I home-educate my four kids,AMA

[wiziliz]

Used to be a primary school teacher, now I home-educate my kids . Ages 12,8,6&3 (no special needs)Ask Me Anything.

Hi OP. I have three children and home ed although my eldest is only 7.

Do you have involvement from the LA?

Do you believe that school-education is a terrible experience & best avoided? Do your children believe that, also?
I don't believe school is a terrible experience, we are enjoying studying together, making memories. My kids have experienced school , they love being home-ed. The opportunities for spiritual, academic, social,and family time when homeschooling are AWESOME. It breaks my heart when i hear & read, on parents mourning about their children during school holidays. Parents will never regret the time spent with their kids, home-ed is only for just few years, soon they will be all grown and having their own families. Looking back parents and kids will have wonderful memories . Frankly kids need our time, there is no point in filling the house with toys and latest gadgets, but not spending time. This is one of the major reasons why we have so many problems with kids.( from toddler behavioral issues to teens never ending problems)

Do you have involvement from the LA?
No

Will you allow your children smart phones when they go to 6th form?

There is a lot of support between the students using social media. Missed lessons and homework is shared on Messenger. The cameras on phones are often used in classrooms to take pictures of work, results of scientific experiments or homework. A lot of homework is set where the teacher gives the students a QR code that they can scan to watch educational videos.

This has been DD's experience of 6th form BTW.

How upset will you be if your grandkids are not HE'd?

The (limited number) of able adults I know who were home educated tend to be very singular; they are all self employed and extremely resourceful. Depression seems to be a particular risk for some reason with the ones I know, but as I say, they are a limited number. And 2 of them were home educated because of MH issues in the first place. And the others for religious reasons which weren’t always healthy - so not a very good group to use!

I would certainly consider it but only if I wasn’t happy with schooling options for a particular reason. And you are lucky to be able to afford it - most people would struggle if it was an option on the table at all.

Will you allow your children smart phones when they go to 6th form?
Yes.

How upset will you be if your grandkids are not HE'd?
I will not be upset at all, its their parents choice.

"Being a teacher i know how much time we spend on trying to control the class ,and discipline everyone (20-30 kids) before we do each lesson, and not to mention how many times it gets distracted during the lesson. Me teaching my kids at home, I can do a far better job, and my kids don't have to limit their learning."

OP please don't think I'm being arsey but I'd like to ask a little about this!

I am a secondary teacher and I have to say that like @J3551011 this isn't how I see lessons (I have worked in a range of schools- private, outstanding state, special measures state...)- I'll admit to having had my fair share of horrible lessons but the vast majority don't fit this pattern and I know my colleagues' lessons don't either.

My personal feeling is that pupils learn an awful lot from learning to manage their behaviour in such a setting, and that is a real world life skill that is important for anyone working in an environment with many other people (most jobs).

I have two (polite, not judgey, I promise!) questions:

1. As a science teacher (and, without wanting to stealth brag, I am pretty bright, Oxbridge, PhD, researcher now somewhat successful teacher, MEd, continuing research in education as my new field) I still question my ability to truly teach a deep understanding of non-specialist subjects (each science teacher specialises in either bio, chem or physics but generally teaches all three at some level). If I imagine teaching all other subjects too, despite having full A*s at GCSE myself I would not feel I could give them all the justice I'd think my children deserved- I could probably get them to pass the exams fine, but I don't think they'd really understand the nuances of each subject, and those nuances are what lead to real understanding and long-term memory. How do you feel about this?

1. I'd be really interested to know more about the day-to-day interactions of your children with others, their friendship groups etc- could you tell us more what it's actually like for them?

@Sciencing If i suck in a subject and realize i cant teach a particular subject, I hire a private tutor ( who is very well qualified in that subject)
Are you sure that all the teachers in the schools are qualified? how many times do we read in the newspapers, that the number of unqualified teachers have risen,children are being taught by unqualified teachers etc etc.

How do you know your children are ahead of their peers? Are they doing online assessments, or do you devise your own?

@wiziliz

Yes, all qualified teachers (or, rarely, PGCE students supervised by qualified teachers), apart from a couple training in the private school- though I think I may be confused as I don't see the relevance of that to home schooling- unless you mean that the tutors or parents aren't qualified (they often aren't)? Sorry if I've missed something obvious.

Are you able to tell us more about my second question?

What are your feelings on the changes to monitoring that are currently being proposed?

Have I missed this? apologies if I have but are you UK based?

Is there still an iGCSE in ICT?

I'd be really interested to know more about the day-to-day interactions of your children with others, their friendship groups etc- could you tell us more what it's actually like for them?
They have extra curricular activities on a daily basis-
swimming 2 days a week
Tennis-2 days a week
basketball- 1day week
they also go to a centre to learn a new language 3 days a week
once a week my kids cook (with a bit of help from me) for the homeless/ less fortunate.
we also have pay dates, field trips etc
We are also trying to get them involved in charity work.
these are just an outline of how my kids meet /interact with people or kids daily.

Have I missed this? apologies if I have but are you UK based?
yes , at the moment not in the UK.

Is there still an iGCSE in ICT?
Yes

What do they do regularly that makes them uncomfortable?

Do you ever worry about being too much of an influence on them, afraid they will take too many of your values on board & not be open-minded enough about other perspectives, or not be able to fit in with other people b/c they are too much like you?

What do they do regularly that makes them uncomfortable?
sorry , i dont get what you mean.

Are they badly behaved? :D I ask because I seriously considered home ed for one of my dc and one of the things that put me off was the behaviour of the home ed kids I met. In general I found them selfish and inconsiderate, like they were used to doing whatever they wanted whenever they pleased.

In a similar vein, do you get on with other home ed parents?

Do you ever worry about being too much of an influence on them, afraid they will take too many of your values on board & not be open-minded enough about other perspectives, or not be able to fit in with other people b/c they are too much like you?
Not at all.

Wiz, can you explain what you mean by the moral values please ?
(second time asking this question)

Are they badly behaved? :D
I dont want to sound as if i am boasting about my kids, but my kids are very well behaved.Lots of our friends whose kids are not home-ed admire my kids, regularIy ask for parenting tips , and ask what i do differently. I dont think kids behaviour has anything to do with home-ed or not, its to do with PARENTS.
I dont let my kids do whatever they want, they are kids they need lot of guidance from parents/carers.

In a similar vein, do you get on with other home ed parents?
Yes(mostly) unless they are like the ones you mentioned on your post.