(Kathie has three children; she and her husband combined home education with home working)

Kathie writes:

My husband and I home educate our three kids as well as working, albeit from a home office (we both work primarily as writers). This makes it easier in that we don't have to employ someone to 'babysit', but means that we never get to fully concentrate on work because we may have to break off to discuss maths or help with reading. I must admit that tonight I was deep in physics and cosmology when my editor rang, and my head was spinning at the change of pace. The same occurs if I have to switch up a gear from Letterland! We try to emphasise to our kids that 'work' (like learning) is just a part of life and that you don't necessarily need to go out to do it.

Home education is hectic but enjoyable

Altogether it makes for a great way of life and a lot of fun, although there were times when I was pulling my hair out. For a time I considered getting a nanny, but paying someone to sit with our kids when they were literally only feet away from us was an unnecessary expense. Plus we felt ultimately that having someone in the house with us would be cramped and could be difficult, especially if they had different views on home education, home working etc.

I find it is all a lot easier now that I have proved to myself that I can have it all AND do it all. My kids are clean, fed, well educated, stimulated and buzzing with the joys of learning; Adrian and I are fulfilled and can earn a living whilst spending maximum time with our kids and each other at the same time. I think the hardest part was actually believing that it could be done in the first place!

Schedules caused misery, and became meaningless

As for forward planning, I tried to do that initially but found that I got hung up on rotas, routines and schedules, which didn't fit in very well with the rest of our lives, and basically we were miserable. Eventually we all sat down and talked about it and we came to the conclusion that schedules like the 5 day week, 9 to 5 day (or the school day) were now meaningless to us. So now, we work when we feel like it, be it at the weekend or at midnight. The key to forward planning things like this then, in my opinion, is figuring out what you really want your daily life to be like and then going for it.

Recently we've been learning about stalactites and stalagmites, since my bottle of Down to Earth laundry liquid tipped over and dripped off the shelf! Like a good HE family, we didn't clean it up at once, but instead we've been watching the long greeny/purple phosphorescent stalactites steadily growing downwards to about 3 1/2 inches long for about a week now and even a little stalagmite on the ground (but mostly a kind of Day-Glo puddle which phosphoresces really beautifully). Home Ed can spring out of anything - even my own housework avoidance.

Autonomy combined with workbooks

We are about 50% autonomous - my kids hassle me with, 'Can I do some school work, Mum?' which means a workbook or some kind of paper-based activity. Apart from that we are mostly technology-based in our house (although that kinda sounds like we don't read books or do experiments or crafts - which we do a lot of but only when it's relevant to discussions etc). But mostly the kids are involved in technology either on computer, video, audio tapes, etc. This is autonomous too because they only look, listen, interact for as long as they want before moving onto something else.

Children don't need constant activity

I think kids need time to just get on with their own things - too many parents today ferry their kids all over the place from one activity to another. Kids are generally learning sponges in their own way and in my opinion they need to learn to just 'be' or to amuse themselves or to let themselves think about things really deeply. It's hard to do that stuffed between swimming, dancing and violin lessons! Most of the time autonomous HE spreads from looking, listening and most of all thinking. And when those questions arise it is great to have some books, CDs, tapes, whatever, on hand to provide the answers!!

Kathie, Spring 1999

Other approaches to home education:
Gayle - Heather - Henrietta - Jane - Paula - Sue