The worst ad ever for Home Ed

[Allthebestnamesareused]

So I just saw this on Facebook

www.comeonengland.org/2017/02/02/mum-homeschools-kids-by-letting-them-play-video-ga/

Each to their own and all that and I assume she is being checked to see that she is really home schooling but AIBU to say she is not doing home educators a massive favour here?

Just for the sake of argument...

ds goes to normal state school, Yr 5. He knows a phenomenal amount about the map of Europe, where countries are in relation to each other and where the major cities are. His pronunciation of some of the towns is off, but understandable, but he knows eg Zagreb is the capital of Croatia. I totally blame giving him unlimited screen time and Euro Truck Simulator.

(btw he's normal weight and displays signs of good health).

I read Felica Day's autobiography last year and she said her "homeschool" was pretty much 7 hours of video games! To be fair...she's done pretty well for herself and it's all around gaming!

I saw her on ITV THIS MORNING today

I was struck by how dark the room with the double screened gaming computer was, that her son was playing a game on during the interview

I have just looked on her blog about Tuesday and this is one of the paragraphs ...............

"My parents came this morning for an hour or so which distracted E from his cabin fever but he was sad football club was cancelled as he has hardly been out since football club last week declining the chance to be involved in climbing and karting and Pokemon Going."

One thing that puzzles me is if you are out shopping in Tesco or wherever with your children or them out alone does anybody say anything? As in shouldn't they be in school etc? I am thinking of those inspector people who check on children skiving off school - I have no idea if these people actually exist in RL and not just on TV so please don't shout at me if I am wrong and they are just fictional

She may do other stuff but each post on that blog is heavily littered throughout with updates on games and not educational ones.

What do you mean RT? I don't know of many Home edders getting jumped on by the truancy police, and if they were just explaining that he children were home educated and as such don't go to school would end the conversation.

They need exercise. This is sad.

The reporter could do with proof reading their work before sending it to print!

Wow! I've just read yesterday's post on her blog. She is a terrible writer! I agree there is not much going on there other than lots of gaming and her sticking bits of paper on fererro rochers! If swimming and football is their attempt at exercise and socialising then I'm afraid it falls woefully short IMO. My DC are in full time school and do all that plus more outside of school. They also have games consoles, bake, read Harry Potter, and play card/board games (or whatever splendour is?) fwiw I am all for HE and intend to deregister my youngest DC from school quite soon to do just that, but he'll actually be benefitting from the time he isn't in school by being able to go places and engage with the world rather than sit infront of a screen for 7 hours. I'm just not seeing how HE is benefitting these children in the article other than their mum not having to bother with uniforms and a school run.

I do agree there is a place for home education but I don't think it's fair on children to deprive them of basic qualifications. At 15/16 I probably would have opted out of GCSEs if given the choice but then my choices would have been greatly restricted.

I think this particular family are not a
brilliant advert for HE at all. I can imagine them being on computers all day and teaching themselves is easy for her though.

What I mean is that I had no idea if the truancy officers are actually people that existing RL rather than just on TV

And if they do exist how often do they ask your children why they aren't in school?

I realise all they need to say is that they are home ed then nothing else will happen but just wondered how often it happens?

Think I can see what is going on with the food thing.

From the blog-

There are some pretty cool things about being a home educated 12 year old - like getting to stay home alone sometimes and do as you please, making your own noodles and bagels when you're hungry, being trusted to feed a neighbour's pets whilst they are away but still getting to spend two hours playing Furbys with our new neighbour's daughter and your little brother on a Friday afternoon.

TD and I started the evening with Pizzas and Jonathan Creek in the den whilst O had 3 hours skype with friend L on Minecraft and Roblox, E carried on with his PS4 marathon and S on MCPZ etc

Seems they just get their own noodles / bagels / pizzas when they like as well, don't suppose there are any boundaries there either :-( Carbs can be addictive as well as video games, two go nicely together.

Yes it is easy when they are on the games I suppose, it mentions they are happy on the games so I'm off to do some ironing. It must be tempting I suppose.

Where I am people (HEders) have had people from education board turning up at their homes. Some of them appear ignorant of the law regarding the parents' rights and who they need to allow in their homes and what "proof" they need to produce of their child's home education.

Who is TD in that post? Her husband? I saw no mention of what the DC were having for dinner (in their separate zones?) whilst mum was having pizza in the den.

It was on the blog in the past posts

The mum posted it I think- it's here

thegallivanters.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2017-01-22T15:14:00Z&max-results=3&start=9&by-date=false

This is quite telling too (on the same page)

Despite being the same room for 12 hours E slept straight away!

E has had a PS4 day - all those years I thought exercise & fresh air were the answer turns out he's never been happier than having a stream of friends to game with. The name of our blog feels less and less appropriate

But the daughter said this morning that she wants to be a cook/chef when she is older and the fact that she could spend the day cooking was really good training for her

Yes, they do a lot of cooking on the blog but it seems to be a lot of pizzas / cookies and ice cream. the mum mentions that food budgets are difficult and that it isn't possible to provide protein at each meal. A concern about too much dairy / gluten as well.

I'll stop now!

Her publicity seeking gullibility has already caused repercussions within the HE community. A dreadful misrepresentation of Home Education.

Those who are friends with her should ask her why she won't engage with the community about her actions.

This is unschooling though not home schooling....

How can it be unschooling when they have never spent a day in school? Is unschooling not for the purposes of undoing the habits associated with learning that are taught in schools?

That's the term they use and I asked the same on a YouTube vid comment. I can't remember the answer but it wasn't reassuring