ESTHER JONES

This series of posts follows my seven-year-old daughter as she learns to read. C has created a beautiful world in Minecraft with a pet shop, swarming with different animals, and a sweet shop with all sorts of colourful delicacies. This morning, I helped her put signs in her shops. These signs mostly say, 'Cats for sale', 'Dogs for sale', 'Horses for sale' etc. When she knew the word she would write it, and if not she would ask me. The first couple of times I wrote 'for sale',

One of the things that still challenges me is sitting back when I think I know a way to help, even when my 'help' has already been refused. This is quite a learning edge for me and I've been guilty twice (at least) of this in the last couple of days. I should know better by now, but old habits die hard. So, one of my over enthusiastic moments concerned a club I thought D would love as it's centred around one of his interests. The other was an online class/debating group that

In the early days, when I would quietly admit that our children weren't at school, people would tell me that was radical. And I would agree. Radical indeed! Not many other people are doing it, so we must be out there on the fringes. But radical is a big label. I hadn't set out to go against anyone or prove anything. I just wanted my children to be happy and at one with themselves. Yet, it did feel radical in its own way, like we were turning our backs on what everyone else sa

These learning-to-read posts are really for any parents out there struggling with the idea that children can learn to read by themselves, or looking for some reassurance. When D was just two, I read a book called 'How children learn at home'. That book probably sowed the seeds for our future. I was inspired and excited to hear parents say they didn't know how their children learned to read, it just happened. It was the first time my assumptions about learning were challenged,