Hello!

This is my first blog post for Wondering Wildlings so I wanted to start it off with an introduction.

"Hello!”

My name is Kerri and I am a mummy of two children and one Labrador puppy in the New Forest, England, UK. Growing up I always wanted to be a Mummy and a teacher. I spent ten years as a primary school teacher and I now get to fulfil both of my childhood dreams: I no longer teach in schools, but I am lucky enough to be able to home educate my two children.

There are many reasons why families choose to home educate and there are many things that led to our decision. Ultimately, it was (and is) the best decision for our children’s academic learning and mental health. Since we officially deregistered them in February 2020, we have never looked back and it remains one of the best decisions we have ever made. I have plans to delve into the reasons for home educating in another blog post; however, if you have any questions prior to that, don’t hesitate to get in touch and I’d be happy to chat.

Any eagle-eyed readers may have noticed I said we deregistered our children, meaning they were already at school. Let me explain! I have always liked the idea of home education and wanted to do it, but we always said we would make sure our children were aware of their options and make the decision with them. Therefore, when we left for our world trip (another of our best decisions ever), a year before our eldest was due to start school, we made sure we also had a school place for him, just in case! As it turns out, he started to show an interest in the idea of school and liked the idea of starting. We returned from our travels in the August and he started in the September. He ended up staying for the whole of Year R and some of Year 1 before we officially deregistered him, having had the idea of ‘flexi-schooling’ denied. Two weeks after we deregistered him, the schools closed due to the Coronavirus outbreak and we have never looked back. If I am completely honest, which I plan to be in these blog posts, I don’t know why we kept him in school so long and, ultimately, I wish we had never sent him in the first place. We had applied for a school place for our daughter for a September 2020 start (just in case), but also deregistered her at the same time as my son, so she never actually ended up starting school.

We are currently ‘semi-structured’ home educators. For us, this means we do structured learning most days (usually in the mornings). For example, four days a week (because who wouldn’t want a longer weekend?), we do maths, writing and reading in the mornings. In the afternoons, we also complete a ‘topic’ lesson. The rest of the time, we are of course still learning but this is done through nature and play, it is not planned and not structured. We are also very flexible with our learning and plans. For example, if the sun is shining, you will find us outside! If we’ve developed a curiosity or interest in a particular area of topic, then you will find us focusing on that! Similarly, if my children are engaged in something or particularly enjoying doing something, I will not stop them or interrupt them.

This year I also finished creating my Wondering Wildlings courses, established our social media pages and I am finally starting my blog! These are all things I have wanted to do for a long time, so to see them all coming together is wonderful. Our Wondering Wildlings courses are designed to help other home educating families and to save them time and money! My main two aims here were to be affordable and accessible. I know first-hand, how much time and effort can be involved in trying to find the best resources or plan interesting and exciting lessons for our children. For those families who choose to follow the National Curriculum in some way, I know what a minefield this can be and how much stress it can cause. Therefore, I hope our Wondering Wildlings courses prove extremely helpful and supportive for a number of home educating families, whatever their situation or journey might be.

Our social media pages are also live and we remain very active on them. Personally, I don’t use my own social media accounts anymore and haven’t for a few years. However, as Wondering Wildlings I wanted to have a presence on social media for a number of reasons. I hope to inspire, support and connect with other home educating families, as well as getting inspired myself!

Finally, the blog! I hope to share my experiences to hopefully inspire, support and connect with other families – just like our social media but in more detail. I plan to share blog posts by drawing on my knowledge and many experiences so far. This might be from teaching, parenting, home educating, travelling the world with children and more.

Our first ‘official’ year of home education has not quite gone to plan, as a result of the Coronavirus, but we have still had a brilliant year and the children’s academic and emotional needs have been met and exceeded x1000. I am so relieved and pleased we finally made this decision for our family and, now the world is opening up a little again, I am beyond excited for the possibilities and path ahead of us!

#homeeducation #homeschooling #travelwithkids