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!

But they weren't doing it by choice. Can you not see the difference between lockdown and elective home education? You don't seem to have the first idea about home education or how it works. Are you here to learn or to tell us?

This thread has really made me think OP so thank you. My DD is due to start reception in September and I've always felt uneasy about it. I've never seriously considered home-schooling before. At the moment both my kids go to nursery 2 days a week though and I wouldn't want to give up work so it straight away seems a non-starter.

In our local school, affluent area, it's £25 pet child, per year

Schools receive just over £7,000 per year per child but this clearly needs to cover staffing etc. I think it's a bit of a misnomer to talk about spend per head within a school however as many resources are provided for multiple students- text books used by different classes or workshops/performances offered to whole year groups for example.

I would add that as a parent I also spend lots of money on enrichment for my children. They too go to many museums and events, are in swimming teams and attend dance classes etc. They do this in the holidays and at weekends in addition to attending school full time.

OP I think the way you describe how you do HS it sounds absolutely lovely. I can see how any child in that kind of environment would thrive. Unfortunately I know of a family who HE and not much actual education seems to be happening at all. They don't belong to any groups or have lots of out of school activities. I think they go swimming but that's about it. The older child who is now 10 seems to spend most of his time on his favourite computer game. I do think this is worrying and the more so that there seems to be no oversight at all to pick up on families like this. It seems such a shame as proper HE sounds wonderful.

Of course they struggled! The vast majority were also holding down full time jobs working from home for the first time. Learning how to use programs like teams and zoom for the first time. Managing childcare for many also or assisting elderly relatives.

That was not homeschooling. It was a national emergency and completely different situation.

The vast majority were also holding down full time jobs working from home for the first time

Oh I know many who were furloughed with no work to do at home who weren't able to engage their children with the work set by school. I say this to counter the argument made by a PP that anyone can do it. I disagree.

I imagine they did in such unprecedented times when many were still employed with inflexible workloads, had not planned to do or prepared to do so and many (as well as the children) did not want to do so. In addition so many enriching opportunities were not available.

On the hand one of my colleagues really enjoyed the experience - she has a child with a strong strong and interest who savoured the time to explore it.

I don’t think just anyone can do it, I think many could and some under the right circumstances.

A lot of things you talk about are what involved parents send their children to outside of school. I looked up the poetry workshop your children went to. It was an hours workshop with quite a wife age range and its aim was to promote a love of poetry. The poet read some of his work, and then the children had a go at writing a poem.
It sounds fun and it is an enrichment activity, But it is not teaching poetry and it does not aim to.

Can the 6 yesr old read and write? How are your older children equipped for secondary school exams?

That isn't teaching or educating though - it's supervising work set by the school.
Engaging a child in work someone else has devised, that neither child nor parent finds very interesting, isn't really anything like home educated and doesn't tell you anything about whether most people can teach their children.

@ChildminderMum That is whta the OP is talking about doing with BBC Bitesize

That isn't teaching or educating though - it's supervising work set by the school

Oh ok @ChildminderMum. Where do you get your work from for your homeschooled child then? Are you entirely devising your own curriculum and resources? If so, what scheme of learning are you working to?

Not that I can see

Resources like BBC Bitesize, Twinkl, workbooks are things that are available to use to support the learning you are doing. You can't just sit a child in front of Bitesize and next thing you know they have a GCSE.

You can't just sit a child in front of Bitesize and next thing you know they have a GCSE

I couldn't agree more. So what else does a homeschooling parent do then? My eldest DD, for example, is on track for 9s in two languages which I don't speak. What would a homeschooling parent do to support such a child?

I home ed one of mine. We are not aiming for GCSEs and are very relaxed about when she learns. There are bigger things of more importance than an A. It would ok me a while to get my head around it and I don't expect anyone else to understand but I do what works for my DD and it isn't academia.

You don't need a scheme of work or a curriculum. Your child can learn whatever they want.
Personally we broadly follow the national curriculum for maths (video lessons and workbooks) and otherwise my child is learning an instrument, learning to swim, reading, watching Youtube, visiting places and museums, cooking. We've sometimes used Oak Academy and BBC Bitesize for specific things if it supports an interest in science/geography. I use Twinkl quite a lot for resources.

otherwise my child is learning an instrument, learning to swim, reading, watching Youtube, visiting places and museums, cooking

Yep. My child does all of that and goes to school too.

Home schooling and home education are different things - I believe home schooling is where work is provided by the school or LA for a child who can't attend.
If my child wants to learn a language (or an instrument or horse riding) then they'd need to do a class or have a tutor.

Bitesize etc is just a tiny part of home ed though, I just mentioned it as one of the resources we might use for gcse (I know you were referring to the op and not me but I mentioned using it too so thought I’d jump in).

When children were home learning through the pandemic they were experiencing a huge shift in what was normal in their day to day lives, probably a lot of uncertainty and anxiety. The strangeness of having to speak to their teachers and friends on a computer screen and not leave the house apart from a quick walk with the family, have their parents supervise unfamiliar work that someone else had put together. It isn’t comparable to home ed at all.

As for the poetry workshop mentioned by the op, I can’t speak for her but if we’d gone to something like this, which we have in the past, we would build on what had happened at the class at home. I would’ve planned and prepped beforehand and had more poetry resources waiting for us.

And..?

Your child can learn whatever they want

A nice principle but utter nonsense. You don't know what you don't know. A child is not going to ask to learn about things they have never heard of. It is the job of educators to lead them- to show them the world and to heighten their interest.

Your child can learn whatever they want doesn't mean no one ever tells a child about things they don't know

And having the self motivation to study independently is significantly more impressive than being spoon fed the curriculum at school. It's also significantly more enjoyable.

Seriously. Have you been anywhere near a school recently? They are shit. Striking teachers, reduced extra curricular activities since covid, hardly any exercise or fresh air. Uninspired kids, with terrible mental health. I am constantly amazed that parents put up with it.

@HospitalHelp Bitesize has been mentioned a few times on here and I have to say I hope it's not as significant a tool to your "teaching" as some of you are making it sound. Bitesize is exactly that- a Bitesize version of the learning needed for GCSE topics. I use it in the classroom sometimes for a quick introduction to the topic or a quick recap but it would be surrounded by lots and lots more in depth learning. It really is not close to being enough for GCSE success.