Thinking. A year off

I'm sitting here grinning because JJ's fourth class teacher just told me that she is amongst the top of her class and she's going really well at school.

This after a year of no school/home school.

Did she do any formal 'schoolwork'? Hardly.

Did she do any projects? Nup.

Did she do 'research' or 'basic skills' or 'maths'? Only if she wanted to.

What did we do?

We talked a lot. We followed our interests. We made connections between books, videos, culture and general knowledge. We did a lot of quizzes on the internet (Which Harry Potter/Babysitters club character are you?) and we played a lot of games, both the 'real' kind and the dreaded computer kind. We developed a good relationship based on honesty and openness, and we had a lot of fun. JJ did new things that she wouldn't have done if she was at school - like ride horses, do gym, take fantastic art classes, debate against adults, tie-dye t-shirts, cook great cakes.

So a year out of school will not wreck your life, people. In fact, it will probably add to general knowledge, ability and confidence, and to the knowledge of what you like and don't like, and are good at and not good at.