home education learning packs

[pinkkoala]

has anybody had any dealings with the website primary home education learning packs, and if so how were they. Or any other sites.

[mumtoo3]

I did look at the packages they offered when we first dereged dd1 last year, but decided that our budget would not stretch that far so i did a diy jobbie, and picked different parts from different curriculums, and moulded it together to suit her needs.

How old are your child/ren? when are you thinking of starting it?

MT3 x

[pinkkoala]

my dd is 4yrs 2 months, she is due to start school sept 09, we have looked at schools and registered her at one, we were advised by LEA to do this, but the school we want we are out of catchment area and is too far to take her at mo, we are planning on moving.

i want to home ed, we are using schofield and sims workbooks at mo and carol vorderman books.

i have been using books for approx 6 mnths now but she still isn't keen on writing, she knows shapes, numbers, colours, opposites, and other stuff.

i think we need to deregister her formally now we have name down, is that correct. i am dreading LEA telling me i can't home ed, and am dreading a visit from them.

[julienoshoes]

If your child has a place at a school, you will have to deregister her, I think since changes came about in the law about registration in schools.

Have you come across the Early Years Home Education support listyou would get loads of support there and the list is linked to MuddlePuddle a site dedicated to people home educating young children?

There is a book about home educating children aged 0-11 written by Gareth Lewis, a home educator-details on the 'books about home education' thread. You might find that very useful.

Your daughter is very young to worry about her not writing, many other countries don't worry about formal education until their children are around 7 and personal experience has shown that many home educated children 'get' writing when the really see the need for it-and then catch up very fast.

Have you looked into the different ways of home educating? Again there are books of interest in the thread mentioned-I'd particularly suggest reading Alan Thomas' latest book 'How Children Learn at Home' again details on the other thread. It makes very interesting reading.

Why would the LA tell you that you can't home educate?
They would have to have a reason to believe an education is not taking place, to begin to ask for more information-and saying you can't home educate would be along way down the road from there.

And if you are dreading a visit from the LA-then don't have one!
We have been home educating for eight years now and have never had a home visit. The choice of how to give information about the education you are providing, is yours. You could do like we do and send in a written report and 'Educational Philosophy' instead.

[mumtoo3]

What i found was the lea, should not bother you until the term after your child turns 5, as they dont have to be educated till then, i would not worry about writing there is so much free on the internet and you can download so much, its not worth buying any packs imho!

cathy duffy i think has a book top 100 curriculums, which was quite a good starting point for me, montessori read and write was also good, and the gareth lewis one.

we dereged our dd1 as she was already in school, but assume for ds, i just wont put him down for any school and that should save that problem!

spend a little time googling things you will be surprised how much you find

[lilyfire]

I think if you don't have a place, but are just on the waiting list then you just need to write and say please take her name off the waiting list. We were offered a place, but didn't accept, so didn't need to de-reg. We were sent an accept/reject form to complete and if you rejected there was a bit to fill in saying which school you were sending them to. I did put 'home-educating', but other people I know put something like 'making private arrangements'. Really wouldn't bother too much about LA, especially as sounds like you may move before she is 5.
on subject of resources, ds (5) does like Education City and it sort of calms me down if I get panicky about what he's doing (this is my problem, he'd be doing fine without Education City). He also likes Starfall and Enchanted Learning and loads of other sites, there is so much out there, free or fairly low cost. Rather than do proper curriculum, we just tend to look up dinosaurs or whatever he's into that day and sometimes read about them or watch clips or print out colouring pictures or dot-to-dots etc.

[pinkkoala]

thanks for all the messages, i have written on this topic different times and everybody has been very informative.

i think my fear is of making the initial step, as i have come across a lot of freinds and family making negative comments and am wooried they may contact LEA and say they think our dd should be in school.

we were hoping to move before this sept but due to housing market as it is we will lose too much money on our house and people aren't buying at the mo, hopefully next year we will be able to move so would like to home ed til then, if i find it goes ok i may continue for a while longer, i just don't want her to be behind in anything and have people say "she is behind because you taught her at home". then i would feel bad for not giving her a better chance.

[mumtoo3]

I had the same with friends being negative about us home educating our children and nearly a year later i still get funny looks and friends saying 'such and such is a great school my ds is loving it, you should take your dd around and have a look'. I have found that i have made tuns of new friends who also home educate, and all my children love it.

Your dd will not fall behind, because she is getting one to one attention from you, and if she struggles with anything you can adjust it to suit her needs, this is the beauty of heing, you can alter things to suit your child. I have worried about our children falling behind but i have to face facts they will never be a's accross the board they will always have a weak area. My eldest is just turned 6, and can read a bit, but her science, geography and history is on a year 3-4 level at least! hope this all makes sense, my biggest lesson has been learning that children are like a rollercoaster, with ups and downs, and knowing when to pack up for the day is a good idea

sorry to ramble on hope you can get something out of this
mt3 x

[pinkkoala]

it is interesting to hear from other people who are doing HE, i sometimes wonder if she will miss out on the other social things school plays, school disco and other after school activities.

Her friend started school last sept and her parents push her into everything, the poor child comes home from school and is asleep in the car more times than not, she goes to swimming, dancing, school disco's and always round friends but her parents never return the favour. We have her here but my dd very rarely goes there, she never gets invited to any of her birthdays or get togethers, i wonder if she thinks her dd is better than ours as she doesn't go to school and is quite head strong, whereas her dd never smiles or says alot but is very sly.

[mumtoo3]

I think the social side everyone worries about, but we have no problem if anything we have had to cut back abit!!!
dd1 - does trampolining, gymnastics, cheerleading and is doing a crash course in swimming (as we cant fit lessons in anywhere else!) she does home education group for arts crafts and latin, a home education sports group and a home education group like brownies etc (working for badges together as a group) plus she sees her friends and ds does swimming and gymnastics. My youngest will have to wait to start swimming as there is not enough time at the moment!

We have had the same with friends not inviting my dd1 to parties, but to be honest she is not that worried!

I hope this helps x

[Tarenath]

We're looking at HE for our DS aged 23 months. I went to my first HE event yesterday and no longer worry about him having social problems (not that we really worried anyway in fact we were more worried about him developing social problems from attending school!)

There were children from newborn to teenagers and they all played together. The older ones looked out for the younger ones. I saw a child about 4 pick up a toddler and make sure he was ok after he tripped over! It was just such a wonderful atmosphere for the children to be in.

Then of course there's playgroups, sports clubs and hobby clubs that I hope ds will find some interest in when he's older so I really can't see a problem with social interaction.

[pinkkoala]

how do you find out about HE events local to you, where you can meet other people, as i don't drive i would have to find something close to where i live.

did any of you send your child to private nursery or playgroups before school age. We had our daughter in a private nursery while i carried on working but have given up in june last year and have taken her out, partly as we can't afford it now i'm not working and also i gave up work to be with her more as i felt i'd missed out on a lot of things, my husband is the wage earner now.

[julienoshoes]

There is a thread about 'finding other home educators' here. I'll bump it for you-and others of relevance, for people new to home education to see.

IME home educators try and run meetings with access to public transport as many home educators don't drive through choice and/or necessity