Home education possibilities [Archive]

hennypenny

09-02-2007, 11:57 AM

Can i ask where you get the resorses from ?is there anything guide to follow to know whet to teach ie what is appropiate for what age etc as i wouldn't know where to star i am considering home education for our son instead of sending him to seiour school he has add dyspraxia and has social problems wich i can see bullying stating so would't want to put him through seniour school at wich time bulling gets worse i feel.

There are various resources for people who want to use them, such as ready made curriculums eg http://www.witsendcs.com/ do a year-in-a-box which is quite expensive and http://www.amblesideonline.org/New.shtml which has the advantage of being free :) If you search online there are loads of free resources.

However my first piece of advice to anyone contemplating HE would be to wait and see how it works out for a while before spending money because most people new to home ed buy lots of work books and then find they do not use them after a few weeks.

A huge number of people come to home education because their child is bullied at school, or has special needs - in many cases the local LEA officers suggest it to them because they are aware school is not meeting the childs needs. They set off expecting home education to work like school at home, however in my experience these people are less likely to be successful with home education than the ones who relax and allow home education to work differently than school education. Being with one child at home is a lot different than trying to fit in with 30 children's needs in a class, so it can look very different. For instance there is no real need to sit a child down to do workbooks each day, maths can be worked into everyday life by playing shops, or going to the real shops, allowing the child to be in charge of the household budget for instance, letting them work out how much to allot to food shopping for a week, buy the food and cook it for the family, depending on their age, can be an educational experience for all ;)

My son learned his two times table from adding up the dots on lego bricks, and from doing complex mental calculations, he learned measuments by pacing out the length of dinosaurs in the back lane, and volume and area by calculating how to double up or reduce recipes and which pans they would need and working out how many tiles we needed to refurbish the bathroom - he never put a pen to paper until he was 12, but passed his Maths (Higher)GCSE at 13.

Science was through walks in the woods, identifying funghi, experiments in the kitchen with bicarb of soda and vinegar, growing plants, watching seeds sprout, making rockets etc etc, - he is now doing a PhD, following a degree in Biology.

English can be learned by reading books together and discussing films and plays plot lines. My daughter has recently seen Midsummers night dream at the City Hall, followed by different interpretations on DVD and has had an interesting time comparing the different productions, discussing how each producer has tackled plot elements in a different way, and reading through the script herself to decide how she would choose to present each part.

Writing can be learned through doing shopping lists and thankyou letters to relatives etc, no need to sit down each day to produce work. An adult is not expected to write an acount of a visit to a farm, for instance, so why should anyone expect a child to find it interesting either? However that same child may quite happily write a huge list of every dinosaur they know, or a complex plot for a roleplay game, so allow them the freedom to choose and they will learn without even recognising what they do as work.

A lot of education is about discussion, we do not do a lot of school type work in our household, but talk endlessly about all sorts of different subjects as they come up, we visit lots of museums, farms, historic buildings, etc etc and talk about news items etc. My daughter is a prolific writer on the computer, writing poetry and stories endlessly, and yet has never been forced to sit down and work on her writing, somehow it seems to improve - I am not quite sure how. My son did not like writing and rarely did any. It has not held him back, nor prevented him doing his degree early and now his PhD and fortunately he has gone into the world of medicine, where bad handwriting is almost a prerequisite;)

Home education allows you to follow the childs interests and learn with them. Anyone will learn well the things that interest them, a parents role can be to keep presenting them with interesting things to learn and they will willingly mop it all up :)

It can look as much or as little like school as you want it too. Some people find school very hard to let go of, do have desks, workbooks and sit down work, and that is their choice. I have chosen to have a child led style and that has worked well for us, but you must work out your own way. One thing to realise is that children can learn far more on a one to one basis, and so full time at home can be much shorter than at school, where a lot of the day is taken up with waiting. One study found each child got 15mins one to one per WEEK at school, so if they have more than that at home you are winning ;)

There is a big home education group in Sheffield and we meet regularly. At the moment there is a drama group, computer group, skating group, music group, swimming meet and a big social meeting once per week, and quite a few other one-off meetings, pm me if you want more details of the local group.

For more information try some of these websites
http://www.education-otherwise.org/
http://www.home-education.org.uk/
http://www.muddlepuddle.co.uk/
http://www.geocities.com/sueincyprus/

I hope this helps. I am happy to answer any further questions :)

Janet

hennypenny

04-04-2007, 11:52 PM

I have had a few PM's asking me about home education, so I thought I would start a thread where anyone interested could ask questions, and I and the other home educators on the forum can try to answer them.

I have been home educating for 21 years now, and have 2 children (one is now an adult) who have never been to school. I think I have come across most questions that people ask about home ed in that time, so if you are curious - ask away :)

Wheezy

05-04-2007, 12:06 AM

Hello there, this week, I got my child into the school that I want. A friend of mine didn't and she is devastated. How easy is it to home educate?

hennypenny

05-04-2007, 12:38 AM

I find it very easy. Some people find it difficult. I think it is all about your style and how confident you are about what you are doing.

The legalities are quite easy, a simple letter of deregistration from the school roll, or if it is at transition to primary or secondary, then she would just need to notify the school that her child does not need the place allocated.

If the child does not have a place allocated at a school then there is no legal obligation to notify anyone.

The style of education of each family is individual to each family - there is no right or wrong way.

Some families follow a curriculum and in effect do "school at home". As one to one teaching is far more effective than 1-30 they find they can get through the same amount of work much more quickly.

Some families do not follow a curriculum but try to keep up to school level with basic subjects, such as English and Maths, whilst allowing other subjects to be more project based.

Some families do as we did, which is to abandon school type education altogether and trust their children to learn the things they need to know, this does not mean abandoning them to their own devices, but to follow the childs lead, facilitating their learning of the things they are interested in, and always introducing them to things that may interest and intrigue them. This style is known as autonomous learning and is the least understood type of home education. Research has shown it works extremely well, but it is suspected by conventional educationalists.

It is as well to learn the law relating to home education and be prepared, so do your research first.

The following sites are good for finding out more about home education.

http://www.education-otherwise.org - this site has a summary of the law and also has sample deregistration letters to copy, and educational philosophies to help you to formulate your own.

http://home-ed.info/ A site set up by a long term home educator whose children are now adults. Very informative.

http://www.home-education.org.uk/ - this site has a comprehensive guide to the law relating to home education and many fascinating articles.

SamMT

10-04-2007, 03:11 PM

My question about this is how do other children and potential employers respond to children who have never been to school. I always wonder about the socioemotional effects. Being 'different' etc. Is there much research about this? Children's subjective experience etc?

hennypenny

12-04-2007, 12:03 AM

In my experience home educated children do not come across as being very different, and so people react to them in the usual way. When on visits with home educated groups, the main differences that I repeatedly find remarked upon is how well they behave, how they ask interested and intelligent questions, and how polite, friendly and pleasant they are.

In Sheffield the children meet up regularly (4 to 5 times per week) and socialise, in groups of 20 -30 at a time, so they have the normal social skills you would expect from any children of this age.

From personal experience, my son went to college when he was 14 and fitted in very well, with no problems, except possibly that he was slightly mystified by the other kids in the class messing about when he was there intending to learn.

I remember at one college parents evening I asked his tutor how he was fitting in as he was 2 years younger than the others, and had never been to school - she blushed and admitted that she had totally forgotten he was younger, as he was so mature that he was the one the others went to with their problems and the one they looked to for the answers. He has always tended to choose to socialise with people older than himself, finding people his own age rather young - however my daughter has friends of all ages, from babies to elderly people, and her favourite place to be is in the middle of a group of girls her own age, so I think that is individual choice rather than a constraint of home education. Possibly it is even a freedom of home education as they have both had the chance to choose, rather than being forced into the company of others their own age, which would have been an unpleasant experience for my son.

Paula Rothermel's research (Home-Education: Rationales, Practices and Outcomes, Paula Rothermel, University of Durham, 2002) shows that home educated children perform well on standard assessments of accademic attainment and social skills:-

http://www.dur.ac.uk/p.j.rothermel/Research/Researchpaper/BERAworkingpaper.htm

The results show that 64% of the home-educated Reception aged children scored over 75% on their PIPS Baseline Assessments as opposed to 5.1% of children nationally. The National Literacy Project (Years 1,3,5) assessment results reveal that 80.4% of the home-educated children scored within the top 16% band (of a normal distribution bell curve), whilst 77.4% of the PIPS Year 2 home-educated cohort scored similarly. Results from the psychosocial instruments confirm the home-educated children were socially adept and without behavioural problems. Overall, the home-educated children demonstrated high levels of attainment and good social skills.

Universities are catching on to the fact that home educated children tend to have a higher level of self motivation and self directed study skills, and in America, Harvard and Yale both actively recruit home educated students.

I believe for my son the presence of HE on his CV led to an increased interest from employers and universities, and was not in any way a disadvantage, he has had no problems getting places at college, university or on his PhD course, as well as doing lots of part time jobs over the years.

drp215

14-04-2007, 12:11 AM

I would like to know, what makes you have the confidence to know that you can educate your child to the high standards he/she deserves, in comparison to a school who have 'experts' in the field?

hennypenny

14-04-2007, 07:55 PM

The same research posted above which finds that home educated children do better than children educated by any other educational system, including private schools. It also found that there was no correllation between the parents socio economic background, income or educational level and the progress of the child.

http://www.dur.ac.uk/p.j.rothermel/Research/Researchpaper/BERAworkingpaper.htm

Zebra

14-04-2007, 09:12 PM

I would imagine that home educated children are already in a good situation, I don't think the kind of parents who are interested in teaching their kids at home are lacking intelligence.
I suspect that the ones who can't wait to turf their kids out of the house in a morning so they can get on with loafing around and watching morning tv, they're the ones who rarely have the intelligence to be discerning about the quality of education or maybe just don't care.
I would conclude therefore, that there is a baseline of education, ambition and common sense which teaching parents hold in common. I would also imagine that a certain quantity of the population fall way below that baseline and would not be capable, nor inclined to teach at home.
I'd be interested to see what the results are for education values, attainment and ambition for the teaching parents compared to the 'schools good for babysitting' sort of people.

Zebra

14-04-2007, 09:17 PM

I would like to know, what makes you have the confidence to know that you can educate your child to the high standards he/she deserves, in comparison to a school who have 'experts' in the field?
But many of the 'experts' really aren't at all. They can have a degree in religious education and go on to do the PGCE in primary teaching for example and rarely teaching religious education at all.
My specialist subject is not a core subject in schools these days yet I have a qualification to teach.
I would feel very confident teaching my kids everything but maths, that's the only one which I think I would struggle with, the teaching techniques are mostly alien to me and my recall of the ability to do trig and algebra etc is low because I don't need it. So, I suppose I'd be book and internet reliant for that.
Otherwise I'd feel fine using resources to supplement my knowledge and abilities.

hennypenny

14-04-2007, 10:00 PM

I read an article recently that gave figures for the numbers of teachers who were actually qualified in the subject they were teaching - I don't remember the statistics, but they were astonishingly low - I can't find the article again now - very irritating!

What most home educators I know have found in practice is that we don't actually "teach" our children. What we do is to help them to learn. A lot of it is parent and child learning together - the parent certainly doesn't need to be one step ahead of the child, sometimes it is the child who is the expert and who teaches the parent. When a child is interested in a subject then they will learn it simply by researching and exploring it for themselves. Left to themselves children will naturally want to learn and make sense of the world around them. In a piece of research done recently :-

"One child had a SEGA megadrive on which he played a game where he explored different planets looking for minerals. From this he learnt a lot about mineral names, developed an interest in geology, visited museums, other countries and mines and made jewellery. This led to an interest in natural history which further expanded his area of investigation.
Another child became interested in the war-time evacuation of children after watching a Narnia film following through with the topic in considerable detail. Yet another child undertook research into the battle of Trafalgar after the bicentennial celebrations and also into the gunpowder plot after one Guy Fawkes’s night."
Ref USE OF ON-LINE AND MULTIMEDIA IN HOME EDUCATION
Manjit Dosanjh
Bournemouth University

Children learn much better in a one to one situation, and even unpopular subjects can be learnt together. There are several online and offline resources which can be used, such as the excellent Maths2XL course, Education city for fun lessons online, Learn Premium etc, and if parents feel in need of more structured help, then there are now several online accadamies which offer school at home. Home education groups usually run various classes, in Sheffield there are currently drama, music, computing, first aid, swimming and skating sessions running, in the past there have been language, history and many other sessions run as children have expressed an interest. The childs progress is not totally dependent upon the level of expertise of their parent, they can access knowledge from many other sources.

Footiefreak

28-04-2007, 02:02 PM

I have a family member who has educated all three of her children at home - I don't know how she stays motivated (and keeps them interested!) - that would be my biggest problem I think.

hennypenny

28-04-2007, 08:14 PM

I have a family member who has educated all three of her children at home - I don't know how she stays motivated (and keeps them interested!) - that would be my biggest problem I think.

I think that what happens is that children who haven't been to school don't ever learn that it isn't cool to want to learn, and so they are very motivated themselves. Children learn the things that they need to know incredibly well, after all, they teach themselves to walk and talk! In fact the hardest thing as a home educating parent can sometimes be to step back and let them alone - our instincts are to "teach" them, but actually they learn really well if we just facilitate them to teach themselves by making the resources available to them and allowing them to explore and sort it out in their own time. It is incredibly rare to hear a home educated child say they are bored.

I know one home educator who has 12 children under 14 - now that I would find a challenge!

sheffminxy

30-04-2007, 10:47 PM

Just thought I'd stick my oar in with..

I was home educated :) so I can report on the end result and the perspective of a child in that educational situation..if anyone's interested.

hennypenny

30-04-2007, 11:23 PM

Just thought I'd stick my oar in with..

I was home educated :) so I can report on the end result and the perspective of a child in that educational situation..if anyone's interested.

It is always interesting to hear from home educated adults, although as there are as many different styles of home education as there are home educators, the perspective is also different in every case ;)

Were you home educated throughout your compulsory education years, or only for part of your childhood?

I would love to hear your perspective :)

sheffminxy

30-04-2007, 11:52 PM

It is always interesting to hear from home educated adults, although as there are as many different styles of home education as there are home educators, the perspective is also different in every case ;)

Were you home educated throughout your compulsory education years, or only for part of your childhood?

I would love to hear your perspective :)

Hi :) I was home educated from 11-16 prior to that I attended a state infant and primary school.

hennypenny

01-05-2007, 12:37 AM

Hi :) I was home educated from 11-16 prior to that I attended a state infant and primary school.

Was this in Sheffield? Do I know you?:suspect:

So how do you feel home education affected you?

Wheezy

01-05-2007, 11:02 AM

I'd be interested in hearing all stories possible regarding home education. Not for me, but for my friend. She is really intent on not taking her child to the school she has been appointed (quite understandable) and anything regarding home education would be most greatful.

sheffminxy

08-05-2007, 12:09 PM

Was this in Sheffield? Do I know you?:suspect:

So how do you feel home education affected you?

I don't think so :), I'm not infamous..... Home Education was the best thing in the world for me, it allowed me to grow into the person I am today, it didn't hinder me in the slightest, although I would say with retrospect that it does depend on the personality of the child.

As to whether they'd be suitable for it and indeed it for them.

hennypenny

08-05-2007, 05:03 PM

sooz79

07-08-2007, 09:09 PM

Hi, I just joined the Sheffield Forum. I am the local contact for Education Otherwise in Sheffield and would be happy to answer any questions about home education whether or not anyone is a member of EO. Some home educated children have never been to school, but many more have been deregistered after some time in The System. I have a 13 year old boy who has never been to school; he is educated autonomously without using any textbooks, workbooks, planned curriculum etc. We have a good relationship with Linda Barrett from Access and Inclusion at the Children and Young People's Directorate ( formerly the LEA ) and we have started discussions to change the council website which gives a misleading impression about how much the council might ( or should ) interfere. There is a thriving home ed community in Sheffield with many group activities organised by local parents. I hope this helps. Please get in touch !
Fiona

Hi,i also home educate my two girls who are 9 and 6,we took our girls out of school just over six months ago now and although we have had sort of a slow start i am pleased to say,so far so good :)we had help from fiona (hi ya fiona hope you are ok how are things?)we had our visit from LEA with fiona on stand by on yahoo mess to help us out (which really helped to put me at ease)thank you fiona....we also had a visit from Linda Barrett and i have to say she is a lovely warm lady...my girls are very happy at home and love what they learn,it was very scary at first but i it was well worth it and to be honest there is totally nothing scary about it......lol :hihi:

hennypenny

25-02-2008, 11:02 AM

Following up on this, did any of the people on this thread who were considering home education go on to do it?

I would be interested in what decision you took and why :)

joi5ey

25-02-2008, 12:13 PM

i am considering home educating my baby girl, she is currently 17 weeks :hihi:
i think i am quite daunted by the prospect and even though i am certain i can give her a better primary school education than the local primary I am not so sure when it comes to secondary education. ( i am hoping to move house by the time secondary education comes round!)

what if i forget to teach her something fundamental? we use computers a lot at home so what if she is typing loads but can't actually write?? :help:

hennypenny

25-02-2008, 12:28 PM

I made my plans to home educate pre-conception of my kids, so you are never too early to be thinking about it:)

When people first start home education, they tend to think of it in terms of school education, but as time goes on you realise that school doesn't necessarily have the best methods. Who ever decided that the best way to teach kids was to make them sit still and listen, instead of letting them explore as they were designed to do?

With home ed, there is no need to split everything up into subjects and spend an hour on each. My kids learned by doing things they were interested in until they had thoroughly learned everything there was to know about that subject, or until they lost interest. Sometimes this meant that they were doing one thing for up to 3 months at a time! It all balances out, and over time they get a balanced education. If there is something they realise they need to know, they will learn it very quickly.

My son did all his writing on computers, but when he was 11 he had a trial at secondary school. Once there he realised he needed to be able to do handwriting, so within 2 weeks he had mastered a cursive style. He left after getting totally bored within 6 weeks, so he never really advanced with his writing until he got to uni. In fact his writing still isn't too great now, but I have discussed it with him, and as it hasn't stopped him doing a PhD, he just doesn't feel it is important enough to him to bother with. He says if he ever needs it to improve he will spend a week with a caligraphy book and sort it out then.

The big thing is that children are born wanting to learn, we mistake when we assume that they have to be hectored into learning. If they are left alone to choose what, when and where to learn, with us taking the role of helpers or facilitators in pursuing their interests, they have proven time and again to learn incrdibly well. It is difficult to take that plunge of trusting them, but it really does work :) Remember that school is a fairly recent invention, and the human race has advanced over thousands of years without it.

Schools made sense in an information poor society where one person could dispense difficult to find knowledge to a class of 30 at once, but we are now in an information rich society, where all we need to do as parents is let them free to explore that knowledge :)

joi5ey

26-02-2008, 11:29 AM

hennypenny

26-02-2008, 05:01 PM

thanks hennypenny

your post has been most inspiring! :D
i think we will ply it by ear, but i am definately thinking about home ed for primary school

you say you did a lot of planning for home ed before your son was born, what did you do???

Oh, sorry I didn't mean I did a lot of planning, just that I was lucky enough to have found out about home ed before he was conceived and decided that when I had a child they would be home ed :)

Planning, to be totally honest, doesn't feature massively highly in my life ;)

If I was starting now with a new baby, I would play lots of games with them, read to them lots, talk to them all the time, etc etc - all the things you would normally do at home anyway. I found both of my children learned to read without any need for formal teaching, simply by having books around us all the time.

We used to do loads of baking and crafts together when the kids were little - I was a childminder too some of the time, so they met loads of others. It is never too soon to get involved with the local home ed group, there are people who have small babies as well as older children who come along, and there are activities for the little ones each week, as well as a huge sand and water play area. There is a pre-no-school group which runs weekly as well, I don't have all the details for that as my youngest is 12, but I could find them out if you are interested.

You would be very welcome to come along to the group, meet the children and parents and just get a feel for how different people do it, and if you think it would suit your lifestyle.

Pm me if you want details of meetings.

mary70

06-08-2008, 10:19 AM

i am quite confident in teaching my child (age 2) the basics of maths and english (eg primary,junior) but not confident in teaching her past that, is there help you can get or groups they can join to be educated past that point and how do u know that your child is keeping up to what they should be doing? do they still have to do exams? are they checked up on to make sure they are keeping up? can they join school later on if home schooling isnt working? are work sheets ect easy to get hold of and are they expensive?do u have to do a certain amount of hours a day on core subjects? sorry for all the questions but i want to be 100% sure that what i do is right for me and my daughter, i have already had one child (now 16 and at college)go through the school system very sucessfully but my daughter is different to him

hennypenny

06-08-2008, 11:01 AM

Hi Mary

There is a lot out there to help. You can get hold of the National Curriculum if you want to be sure your child is keeping up with the work they would be doing in school if you feel they may want to go into the schooling system at some point.

There are various online schools if you feel you need extra help, although they can be expensive. There are also educational sites such as Learn Premium (which is much reduced for Education Otherwise members) and Education City.
Plymouth university does an entire maths curriculum free online:-
http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/primary/default.htm

There are loads of resources, far too many to list. The best idea would be to join some of the home ed email lists where resources are regularly shared. If you want work sheets there are lots to download free, but most home educators find that worksheets bore their child, they prefer to learn hands on given a free choice.

In Sheffield there are a few home ed groups that meet regularly,(several times per week) including a toddler group which might be useful to you at this stage. For later on there are different interest groups that meet, such as for language sessions, singing, swimming, skating etc, or whatever parents organise. What happens is if a child is particularly interested in a subject their parents might decide to organise a few lessons with a tutor in that subject and invite others to join in - I have a Japanese class in my front room every Wednesday :)
Pm me if you would like more details of groups.

The Sheffield group is in talks with the local authority about making exams more accessible, it is possible to take exams as an independant candidate, but can be difficult to find a centre willing to let them sit the exam. A lot of home educators prefer to wait until the child is 16 and then they go to college to do their exams, many have found that the college decides to move them straight on to A levels once they see their level of ability. This happened with my son when he went to college at 14, he was allowed to do A/s level and GCSEs side by side.

In my experience home educated children have no difficulty in joining a school, most that I know have been well ahead in all areas of the curriculum, and if there are any shortfalls they very soon catch up. For instance my son went to school when he was 11 and took a standard assessment test which put him in the top 20 in the year, from 300 new pupils. Although he was not so hot at writing (he prefered to write on the computer), once the school convinced him there was a need to write, he caught up with a neat cursive style within a couple of weeks. He only went for 6 weeks though as he was bored rigid.

One point I would like to make, is that there is no need to replicate school type learning at home. It has been developed for a specific set of circumstances which don't apply at home. In my experience children are able to learn far more effectively through fun and exploration than by sitting and filling in worksheets. Why sit down and write about a visit to a farm if you can be out there milking the cows? Why do sums with toy money if you can go to a shop and do the same with real money in real life?

Best of luck and if I haven't covered everything please feel free to ask more.

Bonny

06-08-2008, 12:34 PM

Hi, my little one is 2 and i'm seriously thinking about home educating him. I'd be very interested in finding out more about what's available in the local area such as the toddler group you mentioned.

lauren84

06-08-2008, 12:42 PM

How many days per week did you home educate them - every day for a few hours, Mon - Fri like school or just anytime when it was convenient?

hennypenny

06-08-2008, 01:49 PM

Bonny I have PM'd you :)

Lauren, the hours spent on home education vary greatly from family to family. In my case, because we followed a very non-formal unstructured approach, I would say we home educated 24/7 :)

We followed a method called autonomous or child led education, with no curriculum, but following the child's interests, which meant that we didn't have a regular structure or regular hours. Really the education never stopped, it took place at any time when a child had a question, or when I had something interesting to share with them.

Some families do follow a more structured approach and have a timetable etc, so it really is down to the individual family.

The law says that a parent must provide an efficient full time education, but it does not specify any number of hours, or any format for how the education is to be provided. That is the parent's responsibility to decide what is the best for their child.

mary70

06-08-2008, 02:09 PM

hi hun can u let me know the times and where the meetings take place that would suit my daughter who is 3 at the end of the month as i would like to talk to some parents thatare planning on home ed around the same age as hannah ty so much

mary70

06-08-2008, 02:33 PM

hennypenny

06-08-2008, 03:21 PM

just been pmd this of a teacher on another site i go on wondered what you thought
I am a teacher in a secondary school and sometimes we get kids who have been home-schooled while younger then they come to us.
All of the ones I have met (and I'm sorry to sound negative) seem to have real problems fitting in, lots of them get picked on, and they seem to be off "sick" for long periods of time. Which doesn't do anything to help.
Maybe they haven't had access to groups like you describe though, i don't know.
But personally I wouldn't home-school my child.
Also, school education is shifting to include more scope for variation and 'hands on' experience.

While it is interesting to hear her experience I do wonder how many children she has actually met who have been home educated. Numbers would be good. I would be surprised if she had actually met "lots" because HE is only recently becoming a big phenomenon, so the chances of their being many starting at any one school is slim. I would expect her to be extrapolating from having met one or two. I wonder if she has met children who have been withdrawn from school for other reasons, possibly to travel to their parents home country or children who had previously been expelled from another school rather than children who had been electively home educated by parental choice.

All I know is my own experience. My son went to school for 6 weeks and I suppose from a school point of view he didn't fit in as he hated the whole experience, he was bored solid by the level of work, he was constantly told not to answer questions as "everyone knows you know the answer, let someone else have a turn" and he found the level of aggression and nastiness which was commonplace and casually accepted, to be most unpleasant. However he coped admirably with the level of work, the teachers liked him and he made friends while he was there who he still sees. He also fitted in very well at college and uni.

I know of another girl who went to school at 11 after being home educated all her life who is completely in her element and loves it, although after the first couple of terms she did negotiate with the school to flexi school as she wanted to still attend the home ed group on Tuesdays, so now she just goes 4 days per week. The school speak of her as the model pupil.

Another home educated boy I know did pack in his college course after a few weeks, but only because they had insisted on him taking a basic foundation level course, ignoring the fact that he already had higher qualifications and had won several awards in film making. This was due to him being in a wheelchair which meant he had to go into a class with other pupils with special needs (Why? Why should his disability affect the level of work he could do?) Not surprisingly he didn't stand this for long, and instead approached Hallam university which was happy to offer him a place on a degree course, where he has just sucessfully completed his first year, winning another award during the year for his animations.

Another HE girl started at college at 14 to do GCSEs recently and has consistently been picked out as the pupil the tutors most enjoy teaching, getting voted student of the year on two different courses.

My daughter is adamant she would never go to school, and yet when teachers meet her they are always very impressed, one wanting her to join in with their gifted and talented classes on Saturdays at a local secondary school - this when my daughter was 9. I don't think my daughter would have difficulty fitting in anywhere to be honest she is incredibly sociable.

As a side note, a lot of teachers are very hostile towards home education - I suppose to some it threatens their entire existence to imagine that parents could do their job. On a practical level, some see it as threatening their jobs, as if more people home educate, there is less need for as many teachers. There are an estimated 50,000 home educated children in Britain, and the numbers are growing, that is a lot of schools which are not now needed.
However another interesting statistic is that around one third of home educated children have a teacher for a parent. Many teachers home educate their own children based on what they see happening in schools on a day to day basis.

Bexstars

06-08-2008, 05:05 PM

I have been looking into home educating our daughter who is 2 and a half for a few months now and the more I read about it, the more im convinced that its the right way forward for us. I guess my worries are that if we home educate right from the beginning, would she feel as though she's missing out on something that most other kids experience and if I would be good enough to teach her, athough I think were doing a pretty good job as she can count to 20 and is recognising letters, knows all of her colours and shapes. I have a while yet before making the decision but would love to come along to a group to chat with other mums of kiddies around the same age

LilMissAlien

06-08-2008, 05:37 PM

I have been very torn over home educating our little boy. Unfortunately I think it wouldn't be a full-time option for us, as once I've finished my MSc I want to do a doctorate and I really have to go back to work to pay my way.

I think the way forward for us would be the approach my parents took with me. My Mum was a SAHM until I went to school, and we went on outings and did arts and crafts at home. I spoke in full sentences by age 2 and we did a lot of singing and educational play. When my Dad was home he was also very hands on and would answer any of my questions, even if we had to go and look up the answer together. One time when I was 3 I didn't want to just play at the seaside, I wanted to know what sand was made from and why the sea came in and out - cue my Dad sitting and explaining rock erosion and the tides to me. I was given full sex education without embarrassment at the age of 5 when I asked and was able to take an active role in helping when my sister was born, with my parents explaining her development to me in ways I could understand. By this point I'd already said I wanted to be 'a brain doctor' (I couldn't pronounce psychologist) and I'm well on the way to that now!

My sister was unable to learn much about the subject that mostly interested her at mainstream school - ancient history and archaeology, mostly Egyptology. My parents encouraged her interests by taking her to museums and exhibits, recording documentaries which were on too late for her, and buying her books and videos/DVDs. She was into the subject for well over 10 years before she was finally able to go to university and study the subject properly. She was never the best student, but she is truly shining at uni and is really in her element. She's about to start her final year now.

Both of us went to mainstream school as our parents both worked, but they made time to help us nurture our interests and we are both much better with self-directed learning than structured learning.

I'd like the same for Jamie, ideally with him going to Montessori nursery next year. If we can support it then we would also like for him to go to an independent school which offers a wider subject choice. We as parents have quite diverse interests and we love to go to places like museums and exhibitions, so he's already starting young and coming with us - we plan to do Bodyworlds in Manchester some time in the next 2 weeks before it closes. If a school environment doesn't work out for him then we would reevaluate and home educate - my partner is very bright but felt school wasn't enough for him and didn't have the support to do much self-directed learning. I did well at school but my constantly being top of the class led to bullying that I was poorly equipped to handle until I was 15. So I do feel schooling is a constant process of assessing how it is working out and adjusting it to get the best possible outcome.

Saff

06-08-2008, 06:04 PM

I'm really interested but I have acouple of questions from the adult perspective, how do you afford it? Considering the resources and outings and the not working whilst youare doing it? How do you teach A level standard subjects that you might not be interested in?
Do you feel like you would be disappointed in your children if they don't turn out how you want after investing so much time in them? Do you feel a big weight of responsibility?
Do you have regular time away from your children to do other things?

I'm not planning on home schooling, but if either my children were struggling for some reason I might consider it.

I also think that for many children the education system here is not suitable.

Thanks for any replies!

Bonny

07-08-2008, 02:54 AM

hennypenny

07-08-2008, 09:37 AM

I'm really interested but I have acouple of questions from the adult perspective, how do you afford it?
Considering the resources and outings and the not working whilst youare doing it?

There is no denying that it is difficult to finance home education. There is no help from anyone, each home educating parent is on their own financially. Obviously it is different for each family, but in the majority of cases one parent works while the other stays home to home educate. It is often the mother, although not always.

Other families have found other solutions, some both parents work part time and share the home responsibilities, some work from home, and some use home educating childminders to help them go to work part time. I did know one single parent whose children went to a home educating childminder full time while she worked full time (with WTC paying a substantial amount towards the childcare), but it was not sustainable for long as parent and children both felt they were missing out. Other families have arrangements where one parent works in the day and the other at nights or weekends.

Personally, we started out with my husband working and me at home, then my husband had a nervous breakdown and we were on sick pay for a while, then he took early retirement due to ill health (at 32!) and we lived for a short time on income support, then we both registered as childminders and worked together at home whilst still home educating, then after 9 years we gave up the childminding and became professional genealogists still working at home, and splitting the childcare. Now my husband still works as a genealogist and I run a small unit selling antique glass. We also work as mystery shoppers.

It will never be easy, but it is something that some parents feel strongly enough about to make the necessary sacrifices. I do think that we were lucky, buying a house in the 80's and so do not have the huge mortgage commitment that many parents have now. I do feel very sorry for young parents now and I think it is a more difficult choice.

How do you teach A level standard subjects that you might not be interested in?

My son chose to go to college at 14 to do his GCSE's and A levels, but some parents do home educate to this level, by working with the child through the syllabus and organising a teacher to mark the work. It is hard but has been done.

Do you feel like you would be disappointed in your children if they don't turn out how you want after investing so much time in them? Do you feel a big weight of responsibility?
Do you have regular time away from your children to do other things?

I don't have expectations of my children and I think they are amazing people, so I doubt I would ever be disappointed in them, no matter what they choose to do with their lives. I don't feel a weight of responsibility because I see my role as freeing them to learn, not to teach them, I see that they are doing really well at educating themselves and I would be happy if they went into their adult lives only armed with the amount of knowledge they have right now.

When the children were little we were both with them very intensively, we don't have nights out etc, but that is our choice. As they have got older they are more independent and I get more time to do my own thing. For instance my daughter is off out meeting friends to go shopping today and I am off out to trawl second hand markets :) I have never looked at my time with them as an investment though, just doing what was necessary to meet their needs at any given time.

I don't feel the need for a lot of time away from my children as they are such nice people who I love to be around. My children are my best friends.

My son is an adult now, and has grown into a strong, successful, mature, intelligent and fantastic human being, achieving all he wants to do and is very happy and stable. I have no regrets :)

hennypenny

07-08-2008, 09:49 AM

Firstly, I guess i'm very fortunate in that I don't work and haven't been able to for four years now so we've made all our financial decisions and adjustments based on one income.

If we could afford it I would probably consider Montessori or private education. In my mind the mainstream education system is too rigid and not flexible enough to meet the individual needs of each child.

There are a lot of home educators who base their education on the Montessori methods. If you join the early years home ed group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EarlyYearsHE/ email list you will find many other parents of young children doing various methods.

I want to do whatever is going to be best for my son and so I want to find out as much as I can about all the different options so we're able to make an informed decision. The child-led approach appeals more to me because I have a long held belief that every single person is good at something and has a natural talent or leaning towards particular subjects/interests. I don't feel the current education system accommodates this and so restricts learning to a certain extent - even putting children off learning to a point where they lose all interest.

Absolutely :thumbsup:

My son has always been interested in music and dance but I know very little so whether he's home educated or not i'll do everything I can to support and encourage his interests, I guess that's probably going to mean paying someone else to work with him because I simply don't have the musical skills. I don't know if the home education network has something like a 'skills swap' amongst home educators. But these are all the things i'm researching at the moment. I must admit i'm encouraged by how many other parents are considering or undertaking home education (and quite a few on this side of the City too).

There is a home ed music group for young children based on the Kodaly music method once per week currently running. In the past there have been singing lessons, percussion lessons, music, dance and drama sessions and guitar sessions, I am sure there will be more running again in the future. What usually happens is that a child is interested in a certain skill so their parents set up a session and invite others to join. There is a home ed drama group which has been running for several years and the children produce a play at the end of each year in a theatre in front of a paying audience :)

Edit: forgot to add - I don't think I could ever be disappointed in my son, I don't have any pre-set agenda for achieving any academic qualifications. I want him to be happy and enjoy life. If I can encourage and facilitate him doing something he loves doing then that's my motivation I suppose.

Sounds about right to me :)

hennypenny

07-08-2008, 09:52 AM

waxonwaxoff

07-08-2008, 12:07 PM

Just wanted to say great thread Hennypenny. Infact thinking back, it was probably you and the others answering my hundreds of questions that helped me make the decision 5 years ago.

To all those considering home education it is a hard decision to make and not one to be taken lightly but neither is any decision you make concerning your child's life. However if you do make the step it is extremely rewarding and feels bit like you have set your family free in a way. There are days when you dont feel so confident but usually one of your children shows you something they have done that makes you feel totally proud and happy you have done the right thing.

Saff

07-08-2008, 04:35 PM

Thanks Hennypenny for such an informative response:)

mmmspecialk

07-08-2008, 09:42 PM

Hi I've been reading the thread and would like to let you all know about our new playgroup for families considering or already home educating. Its primarily for under 5's but older children welcome (I have just started a games box for bigger kids). I've been home educating my 3 girls since birth! and as seen as learning is lifelong I thought I'd carry on the way i've been going they have learnt so much in their first 5 years with me I didn't want to hand them over to a stranger to 'teach' them what they think they ought to know!

I've set up the new playgroup recently so my younger children could play with other HE kids and i could meet other parents in the same boat. We're on a break at the moment but restart on Thursday 4th September at St Oswalds church hall Abbeydale rd 10am - 12 noon £1.50 (50p per extra child) covers snacks & drinks for kids and tea/coffee & biscuits for us! plus a craft activity. There is space for babies to explore and large area for bigger kids to play on trikes etc plus a quiet room for jigsaws, books etc (97a stops right outside or drive your car up into car park at the back) so come along for a chat & play hope to see you there

RozeePozee

09-08-2008, 08:25 PM

What a fab idea. I've been wondering about HE (my LO is 21 months) but the more I think about it, the less confident I become in my ability to home educate, and scared of the level of responsibilty and commitment - then I read henny's posts and think I'd be crazy not to, so I'm all over the place at the mo! As you point out, we all home educate from the moment our children come home from the delivery ward and I take a keen interest in learning and child development and OH has just completed his initial teacher training (tho his subject, ICT for 16-19 year olds might be a bit advanced for our boy at present!). I'm signed up to the Yahoo HE group and keep meaning to go along to the meet in Heeley but never seem to get round to it. A playgroup somehow seems more accessible as I spend a lot of time at those already. It's in my diary. See you in September!

mmmspecialk

10-08-2008, 08:50 PM

Great Rozee look forward to meeting you in September, its a lovely group with several parents who are just at the 'considering' stage so you will be able to talk about any of your fears and hopes with other like minded people. Your little one will love it too there is lots for him to do. I'm sure you'll begin to feel more confident the more people you meet who are home educating, it worked for me!

anniec

10-08-2008, 09:56 PM

Threads merged, same topic

treadlightly

12-08-2008, 09:31 PM

I'm thinking of home educating my lo, who is currently 17 months. I have found a "school" of thought / way of thinking which advocates something called "unschooling" which basically allows children to learn in just the way they want to, and as a consequence the learning done is much more solid and fulfilling. I was intrigued by this, as this is how I believe everyone learns best, and how I used to run my nursery (cos the system actually allows this flexible approach in the early years) I met someone earlier this year who home educates her 4 children in this way, and they are revelling in it. One of them is even writing at novel and has only just reached his teens!

As my lo is still quite young, I'm not doing much serious looking into it yet, but I definately would like to hook up with other HE to get a feel for it. Unfortunately I run my baby signing group on Thursday mornings so I can't make the group which has been mentioned, but I'm sure I will be able to juggle things later on which'll mean I can come along - great idea BTW!:D

hennypenny

12-08-2008, 09:37 PM

undacovaplay

14-09-2008, 01:24 AM

if i was you dont bother
my friend did it and it put him behind massivle and now he is behind 2 whole years int he long run its a waste of time

hennypenny

14-09-2008, 08:46 AM

if i was you dont bother
my friend did it and it put him behind massivle and now he is behind 2 whole years int he long run its a waste of time

That surprises me immensely as all the research shows that home educated children are usually way ahead of their schooled peers.

Who is measuring this child's progress, and against which scale? Have they measured his confidence and self worth as well as his academic progress?

Did his mum join any home education groups and go to all the activities on offer? I would have thought that it would be really difficult to keep a child back from learning unless they kept him alone and didn't offer him any learning resources, and why would any parent do that?

bones123

14-09-2008, 09:02 PM

hi i have just come across this and read some off the things u do with your children while home educated i didnt no anybody could do it my son is 12 and i mite have done this with my son but 2 late now hes just started notre dame high and he loves it plus hes top in all he does at the min dont no if he will keep it up hope so, i love to read how other parents wor together with their kids i do a lot off 1 to1 with him still.when he was young i did alot with him before he start school he could read and write before he was 4 then at first the school seemed to hold him back, but we are pass that now look fore to reading more

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