Learning comes through exploring, and travel, right?
This is exactly what Louisa Jones, ex-head of Reading’s Civitas Academy School, firmly believes in.
Jones has taken her own kids out of formal education for a year to travel the world and discover new places and things.
Louisa could now face a fine of £60 per child (Dh290) for “unauthorized” holiday absences. But the Mom doesn’t care.
The woman wrote in her travel blog: “.as long as you are taken off roll and not causing the school a poor attendance then the school doesn’t mind. In fact, they support some real life schooling.”
While opting for home-schooling of her kids Rufus and Katie, the young Mom wants education for them that can go further than just the school and books.
The family of 4 have kicked off their ‘education’ trip in a rented villa on The Palm, Dubai.
The family will stay in Dubai for some time before leaving for Bahrain, then they’ll be off to Sri Lanka, Singapore, New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Argentina, Costa Rica, and then also explore the United States and Canada.
In her blog, Louisa said: “After some quality time with our friends we went to stay at one of Dubai’s lovely hotels on the palm. We managed to find a hotel with apartments so we had our own kitchen.
“Katie learned how to swim without arm bands here which has been a huge boost in her confidence. Just a few consecutive days in the pool had improved the children’s swimming so much. I’m pleased about this as this is one of the things on my list of ‘what do we want to achieve from this trip’.”
Louisa added: “People have asked me – are you actually teaching them, or just saying you are? Now, to me, homeschooling isn’t just day trips and horse riding lessons. Although this is a big part of it.”
The family have sold or donated all of their physical possessions, including their house, and moved out of their rented home in Grosvenor Road, Caversham, The Sun report said.
A spokesman for Reading Borough Council was quoted “Council education officers are aware of this family and are satisfied they have acted within the law. We can confirm there is no investigation regarding their children’s schooling.”
A Mother Faces Jail Time After Refusing To Vaccinate Her Son
With the numerous amounts of research proving the effectiveness as well as the massive amounts of benefits of child vaccinations – there are still parents who just plain refuse to vaccinate their kids.
Legally, Parents do have the right to ignore the advice of medical professionals as well as scientific data and can abstain from adhering to a vaccination schedule in many states in the US.
But this mom is taking her stance against vaccines to the absolute extreme.
A Michigan mom of one young boy, Rebecca Bredow, says that she would rather face imprisonment than get her child vaccinated.
“I would rather go to jail for standing up for what I believe in than vaccinate my child,” Bredow told ABC News recently. She believes the decision to vaccinate your child is a “personal choice.”
Bredow and her ex-husband are now at odds over their son’s vaccinations. When they were married, Bredow claims that her then-husband agreed to space out her son’s vaccines, however, changed his mind once they separated.
The father now wishes for his son to receive all his vaccinations. She was court-ordered to bring him up to the “fullest extent medically allowed,” which means that she has only a few days to get her son up-to-date on eight vaccines in one dose.
The state of Michigan does allow for parents to opt-out of certain vaccines for non-medical reasons.
Bredow says that she had done her own research and decided spacing out son’s vaccines was the route she wanted to go.
“It wasn’t until they started grouping them together that I backed off of doing vaccines,” she told WXYZ Detroit.
According to court records which ABC News got access to – Bredow was ordered to vaccinate her son in November 2016, but as of September 2017 she still did not comply with the court order.
Whether the Mother ends up spending time in jail is for a judge to decide but it’s important to note that The American Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes the necessity of vaccines with regard to children’s health and safety.
On it’s website the AAP says “Vaccines have been part of the fabric of our society for decades and are the most significant medical innovation of our time,” and that “Vaccines are safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines save lives.”
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