About Us
Welcome!
We’re a home educating family based in West Yorkshire. I started home educating my eldest son over 25 years ago when he came out of junior school. I followed an autonomous approach to enable him to follow his interests and develop a love of learning that I still see in him today. Towards the end of his Home Ed journey, I began to study with the Open University and gained a Certificate of Mathematics and a BSc Honours.
My two younger children have never been to school. I started out home educating them in a similar way to their older brother - autonomous, free flowing, responsive learning. It soon became apparent that that style wasn't going to work in quite the same way for them. These children needed some routine and some guidance, but still needed plenty of room to make decisions about their learning.
Passionate about home learning
I read up on other methods of home education - made much easier by having access to the internet and Facebook groups. I implemented some Montessori ideas for my youngest which gave me time to focus on my middle child's learning. It was around that time that I first came across Charlotte Mason and started to read up on her philosophy. I discovered that much of it fitted in with my ideas and we were already incorporating lashings of read-alouds, plenty of nature study, hours outside and handicrafts. Short lessons made so much sense to me and were a life saver. Obviously, there is so more to Charlotte Mason and I recommend you read her books for yourself or listen to them on Librivox for free.
At the same time as learning about the CM method, I came across lit-based unit studies and the two tied nicely together - reading beautiful books followed by meaningful learning activities that nourish the family relationships. I saw my children thrive and really love the learning that we did through lit-based unit studies, which always included making a lapbook. The only drawback was that, at the time, the only resources available were from the USA. Eventually, I realised that my children knew far more about US geography and history than that of their own country. Hence, Picture Book Explorers were born. Soon to be followed a few years later by thematic lapbook packs.
I've never been an educational purist, taking a mix-and-match approach to develop an eclectic home education learning style, tailor-made for my children. Flexibility is key to home education, but out of everything that we tried, literature-based unit studies and lapbooks have been the mainstay in our journey, right up to the exam years. I look forward to being part of your family's adventure too.
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