The Mindful Mama

Good job you don't write the laws then. I'm in the UK, where home education looks very different to 'homeschooling' in America.

As you're not interested in actually learning anything about effective home ed, I'll leave it there.

Have a good day.

I'm obviously going to disagree with you because I home educate one of my children.

In my advocacy work, I work with vulnerable children (and their families) in education settings. For many children, the school system is traumatising; for many, many others, it fails. #HomeEducation is an important option, but education "professionals" despise families who take that option. 1/2

The problem is that unschooling has become synonymous with educational neglect.

Actual unschooling was never meant to be this, it was about following the child's lead and providing opportunities for them to learn naturally away from a desk.

The concept has become completely twisted.

We've taken the day off today but will probably squeeze some maths and english in after dinner. What kind of Halloween crafts are you doing?

If home education has doubled in the last 5 years, perhaps one might consider that it isn't home education that is the concern.

I wish schools were encouraged to focus on disinformation education as much as attendance and “learning loss” or whatever the private interest groups favour lately

The thing that cemented the change of how I use social media when it concerns my child, was reading one of Sarah Ockwell-Smith's books.

If you won't listen to me, an anonymous stranger, please read 'Because I Said So'. There's a whole section on digital privacy for children.

It should be up to every individual to decide what information they share publicly.

Children are not exempt from the right to privacy, and their photographs and private moments are not property of parents.

We should be mindful of the digital footprint we might create on their behalf.

It took me until my son was eight, and my partner's daughter came into my life, to make the huge change in how I post about them online.

Because everybody should be in control of their digital footprint and privacy, even children.

There was, of course, plenty of mumshaming involved. Everything I did as a parent was wrong, even though I follow evidence based gentle parenting.

But more than that, I started thinking about how that information can (and did) find its way off my social media.

I have a confession:

I used to post about my child on social media a lot. I was always mindful of not sharing his name or photos of his face, or embarrassing moments.

But I did share things publicly that were not mine to share. And I want to talk about why I stopped:

On top of this, I think it's dangerous when schools have say, a twitter account or a tiktok and post the children.

You have no way to know what type of users are viewing photographs of these children, and there is sadly a lot of nefarious users of both sites.

Progress would be no longer saying special needs, but accepting that children and adults need accessible and inclusive learning environments.
If we built schools around that, not long hours in overstimulating rooms and clothes with strict rules, we might have less of a “crisis”

Home educators (and obviously anyone else), please take this opportunity to give your views on curriculum and assessment and how our children and young people are impacted consult.education.gov.uk/curriculum-a...

Are there any #psychology magazines aside from Psychology Today that report actual evidence based psychology news?

I'd like to expand my reading and magazines are a format that I quite enjoy.

I hear that!

It's difficult to balance everyone's needs including their need for more independence as they get older... and the parent's need for time out 😂

Oh that sounds ideal!

My son goes to forest school every week for 3.5 hours which is ND friendly and that's the longest break I get 😅

I'm only a part time bonus mama to my partner's daughter and she attends school, but she's gone with him to forest school in her half term recently & loved it too.

So lovely to connect with you!

My son is about to turn 9 and has been almost exclusively home educated (except for a brief unsuccessful stint at school in year two).

I'm AuDHD and so is he. 🥰

I'm genuinely concerned about how the prevalence of AI will also lead to more misinformation, and how ill-equipped our children might be to assess the validity of information in general.

So many adults cannot seem to evaluate information or its source, so how will they teach our children to do so?

Hi, hello, is this thing on?

I'm a gentle parent to two children, home educating the eldest. Mid degree in child development & psychology, alongside counselling studies.

Hoping to connect with other gentle parents, home educators, and aspiring / practising child therapists.

Please come say hello!