The Research

 So, where did I start? In a book of course!

I have slowly been acquiring books on Home Educating that I plan to read to educate myself along the way. One of the first books I bought after making the decision, one which I had pretty much decided on before I'd even had Bear, but obviously talked through with Daddy, was The Home Education Handbook by Gill Hines and Alison Baverstock, although I have to admit, I haven't actually read it yet...

This is my current pile ->

I have a whole list saved that I'd like to work my way through and although I have had a couple of these for a while, the one that I started with was The Call of the Wild + Free by Ainsley Arment. It was a perfect start for me and a philosophy that I already follow with my boys, and one I plan to take with us into our Home Education journey. 

"Allow your children to experience the adventure, freedom, and wonder of childhood with this practical guide that provides all the information, inspiration, and advice you need for creating a modern, quality homeschool education."

It was a beautiful read, one that resonated with me on many levels and will most definitely help shape my way forward on this journey. I loved the way that it was set out, the easily digestible sections made for interesting reading and I found a lot of purpose in Ainsley's ways of living and educating her children. She is the founder of the Wild + Free movement and runs an Instagram page that I love too, amongst many other things!

An idea that I read about from another Instagram profile that I love, Shelley, whose page is @that.whichislovely was about keeping a Commonplace Book; a notebook with your favourite quotes from the books that you read, a place to keep the ideas that inspire you. I dug out a pretty notebook when I started reading The Call of the Wild + Free and filled several pages with quotes, as well as tagging the book with page markers at places that I'd like to be able to jump back to!

My current read is Balanced and Barefoot by Angela J Hanscom, a book that I saw several of the accounts that I follow on Instagram talk highly of. This one hasn't proven to be quite as good of a read as my first, purely because it seems to be aimed quite specifically at parents and teachers with children who have health and cognitive difficulties, which is not quite how it is publicised. I will stick with it in the hopes that it still provides some enlightenment, but a part of me is itching to move on to something different...

"In this important book, a pediatric occupational therapist and founder of TimberNook shows how outdoor play and unstructured freedom of movement are vital for children’s cognitive development and growth, and offers tons of fun, engaging ways to help ensure that kids grow into healthy, balanced, and resilient adults."

I can post reviews here on the blog as I read if that is something you are interested in... alternatively, you can follow my reading journey (though it will include all my fiction reads too) over on my Goodreads page.

More soon,

Mama Bear