Parenting and Teaching

I read a fascinating article today about a man who took his 10 year old daughter out of school to homeschool her for a few years.

While I'm instinctively against that kind of thing, because I didn't get sent to school myself and know the downsides intimately, this father was clearly very different to my family and was acting with his child's best interests at heart.

He was fortunate enough to be able to afford to take some time out from working and concentrate full time on giving his daughter some wonderful educational experiences. He talks about taking her on trips to France and other countries for language, history and culture lessons, and clearly has provided great enrichment for her from that point of view.

The child's view? "I like being homeschooled, but I miss my friends." ... we must never lose sight of the importance of social interaction for our children. I agree that schools sometimes fall short of the mark, but they do provide kids the opportunity to interact with a society of people of their own age.

And, there's no reason we can't enrich our child's education at the weekends, is there?

Happy parenting,

Cassie