Home schooling! -Discuss

[pinkdolly]

Hello everyone,
I am 25 year old women with 2 girls, Zoe will be 4 in June and Sophie will be 3 in August. I am 17 weeks pg with my 3rd.
I have never planned to send my children to school as I personally feel that the girls will get a benifit a lot more from being at home with me.
My DH is totally with me on this so i'm well supported.
I know this is a very emotive subject and would really be interested to hear your views, whether for or against.
Also any experiences (bad or good) would be interested in hearing all the details. Thanx Guys!

[hercules]

As a secondary school teacher , I believe that as long as you do it the right way then it must be a good thing. Often toyed with the idea myself but I dont think I'd be commited enough nor would dh want this.

[AngelaD]

I would love to do this but lack the confidence tbh, I'm sure your children will nothing but benefit from the experience and it's great you have DH's support.
One thing I would ask though, I have three really close like you and can hardly keep my eye's open most days, will somebody be able to give you a break from time to time ?

[spots]

I have a friend who did home ed until her DD was 8 or 9 and decided she wanted to go to school. She found getting together with other home ed parents an invaluable part of it I thnk - group trips seemed to happen at least every week.

[Blandmum]

I would have grave concerns about being able to cover all the possible topics (I'm a secondary science teacher). DD is very good at French....dh and I are both rubbish at it. I know that people who home ed get in tutors for this sort of thing.

You can also end up with kids having probelms getting to do the GCSEs they want if they have to rely on adult ed....nearly imossible to do GCSE science or Physics, for example.

My other issue is , for some parents, why they want to home ed. I have had students withdrawn from school because their parents do not wish them to learn about other religions.....that worries me a little.

But for some parents and some kids it can be an ideal solution. Wouldn't work for me though, or my kids.

[sunnydelight]

I have contemplated it in the past but decided against because (a) I haven't got the patience, (b) my children are too spread out age-wise (12, 7 and 3), and (c) the one I was most concerned about was the eldest and as mb says I didn't feel able to meet his needs. I could give him a great grounding in law and psychology, but I think maybe he needs to get his english and maths up to scratch first With primary aged children close in age I think it is a very viable option - I know some home edding families who are very happy with their choice. As I always say on these threads, contact www.educationotherwise.org.uk for great information and support if you are seriously contemplating it.

[janinlondon]

Echo Martianbishop - DH and I have a couple of degrees between us, but couldn't hope to have enough specialist knowledge to do it, even at primary level. Greatly admire anyone who has the confidence to take this on, but it would be beyond us.

[poppiesinaline]

I have a couple of friends that do it. I take my hat off to them. I think it takes a special kind of person to be able to do that. Personally, I could think of nothing worse!! And school is about a lot more than just 'education'. Its the whole social side of things as well. My friends make sure their kids do loads of clubs and things but works out quite expensive. I always wonder how home educationed children cope when they have to go into the 'Big Wide World" in adulthood used to being in such a comforted environment all their lives.

[poppiesinaline]

oh no. Did I kill that thread!?

[pinkdolly]

hi all,
Thanx for your messages, haven't been able to get on-line till now.

Regarding the social aspect, this is the main thing I was concerned about when we first thought about the idea of Home-schooling. I spent ages trawling the internet for articles and advice from other parents.
In the end I decided that school is the only place and time in your life that you are going to be based in a classroom with 30 or so other children the same age.
Out in the world we have to mix with people of all ages. So I dont nessecarily believe that school provides you with all the social skills you require for adult life.

I would like my children to gain as much life experience as they can. Taking them out and encouraging them to learn from the world around them (I know that may not be feasiable with all aspects of their education).

I also believe that home edding is a time for parents to learn alongside their children. I never went to university and am only educated to A level standard.
I dont expect everything to come easily, and i'm sure I will make some mistakes (it's part of life and learning).
My husband is comitted to actively helping out where he can, obviously I will be main educator as he works. But we do have lots of support.

Zoe has just started Ballet and I will be encouraging the children to join other clubs as well. Also with DH being in the Navy it does give us the opportunity to move around and learn in different environments. We are considering the option of moving over to america for a bit.
So the fact that the children wont be settled in a school might actually prove to be a good thing.

[oops]

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[jenk1]

I am home edding my DS atm as he is off school for medical reasons.

It isnt about "Right sit down now and get your text books out", its about teaching him about the world around him and how to live his life,i have nothing against school at all and will be sending my dd to school when she,s old enough but for DS its not the right thing atm, i have hooked up with other home ed families and found it a lot easier joining in with them and activities, youd, be surprised at how much your child learns on a daily basis.

Learning isnt just 9-3.30

[Blandmum]

oops, you are quite right that primary teachers don't tend to teach a degree specialism (I know of a few science specialists in primary but you are right , they are rare). However most will have spent 3-4 years studying literacy and numeracy etc etc. My sil is a primary teacher and boy did she study things in depth, the pros and cons of phonics, learning theory etc etc. I was very impressed at her indepth understanding of the buisness of learning.

The other thing that home ed can sometimes miss out on is the excirement of being taught by a real enthusiast in a subject. I agree that there is a benefit in learning with your child. But a real specialist , especialy at secondary school, can really make a subject 'fly'.

[mszebra]

We have friends who are home-ed'g their 6 children (age 2-15), because they feel the national curriculum stifles original thinking. They were admitting tonite that the teenagers help mind the littlest ones which does help, although they also reckons it only needs 1/2 hour/day for first few years. The dad has more energy than anyone I know and a background in teaching (he supports the family doing supply teaching), and they have a tutor who helps out a few hours, too.

My aunt had 4 under 6 and has home ed'd them all (for religious reasons), but she admits that it was hell for first few years as youngest 2 were always interrupting. They aren't culturally isolated kids in that they do lots of different sports activities, and they see the latest hot Hollywood movies (not sure how that fits in with parents' stated aim of transmitting the right values!).

That would be my biggest concern, pinkdolly, how are you going to keep attention of the oldest one, to teach her, if the baby is quite demanding. I struggle to give my 4yo more than 10 min one-to-one attention during the day when my toddler is around, and I certainly couldn't find the concentration to plan a curriculum (but maybe that's just me).

I somewhat envy the home-eding families I know because they can take holidays out of term time, no rushing around in the morning to get to school, their kids have lots more energy for out-of-school activities (my kids sure don't). But I still couldn't do it & don't think it would be right for my kids.

[oops]

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[jenk1]

Yes that can be hard when you have a baby, i have a dd whos coming up for 2 and i have found in our case that the best way is to make them both involved in the learning process, eg a trip to the supermarket learning about various food and prices teaches DS maths and geography and teaches dd new words, an activity book that teaches a subject-we just do that all together and they both learn and get what they want out of it.

[Blandmum]

Opps, fwiw, generating learners as opposed to passive recievers of information is central to current educational though. The current 'hot topic' in education is formative assessment....assessmet for learning not assessment of learning. The idea being that you train children to assess their own work to make them independent learners. To make leraning as active, not a passive experience if you will.

And the need to assess leaning styles is well understood, following on from Gardeners multiple intelegences and VAKI....though I must say that this can be detrimental when over done....kids telling you that they can't write something because they are kinethetic learners is not, I think, useful

[spacedonkey]

Children - before they ever go to school - are already natural learners. It is the institutional setting of school which makes them "passive" in the first place (imo!), and that is one of the central arguments for home "schooling". Current educational thinking may be emphasizing the encouragement of learning skills to create independent learners, but I can't see how that can have any more than a limited success, since the institution that is school continues to reinforce the opposite message by its very nature and structure.

Of course people home ed for various reasons - making that choice doesn't necessarily imply that the parents disagree with the whole concept of school, and, for them, reproducing the school environment in the home is the aim. At the same time, people who do disagree with the whole concept of school nevertheless choose to send their children to school (me included) for various reasons (home ed is not an easy option, not least financially).

Your point about the way a teacher can make a subject "fly" is a good one MB, but that is not the norm. It is far more common to find oneself put off a subject for life by one's experience of it at school - and for most people, that door remains closed forever. Not one of my teachers made their subject fly for me - and I was a bright kid who had many interests!

[swedishmum]

I have always been interested in HE and taught mine for 8 months while we were abroad. Biggest problem was our baby (then 10 - 18 months) and the biggest bonus was the huge improvement in my dyslexic son's reading and confidence. My then Y6 daughter missed out on very little and came back to grammar school with no problems, and they gained so much from museums, travel etc. I am a teacher (now primary but originally secondary specialist) but still found it hard going. Would love to take ds out for another year (he's Y4) to address some of his literacy probs - he won't get enough support at school - but he would view it as a punishment. Have arranged to go in and work with him and a couple of others instead.

[Blandmum]

I quite agree

I know that in my daily life in school I work very hard to subjugate my predjudices to specific subjects....born out of my own experiences in school.....for example i loath the thought of PE, but fully accept that it has a valid place in school time tables.....some children love it and excel etc etc. However I think it is a load of cobblers

Imagine if I was home eding and my child loved PE....could I keep up my pretence of valuing the subject?

Before I get clobbered I do accept that PE is vital...I just have a deep viceral loathing m'self

And sometimes kids just have to be taught things, particularly at A level. It would be a very rare child who could work out the action potential in the nerve, for example, without expert guidance. It took the finest minds in biology bloody ages to wirk it out. few 17 year olds will grasp it unaided.

[tilbatilba]

We have just started home-schoolong our two dd's 6&7 this year as we are traveling for 12 months. I am an absolute convert. It is the most fantastic thing we have done . We are following a cirriculum so am happy everything is covered. We do about 1 1/2 hours every morning and then the day is ours. Twice a week we hire a very gifted musician/dancer and the girls have a session with her. We have found other homeschoolers in the area and really enjoy linking up. We have a wide social network as a family therefore I don't think the girls are isolated socially. We pack a heap of things into our day because they are so energised. We adore having all this time with them especially at such an incredibly interesting vibrant stage of their lives.

[juuule]

But surely the liking/disliking subjects applies to students aswell. Only they don't have the choice of dropping that subject. Could this be a reason for some low-level disruption in some classes. If someone dislikes food-tech and would rather spend all day doing p.e. surely they would find it hard-going sitting still through 1-2 hours of food-tech.

At 'A' level students are choosing what they want to do. It's voluntary. There is nothing to stop HE children from doing 'A' levels at college if that is what they wanted to do.

Also, out of interest, why is it necessary to sit 10 or more GCSEs when the majority of colleges need 5 tops.

How does this relate to HE? At home children can develop at their own pace and follow whatever interests them. If they need qualifications for whatever they wish to do in life then there is nothing stopping them from acquiring them at any time. Also, from a socialisation point of view, home education doesn't mean confined to the home. A more accurate description would be home-based as a lot of home-educators are usually out and about a lot of the time. They will not be isolated from the general community.

[swedishmum]

I thought about the out and about thing yesterday - 2 of ours have projects at the moment on Aztecs and Alexander the Great. We went to The British Museum (we're 60 miles from London) and it was packed. How much better if we could go during the day. Also many children from rural areas like ours never get to go to museums. Certainly never school trips at KS2 (prohibitive costs and time).
By the way, I know I couldn't Home Ed at secondary level - my children wouldn't get a broad enough curriculum from me. I'd find science and tech extremely hard to provide at anything like the level (resources and skills wise) that dd gets in Y7. What do I know about CAD for example?

[Blandmum]

Juule

I quite agree that home eded children can get qualifications if they later need them. But, it can be difficult to get qualifications in specific subjects, particularly of you are planning on night school filing the gap. I have taugh adult ed in the past. We only offered human biology, never general science, chemistry of physics, because we simply couldn't get the staff to run the courses.

I am not saying that home ed is bad , in fact I think it can be an ideal choice for some families. However it isn't easy to get back in to 'formal' education at a later stage in all cases. I agree that this shouldn't be the case, but at present, it is.

Why do they need a braod range.....because I think it make for more rounded individuals.

[juuule]

MB - I agree that a broad range of subjects is desirable, but I don't understand why so many need to be taken to GCSE level for every student with all the accompanying stress that each GCSE brings. It must also make it difficult for teachers who have to take to GCSE someone who doesn't really want to do it. Also, taking their time away from someone who really likes the subject.

For specific subjects I think if someone really wanted to follow a certain path then they would find a way. For example the OU offers all kinds of courses.

Of course the bonus of taking qualifications at school is that you don't have to pay directly for them. The funding is provided. If you want qualifications before 16 or after 18 then usually you must pay for them yourself.