why do people choose to home school from early age if child never attended school?

[happyfeet2015]

and any thoughts on how they find it. I am looking into it but my husband has only read articles regarding parents who decided to home school after various issues at school, rather than starting to teach from home at 3/4 and therefore not try school at all. any thoughts/ramblings welcome, please

[ommmward]

We did it from the start. Felt like a natural transition from the toddler years -child led exploration of the world; developing physically, socially, educationally etc at the child's own pace rather than being labelled as "advanced" in some areas and "behind" in others.

Younger sibling arrived during the (not) reception year. It seemed more important to integrate new sibling into family life and help rest of family cope with the transition than to also do a transition into an institutional environment at the same time.

How did we find it? An excellent fit for our family, frankly.

[happyfeet2015]

great to hear, thanks. do you recommend any books/blogs/websites to understand it in more detail?

[ommmward]

There used to be a "things to read" thread here somewhere - I'll try to find it and bump it

[ommmward]

THere you are - at the top of the page now :D

[happyfeet2015]

thanks

[TiggerLillies]

I have relatives and friends who home school (really succesfully) so it seems an entirely normal thing to consider doing when my daughter is old enough. It does seem to not be as common though.

[Saracen]

I am a big believer in learning through play (meaning totally self-directed free play) and didn't like the early school starting age in this country. I originally planned to HE my older child for a few years as a way of delaying school until age seven or so.

As soon as we got stuck in, I could see that it was even better than I'd expected. Rubbing shoulders with HE families who had older children assured me that HE could be viable indefinitely.

The longer we do it, the more reasons I find to like it, many of them totally unanticipated. I never seriously considered school for my younger child.

My favourite book for HE in the early years is John Holt's "How Children Learn". Holt was a schoolteacher who observed the way babies and toddlers learn when given free rein to explore their world. His observations in the classroom led him to the conclusion that older children would still learn best when given that same freedom. He taught at a radical school where he was able to experiment with this method. Holt enjoyed some success, but eventually decided that no school environment, however radical, could provide the freedom which children needed. He then became an advocate of home education.

And you have just prompted me to add to the bumped books thread with a review of another book I like. ("Young Children Learning: Talking and Thinking at Home and at School")

[itsstillgood]

I started off home educating. I started training to teach at 18. A year and a half I left as I could not bring myself to teach the national curriculum. It is ridiculous, like it was written by completely random people who have never met a child in their lives and planned on post it notes, nothing hangs together, it asks too much of children too young and then completely gives up and expects very little of them at seniors.

Luckily dh was very much on board - I was happy to look into private which may have been affordable with me working full time but he was the one who said go for it.

We're fairly structured as home eders go (although weren't at 4/5 it has built up) but not NC!

[OrionsAccessory]

We have home ed from the start. With eldest dc we felt that although academically she could have coped with the work no problem, physically she wouldn't have been able to sit at a desk all day and still behave well! She was (and still is) a very active child, she has so much energy and we felt it wouldn't be put to good use in a classroom. With younger dc she doesn't cope well with being around adults she doesn't know or big groups of children. School would have been a huge adjustment for her, I imagine I would have been one of those parents that's still peeling a screaming child off of them and forcing them through the school door years down the line!

Also home ed just fits our lives well! The children learn constantly and without any of us noticing I find it fascinating to watch! Most importantly I have two happy, thriving children.

[Milllii]

I loved reading "Free Range Education". Really showed me the way.

This is the website that explains where and how the book came about

free-range-education.org.uk/

[plasticinemachine]

We have home edded from the start. It has been very successful so far (5 years in). I did it because I wanted them to come to academic style learning when it was right for them having seen the damage done in schools by forcing some children to learn to read/write etc way before it is developmentally appropriate for them. I also wanted them to spend big amounts of time learning & playing outdoors. They have had the choice to go to school but have never been keen. Life is good:)

[AlfalfaMale]

We're home-edding from the start. Mainly because we didn't want to put DD on what feels like the treadmill of nursery and EYFS and reception classes and school and all that at such a young age. So many kids seem to be sent out "to work" almost, having to be at a certain place at a certain time doing a certain thing. We don't like that, so why would we inflict it on DD? :)

[mychildrenarebarmy]

We started off home ed for a variety of reasons. The main ones were:
My days of nannying made me feel certain that starting school at age 4 is far too young.
The primary schools in our area are dire. I don't just mean they are a bit rubbish, I mean special measures and that applies to the four within walking distance of us at some point in the 6 years that DD would have been there if she had gone to school.

So, we started off intending to not take a school place until our children turned 'compulsory school age'. We started looking into how that would work and came across home education. It interested us enough to get in touch with local groups. When DD was 18 months we started going along to a monthly meeting and getting to know some other people who already home educated and others who planned to like us.

By the time DD was 'school' age we had revised our plan to HE until she was about 7. That very quickly turned into planning to HE for as long as it worked/was right for our children.

Now DD has gone to secondary school - her choice - starting year 7 last September. She has made the transition perfectly, is doing really well in all of her subjects, is really enjoying school and has carried her love of learning on into schooling. DS is 8 and says he will never go to school, but DD said the same until she was 9 so we will continue to HE him for as long as it is working/is right.

[AtiaoftheJulii]

My eldest said she wanted to learn things by herself, she didn't want other people teaching her. And then it seemed easier to carry on with our lives, rather than try school and have all the hassle if it didn't work out.

[happyfeet2015]

thanks for all of your posts. It is really useful to hear. I will also buy the books you mention above.

how do i go abut finding home ed groups in my area? i would like to go along to some to see the dynamic and speak to like minded people

[ommmward]

Facebook. Look for your city/ county/ nearest big town with "home education" and you'll find groups, almost certainly. All the meet-up planning seems to happen on facebook nowadays.

[spicyfajitas]

We just never made a decision to send the kids to school, so for us it was just the default position .
Six years in and is just or life. It works for us all, although I suspect one of my children will want to try school at some point to see what it is like .