Jump to content

Home education possibilities

Recommended Posts

Home ed is on the increase, and why not ? Parents successfully teach their children to walk and talk etc before school, so why shouldn't it carry on.

 

 

Well said baby boom. I believe That a lot of childrens individual needs are not being met at school. This is of no fault of the teachers merely the system. Many children highly intelligent with the ability to absorb so much information yet struggle to write it down, are more or less bound to underachieve. A child that excels in art or music is also seen as not academic. Another child that is only interested in sport is also seen as an academic failure. Maybe as parents we can all help our children to learn. We know our own children. We know their strenghs and weaknesses (my weakness obviously spelling and grammer lol).

 

Anyway im going to shut up now as it seems i am in a very philosophical mood today. :loopy:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I posted the other day about being the local contact for Education Otherwise. I should perhaps have added my email address which is :

 

fiona_j_nicholson@hotmail.com

 

Fiona

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I posted the other day about being the local contact for Education Otherwise. I should perhaps have added my email address which is :

 

fiona_j_nicholson@hotmail.com

 

Fiona

 

 

Hi Fiona,

Would it be possible for you to pm me your telephone number (when you have 5 posts) as a number of parents I work with may want to contact you at some point, and some of them will not have use of email.

:thumbsup:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

yes, of course ( that makes three posts !)

 

fiona

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

hi, just wanted to say how much i admire you parents who home educate. know of a couple of parents who do this and they have fantastic, intelligent kids to show for it.

should any of my children ever express the need to not go to school (due to bullying etc) i would have no qualms about discussing the possibility of them being home schooled - seems you have a better support network for your kids than some schools offer their pupils!

good on ya!

sue

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

thanks ! ( that makes four posts...) there are c150 home educated children and young people known to sheffield LEA ( data from FOI request ) 20, 000 known to LEAs across the country, plus unknown quantity who were never registered with a school and therefore are not known.

fiona

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Try the website NORTHSTAR UK FANTASTIC ADVICE ONHOME ED

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
thanks ! ( that makes four posts...) there are c150 home educated children and young people known to sheffield LEA ( data from FOI request ) 20, 000 known to LEAs across the country, plus unknown quantity who were never registered with a school and therefore are not known. fiona

 

I'm sure that the latter number will be quite high.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Are there any home educators in and around North Sheffield, who would like to have a meet up?

I home educate and a lot of activites are at the other side of Sheffield, I wondered if there was anyone local who would like to maybe meet up somewhere, possibly Hillsborough Park or a soft play place.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Are there any home educators in and around North Sheffield, who would like to have a meet up?

I home educate and a lot of activites are at the other side of Sheffield, I wondered if there was anyone local who would like to maybe meet up somewhere, possibly Hillsborough Park or a soft play place.

 

Hi Babyboom

 

I have been home educating for 21 years now in Hillsborough :)

 

Unfortunately my children are 21 and 11, so a bit old for soft play area's, but I would be happy to answer any questions any one has about home ed :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

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.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
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

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.