Author Archives: homeschoolingpenny

About homeschoolingpenny

Hi and welcome! My name is Penny and I used to live in Bahrain but In November 2012 moved to Dubai and now we live in Granada, Spain! If you want to contact me my email is pjmontford@hotmail.com. I recommend you start my blog on 'Day 1' but please enjoy whatever you dip into. 23 February 2012 marked the first day of no more school FOREVER for my two kids. Edward, who is nearly 10 had attended a variety of schools since he was very little. Petra, who is now 6, has never gone to school. On this date we decided Edward was never going back to school and Petra never would go to school. We hope to successfully homeschool from this day forward, although we would consider an alternative school as an option- if there was some amazing Sudbury or other really alternative school. Actually, I prefer the term 'home learning' than 'homeschool' because I don't like to think of school coming into our home. In fact, I hope to go further and guide/learn alongside, rather than teach, my kids using the 'unschooling' philosophy to instill a lifelong love of learning in them. We lived in the Middle East and now Spain all of which are very challenging places to home educate. This is an exciting journey that I used to blog about regularly, at first it was on an almost daily basis. Please join me on our travels and I hope we might be able to help each other out along the way. I certainly hope I can be a source of support and comfort and, in time, knowledge to all potential/presently participating homeschoolers/home educators/unschoolers. Good luck to us all! If you want to read about why I started home educating, why I pulled my son out of a 'very good' private school mid-term, how I felt at the very start and how my philosophy has evolved, please start from 'Day 1' of the blog. Please do post comments at the end of any days that you read. Your opinion is valuable and it's great to start up debate amongst other people commenting too, however old the post. Thank you for visiting homeschoolingmiddleeast.

A homeschooler homeschooling her children; a nice perspective

A homeschooler homeschooling her children; a nice perspective A quick link to a homeschooling Mum who was herself homeschooled; a nice perspective.  I think the think she most values about homeschooling is what I most value about homeschooling: TIME. As … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Schools should turn their attention to “creativity and social and emotional capacities”

Schools should turn their attention to “creativity and social and emotional capacities” Schools should turn their attention to “creativity and social and emotional capacities” said South Korea’s former Education Minister according to this article in ‘The Guardian’. Well, my ‘school’ … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Young Kids Taking Online University Courses

Young Kids Taking Online University Courses I came across the ‘How Things Work’ University of Viriginia FREE course, offered by Coursera, when I was going online for my FREE ‘Critical Thinking’ course presently being offered by the University of Edinburgh. … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“Deadly conformity is killing our creativity. Let’s mess about more”

“Deadly conformity is killing our creativity. Let’s mess about more” And what is the first comment under the article, from ‘TimMiddleton’, “We should give some thought to the extent that our schools are teaching young people how to pass examinations … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Kids Tell Us What Their Favourite Books Are

Kids Tell Us What Their Favourite Books Are There’s a great programme on the best children’s channel in the UK – CBBC (which stands for Children’s BBC) for children aged about 9+ (the BBC channel for younger children is equally … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

“Why Do You Homeschool?”…”Because I like it!”

“Why Do You Homeschool?”…”Because I like it!” I LOVE this suggested reply to the question many of us face at least few times a week. I wish I had thought of it all by myself! This post gives several suggestions … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

How Mummies Really Feel

How Mummies Really Feel Following on from my last post about an unschooling friend’s bad day with her three kids, a friend of Katie’s posted this link on her FB page, unfortunately, the lovely comments are not posted on her … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 2 Comments

A lovely post from a new unschooling friend in England

A lovely post from a new unschooling friend in England This is a lovely post about a day we shared with this family and some others yesterday in the park. Since we met up in the morning, I guess all … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Why Study Math?

Originally posted on Letters from Nebby:
Dear Reader, Do you ever notice that no one asks this? We might ask why about some of the higher maths like trig and calculus but we don’t ask why study math at all…

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

If my child wrote this, I’d be very proud!

If my child wrote this, I’d be very proud! If my child wrote this, I’d be very proud! It’s risky but demonstrates fabulous ‘out of the box’ thinking. It’s imaginative, quirky and probably could never have been thought up by … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment