Image by Sanctu
”You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth”
~ Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
The first step on a journey into the unknown is always the scariest, and with the decision to home-educate it is no different. Over the coming months, I hope to take some of the fear away from embarking upon your home-education journey, by giving you information, advice, tips, case studies and interviews. Come, hold my hand, and we’ll take the first step together…
My Experience
We used to live in a very remote corner of Scotland, and because of our location, we started to look at the option of home educating our children. However, before our children reached school age, we moved down to the bustling central belt of Scotland throwing us into a quandry about whether to give up our ideas of educating our kids from home, and enroll them in the local primary school, or pursue our vision of home-education. We chose the latter, and we don’t regret it for a moment!
This is not to say that our journey has been plain-sailing, and it is certainly not to suggest that we don’t have self-doubt, fears of inadequacy or moments where we wonder about our sanity! Even after all these years, it is still a scary decision to have made, but it continues to be one of the best ones we have ever made as a family.
Your Experience
The first thing to recognize is that your home education journey will be different. It won’t be the same as mine or as anyone else’s. There will be points of comparison, but everyone’s approach will be unique because families are unique. What I try to encourage is that we respect every family’s individuality; their approach may not work for you and yours may not work for them, but this absolutely does not mean that their approach is better, or that yours is superior to theirs.
However, there are going to be commonalities, and with this in mind, I’d like to give you a bit of an insight on your upcoming journey…
What To Expect
Quite simply, expect the unexpected. It is very difficult to predict how your journey will proceed, and it will vary with each individual child. It is impossible to judge where the road bends, where it forks, where it becomes rough or where it becomes smooth. It is an adventure in the truest sense of the word, as you are setting off into a new world of infinite possibility. Exciting, isn’t it?
How To Prepare
Surrender the expectations, the limitations, the inhibiting beliefs that we all hold onto when we are used to following a conventional path through life. By releasing our minds from the structures of conformity, we open ourselves up to vistas dazzling in their vastness and in their scope. Get used to questioning your decisions, past, present and future, and get used to the autonomy that comes from liberation.
Get used, also, to the fact that your decision will cause others to question their own choices in life, particularly their choices pertaining to parenthood and education. Without a doubt this will result in some discomfort; however, by holding onto the belief that every family has to decide its own path, and that no size fits all, you can ensure that you remain firm in your own choices and that you don’t impose your views on others.
What To Pack*
⁃ An open mind
⁃ A child’s sense of wonder in the world
⁃ An unlimited supply of patience
⁃ Your sense of humour
⁃ Determination tempered with flexibility
⁃ Faith in your ability to facilitate your child’s learning and in their innate ability to learn
⁃ Lots of notebooks!
*not a comprehensive list 
The Road Ahead…
In future posts, I’ll be introducing some of the practicalities of home education, but it’s important to acknowledge that the attitude with which we approach such a major step is of equal importance.
If, however, you have specific questions regarding home education, please do get in touch with us or leave a comment below…
Nice article, Amy. I’m excited about your new site. I’ve been wading through this process over the past few months, as we count down to a year of wandering. The breadcrumb trail Lea et al have left have been terrific.
Something you might want to speak to is the families who are looking at options where the children will return to regular school when they get back after some time abroad. The counselor at our high school said they require either transcripts from an accredited school or testing scores to show they have covered the coursework which is more complicated.
I’ve posted about the process of finding this on my own blog, and we’ve settled on an online curriculum called Compuhigh. It looks decent, and the price tag is not as breathtaking as that of some of the online private schools I’ve found.
There are a handful of us out there who have been comparing notes, going through this process right now. I think this would be a great focus for a how-to post here, to compliment the homeschooling and finding-a-school-abroad information. I, for one, would have really appreciated finding it a few months ago…