Home teaching.

It sounds as though we may be coming out of this period of lockdown but not yet...as I mostly shop on line the news that shops are going to be open doesn’t really excite me...my days of trudging around large stores were over years ago when I moved to Cornwall. I find it much easier to search for anything I need on line. Schools going back to work as soon as possible should be something to aim at I think. Teaching your children at home is not always good for either the child or the parent. I speak from experience on this one. Back in the seventies my husband got a wonderful promotion which involved us moving house. He was a bank manager and the move to Chester from Bury was for him wonderful. It involved us moving from Lancashire to North Wales. My son was already in the sixth form so we arranged that he could stay with my cousin to continue his education. My daughter , then around fourteen had a month or so between schools so I decided to teach her myself. I was a fully qualified teacher...I had no doubts about my ability to teach anybody even my own daughter. But it was not a success. She resented any attempts to make her sit down quietly and listen. I got cross far too,often. In the end we coped by my choosing a book to read thst I knew she would love. This led to many attempts at sorting out her spelling, her vocabulary, her logic. it was a dismal failure....my role as a parent did not lend itself to my becoming her teacher. I got her into her next school as soon as possible with both of us clearly relieved at being able to go back to our usual mother daughter relationship. My experience with home teaching left me certain thst this was not a good idea and I groan at the number of people I know who are trying it just now. Of course most people might be much better at this than I was..but the roll of being the mum is difficult when hand in hand with being the teacher too. Looking back it was one of the really anxious periods of my life. Home teaching might work for other people but it definitely didn’t work for us as a family. I really hope those intent on teaching their own children are better at it than I was.