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Home ed

A few questions about HE

5 replies

TheDevilWearsPrimark · 11/06/2007 14:44

If anyone could just let me know I would be very grateful.

  • Why, and when did you decide on it?
  • How did your family and friends react, and how do they feel now?
  • Have you found a local group of H.E kids to meet with, and how much are you involved with each other?
  • Did you have grilling from professionals, and how involved are, i.e social workers?
  • Which resouces do you find most helpful, particularly support for HE parents?
OP posts:
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SueBaroo · 11/06/2007 14:50
  • Always planned on it after getting to know a HE famliy.

- BIL and SIL very against, both sets of PIL very supportive.
- There are some local groups, but we're not that involved with them. We do know some individual families that we do bits with, though.
- Haven't seen a soul about it, social worker or otherwise, but then my kids have never been registered with any schools.
- the Internet has been fantastic in terms of resources, networking and so on. There's a thread about various websites further down the page here. And the Park. We have a nature centre not far from us, and it's cheaper than mud to get in and really hands-on.
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Jennylee · 11/06/2007 15:53

-when ds was not being helped to learn at school adn was having problems with school.
-family were okay about it but a bit cautious, but thought as he was having such a bad time and not learning anything I could not do worse.
-I see one other H.Eer every few months, all the groups that meet are few and far between and I have no car so do not really think there is a home edding community in west lothian area, jsut people that email each other sometimes.
-We had hell getting consent to withdraw up here in scotland but Schoolhouse intervened and then we got consent and after that no hassle at all from anyone, have never been involved with social workers, they have nothing to do with it.
-Good resources are the internet mainly and library and getting books etc and family help.

And we are not with our child 24 hours a day like most people seem to think. But as I am part of a very small fmaily, with only child, low income at the moment, I feel it is not as good as I thought it would be and ds does want to do clubs, so he is a bit on his own but there are other reasons for that, home education itself is not causing that. the good thing is he learned to read and write and likes learning again, so I think it was the best possible decision, although he will be going back to school as we have found a good one and he will go for an hour and a half a day for a good long while and build up from there, so at the moment we are doing both.

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Runnerbean · 11/06/2007 23:04

-Almost a year ago now.
The reasons why are many:
I spent 2 years helping out in my daughters class and saw for myself how little was being learnt.
It wasn't the teachers fault it was the system and they all seemed disenchanted.
My bright daughter was becoming bored and her confidence eroded. I was scared that if I left my dds education to the school I would be letting her down badly.
I knew I could do a better job myself.
-Some of my friends thought I was mad! Some were very supportive. I try not to gush too much about HE now I don't think my friends with kids in school want to hear how successful it's been!
My family were unsure at first thinking I was going through some sort of faze, now they see the results they are very impressed.
-The South East (Kent/London/surrey) has a thriving and very active HE community. You could probably find an activity/group everyday of the week, sometimes things even clash and we have to choose!
We have made so many wonderful friends, people think HE'rs are isolated, I've found quite the opposite in fact.
-No grilling at all, I had a brief telephone conversation with my LEA HE contact, then I submitted a report. Then a year later this week I finally get a call asking for a meeting.
The lady has no right to enter my home, meet my dc's or even see any work, but I am happy and proud to show what my dd has achieved at her own pace in the last year.
Social workers!!???Do they visit all schooled children??
-Resources there are stacks!!
Internet, library,charity shops, boot sales, EO, HEAS, other HE'rs, museums, parks, zoos galleries AND we get to go there when it's quiet!!
We are quite spoilt now and I dread half terms and holidays when the hoards are out!

It's been a life changing experience for all of us. We are happier, less stressed and a lot closer.
Best decision I ever made, only regret, wish I'd done it sooner!

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domesticgrumpess · 14/06/2007 00:13

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Mehetabel · 17/07/2007 18:17

-We decided pre-conception 21 years ago when we met a home educating family with fantastic kids.
-Family were horrified at first, but came on side very quickly and have been very supportive (Advisory teacher grandad, deputy head grandma )

  • Over the last 21 years the local HE group has grown from the original 4 families when we started to around 200 now. My youngest is now 11 and goes to the home ed group most days, or see friends from the group. We are very involved with the home ed group and almost all our friends come from within the group.
    -We had irregular visits from advisory teachers (dad's coworkers ;))for the first 10 years, no contact for the last 11. Occasionally get questions from medical staff as dd has regular hospital visits, but no problems.
    -The local home ed group and the national home ed internet support groups and email lists are the most helpful resources.
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