The teacher who decided to 'unschool' her own children

Anna Dusseau felt her son and daughter were being ‘processed’ in school. Now she has advice for those thinking of home educating in September

Teacher and home educator Anna Dusseau was happy to give advice to parents on home schooling in a radio interview during the Covid-19 lockdown – until the presenter cut her off mid-stream. He said he didn’t think listeners would be interested in what she had to say and severed the phone link.

Undaunted, Dusseau, an English teacher, is about to publish a book of advice outlining her approach to home schooling her own children, which includes 100 learning activities parents can try.

Related: Paris, Shanghai, Rome … teacher takes children out of school for a better education

Place no academic expectation on your child for the first three to six months. Use this time to observe your child’s natural interests. Don’t be afraid if the first few weeks feel like “wasted time”; it is new for many children to be thinking for themselves.

Avoid putting yourself in situations where you have to justify your decision to people who may not be sympathetic to home schooling.

Don’t rush into investing in learning resources, or enrolling for online courses. Remember that this is a unique opportunity to think outside the box and that might involve allowing yourselves to drift for a while.

Join a local home educators’ group and start to make links with families who you feel “at home” with.

Make it a collaborative process with your children from the word go. School is an environment in which children are relentlessly subjected to adult authority, but at home it shouldn’t work like that. Seek their opinion and ideas from the earliest stage.

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/33svO95