What does de-schooling mean?

[TOMOLBEN]

I am going to home school my Ds2 from September. He would be starting year 3 if he was going back to school. (He turned 7 in June).

I am really looking forward to starting, as is he. I keep seeing posts that it is a good idea to start off by de-schooling the child. I dont quite understand what this means. I want to get off to the best start as possible, so any advise would be great.

Thank you x

[AMumInScotland]

Deschooling just means having a decent break between school and getting back into anything even vaguely formal or school-like. It's often suggested that one month per year of schooling is a good amount, more if their time in school was "difficult" as there will be more for them to get past before they feel refreshed and ready to try something new.

Since he's done 3 years of school, I guess that would mean 3 months - but I don't know if Reception would be thought of as "formal schooling". It's really up to you and him how you feel about it - the long summer holiday seems to me to be quite a good length of break when he's not been at school that long anyway.

I think its more of an issue for people who take an unhappy child out of school partway through a term and feel they ought to get started straight away - that's where they really need to give themselves permission to take a break, even though the school year doesn't have one then.

[TOMOLBEN]

Thank you for explaining it. Mine have now broken up for the summer and DD1 And DS1 will return to school in 8 weeks. So all being well I shall just begin as I planned with DS2 in september.

Thanks again x

[julienoshoes]

There's a rather nice article explaining about 'Deschooling' on the Sandra Dodd webpage.

[TOMOLBEN]

I shall have a look at that. Thank you xx