July 8th 2023.
Reading Joe Wicks's explanation for taking his four-year-old child, Indie, out of school to home educate her, makes the whole situation sound so wholesome and idyllic. The idea of planning interactive days, where your children barely realise they are learning, and taking them to museums to learn about history and science, or out to the park to draw flowers and birds, is enough to make me want to do the same.
In theory, it just sounds perfect, doesn't it?
But practically, I'm not so sure. I can barely rip my five-year-old, Theo, away from his favourite toy tiger and lion for the three minutes it takes him to read his nine-page homework book! I simply don't have the imagination and I definitely don't have the patience for home educating five days a week.
In some ways, I think sending them to school has actually been the best thing for them. It gives them the opportunity to make friends, discover hobbies and learn how to interact and socialise with their teachers. It also means that by not being their teachers, we are free to be their parents. I find the school days and term times restrictive, but that job is difficult enough as it is – adding another dynamic to our relationship might actually break us all!
Joe Wicks is lucky enough that he can just pay a tutor to come in and take over if it all goes wrong. But for me, I think I'd be given an 'F' for home educating. One of the life lessons I've learnt is recognising your own strengths and weaknesses and playing to them. So I'll leave this one to the professionals.
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