The second question (after assessing our sailing prowess) we get when describing our upcoming adventures is “what about school”? Whereas the first question is often in a sceptical tone, the later is usually in an accusing tone begging the question how can one just leave for an indefinite trip outside the regular school program? Enter SIDE, School of Isolated and Distance Education. Founded in 1918 this is the organisation that has been teaching those living in locations too remote to house a regular school. Back in the day it was all about two way radio but these days it’s all email, websites, apps, e-books, uploads, downloads, you get the picture. Actually to be honest there is an old-school element called post but that will be more of a one way street for us. When we returned from NZ there were 3 large boxes waiting for us from SIDE, they contained the rest of the years curriculum work, broken into fortnightly work packs called sets or returns.

Each set contains a daily prescription of Maths and English interspersed with practical experiments and exercises most of which are written but some of which are recorded in sound, photo or video. Laura and I are the designated tutors but we have a back-up team of teachers to help as required. Once a set is completed we can upload all the work into a website for marking by the assigned teacher. As we have already marked the work the teacher is effectively marking our work which has reignited feelings of stress not felt since school, and the kids wonder why we’re so demanding!

We’ve been going with the SIDE home schooling for about six weeks now and here’s how I would grade it:

Quality of education: (A). One on one teaching means things cannot be missed or glossed over and you can really spend time on the bits that haven’t sunk in. We also include a lot of “field work” as we see fit which has got to be pretty good for their education right?

Ease of education: (B-). This is a demanding program and requires daily discipline to get through. Three hours per day will do it if focused, if not then it takes longer. No more dropping the kids at school and letting the teachers run rampant with our children’s minds. Still the morning school rush is long forgotten and lazy breakfasts are now the norm, followed by arguments about which subject to start.

Social Interaction: C. We (as in the family) are the social interaction, we have our good days and bad days! Hopefully once cruising we will hook up with other cruising families and mix things up a little. That said we do organise play dates and see friends quite a bit so the kids are getting more adult friendly.

So in conclusion I don’t think we’ll mess them up too badly, however if we do it’ll have been in a nicer place than the typical classroom. At least they should be able to tie a knot or two and know their Mizzen from the Main, actually we don’t have a Mizzen so they might not know that bit after all.