By @RealKevinPalmer
In the second part of of our interview with Loose Women star Nadia Sawalha, we spoke about her experiences homeschooling her children in recent years, how the plan was given a unexpected rubber stamp in 2020 and her new book that looks at a topic that always divides opinions between parents.
Nadia Sawalha and Mark Adderley
When Nadia Sawalha and her husband Mark Adderley made the decision to take their two youngest children out of private education and move them to a homeschooling plan back in 2014, sceptics of their decision were not hard to find.
Some of their friends questioned the move at the time, but Nadia is convinced she made the right decision for her kids Maddie and Kiki-Bee.
In a year when the Covid-19 lockdown forced all parents to embrace the homeschooling plan, she admits the events of this confusing year offer the unexpected vindication of her own parenting decision and she opened up on this very personal subject to FemaleFirst in an exclusive interview.
"Never in my life did I think I would wake my kids up and tell them that everyone in the world was now being homeschooled," she told us.
"We couldn't believe it because this is the path we followed a long time ago. It was incredibly life-affirming for us when everyone was in that position.
"We watched people spiralling into despair and not knowing what to do and trying to recreate a school at home, trying to stand up in front of their child as their teacher. It made us realise how far we have come. My husband and I over analyse everything we do, but we realise we have done okay when we see how hard everyone else found homeschooling.
"We do a podcast called Confessions of a Modern Parent and tear ourselves apart every week on what we are not doing, how should do better. Then to watch people try and do homeschooling when lockdown started, it reminded us we have come a long way in the last six years."
Nadia and Mark's new book entitled Honey I Homeschooled The Kids outlines their story over the last few years and she is passionate in her view that there are alternatives to the traditional route for education your children.
"In this book, we start by asking people to close their eyes and imagine what a home school kid is," she continues. "Are they feral, running around in the woods naked, unable to brush their teeth, or read and write...
"That's how the media portray home school kids and home school families, but that is not the way any more.
"Even before lockdown, there were hundreds of thousands of kids who are being homeschooled and when I first started homeschooling, people said it was only religious relics and mad people that did it, but it doesn't seem so strange now.
"So many people are not happy with the school system and let's be honest, it doesn't look great right now. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-school at all. For most kids, school is absolutely the right place for them and they love it.
"But for some children, it just doesn't work. Our youngest child was deeply unhappy at school and it was a shadow over the whole family. So we didn't even know about homeschooling at the time, but we had to do something.
"She was at a private school at the time and Mark and I have always said that the biggest mistake we ever made was sending her to private school. You think you are going to be treated as an individual, but it's just a business. They want you in the top stream and she just didn't fit in that world.
"My children are smart, but they are not mathematical geniuses and that is a problem in private school. We have since found out that one of them also has dyslexia, which would not have helped on that school. If you don't excel in maths at a private school, you will have a problem."
Nadia is keen to point out that Honey I Homeschooled The Kids is not a manual encouraging parents to take their kids out of school, but she hopes it will offer some fresh ideas.
"This is not just a book about homeschooling," she adds. "Mark and I are not just nutters saying everyone should pull their kids out of school, but 70 per-cent of parents said they got to know their kids better during lockdown and that has to be a good thing.
"Kids going to ten different clubs a week and putting them on a schedule where they barely stop from the minute they get up in the morning until the moment they go back to bed cannot be a good thing. Why are we doing this? Too many kids are over scheduled and it is not good for them.
"The book is offering some ideas on how you can compliment what you do with your kids now and make it a little better."
Honey, I Homeschooled the Kids by Nadia Sawalha and Mark Adderley, published by Coronet, is available now.
RELATED: Nadia Sawalha shares how she coped with lockdown and discusses her new You Tube channel
Nadia Sawalha spoke to Female First in an exclusive interview and in the first part here, she talks about her experiences during lockdown and her highly successful YouTube channel. The second part our our interview will look at Nadia's thoughts on homeschooling your kids and her new book that focuses on that very subject. Nadia Sawalha admits the bizarre challenges of 2020 has tested her relentless eagerness to be positive, but she believes it is the only way to get through a second national lockdown amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic... to read more click HERE
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