In their own words: what my kids say about child-led home schooling
From school work to project-based learning
In the first COVID-19 lockdown, it didn’t take me long to realise that, for us, school work was not going well in the home setting. Managing two children requiring simultaneous guidance through different set tasks, in addition to adult responsibilities, proved unnecessarily challenging and did not make for a happy household. With my hand metaphorically held by my good friend and home education expert Kath Pratt, I took the leap into curiosity-driven, child-led learning.
Indoctrinated into the British education system, and in a world driven by metrics and assessments to indicate success and achievement, it was incredibly hard to release my grasp on the established and known, and set us adrift on a sea of exploration and uncertainty. With the pressure off, we were free to do, play and learn as suited us and the benefits were felt immediately. As a parent and scientist, however, I was constantly anxious that the kids were not learning enough. That I was not doing enough and that I was failing my children—I didn’t know how to measure the success, or failure, of our family’s learning experiment.
There were days, sometimes multiple, when neither kid reached for a book or a pen. There were days when their ideas didn’t flow, we were all tired or projects didn’t turn out as planned. I worried that we weren’t doing curiosity-led learning right, that I didn’t have enough resources or wasn’t investing enough time. Some days I found myself strongly encouraging the kids to do something that I thought would be educational, which usually ended in tears (often mine). Some days the kids were on screens the majority of the time.
“Around Easter we changed to fun learning”
As time moved on, we settled into our new normal. While the kids weren’t practicing their letter formation daily, or identifying graphemes (whatever they are), they began to choose to read, write and make calculations. I’d find my 6 year old writing letters to friends and family, sello-taping paper together to make her own books and working out if she needed to add more flour or take some away to get the weight right. I’d find my 8 year old trying out the spellings of different aircraft types until Google accepted his attempt and he could access and read the Wikipedia page he wanted.
I don’t know where my kids currently fall on the National Curriculum measures of achievement— they are mostly likely ahead in some things and behind in others. I have no standardised measure of success, but I can see them growing and learning. Whether it’s achieving something that would tick a box on the National Curriculum, having an epiphany about how the world works or a moment of personal growth, it is happening all the time. The trick is trusting it is happening, learning to see it and taking the win.
One moment of immense parental pride, and confirmation that our curiosity-led learning is working, sprang forth when the kids found me typing on my laptop. As a freelance editor, it’s not unusual to find me at my computer, but this time they were curious about what I was doing. I happened to be writing about COVID, lockdown and home schooling. To my astonishment, both kids asked if they could do the same.
They sat together at the kitchen table having each opened Microsoft Word. My 6 year old paused in thought and reminded herself how to use the trackpad and change the font size. My 8 year old dived right in, ideas bubbling faster than he could type. Without prompting, both kids reread their text, using the cursor to make edits when they spotted mistakes or thought of a better word to use.
With permission, I share with you my children’s writing about their experiences of child-led home schooling during lockdown.
Lockdown
Lockdown is full of sadness and adventure. It has been a great struggle. But for some it’s just the next adventure. This is a story of how lockdown changed our lives. The beginning of last year was normal with all my old friends. After a few weeks my parents me and my sister were told a new virus was taking hold And that we would home school… I felt sad because I wouldn’t be legal to play with my friends.
The school sent us work sheets they are so boring because all you do I sit at a table holding a pencil for what seems to take hours. Around Easter we changed to fun learning.
After that we had 9000 tons of fun, we made cakes and bows and arrows, we went wild swimming, we found caves, made a swing, I wrote a song, learnt the guitar, went carolling and raised money for a charity called ActionAid. At the end of the year it fun because we got a puppy and named her Trixie and we are still training her. We have to feel lucky that we have what we have and enjoy life
The end.
