As soon as I started to look in to taking our children out of school I immediately saw there was home schooling and home education. Now, I think, homeschooling rolls of the tongue nicely and people get it, but this is an American term and home edders here in the UK don't seem to like it. I think that is because it just sounds like you are running a school from your home...? rather than an autonomous approach.
There, see! In that paragraph alone I have dropped two more terms in to the mix. Home edders are people that do home education? Are home educating? Are home educators? You see my dilemma, the language is tricking and people are quite specific about what they are/are doing. An autonomous approach is learning on the go, if you like. We know that children are learning all of the time and this approach follows their led - also known as the child led approach.
I, like many others, struggle with wanting to do some kind of 'formal' learning with the kids, but as others ask themselves "Is this for their benefit or mine?". I am inclined to think that my boys like a bit of structure/routine in their day, so this may work for them. Now some home edders don't even like the words structure/routine: by routine I simply mean sometime between getting dressed and having lunch we may try and do some writing or maths etc But when I think about doing this I don't even know what to call it...
work: sounds like work and not fun at all
learning: sounds like this is the only time they are going to learn today
studying: sounds intense and way too serious
schoolwork: well, speaks for itself
I am stumped by this, answers on a postcard please.
I hope it doesn't really matter what words we use. Aren't we all just trying to do the best for our kids and making sure they are having a good time doing it?
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