The Wider Family

While I carried out investigations into educating my own children at home, it was also a whole new world for my parents and in-laws. I often thought it might have been helpful if there was a book written for them – to encourage them that their beloved grandchildren wouldn’t be “weird”, “unsocialised” or “missing out”. 

As the years have gone by, I have seen first-hand how home education does not need to be a closed, insular, nuclear-family activity. It has been a great blessing when grandparents and other relatives have been able to take part in the development and broader education of the children. 

I have been waiting for the “right time” to write a book for grandparents and so jumped at this chance to write a chapter on the topic for this book. I hope it will reassure and enthuse the older generations as they support their families through their home education journeys.

Helen Brunning has been home educating since 2001 - although the original intention was just to cover the early years and send them to school when they were seven! She grew up in Berkshire then moved to Bristol to study mathematics and philosophy at University. While there, she met and married her husband and they still live in North Bristol with their three children and two dogs.