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Then there were a few summer holidays when we stayed in a hotel with a lovely, warm, indoor pool and my progress was much faster during these few weeks. I plucked up the courage to swim under water and to dive in. I remember feeling much happier during those times. The atmosphere was more relaxed, more fun, and I was learning in an environment

I’d like to invite you to think for a moment about those activities that you enjoy doing most now, as an adult, and see if you can remember how you learnt to do them. Were you taught in a formal way? Did you teach yourself? Did you learn through performing tasks, reading about it or some other way? What motivated you?

How I learned to swim

I have a great affinity with water and my favourite way of exercising is swimming. It’s something I look forward to doing every week and I enjoy a reasonable level of competency. When I think back to how I learned to swim, what emerges is a hotch potch of different events. Some of my education in this area was very much “free range” in that I was introduced to a variety of opportunities at various times in my childhood and was free to choose for myself those which suited me at the time. At other times swimming lessons were forced upon me.

To begin with, I went swimming with my father at our local swimming pool on a Saturday morning. I remember having mixed feelings about this. I wanted to spend time with my father and I wanted to learn to swim, but the water was very cold and very highly chlorinated, so these sessions often resulted in my eyes feeling sore and I remember feeling sick in the car on the way home. I think I progressed reasonably well with my swimming skills this way, but the conditions were not at all ideal.

Then there were a few summer holidays when we stayed in a hotel with a lovely, warm, indoor pool and my progress was much faster during these few weeks. I plucked up the courage to swim under water and to dive in. I remember feeling much happier during those times. The atmosphere was more relaxed, more fun, and I was learning in an environment

I have a great affinity with water and my favourite way of exercising is swimming. It’s something I look forward to doing every week and I enjoy a reasonable level of competency. When I think back to how I learned to swim, what emerges is a hotch potch of different events. Some of my education in this area was very much “free range” in that I was introduced to a variety of opportunities at various times in my childhood and was free to choose for myself those which suited me at the time. At other times swimming lessons were forced upon me.

To begin with, I went swimming with my father at our local swimming pool on a Saturday morning. I remember having mixed feelings about this. I wanted to spend time with my father and I wanted to learn to swim, but the water was very cold and very highly chlorinated, so these sessions often resulted in my eyes feeling sore and I remember feeling sick in the car on the way home. I think I progressed reasonably well with my swimming skills this way, but the conditions were not at all ideal.

Then there were a few summer holidays when we stayed in a hotel with a lovely, warm, indoor pool and my progress was much faster during these few weeks. I plucked up the courage to swim under water and to dive in. I remember feeling much happier during those times. The atmosphere was more relaxed, more fun, and I was learning in an environment

t I was introduced to a variety of opportunities at various times in my childhood and was free to choose for myself those which suited me at the time. At other times swimming lessons were forced upon me.

To begin with, I went swimming with my father at our local swimming pool on a Saturday morning. I remember having mixed feelings about this. I wanted to spend time with my father and I wanted to learn to swim, but the water was very cold and very highly chlorinated, so these sessions often resulted in my eyes feeling sore and I remember feeling sick in the car on the way home. I think I progressed reasonably well with my swimming skills this way, but the conditions were not at all ideal.

Then there were a few summer holidays when we stayed in a hotel with a lovely, warm, indoor pool and my progress was much faster during these few weeks. I plucked up the courage to swim under water and to dive in. I remember feeling much happier during those times. The atmosphere was more relaxed, more fun, and I was learning in an environment

I wanted to spend time with my father and I wanted to learn to swim, but the water was very cold and very highly chlorinated, so these sessions often resulted in my eyes feeling sore and I remember feeling sick in the car on the way home. I think I progressed reasonably well with my swimming skills this way, but the conditions were not at all ideal.

Then there were a few summer holidays when we stayed in a hotel with a lovely, warm, indoor pool and my progress was much faster during these few weeks. I plucked up the courage to swim under water and to dive in. I remember feeling much happier during those times. The atmosphere was more relaxed, more fun, and I was learning in an environment

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Then there were a few summer holidays when we stayed in a hotel with a lovely, warm, indoor pool and my progress was much faster during these few weeks. I plucked up the courage to swim under water and to dive in. I remember feeling much happier during those times. The atmosphere was more relaxed, more fun, and I was learning in an environment that was much more physically comfortable.

Later on I had compulsory swimming lessons at school which I did not enjoy and in which I made little progress. These were followed by private lessons with an army swimming instructor who was cruel and ruthless in his methods. He motivated his students through fear and humiliation and, whilst I obeyed his commands at the time (I really had no choice if I wanted to avoid drowning!) and improved my stamina as a result, the experience left me angry and resentful.

As an adult, I returned to swimming lessons voluntarily, improving my technique and stamina alongside my children with an instructor we all regarded as a friend.

What do I mean by “free range education”? It is when we are at liberty to choose what we learn, in an environment, at a time, at a level and in a way that’s right for us. When I first took my children out of school and decided to home educate them, my main concern was that they might not make progress. So, I decided to stick with what I knew worked for them and, although they were 8 and 6 years old at the time, I re-visited the methods I had used with them as pre-schoolers because I knew they had been happy and well-rounded in their education at that point. So, I just presented them with opportunities, made a variety of resources available to them, a bit at a time and watched to see what would happen. Leaving