Where will the Whiteboard go?

When I was asked to share our journey from school to home education, I was intrigued to see what I would end up writing. It turns out that I have very vivid memories of that time! This isn’t surprising as the truth is that once you have settled into school life, transitioning to home education is, for most people, a challenging prospect. Having a child in school means that your weekly rhythm is dictated by school - with its rigid timings, homework, meetings, clubs and so on. New friendships, or lack of, require attention and whether you were relishing being part of this new community or not, it is pretty much accepted that school is ‘what one does’ - it’s normal.

And going against normal isn’t always easy! Doubts, insecurity and wobbles were our constant companions in those early days of home educating and we cared more than we wanted to admit about what others were really thinking. But it was good! What seemed like such a brave and crazy thing to do was also the right thing for our children and for us as a family.

So in this chapter, I have simply told our story of how we left the imperfect but familiar school system and of setting out on the ‘road less travelled’ of home education. It’s all in there - the niggles concerning school that we tried to suppress, our initial thoughts on home education, how we finally made the decision to leave school behind, the response of friends and family and how we navigated that first year of home education. If you are considering home education or have recently taken the leap, my hope is that this chapter will encourage you on your journey and will remind you that you are not alone in wanting to find a new approach to education for your children. Keep going - it is so very worth it.

Siân Lowe is a former secondary schoolteacher who is now in her third year home-educating her three daughters. Moving her children from mainstream education to home education has been life-changing, life-enhancing and quite possibly the bravest thing she has ever done! Her desire is to empower and encourage those who wish to explore home education for themselves. Siân gets very excited about all that she is learning along with her daughters, and when she isn’t furthering her own education, she enjoys nothing more than sitting in a café with a good friend. Along with three other home-educating friends, she is a director for Streams, a website dedicated to encouraging, equipping and connecting home educators across the nation.