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On this Episode we saw another three sets of parents explaining why their parenting style is the best. Becky and Ben wanted to home educate their own children, Richard and Emily who follow a regimented parenting style based on a 'meticulous' routine and Andi and Jon whose parental style is 'organised chaos'.
First up was Becky and Ben who explained that they want to have fun and find the learning in it! - which is an interesting learning approach. There's nothing wrong with children having fun, as long as they are learning life skills at the same time! They admitted that children learn all of the time, not just throughout the school hours - and that being enclosed in a classroom only allows the children to socialise for a short amount of time, whereas with their home schooling technique, 500 different families are able to meet up (including all different ages and from different backgrounds) to learn off of eachother!
Another aspect of their parenting style enables the children to learn new skills themselves (such as making their own lunches and washing up their own dishes) - both simple tasks, but it's better for the children to learn these things from a young age rather than relying on the parents!
The next set of parents to showcase their parenting approach was Richard and Emily. They like to have a structure so that their children are keeping active, learning new skills and also developing their self confidence. In addition to this, like many familiies, they have a star chart, which gives children points based on what task they do! For lunch, the children made Chinese spring rolls, taking on the role of project manager to ensure that each child is achieving their own personal goals and also enjoying the experience at the same time!
The final two tasks that they did, included Emily turning herself into a crocodile with the children trying to get across the water and then creating artwork from an initial plan - some of the parents disagreed that 'creativity doesn't need to be planned' as some artwork is created unintentionally or by accident.
Finally Andi and Jon showcased their chaotic approach to parenting! With 5 children and 2 dogs, they're naturally going to have more of a chaotic approach as they are having to deal with a lot of individual needs! They say that 'little people' (a.k.a children) need to be able to make mistakes in order to learn from it, and as children, it's sometimes nice for them to be treated like children!
After hitting a pinata, it was upto the children what they wanted to eat for lunch (and it looked like all the children wanted pasta, so instead 4 different meals were shared)...including chilli con carne, pasta and cottage pie. A question from the audience was 'How can your children grow up without being naughty, without having a structure?' which they replied to say that there are rules in place and a 'thinking chair' for if the children need to take some time out!
In the end only one parenting style could win and go through to the Grand Finale, and it was Becky and Ben (the home educators) who went to the final!
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