ALISON Blaine had never thought about home educating her children until she picked up a copy of Good Housekeeping.

In the turn of a page all her problems had an answer.

Former accountant Alison and husband Colin had spent months looking for the right school for their four-year-old son who had Down's Syndrome and leukaemia.

They were concerned that special schools wouldn't offer the right setting and so Alison made the momentous decision to home educate John and later his younger sisters Elizabeth and Lucy.

"We were going to send the girls to school," recalls Alison, who lives at Owlthorpe, Sheffield.

"But by the time they were each school-age we were so happy doing family things."

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Sadly John lost his battle for life in 2000, aged 10, but Alison feels her decision to keep her children at home helped the family enormously.

"The girls had those years together with John that they would have missed if they'd been at school. Elizabeth would have come back from school not knowing what had happened in the day. John could go downhill quite fast.

"After he died we just carried on doing family things and sending the girls to school was never an option."

Four years ago the couple had a third daughter Felicity, aged four, and now teach all their children themselves.

But you won't find a desk, a blackboard or even any exercise-books in the Blaine household.

The girls don't have a set curriculum, lessons or homework. They simply learn through play and set their own agenda guided by their interests.

Alison and Colin follow their lead and through in-depth conversation, the girls' understanding and knowledge has flourished.

"I'm an avid reader and I'm desolate when I haven't got anything to read," explains Alison, at the weekly meeting of home educated children and their parents at Highfield adventure playground in Sheffield.

"I think that rubs off although I did start to panic when Elizabeth was 10 and she couldn't read properly. She learned in the end, just like she learned to write but it wasn't through any formal lessons."

Elizabeth is now 16 and is just finishing a foundation course at Sheffield College covering a range of subjects. She loves singing and drama and next year hopes to take a BTEC first diploma in performing arts.

Her education doesn't appear to have suffered, although, unlike many teenagers her age, she isn't awaiting GCSE results and therefore won't have formal school qualifications unless she chooses to sit them at college.

Like many home educated children Elizabeth is bright and a confident communicator. She's at ease in adult company and has fitted into the more mature college scene with ease.

"I've never had any problems with being home educated," says Elizabeth, who has spent the past hour chatting to friends on the swings while her younger sisters play merrily on a zip wire.

"A lot of people think home educated kids don't have any friends but that's nonsense.
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