Hi. I am about to embark on the journey of educating my Dd from home. As I am a complete newbie to, not only home education, but to using a thread/chat site (!) any help or advice would be really appreciated.
She is currently 13 and would have been starting GCSE's in September. Therefore I would like her to have formal qualifications (GCSE or IGCSE) for good employment later.
She is intelligent but sits in the classroom not learning as her peers have to catch up to her level. It has been like this since she started school but I never realised about home education, until now. She has always been forward as I spent lots of quality time with her since she was born and still do lots of things together now, so I am constantly teaching her with and without her realising. She could read, write, speak basic French, draw etc from a very young toddler age. As she has gotten older she found school to be very boring as the teachers would not ask her anything as they knew she was more advanced. I was told by the teachers that the rest of the class has to catch up to her level. I spent years looking around other schools, but all the schools she attended were the same, both state and private. This is why I feel home ed might be the answer.
She would like to learn 13 subjects, 11 from home and 2 from college as they are for music and media, and I have knowledge in neither! Also we discussed her joining some club to meet others.
She has attended many clubs over the years to try and found out where her interests lie, but she is in the habit of going for a few times, to about 6 months at best before being bored and not wanting to go back. This could be because she is bored at school and just habit but we have talked about her joining trampoline club, hockey club, ballet school and to take music lessons as these are her current interests. I don't want her to become withdrawn if she is at home and not socialising. (She mixes really well and always makes new friends. She tends to make older friends as more on their wavelength than people her own age).
The trouble is we are only staying in this area until later this year before I move with my job, so any friends made would be short lived. I work from home so would be able to supervise her. She has my quality time also from 4pm every weekday and all weekends. I am a single parent and she doesn't have anything to do with her dad.
I have read pages and pages of chat topics and Internet sites regarding home education, but would like info on the following please:-
- preferred choice for workbooks, text books and exam centres as there seems to be a few to choose from (I have all the companies info but would like to know the preferred ones please).
- I have looked at the IGCSE and GCSE and the OU (not sure what subjects best to take within Ou). Any ideas re OU subjects?
- what structure to follow I.e. is it a case of buy the books and for my dd to work through at her own pace?
- any ideas, other than clubs and outings in order to interact or would this be enough socially?
Sorry this is turning into an essay but I am worried about pulling her out of an apparently top school, to only mess it up for her, so that she has no qualifications at 16! She has recently completed school tests and at 13 was told she would obtain mostly b's (8 b and 2 c) if she were to take her GCSE's now.
To summarise, I would like any information or advice on workbooks/textbooks to buy (best ones), best exam centre companies, OU subjects relevant to a 13 year old, structure re HE and finally any social events for a 13 year old.
Many thanks in advance for any advice received.
Kind regards
Sue