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.

Ambleside is a Charlotte Mason inspired curriculum isn't it? I like Wildwood which is similar but secular.

Four questions

1. How are you competent to teach the following subjects to iGCSE level?

English Language,
Math,
Biology,
Chemistry,
Physics,
ICT
french.

The house of pearls thinks it is an educated household but we would only be able to teach adequately 2 of those subjects. Possibly 3 if we were learning one-step ahead of our children. There's no way a primary school teacher can be teaching that range of subjects adequately

1. Now we've come onto range - does it worry you that there isn't a lot of range in the above subjects? Does it worry you that the children essentially had no choice but had to take the subjects that you were able (if you are in fact able - which I doubt) to teach to iGCSE level?

1. What about sport? Clearly they don't do any. Is this a worry or do you think that sport is nonsense?

1. What about music? Do they do peripatetic music lessons? Do you get someone in to do instruments? What about choirs

Whole thing is nonsense if you ask me - why you would limit your children like this is beyond me. Do your children have behavioural problems or ASD which mean that they would not be able to function in school?

But PE isn't just about doing exercise, although doing a variety of sports helps develop things like hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, gross motor skills and reflexes - most of which aren't affected by even the most bracing and strenuous long walk

PE is also about trying sports that a child wouldn't otherwise do; learning about the main sports and how they are played; and team work. For some children it's the subject that they shine in when they aren't otherwise academically gifted; for some it's a subject that pushes them out of their comfort zone and demonstrates that they can't always be good at everything

Fair enough to claim that as a family they take a decent amount of exercise, but it's laughable to claim a walk is a decent substitute for PE

Whole thing is nonsense if you ask me - why you would limit your children like this is beyond me 😂

Didn't the OP also say they did basketball, swimming and tennis?

I just love how home ed people like to highlight the deep discussions and questioning their children have and how they have freedom to explore what interests them and go to museums , like children who go to school never do this but sit in mute silence and a blank look on their faces from 3pm every afternoon.

I’m cynical because I can’t really understand why anyone who has access to a relatively decent primary school and has children with no additional needs would think that keeping their children out of school, without trying it is in any way a good idea. I absolutely get Home Ed for children who have tried it and can’t cope with it or have needs which would make school very difficult for them but I would truly feel I had deprived my children of a fundamental part of childhood if I kept them out of school for no reason other than my own preconceptions of school.

Sorry - didn't notice that the opening post said the kids had no special needs

So you're just limiting their life chances for fun. Brilliant.

I never mentioned Art or English Literature either - both of which are important subjects.

Seriously OP please don't do this. it's completely nuts. The reason that I know this is completely nuts is that you are making the kids the prisoner of your own pretty limited experience. The joy of raising kids is that they go off in their own directions. They go places beyond you. They should be allowed and encouraged to experience different things.

Sheesh, if I'd taught my kids myself they would have missed out on so much. They would have missed out on the things I didn't know about. Like hockey and art and rugby and theoretical physics and spanish and latin and SO many things. Plus they wouldn't have got a second rate education in the stuff that I do know about.

You are limiting your children's opportunities.

18 months ago Op you enquired on a thread about an early years diploma and could you complete one online?

Were you actually a primary school teacher?

How many years experience did you have?

All children are different, just like parents and families. It is hardly surprising that one solution doesn't fit all.

But the thing is we are not talking about primary. I might roll my eyes at primary education home-edders but teaching secondary aged kids at home?

The OP may have given birth to the next David Hockney. Not that's she'd know or in fact not that the child would know. Given that the kids have not chance to experience art or be properly taught in art. Or she may have given birth to the next flipping Sheku (repeat comments above) or the next Shakespeare (repeat comments above).

I firmly believe that children should be given EVERY opportunity. It's only that way that they can find themselves. You want your children to be happy? Let them find themselves

I haven't even got on to the socialisation point which is what most people levy against home-edders.

Is this even lawful? For secondary aged children without any special needs? I'd like someone with more knowledge to comment on this. Because clearly the OP is doing her secondary aged kids no favours here. Do social services know what is going on? Or is this in the remit of the education departments of the local councils?

Thesearepearls you are so savagely against this, its disturbing.

To the poster above who questions my question re the OP's religious reasons for home schooling (which she hasn't answered yet!). ..why would I ask people who sent their kids to Faith schools if they are religious when it's obvious they are or at least not opposed to their children being indoctrinated ?!

It is a worry that it is lawful that secondary aged children can be taught at home by someone with really very little experience of the subjects that they feel qualified to teach. So they get a bum education in the subjects that the OP feels qualified to teach. And they get no education in the subjects that the OP feels unqualified to teach.

I think it’s fine to home ed, but wonder if they mix with many folk? My school taught me to rub along with kids from a broad range of families (richer than mine, poorer than mine, different nationalities) and learn to function. I therefore learnt how to negotiate society through school. I didn’t learn this in clubs or play dates or my family, but through the sheer volumes and diversity you come across at school.

The extra curricular stuff too- I did duke of Edinburgh, sports tours and cadets, stuff which Home ed would struggle to provide meaningfully.

I don't blame the op for bowing out. There are some pedantic cretins out on this thread. If only you could sit with your children through a school year and see how much of it is what you believe it to be. You'd be appalled. Picking apart long walks in nature alongside various sports, swimming etc as PE. That is superior to what 90 percent of pupils in the UK experience in primary or secondary schools. You must know you are sounding ridiculous. Don't blame the op for bowing out. Wish the best, op. Hope my children have half the experience yours are having x

Well, it's not quite so cut and dried regarding the law. Parents have a duty to ensure that their DC receive a full-time education that is suitable for their needs and abilities. Local authorities can - but rarely do - issue orders to require children to attend school if they have concerns about the education being provided by the parents.

In practice, in part because the LA's powers to inspect home education provision are so limited, unless something is egregiously wrong, parents can home educate their children through both primary and secondary ages

Up to GCSE a clever and motivated parent with access to tutors and resources can guide a student through most subjects. It’s not the same as trying to teach 30 with differing needs.

The OP doesn't sound particularly clever. Nor has she made any reference to external tutors. So I don't accept the proposition that the education that is being offered is adequate. Even if we suppose that there are multiple external tutors (which the OP has not referenced) these kids are getting a substandard education because their parents have willfully and deliberately limited their opportunities.

I am quite savage about the prospect of limiting children's opportunities. It is something to be savage about, after all

And for the poster who intimated that my children might not be doing well - they are doing fine - thank you very much. It is in fact the experience of having my own children that made me see red with the OP's posts. The fact is, I had no clue that DS was musical. I am not musical. DS is. He found that through school. I had no clue that he would be mad keen on maths. The school identified it and nurtured it.

For secondary aged children without any special needs

Why would the law be different for those with SN? We’re not back in the 80’s when disabled kids weren’t entitled to an education.

Why would social services need to know what is going on? They may become concerned about home ed if it was part of a picture of neglect, but there’s no suggestion that the OP is neglecting the children - even if you don’t agree with her choices.