It was Ella’s innate confidence and abundant curiosity, her ability to easily approach and converse with both adults and children, her keenness and lack of embarrassment about sharing her knowledge.
Why are we (still) waiting?
Parents of children suspected to be on the autistic spectrum (and the children themselves) need much more support while they are awaiting diagnosis, instead of being left to muddle through on their own until the elusive assessment finally arrives.
Uncles and Aunts: Your Presence is Required
Everything that made my uncle so dear to me can be distilled into a single essence: he was present. He and my aunt made a visible effort to be deliberately present when most people are accidentally absent.
Five Ways to Break Free From Your Phone
Of course we can't always give our kids 100% of our attention, and I’m all for kids creating their own fun without hovering parents guiding their every move, but I do feel like they deserve better from me at the breakfast table at the very start of the day. Heck, I deserve better - I deserve 15 minutes to sit, be present, and mindfully eat my breakfast with my children, without a phone screen competing for my attention.
Creativity is the Difference Between Surviving and Thriving
Chances are that you used to play a musical instrument, or dance, or write when you were a child or teenager, or if you were lucky, right into your early 20s. Do you ever wonder what happened to those interests?
A is for AUsome...
In that moment I realised that his biggest obstacle in life will be other people's attitudes towards him. He will have to navigate around their assumptions and break out of the limitations they will automatically place on him when they discover he is autistic. I had to get over myself, and fast, if I was going to be of any use to him as a guide, advocate and defender against all types of ignorant bullshit that the world will sling his way.
Work/Life Diet? 2:5 is the New 5:2
Rather than letting work eliminate home education as a feasible option for your family, why not start with home education as the constant and fit your work around it? For full time working parents: despite what society tells you, part time work, freelancing, consultancy and self-employment are realistic and feasible ways to get out of the rat race and spend more time with your family, if you are willing to make a few adjustments to your lifestyle.
We’re Going Car-free, And It’s Gonna Be OK.
I had already played with the idea of going carless a few months ago but chickened out, convincing myself that we needed a car to survive. I had bought into a deeply entrenched but misguided notion in our society that car ownership is a requirement of successful adulthood.
Autumn + No School = Awesome
As my own and countless other home educating families across the northern hemisphere celebrate not going back to school next week, it occurred to me how strange it is for schools to start the new academic year at a time when the whole of nature is winding down.
Home Education Should Make You Uncomfortable
We all know the easier way isn't necessarily the best way for us. “Just because everyone else is doing it”, our mums used to say, “doesn’t mean you have to”.
Mum, Dad... We've got something to tell you!
Don’t be surprised if, when you tell your parents that their precious grandchildren are not going to school, the news is greeted with a mixture of shock, horror and mourning. Shock that you would even think about doing something so…so… weird! Horror that the children are going to be living barefoot in a commune with lots of psychoactive drugs and no running water, and mourning for the loss of normality that they had lovingly envisioned for your future.
Think Different, Work Smart
This consumer lifestyle requires parents to devote the vast majority of their waking lives to work, so that invisible currency can be moved temporarily into their bank accounts, and then quickly out again to buy more things. Children become an obstacle to maximal productivity in this system, so the system dictates that they must be put into childcare as soon as possible, to free up parents to take their place again as cogs in the machine.