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Katie Pybus, a 44 years old mom, has a very peculiar way of instilling education to her three children. Pybus believes that children will be better off playing video games and having fun than going to school and learning how to read, write, and do arithmetic.
According to Mirror, Pybus, who registered her kids in a homeschooling program, make them play video games for the same amount of time a regular kid who actually goes to school would spend time learning why there’s climate change.
Mother Pybus said, “I don’t think the alphabet has got much to do with learning to read. Games are the bedrock of what we do in our home education. Schools are far too focused on testing and exams and I prefer my children to learn through play.”
Tanith Carey, parenting expert, argued, “This sounds unhealthy – screens are like crack to children. It might sound radical and free thinking but computers are highly addictive to children.”
However, Pybus retorted, “My children will look back and realize they’ve had a lovely, free childhood. I’m led by what they want to do and I don’t restrict screen time.
She continued, “I haven’t formally taught them English and Maths but they’ve learned lots about spelling and number manipulation through games.”
Pybus’ children, 12 years old Sapphire, 10 years old Etienne, and 7 years old Orin, have no daily schedule. They can get up from bed whenever they want and “start learning” through their video game consoles.
Pybus said, “I joke that you can always tell a child who plays Minecraft because the bricks are arranged in multiples of eight, so they can do their 64 times table.
She continued, “They are not fazed by big numbers because they haven’t had the negative maths experiences others have had at school.
“Etienne, who is dyslexic, didn’t want to read books but when I started playing Clash of Clans with him he wanted to help me type messages to his friends.”
Pybus said, “If they’d gone to school, they’d have probably only made friends with people from similar backgrounds. The definition of friendship has changed thanks to things like Facebook.”
She added, “I worry more about my parents falling victim to email fraud than I do about my kids’ safety online. I do talk to them about safety but I don’t worry any more than I would do if they crossed the road to go to a shop.”
The kids would spend all of their time playing Minecraft, Clash of Clans, Sims, and Pokemon Go. Since the kids cannot be tested, there’s no way of getting data if Pybus’ method actually works.
Etienne said, “Most people have to get up for school around 8am and get their uniform on but I can just keep playing.”
Orin said, “I play a few different games every day and I enjoy it.”
Sapphire said, “Loads of people think being home-educated means you have special needs, you can’t cope with school or that you don’t learn very well. That’s not actually true. I’ve learned a lot through video games.”
Sapphire added, “Orin has been able to read for a long time but if you asked him to put something into alphabetical order, he’d struggle.”
Pybus’ and her husband, Roger, agreed to educate their children at home since Sapphire, the eldest was born into this world. According to Mirror, Roger works for an engineering firm. They had to get the most powerful internet broadband service just to compensate for the constant playing.
Tanith Carey argued, “If learning through computer games was so effective, we’d have the most brilliant generation in history. Children do learn through play – but play which is tactile and involves real life people.”
A West Sussex County Council spokesperson said, “Our elective home education team follows the Department for Education’s guidance on the monitoring of elective home provision."
Most of the friends that the kids had made are through online. Since some games allow them to interact or play with other strangers, that’s basically the only way they could build a friendship.
All three children have screen names for their games: Sapphire is Cat, Etienne is Golden Gremlin, and Orin is Dobot Bowser. According to their mom, they had made friends from Thailand, Philippines and the USA.
According to Mirror, the total estimate of home-schooled children is 36,000 out of 9.5 million children who are in the proper age of going to school. Although the children can take their GCSEs, their parents won’t force or have any plan to send them for it.
