New to Unschooling in London
holhuds
Hello!
I am on the verge of moving back to London (after 7 yrs. away) with my 12-year-old son this summer. We are American, though my son spent the first half of his life in London. We have homeschooled before while traveling and know that largely, it works for us, though we would like to move more towards unschooling, rather than a 'school at home' model.
However, I am really unsure about how well I will be able to get my son re-integrated into British culture by homeschooling. I'm afraid there just aren't enough people there who do it, as there are in the US, and that said, it really depends where you are here and whether there is a strong community of homeschoolers. I am heartened to find this group but I am curious to see if I can find out just how active it is in the London area beyond this board, and also particularly, how many pre-teens and teenagers there are who are unschooling?
I am seriously worried about the prospect of having to enroll my son in the UK state school system. I know of course, there are some good ones, but even the good ones would be difficult for my him, for whom the traditional model of education just does not work well at all.
Any input and advice is warmly welcomed.
Thank you in advance!
Holly
I am on the verge of moving back to London (after 7 yrs. away) with my 12-year-old son this summer. We are American, though my son spent the first half of his life in London. We have homeschooled before while traveling and know that largely, it works for us, though we would like to move more towards unschooling, rather than a 'school at home' model.
However, I am really unsure about how well I will be able to get my son re-integrated into British culture by homeschooling. I'm afraid there just aren't enough people there who do it, as there are in the US, and that said, it really depends where you are here and whether there is a strong community of homeschoolers. I am heartened to find this group but I am curious to see if I can find out just how active it is in the London area beyond this board, and also particularly, how many pre-teens and teenagers there are who are unschooling?
I am seriously worried about the prospect of having to enroll my son in the UK state school system. I know of course, there are some good ones, but even the good ones would be difficult for my him, for whom the traditional model of education just does not work well at all.
Any input and advice is warmly welcomed.
Thank you in advance!
Holly
Schuyler
London has a fair few unschoolers. There is even a 3rd annual conference happening not far out of London that Julie Daniels organises. http://www.lttl.org.uk/timings.html%c2%a0
Education Otherwise is worth joining: http://www.educationotherwise.net/ There is the annual seaside festival of HESFes that you can go to. There was a home-education resource centre in London that was supposed to be phenomenal. I've never been and don't know if it's still a going concern, but you could look into that. Ah, I just did: http://www.theotherwiseclub.org.uk/.%c2%a0
I don't think you'll struggle too much to live in London and to have your son have an integrative experience with British life. It's everywhere.
Schuyler
ex-pat living in Oz, now.
________________________________
From: holhuds <holhuds@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, 22 March 2013, 23:47
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] New to Unschooling in London
Hello!
I am on the verge of moving back to London (after 7 yrs. away) with my 12-year-old son this summer. We are American, though my son spent the first half of his life in London. We have homeschooled before while traveling and know that largely, it works for us, though we would like to move more towards unschooling, rather than a 'school at home' model.
However, I am really unsure about how well I will be able to get my son re-integrated into British culture by homeschooling. I'm afraid there just aren't enough people there who do it, as there are in the US, and that said, it really depends where you are here and whether there is a strong community of homeschoolers. I am heartened to find this group but I am curious to see if I can find out just how active it is in the London area beyond this board, and also particularly, how many pre-teens and teenagers there are who are unschooling?
I am seriously worried about the prospect of having to enroll my son in the UK state school system. I know of course, there are some good ones, but even the good ones would be difficult for my him, for whom the traditional model of education just does not work well at all.
Any input and advice is warmly welcomed.
Thank you in advance!
Holly
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Education Otherwise is worth joining: http://www.educationotherwise.net/ There is the annual seaside festival of HESFes that you can go to. There was a home-education resource centre in London that was supposed to be phenomenal. I've never been and don't know if it's still a going concern, but you could look into that. Ah, I just did: http://www.theotherwiseclub.org.uk/.%c2%a0
I don't think you'll struggle too much to live in London and to have your son have an integrative experience with British life. It's everywhere.
Schuyler
ex-pat living in Oz, now.
________________________________
From: holhuds <holhuds@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, 22 March 2013, 23:47
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] New to Unschooling in London
Hello!
I am on the verge of moving back to London (after 7 yrs. away) with my 12-year-old son this summer. We are American, though my son spent the first half of his life in London. We have homeschooled before while traveling and know that largely, it works for us, though we would like to move more towards unschooling, rather than a 'school at home' model.
However, I am really unsure about how well I will be able to get my son re-integrated into British culture by homeschooling. I'm afraid there just aren't enough people there who do it, as there are in the US, and that said, it really depends where you are here and whether there is a strong community of homeschoolers. I am heartened to find this group but I am curious to see if I can find out just how active it is in the London area beyond this board, and also particularly, how many pre-teens and teenagers there are who are unschooling?
I am seriously worried about the prospect of having to enroll my son in the UK state school system. I know of course, there are some good ones, but even the good ones would be difficult for my him, for whom the traditional model of education just does not work well at all.
Any input and advice is warmly welcomed.
Thank you in advance!
Holly
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
ksequana
Hi Holly
We used to live in UK (Liverpool) and similarly to America (and many other countries), Home Education is becoming more and more popular.
In UK Unschooling is also referred to as Autonomous learning
There's many local HE groups throughout the UK and many national groups too.
In our local HE group there were several families that were Autonomous/Unschooling.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/134546556668155/ UK Radical Unschooling Network
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AEUK/ autonomous education UK
https://www.facebook.com/groups/283836904999074/ Autonomous Education yahoo group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UnschoolingUK/
There's been a few Unschooling conferences hosted in London. This year it will be in Ashford, Surrey, on outskirts of London near Heathrow.
http://www.lttl.org.uk/index.html
Cheers
Kerry
We used to live in UK (Liverpool) and similarly to America (and many other countries), Home Education is becoming more and more popular.
In UK Unschooling is also referred to as Autonomous learning
There's many local HE groups throughout the UK and many national groups too.
In our local HE group there were several families that were Autonomous/Unschooling.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/134546556668155/ UK Radical Unschooling Network
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AEUK/ autonomous education UK
https://www.facebook.com/groups/283836904999074/ Autonomous Education yahoo group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UnschoolingUK/
There's been a few Unschooling conferences hosted in London. This year it will be in Ashford, Surrey, on outskirts of London near Heathrow.
http://www.lttl.org.uk/index.html
Cheers
Kerry
Kay
Hi Holly,
My husband, Andrew and I lived in London for about 20 years and now live in Kent in the UK. We are new to home Education, our children are 5 and 2 years. Our daughter started school in September, although I wasn't very happy about it. I feel the curriculum is narrow and prescriptive and only serves to ensure the government targets are adhered to regardless of the child's needs. Constant testing and the ensuing pressure on children to fit the mould is quite worrying. The sense if individualism is smothered by enforced collective community. It all sounds very nice when you listen to the management speak but when you really see what they are putting the children through it is sad and of great concern.
Fortunately our circumstances have changed which means I am going to be at home full time after the Easter holidays so we decided to look at home education. We knew nothing about it but the more I read, the more I know unschooling is the way to go for our family. After I stumbled across Sandra and Joyce's websites I took a huge sigh of relief. They enabled me to realise that the way I feel about my children is not weird or wrong. Their thoughts and experiences have allowed me the space to reassess how we are living our lives.
Sorry, I didn't mean to go rambling on, just to say that there are quite a few of groups in Kent and London. If you go to the Education Otherwise website as Schuyler suggests they have regional lists of groups throughout the country. There are all sorts of things going on and gatherings of people doing lots of different things. From what I have found so far home ed happens in many ways. Some families will have a more 'school-like' approach, others will be more autonomous.
If you would like to chat more let me know. As I said we are new to this but very excited about the future.
Best wishes
Kay
My husband, Andrew and I lived in London for about 20 years and now live in Kent in the UK. We are new to home Education, our children are 5 and 2 years. Our daughter started school in September, although I wasn't very happy about it. I feel the curriculum is narrow and prescriptive and only serves to ensure the government targets are adhered to regardless of the child's needs. Constant testing and the ensuing pressure on children to fit the mould is quite worrying. The sense if individualism is smothered by enforced collective community. It all sounds very nice when you listen to the management speak but when you really see what they are putting the children through it is sad and of great concern.
Fortunately our circumstances have changed which means I am going to be at home full time after the Easter holidays so we decided to look at home education. We knew nothing about it but the more I read, the more I know unschooling is the way to go for our family. After I stumbled across Sandra and Joyce's websites I took a huge sigh of relief. They enabled me to realise that the way I feel about my children is not weird or wrong. Their thoughts and experiences have allowed me the space to reassess how we are living our lives.
Sorry, I didn't mean to go rambling on, just to say that there are quite a few of groups in Kent and London. If you go to the Education Otherwise website as Schuyler suggests they have regional lists of groups throughout the country. There are all sorts of things going on and gatherings of people doing lots of different things. From what I have found so far home ed happens in many ways. Some families will have a more 'school-like' approach, others will be more autonomous.
If you would like to chat more let me know. As I said we are new to this but very excited about the future.
Best wishes
Kay
holhuds
Thank you very much Kay, and others, for your input and links. Very much appreciated! Am not surprised to hear the numbers of unschoolers/homeschoolers are growing. Clearly, people are getting increasingly fed up with the oppressiveness of our general education system.
I will investigate all the suggestions and stay in touch as we get closer to actually being in London.
Thanks again!!
Holly
I will investigate all the suggestions and stay in touch as we get closer to actually being in London.
Thanks again!!
Holly