We always enjoy getting to know the families who use Outschool for their children. This week we chatted to Sian Joyce, whose son “P” has taken several Outschool classes and is now loving his weekly Paleontology group.
Can you tell us who’s in your family?
It’s me, hubby and our 12 year old son, “P”. Hubby also has some grown up kids who are all off doing their own thing.
What do you and your family enjoy doing together?
We love exploring places together. P loves wildlife so zoos and nature reserves are a favourite. We all love history so castle and museum visits are often on the agenda. Now that it’s getting darker earlier, we’ll be popping some popcorn and catching up on movies!
How did you start home educating?
After several years in school, I’d noticed that P didn’t seem very happy any more. He’d also spend most of winter feeling tired and run down, and I just felt that there should be more to childhood than school, homework and a constant stream of winter bugs! Someone mentioned home education to me and I started investigating. I mentioned it to my hubby and P and him both thought it was worth a try. That was over 4 years ago now and we’ve never looked back. I think we’ve agreed that we’re in it for the long haul.
What style of home educators are you?
We are mainly child-led, with my son choosing topics he is interested in. I love Julie (Brave Writer) Bogart’s philosophy that anything can be taught through anything. We do have some structured elements such as maths but we always test options out first to ensure they suit us. We’re starting to think about exams now so just starting to look at what subjects will interest P and support his future goals.
How did you come to Outschool?
A mum I knew from home education workshops was just starting out as an Outschool teacher. She was offering a discount to friends and family and with the sign up offer meant we got to try a couple of classes for free. My son really enjoyed them and we’ve been fans of Outschool ever since.
What’s your favourite thing about being an Outschooler?
I love the variety. So much of the offerings in the UK are curriculum linked and my son seems to pick more obscure topics. I can nearly always find something that fits with his current interests. It’s also great to be able to have so many one-off classes and camps. Our weeks are usually busy so we don’t want to be signing up to termly blocks of lessons.
What’s been your child’s favourite class so far?
There’s been so many but we recently signed up to a weekly chat group called ‘Let’s Talk Paleontology’. It’s one of our current topics and my son is a massive fan of all things prehistoric. It’s wonderful to find a class like this that’s aimed at older children and so many dinosaur resources are aimed at a much younger age group. Chidumebi who runs it is so knowledgeable and engaging. The class has quickly become the highlight of my son’s week.
If you could take a class on Outschool, which one would you enrol in?
We’ve got a geology class with Dr Pete on our wish list at the moment and after a fossil hunting trip last week, I’d love to take some of his geology classes.
If you could give a new home educator one piece of advice, what would it be?
Again, I’m stealing from Julie Bogart but I would say find the joy. When you laugh and have fun with a topic, that creates memories that last. I have realised that when you try
and force learning that your child isn’t either interested or invested in then they usually don’t absorb it. They will learn what matters to them and what interests them and that’s
when the magic happens.
Thank you to Sian for this great Meet the Outschoolers interview! Make sure that you join our UK Families Group on Facebook to connect and chat with other UK-based Outschoolers.
