Do you need to be good at multitasking to HE?

[AngelDog]

That was the impression I got from Free Range Education - all the parents seemed to be doing a million things at once. I struggle to do one thing at at time and I'm slooooow at everything.

Does HE work even if you're not good at doing lots of things at once?

Well, I'm a terrible multitasker, and HE works for me.

I don't know whether that's because we use the autonomous approach and therefore the kids have responsibility for their own learning. I help them when they ask me to, but they always take the initiative.

There also seems to be a lot more time when you home educate, so you don't necessarily have to be efficient in order to get things done. I know a number of HE families who rarely stir out of the house before 11am. They spend the morning getting breakfast, putting on a load of wash, packing a lunch, and finding somebody's lost shoes. (I'm like that too on the days when I don't go anywhere early. It's pleasant.)

Consider that most schooling families have to accomplish all the same things before 8:45am, and that they can't just go late or decide to stay home after all, and that there's trouble if a kid turns up without all the proper kit. It's clear that parents of schoolchildren are the ones who need to be well-organised!

Anyway, that's what I found during the term when my older dd tried school last year. We managed brilliantly well (for us), but it took all my mental energy. Whether I could have got more than one child ready for school is open to debate!

I haven't read Free Range Education so I don't know if it paints an unrealistic picture of how much a disorganised, mono-tasking parent could accomplish. But I'm sure you can accomplish what you need to! And besides, while you are faffing around trying to figure out what's for dinner, the children are educating themselves. Or you can just get them to make the dinner or buy the road tax online: they have plenty of time for that sort of thing.

I'm OK with multi-tasking although as I have pointed out to DH more than once, I do struggle with being in 2 completely different places at once!!

We are structured home edders and after trying different ways and working with 3 DCs, we've ended up with a timetable - we don't always stick to it; we sometimes end up talking about all sorts of stuff that has no connection to what we started on but it's there as a guide. I make sure that when I play their work that I don't need to be helping more than 1 DC at a time (unless they are doing the same work!)

And like Saracen, mine often make lunch or tea! They are also just as capable as I am of putting a load of washing in the machine!

I am close friends with two of the mothers who each wrote a chapter in 'Free Range Education'. I know they will both laugh out loud at that suggestion! I camp with both of them several times in the summer and we are very laid back.

One of the lovely things about home ed, is that it isn't a race!
We don't all have to be at school, or anywhere else for 9am in the morning.
My friends are also autonomous home educators, as we are and the children follow their own pathways.
The children are involved in the running of the household, and generally understood that some things have to be done......like the Tax online, for other more fun activities to be enabled.

I think home ed can be whatever your family wants it to be, to suit you and yours.
I'm still convinced the only thing you need to be is interested in your children and their welfare. Everything else you can find a way to do that works for you.

I don't do many things at once. If I do I tend to burn something while dropping something else!

Taking things slowly means I'm more cheerful, polite and kind with the children.

Doing one thing at a time means the home atmosphere is peaceful and calm. Imagine a policeman or nurse racing around with unmatched shoes and no petrol in their cars. What a disaster that would be.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Dh is pants at multitasking and he manages the days he has them!

Ooh, I'm greatly cheered. :)

Not getting out of the house till 11am sounds pretty much like my life now (although I only have 13 m.o. DS to organise).

julienoshoes, I suspect that there was a slight (understandable) tendency in FRE to disprove the criticism that HE doesn't involve being shut in your house with no social life (for adults or children), which is probably why I got that impression.