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EDUCATING YOUR CHILD AT HOME

by Jane Lowe and Alan Thomas

CONTINUUM BOOKS ISBN 0826452272   £14.99   176PP

The blurb on the back of this book claims that it provides an authoritative guide for all those thinking about home education. It does, but it also provides so much more than this. This book explains very succinctly why people home educate, how home education differs from school education, and how it is done, in an accessible style. It is suitable, not only for those considering home education, but also for sceptical friends, partners, professionals and Granny. Information in the book covers both the primary and secondary years, and points to life after 18 too. It includes background information, practical ideas, and quotations from home educating parents. It is a how-to manual, but also a why-you-might-want to manual.

Although I enjoyed Alan Thomas's previous book Educating Children at Home, which examined the strengths of home education, I was ready to dislike this book due to its co-author, Jane Lowe, who is a founder trustee of Home Education Advisory Service (HEAS). Rightly, or more probably having read this book, wrongly, HEAS has a reputation among home educators for being strongly pro-LEA inspections, and for having trained inspectors to assume that it is their right and duty to inspect. It isn't, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book reinforced parents' rights to provide evidence in whatever form they choose, and gave examples where this had happened.

I have read a considerable number of books about education and home education, and this is the first one that I think gives a balanced view of the many types of home education, without prejudice. Many fail to strike a balance between families who follow a structured system, with curricula and timetable, and those who prefer learner-directed education, but this book manages to be inclusive and would have useful information for anyone, whatever style of home education they have chosen or are considering. It looks at informal learning in detail, comparing it with school and teacher-centred learning. It offers broad-brush overviews, as well as guidance on how to tackle individual subjects and later on, examinations and careers guidance.

My only disappointment was that some of the examples were recycled from Dr Thomas's previous work (admittedly still quite recent at 2000), and that no mention was included of the big research project undertaken in the US and Canada by the Fraser Institute1 but these are piffling criticisms of an excellent book.

I hope that every LEA officer with responsibility for inspecting home educating families will read it.

FIONA BERRY

Fiona Berry is a home educator

REFERENCES:

1. Basham, P. Home Schooling: From the extreme to the mainstream. Public Policy Sources  51. http://oldfraser.lexi.net/publications/pps/