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!

I was home educated myself, for the last few years of secondary school. I loved it and wanted to offer the same to my children if I could.
My older 2 have actually been to school at some point, as they wanted to try it. One of them went for a year and the other 6 months. I’m not anti-school, but I guess for me as a home educated child myself, when it came to my own children, I considered both options, and after much research and discussions with my husband, we went with home Ed. I think most people don’t consider an alternative to school, as it’s just not a mainstream part of our society.

I don’t understand how swimming lessons and horse riding are considered part of home educating? My kids do loads of hobbies like that outside of school. I know home schooling isn’t just kids sitting at home being taught by a parent, but what you are describing doesn’t seem to have much of an educational element apart from learning hobby skills.

Thank you that's really interesting

Do you feel your children will be adequately prepared to work as adults?
Your life sounds lovely but I'd worry they'd grow up to struggle to adapt to a more typical work routine.

My 14 year old has 2 GCSE’s already. She got 5’s in psychology and sociology when she was 13. It’s another thing I love about home Ed- we aren’t restricted to a couple of weeks at the end of year 11. They can take them spread out. I helped my DD to choose those 2 subjects - she was interested in both. We’ve left the core subjects and she aims to take those at the same time as the other year 11’s. We have purposely left those subjects until last as she is likely to get a higher grade than if she was to take it now. But it’s great to already have 2 under her belt! She plans to become a mental health nurse.
We have to pay to sit exams as an external candidate.
DD did the 24 month course in both subjects online - learn, laugh, play is a home Ed tutoring company, they offer a huge variety of subjects. Groups are small and the teachers are fantastic. They only cost £5 a week for each session. She also used workbooks and bitesize etc.
My middle DD doesn’t know what she wants to yet, but she loves animals and the environment. She helps out at a forest school one afternoon a week, and a riding school on a Saturday. She does online animal care, and has just started GCSE environmental science.
With all 3 children, we have followed the curriculum in English, maths and science. We don’t have to follow the curriculum, and many of our home Ed friends don’t. But that was something my husband and I decided was non-negotiable.

My kids are school educated. I have a part time job and like my 'me time'. However I have always had this idea if one of my kids started taking drugs, being bullied, or poor mental health, I'd quit my job (we could live off DH's income although less disposable income), and home school. I struggled un lockdown though, so it would be a last resort

I admire your determination of doing it from day one. Well done.

My question is - do you ever struggle to maintain authority? I struggled to get my kids to do as I asked during lockdown.

Yes I do, as they’ve grown up out in the real world every single day. They have never been in a situation where they have to sit down in a room with 30 children the same age as them. They have grown up with mixed-age learning, and adults and as a result of that, they are very confident, independent and have a lot of life skills that aren’t taught in the classroom. They have followed their interests to get to where they are now so they are excited to work towards a career they feel passionate about.

How do you know what the curriculum is to follow it? I really want to homeschooling my son as he's struggling in mainstream. I just wouldn't know where to start.

If you ever do end up home educating, I would like to reassure you that it won’t be at all like lockdown! During lockdown, we were affected as well, as all our usual meet ups and activities were cancelled. So even we hated the lockdowns!

My 14 year old has an attitude sometimes, but I definitely see it as the time where she needs less of me, as she becomes more independent. But overall, I wouldn’t say I’ve had a problem with it, as it’s not just me educating them. It’s the community, the world around them, and of course the amazing tutors and teachers we’ve had over the years for various things.

I've always been set on home educating, never had any doubt thats the way I'd go.

However, for reasons beyond my control it looks like my DD will be an only child.

Do you think difficultifficult/detrimental to homeschool an only.

With home education , you don’t have to follow the curriculum. Many don’t. We have always followed it in English, maths and science. But not for anything else- all other subjects they’ve chose as they’ve got older and then they join online classes or sometimes it’s been a small group locally with a teacher. For example, my 6 year old does a science lesson every week with a professor and 10 other home ed children.
BBC bitesize has all the curriculum. Also oak academy - all free.
we have paid for online lessons with a company called learn, laugh, play. Classes range from £2.50-5.
Also some people like to use the CGP workbooks - Smiths has them all!

Do your kids have SEND? The only people I know who home-school are people with kids who have autism and/or ADHD and school just isn't meeting their needs. Just curious to know if that was your experience too....

We actually have 2 friends in the home Ed community that have only children. I am also an only myself and I was home Ed, only for the last few years of secondary though.
The children we know don’t seem to have any issues at all. But they are like us, pretty much out doing something everyday. So I would say it probably works best if they are able to socialise as much as possible. I love that with home ed, they don’t just socialise with their peers. They grow up around all ages and adults, which is far more like the real world.

If it's not too outing, what side of Essex is this big homeschooling community? (Mentally making note of what's available as I'm not sure transition to secondary school will work for my son, who has ASD. We are also in Essex.)

Seeing your post about DD taking exams and being able to do so spread out. Does your DD have university aspirations as at that point, you need to take all 3 in one sitting usually

No, none of my have SEND, but we do have a lot of home Ed families that do. It’s actually sad to see the amount of children that have sort of slipped through the gap. Mainstream didn’t meet their needs, no spaces in SEN schools. There seems to be an in the middle part where these children are meant to fit, but it’s just not there. So as well as seeing happy home ed children with SEN, we are seeing a lot of families that have felt forced into it as they were so badly let down.

TOWIE is your clue 😉

DD wants to be a mental health nurse - or at least that’s what she’s interested in at the moment. She is considering college for A levels, or the equivalent in health and social care- we aren’t currently exploring all the options. She will do maths, English and Science at the same time as her peers (that is the plan at the moment.)

That's my take too. I am very ignorant about it, but the impression I get is very much that HE is dominated by people with professional jobs and a good salary. Would imagine it's harder on a minimum wage especially in a one parent family.

Op I would love to think HE is accessible to those who wish. But it does sound heavy in terms of time and money. Or is that an unfair assumption?

Do you plan to home educate for A level as well? Or would they need to go to sixth form college for that?

I’m an ex teacher and it’s like people have this weird idea that during a teaching degree we are somehow gifted with a a magical ability to ‘teach’. That’s absolutely not how it works. Teaching 30 children is about class management, it’s about teaching the same thing to 30 different children with different abilities/some with learning difficulties/special needs etc. It’s absolutely not about being taught the ability to teach.

Sounds like you were on a shit PGCE course then because that's exactly what my PGCE was about - the 'how' to teach. You're effectively just saying anyone can pick up a book/log into Youtube and teach. Bit like a dental nurse believing they can be a dentist because they watch it day in day out. 🙄

This is exactly why hardly anyone in RL knows my youngest is HE, l can't waste time justifying the total lack of ignorance surrounding it.
One thing l am sure of though is he is the most self motivated, confident and happiest teenager l know.
He's taking his A levels this year.

Well, aside from the fact they are learning something through all those activities (all children in or out of school obviously benefit from having hobbies.) Those activities for us, is just how we socialise in the home Ed community. Usually it will be one morning or afternoon that they do these things. The rest of the time they have online classes (small groups of home Ed children and a teacher) they have all attended science lessons with a professor, in a small class. (We have been with him for many years, he’s fantastic.) We also take work with us down to the lakes on a nice sunny day, we use workbooks for maths and English and bitesize. We go to the library a lot. We aren’t restricted to 9-3 or term time. Today with went to a poetry workshop with the author Tim Eagleton- that all counts towards their full time education. We don’t have to show their work to anyone (obviously they do when doing GCSES) but I’ve always encouraged them to have workbooks and folders, and I keep a detailed record too.

@wiffin Single parent here, no financial or physical help from the father and I home educate. I’m on a low salary. Works for us!

Yes!!!! Amazing, well done.

You just end up getting used to the stigma don’t you. 😏
however, I’ve been really pleased with this thread. I’m always happy to answer questions honestly, to people that are genuinely curious.