I home educate my 3 children

[LilyTuesday]

As the subject title says! I have found myself answering lots of questions over the years, once people find out we home Ed our children… but they are probably being polite and not saying how they really feel about the idea of choosing to never send a child to school…. So AMA if you’ve ever been curious!

.The most outstanding piano pupil l have ever taught is home educated. They are a lovely family and have made sure that their children have had as many opportunities as possible. The older children are now attending college part-time in order to study for GCSEs. This pupil is auditioning for specialist music college. One huge advantage with home education is time. It has meant that we have had longer lessons and the time to expand beyond what would normally be possible. This pupil spends most of their spare time on the piano. Home schooling has been an advantage for this, too. Please excuse the italics. I’m not sure how it occurred

Life isn't all about academic achievement.

For my youngest being safe is a priority.

Wow there's two bitter posters on here going on!

Well done home edders! Certainly the ones posting here are coming across as credible, and sound like they're doing a great job.

Good for them.

I am very strongly against home ed.However I think 2 circumstances for home edding are acceptable.
1 where the child has an exceptional talent and needs to devote a lot of time to it.
2 where a child has some special need and all attempts to make schools work have failed.
I run a children's activity and deal with a lot of Home Ed kids, and in very many cases it is evident that the parents are the ones getting most out of the arrangement not the kid.

And yet you're not willing to take on board anything experienced home edders on this thread are telling you, why is that? Do you you have the same disregard for the parents of children you teach? That's exactly the them and us attitude that disempowers learners. I see school children subjected to this all the time and it's so sad.

Home educated children have the benefit of learning from all manner of sources including, but not limited to, their parents experience and qualifications. It's an expansive and rich learning environment that you are unable to perceive. That's fine, but terribly sad for children who may be relying on you to open the world up to them while all the time they're being limited by your lack of knowledge, experience and mindset. Home ed allows parents to be far more discerning - we're far more invested in our children than either the local authority or their employees (tho I'm not in any way taking away from the work teachers do, I appreciate the vital service they provide - it just can't be compared to the rich learning that's possible with home ed)

Not sure why this has turned into an argument! Really interesting thread!
Op- you say you work part time, is that outside 'school hours'? What do your kids do whilst you are working?

Home educated children have the benefit of learning from all manner of sources including, but not limited to, their parents experience and qualifications

Do school educated children not have that opportunity? My children don't live at school you know! And please don't denigrate my job and my experience as a teacher. That is ridiculous and does not help your argument at all.

I've thought this too in the past but realise now that if one has started taking drugs the home school ship has sailed. I doubt you'd be able to have any kind of amicable arrangement for them to leave friends and do home Ed. I imagine you'd need to start young or start from the outset home Ed. Maybe I'm wrong about that but I imagine if dc are in school and around friends engaging in enjoyable tasks it would be hard to withdraw them. If they are v unhappy at school then that would be different.

I specifically said I appreciate the vital service teachers provide. It's important to read the whole post in order to respond appropriately.

But you are right, school children can also benefit from all the world has to offer - albeit school takes up the majority of their week and energy leaving little for enrichment. However the ones who excel academically do so because of the opportunities provided by the parents - school cannot compare that's why unfortunately the children whose parents cannot or will not provide the opportunities fall behind. Save your concern for them - not the children whose parents are so engaged they dedicate all their time to their kids education.

Save your concern for them

Oh believe me, I have enough concern for both.
You speak as though time in school is wasted time. It's absolute nonsense. Children in school receive education, enrichment, friendships, relationships with others away from their parents. They learn independence, resilience etc etc. And there is still enough time in the 13 weeks holiday per year, plus weekends and evenings to pursue the hobbies and interests that home schoolers seem to thing constitute a complete education.

It was not something I cared about as a university admissions tutor. Maybe employers take it into account but for me, subjects taken, grades and interview performance were the key factors.

Your daughter's 2 GCSE results are poor what is the point I taking them early for that result?! However, Home Education sounds good - get your activities and interests and trips in during the day and study in the evening. Being in a classroom during the day is rubbish.

Are there faith based / particular language based / particular ethnicity based Home Ed communities or just white, English language families that follow this predominantly in the UK? Also, what economical background mostly follow the Home Ed model? Any studies to show how well these different groups do? Thanks

She said her daughter got 5s, how is that poor?
Maybe she wanted to take those courses for the love of learning?

I'm not the OP, but I work school hours 3 days a week and my DH works 5 days a week - he works 3 days at home on the days I am out of the house.
On those days DS does about 20 minutes of an online maths course (White Rose), and maybe another 20 minutes of some English and science workbooks he can do independently. Usually on one of the days I set up a news-based task for him from Twinkl before I go to work.
Other than that he's free to do what he likes, our only rule is no youtube/gaming before I get home. Usually he reads a lot, watches documentaries, plays on the trampoline, sometimes he plays BBC Bitesize games, plays his guitar.
Often on one of my work days he goes to his grandparents and does crafting/baking stuff or plays chess with them (and they let him watch TV ).

You may not be aware that universities are often sympathetic to home ed and appreciate the strengths that these students often have. They are often dealt with as special cases and many home ed families know which unis are sympathetic to home ed students. You're unlikely to have experience of that if the school system is what you know. Fortunately not everyone in higher education is a jobsworth

As an aside, your tone is a really poor advertisement for classroom teaching.

I think it's excellent that the op's DD got the opportunity to try sitting some non core subjects early. She will have a sense of the work involved, developed study skills and exam technique, not to mention confidence. It's a pity that the school system has everyone at blinkered that they can't recognise development and growth in a 13 year old. Credit to her for completing a GCSE course and pursuing her interests.

You sound unfit to be in the position you're in TBH. That is utterly ridiculous. You do realise universities don't take this extreme and punitive approach with home educated children?

You seem to have completely lost sight of why you're doing what you're doing. A child who had taken the examwith the grades you mention could probably manage sixth form beautifully and I think you know it. You sound like a power hungry admissions tyrant, rather than an educator.

He personally is getting a much better education at home than at school.
My work days he has as more down time. He actually learns best through reading and watching and is able to do that and follow whatever he is interested in on those days - for example, one day last week he watched an interesting video about nuclear energy and spent a day finding out everything he could about various methods of energy production. He's a child that needs a lot of down time and opportunity to process things.
On other days we're more active in terms of learning things together, doing reading comprehension, science experiments, STEM activities (we get a subscription box), walks and swimming, home ed social group - but he isn't suited to zipping back and forth to lots of clubs and activities.
For him, it's 100 times better than the provision at school. Academically, he is probably working a year or two above his age group in maths and science, maybe more in reading. Writing is more of a struggle.

I guess the thing with home education is you can do whatever works for your child. I know some families who are very structured, maybe follow a whole curriculum (national curriculum or otherwise), lots of written work at the dining room table. And other families who are totally unstructured and unschool, no formal work at all and no curriculum. I'd describe us as 'semi-structured'.

There are lots of groups available if that suits - on my local facebook group I see home ed gymnastics, dance, sports, craft, French, science, forest school, climbing advertised. Meet ups at ice rinks and trampoline parks. Loads and loads of workshops at museums (sometimes we go to these), trips to theatres, zoos, theme parks, camps.

Something else that hasn't been mentioned here is the massive discounts available to home educated children for learning programmes and admissions to educational facilities.

As for the poster who questioned the educational value in doing swimming and riding....I despair. There are no words for that level of non-comprehension. Suffice to say that there is a reason why well rounded individuals do better in academic subjects and home educated children are often ND and particularly benefit from the learning in these subjects. And posh boarding schools offer them during school hours!!!

This thread seems to have really pushed the buttons of a couple of teachers. Home educated children account for about 1% of children (probably more but we have no actual data) we are not a threat to your job and when you account for the fact that almost 50% of school children don't pass all of these wonderful GSCEs that your students seem to be getting and the home ed population is far more ND so a lot of the children wouldn't get all of those GCSEs in school anyway, you don't need to worry about us.
A large number of home ed parents are ex teachers. I left teaching because it is a thankless job that is about anything but actually teaching children and know that I don't want my children in a system that makes them a number in data.
Of course I worry about their future. Of course I worry that they may not learn German because I don't speak it or economics because its not an interest I have. But as a parent, I know my children. I know how to access people and resources that can teach them those things if they become interested. And most importantly, I know they will have a childhood that they enjoy, free from being failures as soon as they walk through the school gates at 4 years old. They do not spend all of their time with me. They do plenty of activities with families they really wouldn't have met in school. They have to spend time with children they don't get on with and have to learn to compromise with just as much as schooled children. I genuinely don't worry that they won't be able to get a job and really hope I have given them the skills to be able to choose a career where they don't have to learn to follow routines and orders and can follow their passions instead.
My way is not better. It is a damn sight harder (I have done both.) But for my children, I am giving them the best that I know that I can, and that is what all of us here are doing. It's just a different way of life.

👏

I agree with you. I do think schools fail some children and in those cases Home Education may be the best solution. But many Home Educators by choice seem to have very low expectations of their children and basically the education the provide is what many parents of schooled children do in the weekends and evenings.

So much time is wasted. My children do two hours 'work' a day - the rest is enrichment. Academically they are streets ahead of their peers not to mention achievements in other areas that their peers don't have the time or energy to dedicate.

A former teacher did a breakdown of the school day - no more than an hour or twos actual work is done there either but what is done is so...diluted by what the teacher wants, what else is going on etc. Put learning into the hands of the learner and it's magical.

FWIW, we often see groups of school children on museum trips etc - zero engagement - utterly depressing to see. Of course home ed isn't for everyone and can't be for practical reasons - but to spout off when you clearly have no idea - you're in the business of learning - it should never stop because as we know, children pick up on what they see.