Stories and cartoons featuring home educated children??

[Nigglenaggle]

I guess the answer may be that there aren't any. I'm just very aware of how much there is out there along the lines of 'school is great!'. Which I don't have a problem with as such - if kids are going to go to school then you might as well make them feel more positive about it. But we have no intention of sending our children (unless they ask when they get older). I'm just very aware that school is portrayed rather inaccurately as this incredibly fun place and I don't have anything to show the other side of the coin. So far I have come up with Danny, Champion of the World. Any other suggestions?

Skellig by David Almond
Portrays the HE child positively but from the outside ie main character initially thinking she's strange. Not sure if that's the kind of thing you want.

Ooh don't know I'll have a look. Thanks :)

Little women

Marianne Dreams - she has a tutor at home because she's ill for a long time. (warning: the dreams get seriously scary)

'Freya and Heath are home educated' is a sort of substitute 'starting school' book for little children. 'The children of Cherry Tree Farm' by Enid Blyton is nice - children are looking a bit peaky in London and their GP prescribes a year in the country with no school, to recover! They just run around learning about nature.

Although Elinor M Brent Dyer mainly wrote school stories, she wrote a few about home educated people. They often had a governess and are obviously set in the past but are quite fun to read. The Lost Staircase; Heather Leaves School (both governess); The Maids of La Rochelle (educated by older sisters). They aren't for littlies though.

Ballet Shoes and Apple Bough by Noel Streatfeild are a couple more.

The film "Dolphin tale" - obviously not about HE but one of the main characters is HE and it will suit all ages.

Swiss Family Robinson.
Was Pippi Longstocking home or self-educated? Moomins seem to be as well.

I think it's an interesting topic for a budding writer.

Pippi Longstocking is good, especially since she has the freedom to go visit school and decides it is not for her

David Almond also wrote My Name is Mina, a prequel to Skellig which focuses on the history of the home educated girl. It isn't written in a linear way so would be hard for young children to understand - I forget how old yours are, Nigglenaggle?

Nim's Island, book or film.

Ippie Unschooled: I haven't read this one

The Railway Children, but the fact of being HE is represented as something of a deprivation in that book.

E Nesbit did write a terrific description of home education and subsequent schooling in the short story "Accidental Magic", which can be found in the volume "The Magic World". I found the end of the story rather woolly and meandering - the boy runs away from school and has a magical experience/dream after falling asleep at Stonehenge - but that doesn't negate the great stuff at the beginning.

The Secret Garden

Paddington Bear

Little House on the Prairie series: Laura first goes to school around the age of ten.

Winnie the Pooh: Christopher Robin was homeschooled until about the age of eight. I always cry buckets when I read the last story, in which CR says goodbye to his old friends as he's about to start school. He promises to come back and play with them occasionally when he can, but says something along the lines of "they don't let you play so much".

RJ Palacio's Wonder (not suitable for young children)

Wow lots more than I thought! Thanks all for the helpful suggestions. As you say, some will be for later as mine are very little, but good to know in advance. I read Ballet shoes myself as well, I had forgotten that they didn't go to school :).... for poor Christopher Robin