7. Home Educating Wildlings - Society's Obsession with Age

In this episode I'm joined by the lovely Lucy @the_unschooling_way on Instagram. We enjoy a nourishing conversation sharing some of our experience around deciding to home educate, how we carve out all-important one-to-one time with each of our children, and how the five love languages can really help us to better understand and support our children.I loved chatting with Lucy who is calm, kind and intentional. We talk about how deschooling is more for us parents than for our children and how this life choice inevitably leads us down a constant learning journey for ourselves as mothers and women. There is much inner-work undertaken to trust this life choice and decondition ourselves when it comes to education and parenting.I really hope you'll enjoy this open and honest chat between two very aligned mothers who simply want the very best for our children and know that self awareness is one of the biggest keys to unlock this for us all.

This episode is all about society’s obsession with age. How children are segregated by their age and how we have so many unnatural expectations around age. The pressure we feel as parents around due dates, baby milestones and our childrens development. Our age determines so much more than our developmental milestones and academic achievements. Sadly it can have negative implications on our mental health. 

This episode is all about how as a society we are governed by fear, often without even noticing it. The journey of motherhood is riddled with fear and coercion. School is the entry point for this life-long conditioning of fear - choosing to home educate is about deconditioning ourselves from a childhood and beyond of fear and control. When we understand that our choices do not need to be ruled by fear we can finally start living a life of our choosing. But it takes a whole heap of deschooling and understanding. It can be equally, freeing to understand that any negative opinions of your choice to home educate is purely coming from a place of fear and misinformation.“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more so we may fear less.” Marie Curie. 🌱

On episode 5 of Home Educating Wildlings podcast I tackle a big home-ed myth – whether you’re qualified or ‘clever’ enough to educate your children. I talk about how we learn and why school is not the way for us. I am my children's partner, their mentor and their mother. We do not ‘teach’ our children, we live alongside them and help them reach opportunities to further grow their passions.I don’t need to know about teaching because I know my children. No teacher in a classroom of 30 kids is ever going to know my kids like I do. Its incomparable. This is about the fact that I have the time, the love, the connection, the deep understanding of my children as unique beings. I want them to thrive as people – I want them to know how to look after their mental and physical health, to understand and celebrate themselves, to focus on their passions ahead of curriculum and simply enjoy life.So do you need to have a teaching degree to give your kids a full and happy life rich in exposure, experiences and connection? Absolutely not! Do you have your children's best interests at heart? Absolutely YES!Put beautifully by Ghandi - “There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent.” 

In episode 4 I explain what natural learning looks like to us with some simple examples of how our children learn the unschooling, self-directed way. The wonderful thing about home educating is our children can focus on meaningful interests and learn in their own unique learning style."We are raising independent, self-directed learners whose opinions and ideas are valued and encouraged. I want my boys to have choice and freedom with their learning and play. I want them to feel empowered to take control of their own education – with me right by their side to help support them. It is not lazy parenting, it is intentional. I am very much a proactive partner in their life. But I do not dictate or coerce, instead I journey with them. We collaborate and we enable growth in their interests."Follow me over on Instagram @kiki_and_the_wildlings and hlpe me grow our community!

Home education, for us, is the gift of time. One of the main reason we decided to home educate was to take back our precious time. Time to spend not only together as a family but time to invest in the things we all individually love. Time to adventure in nature, explore diverse places, meet people of mixed-ages and dive deep into our interests. Time to really connect with one another, to spend time on our own to explore our thoughts and get to know ourselves. Time to think freely, to dream and time to nourish our souls.Our wildlings are free to use their time as they choose - in play, passion-projects, discovery, daydreams, family-time, nature, stories and so much more. They have their emotional, social, educational, developmental and physical needs met. They get to pace themselves without the pressure or coercion of school. The beauty of home education is that you get to set the pace. You can ebb and flow to the needs of your family. You have all the time in the world to spend as you all desire. There is no race, no deadlines, no rules, no pressure. You can live a life of contentment, joy and interest by self-pacing yourselves. You are the keepers of your own time.

In this second episode of Home Educating Wildlings I’m going to talk you through our brief journey with school and why we decided that school wasn’t the right path for us as a family. I’ll talk about the day we got our eldest’s official letter about choosing a school, right through to how we live and learn now. You’ll get to hear my son talk about his personal experience with school and why he prefers home education. Now let me be clear – this is our experience and our opinions. I’m not preaching and I’m not here to persuade anyone to change their lives. This is our story, our journey. 

Welcome to the very first Home Educating Wildlings Podcast!This podcast is hosted by me, Kiki, a home-educating mum to two boys in Warwickshire, UK.  I'm incredibly passionate about our no-school life choice and feel compelled to encourage others who seek different. School is one way to learn - not the 'only' way. It is not for every child or family. By shining a light on our journey from a brief school experience with our eldest to our now unschooling, self-directed learning  way of life, I hope I can give others the opportunity to see an alternative path.So whether you’re new to home educating, thinking about it or you’re already forging your own home ed path - I hope you'll enjoy this podcast.  On the very first episode of Home Educating Wildlings I’ll be sharing some of our journey so far – our home ed way, how we got here, my lockdown enlightenment and the beauty we have carved out in our everyday life. You can expect honesty, insight, all the emotions and, most of all, encouragement. Because it can feel like a lonely path sometimes when you decide to break the mould but knowing that others are out there living it can be incredibly empowering.You can find out more about us over at www.educatingwildlings.co.uk and on the gram @kiki_and_the_wildlings. I look forward to connecting!