Academic research to settle wobbly knees - on starting home education

I am really excited about starting learning concurrently with my two little ones (who are actually screaming at each other as I write). It is as much a process for me to learn how to facilitate their learning, as learning new things that I ought to have learned at school (human biology was never my strong point!). There is no shame attached to what I'm about to say - it was only a matter of days ago when I learnt the English word 'platelet' as its equivalent in Chinese, which I had known since I was a child. And that was because I was reading the blood issue of 'Okido' kids' magazine with my 4 year old.

While I have been through higher education, discovering my own ability to self-teach for a set purpose without following a pre-designed, accredited course is a first. For my children to become autonomous learners, I believe, is a key factor for me to home educate my children at least for a while, if not throughout their school years. I would like them to learn to speak and write in my mother tongue, as Chinese is becoming and is likely to be equip a 21st century person well. There is a sentimental dimension of my wanting to be able to converse with my children in my own language and for them to be able to reply in the same language - not only can they get to know their extended family (who mostly speak Chinese) more intimately, knowing the Chinese language will also help them understand their ethnic culture in a way that surpasses what can be appreciated by overseas-born Chinese children who are unable to read in the language. Indeed, there is much that is 'lost in translation'. A die-hard fan of ancestry programmes like the BBC's 'Who Do You Think You Are?', I think that there is much to be said about the enriching experience of knowing where one comes from and how one connects with the historical past, either in local history, national history, or as a tiny little part of world events. Knowing the Chinese language has to be part of this enriching experience of knowing where one comes from.

As for me, the academic challenge of understanding educational research into various styles of home education, and the practicalities of bringing home education into reality, is rather a daunting but welcoming one. I almost don't know where to start - learning styles of children, Steiner education, Mason education, Summerhill ... it's a whole load to learn and sift out for our own educational purposes. And here I am - having just discovered an extra 10 newly joined member e-mails sitting in my inbox from the Kent and London Home Educators' E-group. Happy reading to me!!

There's nothing better than starting at the beginning. Paula Rothermel, phD., wrote her doctoral thesis on home education in the UK and I have just browsed through her shorter articles. She produced surprising findings on the number of less educated parents choosing to home educate, when the stereotypical home ed parent (at least in my mind until fairly recently) is the middle class well educated professional family that can afford to live on one income or two part-time incomes combined. Heartening to know that home educated children do better than their reception age peers in their first year of 'formal education'. More to follow.