to want most parents to consider themselves home educators?

[Butterpie]

At least part time, anyway? I think you would find it very hard not to educate your child in any way yourself. I HE. My children are six months and three years old. It happens that we are not intending to send them to school for part of their education, but even if we were, it's not like when they were at home they would be sat in a darkened box is it?

Why doesn't every parent (especially of preschool children) say they home educate, at least part time? School is just another tool that some parents choose to use alongside their home education. You would hope.

Sadly, I hear too many stories of parents refusing to be involved in any way (not even reading bedtime stories or talking about the world) and maybe this more enpowering approach could help. Plus as soon as I started seeing myself as a home educator, I felt a lot better about myself. No longer was I a part time worker/unemployed, hardly any qualifications, with two unplanned children, unable to afford various things. I suddenly became the main educator of two beautiful girls who were growing and learning every day. I read up on various activities and learning methods, I made a special effort to be active parent and so on.

I might be talking rubbish (quite possible as I am typing whilst supervising Art, Technology, Science, Literacy and Numeracy-otherwise known as decorating gingerbread men) but wouldn't that approach enpower parents and help children, as well as making the school's job easier?

Sorry to interrupt such a heartfelt post with pedantry but if you are going to base your campaign around a particular quality, please spell it correctly.

Empower.

I am glad you feel happy and empowered. I don't see myself as an 'educator' per se but I guess I just automatically include that in what a parent does along with everything else.

You can be too full on though. You can tell my friend is a teacher. Everything is so educational 'yes, that is a bird, and do you know what sort, and do you know why it can fly, and lets see if you can guess its latin name'. Whereas I'm more like 'nice bird but its 5am, go back to sleep'

While I agree that it is important that parents do educational activities with their children - which in general most activities are to some extent. That is not the same as solely home educating. I have to say that there are very few parents who I know that refuse to be involved in anyway with their childrens education.

I would also suggest that some of those parents who do solely home school are not always giving their children a well rounded education.

In my teaching experience I must say the vast majority of parents do contribute to learning, be in formal or informal. Those that don't normally have unresolved education issues of their own, e.g. a lack of confidence in their own abilities or previous negative experiences in education. This is sometimes masked with some bravado about it being the school's job to educate, but is more about protecting themselves from embarrassment should they fail. Typically parents I have met who do not read with their children fall into one of two categories: 1, those that have poor literacy skills themselves or little faith in their own reading skills and don't want to fail their child or 2, those that work every hour under the sun or have difficult home lives which make finding the time nigh on impossible. I've taught in some pretty grim schools and I'm yet to meet the parent who deliberately refused to help thier child learn as an active choice they've made. All I've met with support and guidance have enjoyed the support school offers them in knowing what to do and gaining confidence. For this reason I run basic skills classes for adults in ICT/ numeracy and literacy through schoool. Always popular. Not everyone is lucky enough to have the confidence/ time/ skills to support learning, often depending on their own background.

and I speak as someone who reads with my child/pays attention to what he's learning/has an input into his life.

But to say you are home educating a three yo and six mo makes you ssound pretentious and smug.

Nice thought, but rather superfluous. Those who do it don't need validating for it, those who don't won't give a shite.

I am not a home educator. I am a parent. I don't need any empowering on that score.

Just to clear I'm including informal as well as formal learning in the above post. Walking in the park and naming plants or painting at home is as vital to development as more structured learning is.

I'm glad that you feel more positive about your role, and if labelling it as "home educator" instead of just "parent" helps with that, then that's a good thing.

But I think most parents think of what they do as just parenting, because children are learning all the time. I didn't count myself as a home educator when DS was not yet school age, and I didn't count myself as one when we did things together after school and at weekends. I only counted myself as one for the two years when he was of school age but not at school.

Perhaps its different because you don't plan to send them to school, and there won't be a distinct break between what you're doing now and the education they'll get when they are "school-age"?

Mine are older than yours, at 4, 6 and nearly 8. They are all in full time school.

Of course they learn things when they are at home, they are only at school for 6.5 hours a day, 5 days a week, 39 weeeks of the year. I don't keep them in a cupboard under the stairs the rest of the time! And strange as it may sound, the majority of children do actually read, investigate nature etc... they don't actually spend their lives in front of the TV/computer games (and even if they did you can learn a suprising amount from both of those!).

However, IME, learning lots at home does not make you popular with the teacher. At least not with the teachers in my DC's school

yabu

Oh, I just get on with what needs to get done.

I don't see any need to flower up my parenting as empowering, educating, blah de blah.

wannaBe your statement '... But to say you are home educating a three yo and six mo makes you ssound pretentious and smug...', is utter nonsense; either you are too daft to understand OPs argument or have a mahooosive chip on your shoulder about everyone and everything being somewhat superior or - smug and pretentious - to your very self.
Lighten up, dear.

Eh rollmops?

I don't think Wannabe was off in what she is saying. It is daft to say that you are home educating children which are not of school age.

Isn't that just called parenting? OP, why do you need to call it educating to feel empowered and useful? Parenting encompasses educating and so much more.

Confused. Are you saying that your gingerbread men are better than my gingerbread men because you feel the need to attach knobby labels to what you are doing ?

YANBU but then intend to HE my children too.
Those that say your not educating under 5's and that saying so is pretentious, I assume that you never taught your pre schoolers to count or teach the their colors and shapes? Because thats education the foundations are no less important to what comes later at school.

I don't think anybody has said that they don't educate their kids - I think the point that most people are trying to make is that they get on with it without feeling the need to separate 'education' from any other aspect of parenting OR do this knobby preaching thing of lecturing other people who refuse to harp on about 'educating' kids.

OK then, at what point do I become a home educator under those rules? When they would have started nursery? When they would have started reception? Year One? Or is it when they learn to read a whole book by themselves? Or add up three digit numbers? Or when they turn 5, is that when suddenly doing the EXACT SAME THING becomes "education"?

I am a teacher, so only educate outside the home. OHE if you like.

I clock off when I get home and plug DD into Cbeebies. I keep a sharp stick next to me whilst I MN all evening in case she should get the urge to approach me with a question about the world/Iggle Piggle. She soon learns not to bother me. Ooohh, does that make me a Home Educator too?

Who cares when YOU become a home edder - why is it so important ? Do your thing and lose the urge to preach to others.

Nobody is disputing that parents of preschoolers are educating them. It's just that deciding to label yourself as a "home educator" when your children aren't yet school age can be taken as an implication that what you are doing is in some way different (and better) than everybody else.

I understand that Butterpie doesn't mean it that way, and is just very enthusiastic about having made a choice about her childrens education.

But it can sound pretentious and smug, in the same way that a lot of what home educators say can sound pretentious and smug.

I have always been happy to "just" be a parent to my children. Of course I taught them plenty, and as I work in education myself I can see an educational opportunity in pretty much anything BUT working within the Foundation Phase I also know that an awful lot is learnt through play. So I would be making gingerbread men with my 3 simply because it was fun an they are yummy! Yes, the eldest would probably weight out the ingredients, and they would probably count out the right number of raisins for buttons, or ice them in rainbow colours, but the main point would be that it was fun. The learning would be kind of incedental, IYSWIM?