Terri Dowty (ed), Hawthorn Press
A handbook for families considering or starting out in home education. The book is full of family stories, resources, burning questions, humour, tips, practical steps and useful advice so the reader can choose what best suits his or her family situation.
A good starter and part of your membership pack when you join Education Otherwise.
Alan Thomas and Harriet Pattison
In this new research, Alan Thomas and Harriet Pattison seek to explain the efficacy of this alternative pedagogy through the experiences of families who have chosen to educate their children informally.Based on interviews and extended examples of learning at home the authors explore: the scope for informal learning within children’s everyday lives; the informal acquisition of literacy and numeracy; the role of parents and others in informal learning; and, how children proactively develop their own learning agendas.
Their investigation provides not only an insight into the powerful and effective nature of informal learning but also presents some fundamental challenges to many of the assumptions underpinning educational theory. This book will be of interest to education practitioners, researchers and all parents, whether their children are in or out of school, offering as it does fascinating insights into the nature of children’s learning.
Alan Thomas
In this research, Alan Thomas found that many home educating families chose or gravitated towards an informal style of education, radically different from that found in schools. Such learning, also described as unschooling, natural or autonomous, takes place without most of the features considered essential for learning in school. At home there is no curriculum or sequential teaching, nor are there any lessons, textbooks, requirements for written work, practice exercises, marking or testing.
Jean Bendell, Education Otherwise
Mary Griffith
This book offers short personal experiences, as well as guidance for seeing the whole world as a child’s classroom.
Gareth Lewis
This book offers great suggestions regarding some academic and recreational activities.
Terri Dowty, Hawthorn Press
Mainstream educational provision for children on the autistic spectrum can be inadequate or inappropriate. An increasing number of parents dissatisfied with the education system are looking elsewhere for an approach that will suit their children’s needs. In “Home Educating Our Autistic Spectrum Children”, parents who have chosen to home educate their children with autism or Asperger’s syndrome candidly relate their experiences: how they reached the decision to educate at home, how they set about the task, and how it has affected their lives. Following these personal accounts, the final chapters offer practical advice on getting started with home education, legal advice from an expert in education law, and contact details of support organizations.
Grace Llewellyn
The Teenage Liberation Handbook will stir your emotions and lift your vision, whether you’re a teenager or a 42-year-old CEO. Although it’s written for teens, this book focuses on a theme all of us could stand to hear: learn what you love. Particularly helpful for those who prefer alternative education, such as online learners, these pages will make you re-examine your educational path until it’s something you truly want to tread.
Llewellyn sympathizes with teenagers who get a sub-par education, wasting hours of their time on worksheets, “classroom management” and other needless time-busters. Instead of such waste, she contends that teens should quit school and take charge of their own learning. Fortunately, this book isn’t just about lofty philosophical ideas. Llewellyn backs her claim with hundreds of pages of practical suggestions on how to claim responsibilty for your educational life.
From finding mentors to using the library, this book’s chapters contains advice all of us should know, but don’t. Some of the gems include:
• School is Not for Learning
• The Importance of the Vacation
• Your Tailor-Made Intellectual Extravaganza
• Using Cultural Resources
Before you open the cover, be forewarned. You may be inspired to quit your desk job, haunt the library, and fulfill your dream as professional chess player. But, that’s okay. Make the most of it and enjoy your intellectual journey.
Mike Fortune-Wood £10.00, Cinnamon Press
School refusal, sometimes called ‘school phobia’ is a complex and often contentious issue effecting rising numbers of children, but coping with this issue can tear families apart and leave children with lasting effects. In Can’t Go, Won’t Go Mike Fortune-Wood looks at the scale of the problem and how families are treated by a range of statutory authorities. Interspersed with moving accounts from families who have struggled with school refusal, sometimes over a decade or more, this important and ground-breaking book sign-posts the need for better communication and strategies from service providers from schools to psychologists and suggests that the current trend to either medicalise or demonise children who refusing to go to school will only add to society’s problems as well as damaging the individuals concerned. He also documents an alternative approach; that of removing children from school to home educate them, suggesting that far from leading to disaster (as professionals often predict) this can become a life enhancing decision.
This is the best kind of engaged research; full of information and meticulous in its willingness to analyse a problem fully, but also humane and helpful.