Are you in need of a restoring tonic when it comes to your home education? If so, then chapter 4 of “Another Way to Learn?” written by the lovely Sian is the one for you right now. With a career as a secondary school teacher behind her, Sian is now a home educating mum of three delightful girls. She and her husband and the girls live in rural Wales surrounded by green hills, a plentiful supply of rain and a characterful dog just in case there are not enough challenges in the day!

Sian writes candidly and with warm humour about their journey from school education to home education. Listen in to the podcast to find out the back story of how she and Molly met (and realised they had been living in the same shared house many moons before) and some of our own thoughts about how we “de school” both our children and ourselves.

What do you reckon are the top ten most asked home ed questions? It would be interesting to do a poll. However, queries around the socialisation of our children must be right up there at the top.

In the third chapter of "Another Way to Learn?", Juliet English dives straight into this topic. A social worker by training, Juliet is a mother of seven, grandmother, foster mum, director of Streams and co-ordinator of the Learn Free conference. She is a woman of extraordinary capacity and great depth of wisdom and experience. There could not be a better placed home educator to talk us through this hot potato of socialisation. Listen in as we consider the topic, connect with Juliet via the links below and get hold of a copy of “Another Way to Learn?”. It’s available from our website or any other book retailer or from your library. You could also join up with a few other home educators in your local area and form a book club to read it together.

I wonder what springs to your mind when someone mentions teens? And then home education and teens in the same sentence. Maybe it’s lengthy conversations as you discuss life, values, ideas, current affairs and faith around the dinner table, accompanied by good food, music and candle light. Maybe it’s standing for hours on a cold sports pitch showing up while your teen gets caked in mud; maybe it’s trying to block out loud and jarring music; maybe it’s a houseful of laughing young people, overflowing with interesting concepts, deep questions and quick quips. Or, maybe it’s battling with mental health concerns, trying to walk in dark places alongside your teen, determining to champion them even when the rest of the world doesn’t seem to understand.

Maybe you are living the highs and lows of the teen years now, or maybe they are yet to come. Whatever your point in this journey, Dr Kat Patrick, home educating mum of four, speaker, blogger, teacher and CEO of Dreaming Spires Home Learning has written a fantastic chapter inspiring us to explore delight-led learning during the teen years.

Join us as we chat through some of our own home educating experiences during the teen years, both past and present.

Over the next few months we’re going to be taking a gentle amble through “Another Way to Learn?” We’ll introduce you to each chapter and it’s author and reflect on our own home educating experiences around the topic.

This week we’ll introduce the lovely Jessica Girard, who writes beautifully on the early years of home educating. Grab a cuppa and listen in to how Molly’s and Jessica’s paths crossed, find out a little more about her life with little ones on the stunning and fascinating island of Guernsey and join our trip down memory lane as we remember those long ago times with little ones.

Welcome! Whether you’re a faithful listener or completely new to Mended Teacups Home Ed Podcast, we’re so glad you’re here and allocating a few minutes of your precious time to join us. Our hope is that as you listen in you’ll be encouraged to continue, day by day, in the profound work that you have undertaken to home educate your children.

In this episode we have a catch up of the summer holidays (doesn’t that seem a while ago now?) and offer a few tips for those of you who are just stepping out and beginning your home education journey.

We are hoping to record on a slightly more regular basis this year, so do let us know if there are any topics you’d like us to cover, or any other ways we could encourage you.

In the last of this season’s podcasts, we reminisce slightly on days gone by, but mostly look towards the summer and how we can most cherish our days.

We also share a little more about Another Way to Learn? our new book for home educators, which will be hitting the book shelves in September. Endorsed by Leah Boden (Modern Miss Mason), Lyn and Steve Richards (Making the Right Impression, 2007) and Jacqui Wakelam (Mum Heart UK) it’s had its first review which is everything we had hoped it might be. So, check out the website, follow along on social media and pre order your own copy.

We will be back in September and look forward to sharing some more of our home ed adventures with you then. In the meantime, have a wonderful summer; a different pace, time outside, adventures small and large, maybe seeing some new places and spending time with friends, maybe picnics or parties. Make time if you can to nurture and replenish your own body, soul and spirit to set you up afresh for this profound mission you have embarked upon - raising up the foundations of the next generation.

We once took a family ramble up a relatively small mountain. The weather was fine, the banter good humoured and the snacks plentiful. The view from the top was out of all proportion to the height we had climbed so the effort we put in was well worth it. However, there were parts which were hard for little legs, where our younger two needed help and when a rest was necessary.

We all hope that this is a picture of home education; we know it will be tough at times, but when these seasons come we will work together, find a good way through and the view from the top will be worth it. However, what happens if seasons come when it feels we are trudging though boggy ground every day? When whatever we do doesn’t seem to make much difference? Do we continue and be miserable, do we go for the school option or might there be another way forward? Listen in to our conversation and find out.

Have you come across the Miss Read books? I’ve been a fan of hers for years, and her semi autobiographical novels chronicling the daily happenings in a small, rural, two teacher school during the 1950’s shaped my own vision for our “home school”. In “Village Diary” she writes,

I, for one, am always glad to see the end of this most miserable of terms. In it we endure, each year, the worst weather, the darkest days, the poorest health and the lowest spirits. But now, with Easter in sight, and the sun gaining daily in strength, the outlook is much more heartening.

This certainly resonates with me, and I always feel my spirits rising as Easter approaches bringing with it longer days and warmer weather. In keeping with this optimistic outlook we are reminiscing today about some of the hopes we held as we started home educating, how these have found fulfilment, and also some of the many unexpected surprises along the way.

We also have an exciting announcement… so make yourselves a cuppa, listen in and be encouraged!

We’re recording in person again! It’s so much more fun chatting whilst sitting on the same sofa rather than in separate houses. So, we hope our enthusiasm for a subject which can cause consternation comes across today. Make yourself a cuppa and join us as we talk through how we’ve explored science in our homes, from toddlers and mess through to teens and iGCSEs.

A belated happy New Year to you all! We’ve been hibernating for most of January, but are just beginning to peek our noses out into the podcast world again. Helen and I planned to record this episode via zoom, and then, just as we were winding up some history reading, we heard a knock at the door. It was none other than Helen and one of her daughters, complete with flowers, waffles and big smiles! It was so lovely to see her and catch up in real life over a mug of hot tea and the last of the (somewhat burnt) chocolate brownies.

We hope you enjoy our conversation as we offer suggestions to help get our days off to a good start. And maybe we can all surprise and encourage a friend this month in the same way Helen did me!