East Reading Adventure Playground (ERAPA)

[ailbhe]

Play hall includes a soft playroom,craftroom and music/library room. Outside structures accessible to wheelchairs including roundabout and swing. Special needs groups welcome. Please book. Outside has 24 hour access. Playgroup and tooddler group. Youth club.Use for childrens' parties.

(None of those typos are mine, they're from the council website).Anyway, that's where we were today - the Berkshire Home Educators group hires it on Friday afternoons for get-togethers and we went and had a go. It was great. From 12:30 to 4 pm Linnea played with kids of all ages (up to about 14, I think) and a wide variety of backgrounds, in a safe, challenging environment. she took to it immediately, much more enthusiastically than the groups of kids her own age we usually go to, though she does enjoy those as well and we won't be skipping them for a while yet.

The downsides... their electric equipment is regularly safety checked and the kettle didn't pass this month, so we had to use an urn for hot water. The fold-down changing mat in the disabled loo is too high for people as short as I am. It was hard to choose which tea to drink because there were so many options. Not all of the children were lovely all of the time. Man, life is tough.

The upsides... the children were incredibly well-behaved and sensible, and the adults were lovely, and everyone was welcoming and pleasant. They had decaf Earl Grey tea. I can cycle there in 40 minutes the long way along the river. We saw a heron, and loads of swans and geese and ducks and cygnets and goslings and ducklings. Neither Linnea nor I got sunstroke.

We're going to go again, I think.

Comments

[clare-s.livejournal.com]

Thats great ! It will be really good to have the social interaction for Linnea with other children in the same position.

I am now going to be very nosey and ask you about the reasonings behind your decision to home school. Not because I want to pick bones out of it but because its not something that has ever occured to me to do.

[ailbhe]

We're not home-schooling; that implies school at home. We're keen on child-led education, which means we follow her lead and teach her what she asks to be taught, informally. So we call it Home Education happily enough, but not school. That cleared up:

Well, pretty much as long as I can remember I've been aware of it as an option, and it's one my mother was also in favour of, so I grew up biased towards it, though she was never in a position to provide it herself (that said, I have learned a lot more from her than from school anyway!)

And then I had Linnea and saw what she's capable of teaching herself. Which is, well, pretty much everything. And I see her confidence and her outgoingness and her independence and initiative and all the rest of it... I can't imagine that sitting in a classroom for 6 hours a day five days a week to get 3 hours a week worth of one-to-one tutoring.

I may be wrong; she may want to go to school, in which case she's welcome to. But I won't send her there until I have a reason to. I won't teach her anything until I have a reason to either; she's managing fine without it now. She's taught herself to count, her colours, various songs, um, lots of stuff I forget.

And apparently I was just like her, until I went to school. Rob and I both had very anti-social school experiences; neither of us were popular. I was downright dangerous to admit to knowing, socially, and Rob was bullied pretty badly. So we know that school isn't a magic "create a social life this way or no way" thing many people believe it is.

[clare-s.livejournal.com]

So really going for a more experiential approach than one would get in a traditional setting. Certainly from what you have said about Linnea there is no doubt she has the natural curiosity to thrive.

Do you have to satisfy the LEA in anyway about the standard of education ? are they going to insist on specific learning goals do you know ?

[ailbhe]

They can try but they're not legally entitled to. From the summary of the law on the Education Otherwise site:

"The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable
(a) to his age, ability and aptitude, and
(b) to any special educational needs he may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise."

* Provided the child is not a registered pupil at a school, the parent is not required to provide any particular type of education, and is under no obligation to
* have premises equipped to any particular standard
* have any specific qualifications
* cover the same syllabus as any school
* adopt the National Curriculum
* make detailed plans in advance
* observe school hours, days or terms
* have a fixed timetable
* give formal lessons
* reproduce school type peer group socialisation
* match school, age-specific standards
* seek permission to educate 'otherwise'
* take the initiative in informing the LEA
* have regular contact with the LEA

Many LEAs do go all funny and try to insist on setting annual exams for the kids etc, but Reading appear very clued up and the LEA site has a lot of info on home education already, so they are unlikely to give us any hassle.

[clare-s.livejournal.com]

great stuff. Thanks for humouring me on asking about the home education thing

[rrc.livejournal.com]

She's taught herself to count, her colours, various songs, um, lots of stuff I forget.

Animal names, when one should and shouldn't wear bike safety gear, printing, what 'numbers' look like (althabet + digits) and lots more.

And she loves books!

School can burn out interest in a subject by presenting it in the wrong way. Or to slowly, or to quickly.

[ailbhe]

... and it clearly didn't teach you to spell.