Homeschooling parents who turn every moment of the day into a learning opportunity for their children have left viewers divided on Britain’s Best Parent – with some insisting their style is unrealistic, while others praised their dedicated approach.
Creative inventor Ben and stay-at-home mother Becky, from Wiltshire, are parents to three girls – Daisy, 10, Lauren, 8, and Arabella, 5 – and insist youngsters should never stop learning.
However, their non-stop education approach ruffled some feathers during last night’s episode of the Channel 4 parenting contest, with viewers criticising their style as unrealistic for most full-time workers.
A couple (pictured) who constantly homeschool their children have left viewers divided on Britain’s Best Parent – with some insisting their style is unrealistic, while others praised their dedicated approach
Creative inventor Ben and stay-at-home mother Becky, from Wiltshire, are parents to three girls(pictured with their mother) – Daisy, 10, Lauren, 8, and Arabella, 5 – and insist youngsters should never stop learning
However, their non-stop education approach ruffled some feathers during last night’s episode of the Channel 4 parenting contest, with viewers (above) criticising their style as unrealistic for most full-time workers
Pointing out that both parents can easily stay at home, one person wrote: ‘Easy to homeschool when neither parent has a job,’
Another said: ‘These homeschool parents haven’t really shown a parenting style as such. They’re just showing home they homeschool and going on about curriculum. Seem more like teachers than parents.’
A third added: ‘In my opinion, school definitely adds in areas that aren’t possible to achieve from homeschooling.’
While a fourth wrote: ‘Britain’s Best Parent already has me raging. The attitude the first parents have towards schools and teachers is atrocious.’
‘Instead of trying to make learning fun, we just have fun and find the learning in it,’ Becky explained on the show. ‘We think that education and learning is about your whole life all the time.’
Reaction: Social media users took to Twitter following last night’s episode to criticise Ben and Becky’s parenting approach
The couple believe that for their three daughters, learning should not just happen in a classroom but all the time, regardless of location.
Ben complained that other parents ‘can’t wait to ship their kids off to school, then get a babysitter and go out all the time.’
While Becky, who believes schools are under-resourced, boasted: ‘In primary school they’re generally in class for 35 hours a week, I can probably keep up with that in about six hours.’
The children are given the chance to try any scheme they’d like thanks to their father Ben, who even created a mini dance studio (pictured) and rock climbing frame for his youngsters
‘Everything we do is a lesson,’ the couple explained before giving their children, along with the youngsters of two other competing sets of parents, a science lesson about gasses during lunchtime (pictured)
The children are given the chance to try any scheme they’d like thanks to their father Ben, who even created a mini dance studio and rock climbing frame for his youngsters.
‘My kids pursuing their dreams is our number one goal, so whatever they want to do, we’ll set up the house in a way to facilitate that,’ he told the cameras.
‘Everything we do is a lesson,’ the couple explained before giving their children, along with the youngsters of two other competing sets of parents, a science lesson about gases during lunchtime.
Some viewers (above) praised the parents’ dedication, with one Twitter user writing: ‘Good for Becky and Ben! Excellent parents, especially Becky! She has so much charisma!’
‘Why can’t lunch be science?’, Ben questioned. ‘Learning doesn’t just happen between the hours of nine and quarter past three. It’s all the time. Learning is all the time.’
Some viewers praised the parents’ dedication, with one Twitter user writing: ‘Good for Becky and Ben! Excellent parents, especially Becky! She has so much charisma!’
Another viewer said: ‘Well those parents are clearly awesome but what a huge effort. Hats off to them but I couldn’t do it to that level even for a single hour.’