the scenarios that have been pitched to us is the notion that he is by himself all the time, almost like he is in a cocoon or in a cave, where he is unable to develop any social skills. There have been concerns around him not developing at the same rate as children who attend school and often judgements have been made around our decision to engage in funning. People also often generalise socialisation to be something that only occurs and is formed within and via peer groups and relationships at school while sometimes not considering that while children are often able to form relationships within that setting, forced socialisation also does occur and this sometimes has a serious and negative impact on a child. 

Our son has an interesting take on socialisation. He says that he is always around people of different ages and children of different ages, whether at home or outside of home. He enjoys chatting with the grocer, the postman, adults he meets, my friends, a few of his friends from school he is still in touch with and children he meets through many of our social circles or events and gatherings we attend. Sometimes he is shy, sometimes he is totally loquacious and at other times quiet and observant. Sometimes he is scared as he still has times that are challenging for him in spaces with lots of children due to his previous experiences of being bullied. What is apparent however, is how much resilience he has built up due to having the time and space to trust himself, his instincts and being around adults and a sibling who believe in him. He has grown much more confident in navigating around unfamiliar situations, people and surroundings over the past six months and voices any concerns he has.

We go out and explore a lot. So often we go biking, walking and explore trails, to the supermarket, post office, the Zoo, lakes, my business meetings, meetings with organisations supporting vulnerable communities, and so on. Yes, he attends all my meetings with me as I don't have childcare and we both agree that this is a valuable part of his learning. We do chores together, learn together, bake together, he paints, loves his lego, sketching, creating characters for a book he wants to create. We have been looking at ways to help him develop his confidence to speak in front of people and he decided to come up with videos of him talking about his lego models. He is often outdoors and in our garden, building and constructing something from junk materials and he loves his chess lessons via a fantastic app over the weekends. There are workshops that we go to sometimes and sometimes we skip these, if he wants some peace or alone time. 

I intend to capture a lot more about our approach and what we do in future posts but will be focusing on what we did today.

SO...WHAT DID WE DO TODAY?

We were invited to a very interesting work meeting in the morning, where I went in to get acquainted with an organisation that works with and supports multicultural groups, refugees, vulnerable people, Black and minority ethnic groups (BME), survivors of domestic abuse, and so much more. They support children and families and their projects were illuminating and very interesting. 

Arian sat quietly sketching while we discussed our various roles, the ongoing projects and ways in which we could collaborate. I knew that he was listening, although to a passerby it might have seemed that he was engrossed in sketching various objects. I find these experiences helpful as it gives me an opportunity to check in with him, what he finds interesting and what he would like to discuss more about. 

One of our more engaging conversations were around how he had heard from his sister (who had a discussion with me about the theory of mitochondrial Eve and her origins) that we are all descended from a woman from Africa. This led to another discussion around mitochondria, and the fact that genes can be traced back to hundreds of thousands of years. This was a number too big to even contemplate! He then asked why some people then kept talking about one skin colour being better or superior to another. He believed that people were silly to think that and felt that refugees needed to be supported, and everyone deserved respect. 

These conversations often offer us a lot of fodder for thought, as we discuss politics, Donald Trump's policies, ways in which we can help support refugees, migrants, other communities and be useful to society. 

The children practise their violins every day and they often pretend that they are part of a band and come up with their own compositions. It gives them (and us) great pleasure to watch them create, have fun and be infused with joy and a zest for music, dance and rhythm. Arian has just finished his violin practise for his and his sister's very first public performance and concert as part of a Christmas string ensemble.  

We have managed to record a video clip of some modifications he has made to a dragon this morning. This was a male dragon that he built a few days ago and it has a tongue, an upper and lower jaw and much more. but I will let him explain - as soon as I figure out how to upload videos onto here (simply uploading the video ain't working) 😄 

The day is not over as yet and we will probably read something together after dinner and a shower and before bedtime. 

More soon and thank you for reading.