Sunday 15 July 2012

Back to the subject of home education...

Somebody asked yesterday if I could give some account of the methods which I used in my daughter’s education. Since this brings us neatly back to the topic of home education, I think that this is no bad idea; although I have in the past tended to steer clear of discussing in details my educational techniques.


I have mentioned that I taught my daughter to read at a very early age, but there was more important stuff going on than that. The most crucial aspect of her early years was the programme of enrichment which I devised for her and put into operation. Essentially, this entailed making sure that she had as many interesting experiences as could possibly be fitted into her waking hours. I will focus today upon what, had she been educated by others, would have been the pre-school years, possibly looking in detail in later posts at her primary and secondary years.

The best way of explaining what was being done to increase my daughter’s intellectual ability is too give a few random examples. A full account would weary even the most dedicated home educator to read! I wanted the child by the age of five to be familiar with different types of transport; boats for instance. Of course, I arranged for her to travel in rowing boats, punts and canoes, but this was not really sufficiently stimulating. I made sure that she also boarded a submarine, visited a fishing trawler, explored a warship, clambered about in a lifeboat and travelled down the Thames in a paddle steamer; seeing in the process  Tower bridge open to allow the boat through. She needed to know something about mines and so I took her down a coal mine, gold mine, lead mine, iron mine and chalk mine. Of course, for a child of that age, this was not education at all from her point of view; merely a series of glorious adventures.

The animal kingdom was a particularly rich field of endeavour, chiefly concerned with finding ways to baffle the safety precautions which prevent small children from getting close to large and dangerous animals. At London Zoo, they used to have elephants and rhinoceroses. When my daughter was very small, it was possible to dangle her over the side of the enclosure so that she could actually touch the rhinoceros and fondle its horn. The same method enabled her to reach out and touch the elephant’s trunk. At Paradise Park wildlife park in Hertfordshire, a fully grown tiger was laying by the bars of its enclosure. There was a safety barrier, but I never took much notice of such things. I climbed over with my four year-old daughter and allowed her to put her hand through the bars and stroke the tiger. Mercifully, it did not whirl round and tear her arm off. By the age of five, she had stroked, held or fed from her hand the following animals; elephant, giraffe, rhinoceros, camel, zebra, tiger, wolf, lynx, jungle cat, yak, fox, armadillo, crocodile, penguin and many others.

The human brain is extraordinarily plastic in the early years and instead of learning about the world only through the medium of her eyes, as is often the case with children who depend upon television, books and computers; she was able to immerse her senses in those things about which I wished her to learn. Not only seeing a picture or film of a tiger, but actually smelling it and burying her hands in its fur as though she were stroking the neighbour’s cat. There was of course the odd mishap; most notably when a tapir swallowed her arm, but nothing which caused lasting harm.

Now of course most parents take their children to the zoo from time to time, but when my daughter was small, this was her entire life. Not only zoos, but castles, museums, aquaria, farms, army bases; anywhere at all in fact which I felt she might benefit from seeing, hearing, smelling touching and generally experiencing. Of course, the academic work continued alongside this enrichment. In a typical day at the age of three she would be reading half a dozen simple books, being taught to write, learning Chinese, doing simple algebra, visiting a museum and finishing the day at a farm where she would have a riding lesson.

I might mention here that I found all this enormously enjoyable myself and although it was not made explicit, she probably realised even at the age of two or three that the exciting activities were contingent upon her working academically as well.

This is only the briefest account and I have given this only because I was specifically asked to do so by somebody who commented here. I might in the future give accounts of other stages in her development. The results seemed to be satisfactory for both of us, to the extent that we enjoyed each other’s company and she eventually went on to get a place at Oxford. I think that the conversational learning which took place alongside all these various activities deserves a post of its own at some point. Really though, that is enough about my own child, at least for now.

23 comments:

  1. Wow, thats some pre-k education! I do find your methods a little erm...scary and you are lucky to have a daughter at all after dangling her amongst wild animals, but I do approve of your sentiment of eking as much education as possible out of things. I really enjoy these kind of blog posts.

    Did you ever worry about overloading her, or pushing her too hard? I am not saying you would have chosen to give into these thoughts but I am wondering whether the question ever crossed your mind. Most HE parents question whether they are doing too much/too little?

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  2. 'Did you ever worry about overloading her, or pushing her too hard? I am not saying you would have chosen to give into these thoughts but I am wondering whether the question ever crossed your mind. Most HE parents question whether they are doing too much/too little?'

    Allie recently suggested here, quite correctly, that I am arrogant. For this reason, I never had the least doubt that I was doing the right thing for my daughter! She adored touching animals and doing things like exploring ships and mines; as which three or four year-old would not? Better than being stuck indoors for the day.

    One of the most interesting things which she learned from all this was a disregard for authority and readiness to break rules or laws if they seemed to her to be foolish or unnecessary. I did not set out to teach her this, it was simply something she picked up as a matter of course. I don't recollect ever telling her that we should not be bound by rules and laws of shich we do not approve; it was simply that this was the lifestyle. Ducking undr barriers and climbing over fences to see something interesting was a way of life; as was if=gnoring notices saying 'Keep Out'!

    As for overloading or pushing, I have an idea that the average child reaceives too little stimulation, rather thna too much. From the point of view of autonomous education, ask yourself this. If the average child was given a choice between stroking a crocodile or being in a nursery learning to recite the Alphabet; which do you think she would choose? Which would most children under five prefer to do, watch a DVD while their mother gets on with the washing-up or to explore a gold mine? I rest my case!

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  3. "There was of course the odd mishap; most notably when a tapir swallowed her arm, but nothing which caused lasting harm."

    That make me snort my breakfast tea! I too really enjoyed this post. I wonder if Oxford can possibly compete with such an exciting childhood?

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  4. 'That make me snort my breakfast tea!'

    It was anything but funny at the time, beacause her mother came back from fetching the icecreams at just that moment. There was what you might term marital unpleasantness as a result. To be fair, it was actually the kid's fault. I had told her to feed the tapir a handful of grass. Naturally, I thought that she would offer it on the palm of her hand, the way you would to a horse. How was I to know that she would hold it between her fingers and thumb? I blamed both her and the tapir for the incident, but my wife's line was that a man of forty three should have more sense than a three year old and a tapir combined. I am still dubious about this proposition.

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  5. Really interesting post Simon. Please can you describe what you did with your daughter in her 'secondary' years as well. It will be a breath of fresh air from the usual 'just let them be' philosophy that is constantly trotted out.

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  6. That brings back some memories! Our experiences were not quite as intense, partly due to lack of funds, but luckily it's not that difficult to find novel experiences for under 5's. Walking along the canal and helping open the lock gates for the boats, or watching the local building site and helping Dad build a house are cheap examples (not the housebuilding of course but the watching and helping were free!). But we certainly visited our fair share of zoos, castles, museums, hands-on science parks, mines, parks, fire stations, sewage works, radar stations, etc over the years. One child in particular always wanted to be on the move so we were out most days.

    Can't claim to have climbed fences at zoos, but luckily we were able to attend quite a few touching and handling sessions, some organised by our local HE group, so they got to hold tarantulas, snakes, insects, and bottle feed lambs, etc. HE group meetings and camping trips were great too, with groups of children building dens, exploring caves, and inventing some brilliant make believe games.

    Ohhh, the memories - great post, Simon, thanks!

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  7. "From the point of view of autonomous education, ask yourself this. If the average child was given a choice between stroking a crocodile or being in a nursery learning to recite the Alphabet; which do you think she would choose?"

    Exactly! Though obviously it's possible to do both. Car journeys to zoos are great for alphabet and sing along tapes. It was the constant desire for new experiences on the part of our children that pushed us parents in the direction of autonomous education. It was impossible to stop them learning!

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  8. It all sounds like great fun, Simon. I imagine your daughter has some wonderful memories from her early childhood.

    I think my fear about embarking on something that I saw as a 'programme' would always have been that my child might imagine that they were, in some way, my 'project'. I'd worry that it would damage their sense of themselves as people separate to me. Though your daughter certainly seems to be her own woman so it obviously didn't bother her in that way.

    Of course, our children are our main focus. My life was lots of sweeping up sand, squishing play-doh, trips to the park and the museum. I loved that time and I am very glad that I spent those years with my children. But I think I was always on the look-out for what called to them and to their need for a private, internal world where I wasn't following them waving some educational book!

    I don't think I always got it right. I think I was too intense at times and probably not encouraging enough at others. I was only twenty six when our elder child was born and I think I had a lot to learn about people. I think I still do have a lot to learn.

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  9. 'luckily it's not that difficult to find novel experiences for under 5's. Walking along the canal and helping open the lock gates for the boats, or watching the local building site and helping Dad build a house are cheap examples (not the housebuilding of course but the watching and helping were free!'

    Yes, this was another great pleasure, stumbling across people doing things and asking them to explain to us what they were up to. We would ask police officers, bricklayers, soldiers, anybody in fact, to explain what they they were doing and why. Nobody ever refused.

    'their need for a private, internal world where I wasn't following them waving some educational book!'

    A fair point indeed, Allie. I suspect that most home educators have chased their kids like this sometimes. I will certainly plead guilty to this and ask for another 2,000,000 similar offences to be taken into consideration.


    '

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    Replies
    1. Did Simone ever shut the bedrom door on you waving that book, saying, 'Yes, Dad, that's nice, but right now I'd like to just think, daydream or write my diary' or something like that?

      This is NOT a critical question. I am just genuinely curious. Did she ever reject your suggestions? 'Not another flippin mine, Dad. Can't I just lie under this tree this afternoon?' LOL!

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  10. 'Did Simone ever shut the bedrom door on you waving that book, saying, 'Yes, Dad, that's nice, but right now I'd like to just think, daydream or write my diary' or something like that? '

    Yes, course! There can be few children who do not crave time alone, apart from their parents and it would have been odd if she had not felt this way.

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  11. Carlotta's comment and my reply seem to have been deleted, presumably by Carlotta?

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  12. 'Carlotta's comment and my reply seem to have been deleted, presumably by Carlotta?'

    By no means; it was I! I was less than enchanted to see Carlotta pop up here a few days ago, commenting on a post concerning harassment. This was not inapt, because it will of course be recalled that Carlotta was part of that same group of people who were generally making a nuisance of themselves online by saying damaging and untruthful things about me a couple of years ago. In Carlotta's case, this entailed saying on a public blog that the director of a charity working with children with special educational needs might be involved in killing children.

    I told Carlotta the day before yesterday that I did not feel inclined to discuss education in a friendly fashion with somebody who set out in this way to harm my reputation and lower me in the estimation of right-thinking people.

    Never the less, she popped up here again today and I deleted her comments. I seldom do this, the last time was with Peter Williams of Hampshire two years ago, but I really don't feel like hearing from this particular person again until she has apologised for her part in the harassment to which I was subjected. She is free to post here again, but I will not be answering any of her comments.

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  13. Hello,

    Thank you for taking the time to write this post.

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  14. " Never the less, she popped up here again today and I deleted her comments"

    Along with comments made by several other commenters that you fail to mention. A new policy on your part?

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  15. " Never the less, she popped up here again today and I deleted her comments"

    Along with comments made by several other commenters that you fail to mention. A new policy on your part'

    Not really. I did it a couple of years ago with Peter Williams.

    I really am not a fan of Carlotta. Let me just remind readers once again why. She is a nurse, one of whose specialities is geriatric care. If I named her on here and said that she was going to be responsible for the death of elderly people, she might perhaps feel ill-disposed towards me. This is what she said on a public blog about me; that I would have children's blood on my hands. I was at the time the director of a charity for children with special educational needs. I think that the best thing she can do is keep to her own blog until she is prepared to apologise. However, she is free to post comments here; I shall not be responding to them.

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  16. " Not really. I did it a couple of years ago with Peter Williams."

    So did you also delete other people's comments that time too? You're making it sound like you've only deleted posts from 2 people but the counts up to 4 so far.

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  17. "This is what she said on a public blog about me; that I would have children's blood on my hands."

    I think the point was that collectively those who argued in favour of schedule 1 were in danger inadvertently causing harm or death to those affected by bullying at school. They feared that schedule 1 would result in bullied children being returned to school to suffer more bullying. Since there is a direct, dose-related link between the amount of bullying suffered by a child and subsequent mental illnesses such as depression, suicide ideation, psychosis, etc. into adulthood, it doesn't seem beyond the bounds of possibilities.

    BTW, her blog article is nowhere in sight in over 10 Google pages if you search, "simon webb home education" (couldn't be bothered to check further). But if anyone follows any of the many links to your blog they are likely to be able to read her words at least 4 or 5 times. If you genuinely think that her words might affect how others think of you (which seems unlikely), you're not helping by repeating them every few months!

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  18. 'I think the point was that collectively those who argued in favour of schedule 1 were in danger inadvertently causing harm or death'

    Yes, I still maintain that if I named Carlotta in full in connection with her views on some piece of legislation and suggested that she would share responibility for kiiling old people; she would be annoyed. As a nurse, such a stament would be undesirable for her and quite possibly damgae her reputation.

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  19. Possibly, but if it were an accurate statement it might also cause her to look again at her support for the legislation.

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  20. I think fair comment is reasonable in response to newspaper articles and the like too.

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  21. 'I think fair comment is reasonable in response to newspaper articles and the like too.'

    Which is fine; I have no objection to your holding this view. However, I grew weary of the lies and abuse and, as I have said, to claim publicly that the director of a charity for children with special educational needs might be involved in killing children went beyond what I saw as a resonable comment. I was not alone in this view; it was one shared by both the Information Commissioner's Office and also the Department for Education. As I say, Carlotta may comment here if she wishes, but I shall regard her in the same light as Peter Williams from Hampshire; that is to say, I shall not respond to what she says. Others are free to do so.

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  22. "Others are free to do so."

    But may have their comments deleted...

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