All Change

This morning we looked around our first ever school - and it was a secondary school.

Up until now, my children have been home educated.  I'm not someone who had planned for years to home educate, I always assumed that my children would go to school because that's what you do.  I went to school, enjoyed it on the whole, and came out with good qualifications and went to uni.  When I had DD1 I expected to return to work and continue in my career, however when I returned to employment after maternity leave, it didn't hold the same importance for me and I became a Stay-at-home-mum.  Even then, I never planned to home educate, and assumed that when DD1 started Reception class, I would go back to work.

Children have a way of changing your plans, and it was clearly early on that DD1 was following her own path.  She taught herself to read (fluently!) at 3yo, and being a September baby she would have been nearly 5yo before starting school.  Way back when, I was bored in Primary school, and I didn't want to same for her, so after much reading and investigating we decided to home educate.

It has been BRILLIANT! I don't regret it at all, and it has totally changed the shape and direction of my life. I have not returned to employment, but home educate both girls during the day and I do private tutoring in the evenings to bring in some " pocket money" for myself.  I could go on and on about Home Education, but will refer you instead to a website I helped with: Educational Freedom

Our long-term plan, had been for the girls to be home educated until they go to college at 14yo (yes, if HEd you can go to college as part of a pre-16 course, younger than you can if you were schooled).  As DD1 loves dance and performing, the plan had been for her to go to college and do BTEC Dance alongside GCSE English.  DD2, being younger, has not got as much of a plan of what she wants to do, yet.

Having many friends through dance classes and gymnastics, DD1 knows much about school, despite never having gone, and we decided that once the children get beyond the age of about 8yo they would have a choice whether they want to go to school.  Absolutely not. Never. Why would you ask that?!
Until this past summer.  Previously DD1 had been asking for more structured work, so rather than Unschooling, I introduced an hour of maths and an hour of something else each week.  We were still child-led, but I started to use textbooks with the girls, so they got used to more formal study.
Until this past summer, when DD1 said she would like to try school.

Okay... that changes things, but we've always said they could try school if they wished, and at least they know that home education is always an option if it doesn't work out, for some reason.  As DD1 would be Yr6 now, I looked up various local schools, and had a search for Open Days, which have been planned for this week and next.  I had always planned to look around a Secondary school anyway, so this had prompted me into action, so the girls could make an informed choice.  What I hadn't anticipated, however, was that the school application deadline was so soon - Halloween!

Anyway, we looked around our first every school today, and DD1 loved it.  It's a small school atm as it is new, so growing year by year.  This is a positive in my book because although it's untested, with regards to GCSEs etc, the school will grow with her, and if DD2 decided to go in a few years time (though atm she's adamant she will never go to school), it still won't be massive.

So now, we have a few more schools to look around, and then I will need to apply for a school.  DD1 won't be going until next September, and there's plenty of time for her to change her mind.  I have warned her, however, that once I've bought the uniform she will have to stay for at least a term  I'm not made of money! Haha. But I now have 11 months to get my head around the fact that my Baby Number One is growing up, into an independent young lady, who wants to take charge of her own education by outsourcing it to someone other than me.  I'm sad but incredibly proud of her in equal parts.