I home educate - my DS has never been to school - AMA

[OvertheUnicornRainbow]

My DS is almost 13, always been home-educated and is thriving. Ask me anything

My DC were in school from reception to Y7 and Y4 so I do know what is on offer

You know what's on offer in the schools your children attended up to year 7. I don't think that makes you an expert on the education system, with all due respect.

@atankofskunks - he's had breadth and diversity - so much more than his DS. But is ready to narrow a bit now. Most might not do it til Y9 but he's done it a year earlier, so what? There is no one size fits all.

That's great skunks, that she can follow her passions at home
Indeed, and she is not unique in this! As I said earlier, following passions at home is not exclusive to HE children.

Of course in 6 months he might decide to do Geography - who knows?!

How do you earn enough mony to fund this lifestyle

I have two children at home I might need to home educate at least one but I've no income

Well done OP for not being a sheep!

The education system is based on an obsolete model.

Ofsted are very keen for options to not happen until year 10 OP so he's two years shy of what would be their ideal (though I appreciate that lots of schools allow earlier options still)

I know I can't manage cope with the kids in in scouts when I help out 🤣 But my DC do cubs and scouts and are HE. They have been in school for years though. And ime cubs etc tends to be almost whole year groups from one or possibly two schools (it is here anyway, village based). So it's hard to fit in if you don't know them.

I can honestly say that coming in new to this that there has been nothing obviously odd about HE kids as a community. Certainly no more odd than the kids in local primary or secondary.

I accept that these threads are quite hard going for all sides.

I do struggle with the assumption that school using families don't go to museums and art galleries though!!

The social side of things - so the young person is largely socialising with other home ed peers. In some ways that worries me but I can see the benefit with sen/other additional social needs that they gain confidence in smaller safer groups and I can fully accept that's hugely beneficial. In fact it's the sort of experience lots of socially awkward (for a range of reasons including my nephew) young people would jump at the chance to have.

I can see lots of advantages really of home ed x

skunks, no of course not, and neither is attaining a broad set of skills with a high level of social interaction only applicable to school kids.

@atankofskunks - no not a one-off. He does actually have access to some equipment as his dad is a carpenter. Other things like circuits are easy enough to do at home.

@lovelyupnorth - he's autistic - some rude people would call that odd. He's been in Scouting since Beavers - it's a lovely group so not hard to cope with. Obviously this isn't his only chance to mix with peers!

For the PP that asked how schooled children can do extra stuff and have down time here's our upcoming week for comparison (but my DS is only 8 so not a straight comparison).

Monday is an inset day we have tickets booked for a wildlife park. It's about an hour away so the the way he'll listen to an audio book, on the way back we'll talk about what we've seen and learnt. While there we'll cover the ethics of zoos, climate change, habitat destruction and various other related topics. He will read every sign, info sheet etc because that's his nature. In the evening he'll chill with TV or computer (probably looking up info about some of the animals he found interesting). He'll read a novel in bed for about 45 mis.

Tuesday school , English, Maths, Science, play rehearsal after school hockey. At home the school set spellings for the week. Free time. Will read in bed for 45 mins

Wednesday school English, maths, PE topic work. Lunch time chess/ puzzle clubs. After-school forest school type club then swimming lesson rest of the time will free time to do whatever he wants. Will read in bed for 30 mins

Thursday school - English, maths art After-school netball. Cubs. Will read in bed for 30 mins gap between school and cubs is free time.

They run a daily mile at school everyday and have a twice weekly library slot, twice weekly slots helping on the school farm/garden and contact several times a week with their "buddies" in the infant's school. This is a mainstream state school.

Friday school fun Friday ,PE, music, ITC and either French, forest school or cookery depending rota. School set home work and maths/ spelling computer programs as used in school. Free time. He will read in bed for at least 45 mins.

Saturday and Sunday a mix of board games, something like a science kit, building a robot kit, coding game or model making/ painting etc trip out to a museum, NT property or similar with loads of chill time.

We talk about what he has learnt on the 20 minute walk home every day and will find quick, easy fun ways to re-enforce and expand that knowledge or go over it if he isn't sure. So if they are doing division in maths I'll ask him to show me how to do it (so I can check he understands, ensure I'm asking him to use the same method he's been taught). I'll then ask a few sum throughout the week based on what ever he is doing at the time so currently using rugby scores to practice times tables - how many tries, conversions etc will Wales need to catch France.

@slipperywhensparticus - many parents home-ed on a small budget. There are a lot of free resources and very reasonably priced groups.

Thank you for writing this OP, i am fascinated by home ed, i am an early years teacher , so see benifits of school and what school is and also has a 3 year old non verbal child with autism, and know the difficulties that some children face and are just not suited to school so see benefits of home schooling, my main concerns are that its such an individual parents decision on what consists of home ed and that some children could potentially just not get the education they should have due to parents not putting in the effort.

yes my kids are odd. Including the one at school. My homeschooled one would probably not manage scouts because of the people, youre right there.

As for museums. My kids cant really manage museums at peak times. Hideous. Nor can I really.
During the week, during the day though they are bliss.

My daughter is looking likely she will need speical school. I just wouldnt be able to mentally cope with having her all day for her schooling.

@OvertheUnicornRainbow

Some lovely autistic kids - had one lad in cubs who really struggled with the social side and said once I much prefer reading books to playing games. If I could read a book about games maybe I could play them. So gave him the games book and said study it and pick a couple you could play he came back. We played the games he choose. He gave it his all loved every second, he was also completely hopeless. But the smile on his face said it all. He always had a go at games going forward good bad or indifferent.

I guess my odd point was more an old beyond their years and condescending. They all needed the inter actions with the others.

@nevernotstruggling - no assumption from me that schooled DC don't go to museums/art galleries! The point made was home-ed kids do get more chance for educational visits due to time and they do get more out of them often due to the place being quieter or a smaller group for example. His best friends are home-educated but he does have friends from his hobbies who aren't. But yes the smaller groups help massively.

Yes from what OP posted earlier about his regular classes, the STEM one was a one off.
I work in a company where most of the work is scientific. When HE I learned basic science fine. But once it was beyond basics of atoms, then I was on my own with online learning. My chemistry knowledge was almost non existent. And I had zero lab experience from my HE. I have only met one HE child who had a decent science education. HE works for arty subjects, but rarely for science.
By the way, I would have been much further forward in my career if I had science qualifications when I was young. I have pretty much accepted that I have under achieved. My field is very competitive.
Interesting OP that your DS does not do geography. My geography is appalling. I don't know if that is because it is a subject that is less likely to be interesting to someone who is self-directed?

And in the interest of fairness, my 13 year old year 8 daughter;

Monday- full day at school, maths, English etc. Library duty at lunch and then drama club after school. Evening will be homework or a maths project that she's working on with friends
Tuesday- school again with usual subjects including science and PE. Three hours of dance in the evening
Wednesday- school (see above) swimming after school
Thursday- school (see above again) followed by Guides
Friday- school (including food tech where they have designed and planned a meal and will then make it) followed by a choir rehearsal
Saturday- drama/singing/dance class
Sunday- chilling, possibly going for a family walk (depending on weather etc)

She reads every night for hours if we let her and is currently ploughing through George Orwell novels and her history book (mentioned up thread).

@Branleuse - yep, the museums are amazing - til a school group comes along!

I definitely think there are things she is missing out on at home though. Its swings and roundabouts though. I see a lot of people make sure their child does school at ALL costs. Their child could be suicidal, being threatened, being bullied, being aggressive They will still insist on sending that child in, or allowing them to just school refuse at home, until the authorities get involved, rather than taking the bloody hint that that child needs a different system and take them out. Usually the upshot is they just leave early anyway because theyve totally disengaged

@lovelyupnorth It is because they are used to socialising with adults rather than peers.

OP, as you seem to have wide connections with your local HE community - what proportion of the 18 year old 'graduates from HE' that you know go on to university? What proportion of that group go to Russell Group / Oxbridge / similar level institutions?

I HEd for a while when DS was younger, so I am not in any way anti HE. However, while I was involved in HE, the groups I attended pointed to the examples of 'post HE' 18 year olds who did go to university as 'showing it was possible', while further enquiry showed that the proportion of the overall number was, at that point and in that location, very small.

Overall, over 50% of young people go on to higher education - over 10% go to Russell Group (data varies slightly from different sources) Would you say that about half of Home Educated young people enter higher education, witha about 1 in 10 going to Russell Group type institutions? If not, why not?