What does it mean to provide a beautiful education?
This is something I ask myself often, when I’m checking in with how our home ed is going in our home. For me it’s less about the tangible outcomes – the sums done, words learnt, skills mastered – and more about grappling with what it means to be a good person, living a good life.
Are my daughter’s choices respected? Is her childhood being protected? Are her interests given space to grow? Is she being introduced to a wide range of ideas? Are we catering to her moral education alongside her academic one? Is she being challenged, guided into that magical zone of proximal development where growth happens? Are we providing ample access to nature, ample time for play? Is her need for movement honoured? Are we showing her that it’s not just ok to try hard and fail, but important? Are we laughing enough? In short, are we laying the foundations for a good, kind, rich, happy life?
As a home educating parent, I have to be ok with the fact that there will be gaps in her knowledge, just as there are gaps in mine (oh, such very big gaps…) But knowing that we’re guided by a cohesive vision, those gaps don’t really bother me anymore. I will do my best to teach her how to be comfortable with saying “I don’t know” or “I made a mistake”, knowing that her self-worth doesn’t come from how much she knows but who she is.
My home education course “A Beautiful Education” will be running in September for eight weeks, and booking is now open (and already a third full). It’s been lovingly designed for families with young children who are considering home education, planning to home educate, or in the early years of home education.
I understand the amount of work and energy which goes into planning and preparing to home educate your children. It can feel overwhelming, and the choices can seem endless. That’s why I have designed this practical course: to share my own countless hours of research and take some of the strain from your shoulders, freeing you up to spend less time researching curricula and reading reviews, and more time researching adventures and reading good books.
More than just a traditional course, A Beautiful Education combines the best of an online course and membership group with weekly emails, live Q&A sessions, an online community, as well as regularly updated content which will continue to grow with your child (but just one payment because, well, you’re homeschooling – you’ve got books to buy!].
You can find out more and sign up here. See you in there!
