I home educate my DC AMA

[PsycheEros]

They are 8 and 6. The 6 year old has never been to school, the 8 year old was pulled out in reception. Fire away!

[SecretVictoria]

Most obvious, why? Were there issues at school?

[hopeishere]

How long do you anticipate doing it for? Do you not need to work?

[PsycheEros]

Most obvious, why? Were there issues at school?

As to why, my 8yo was desperately unhappy in reception - he's a sensitive, quiet kid who prefers reading over many other things and this was a huge primary with 35 kids per class. We pulled him out out of desperation thinking we would try our best to find him another school with smaller classes but he thrived so much at home and we discovered such a wonderful home ed community that we just carried on. I had huge problems prior to that with many aspects of school (no shade to teachers, many of whom are wonderful), but I never really knew home ed was even a thing before I pulled DS out. I just assumed it was for anti vaxx hippy oddballs.

How long do you anticipate doing it for? Do you not need to work?

As long as the DC are happy. If they ever want to try school I will absolutely let them do that.

I do work - I work roughly 20 hours a week evenings and some weekends (from home). DH is the main earner so this works for us financially at the moment.

[TeenDivided]

How do you describe school to them?

(The only Home Edder I know always used to say 'if they want to go to school they can' but then spoke so negatively about school in front of them it sounded a bit like indoctrination.)

Do you aim to follow the national curriculum so they could slot in later, or do you just do your own thing?

[Ihonestlydontgetit]

What's your level of education and how do you plan to educate your children across all subjects when they reach secondary age?
I ask this as I know I could educate my children in the subject I taught to secondary level but I'd be completely out of my depth in pretty much all other subjects.

[PsycheEros]

How do you describe school to them?

(The only Home Edder I know always used to say 'if they want to go to school they can' but then spoke so negatively about school in front of them it sounded a bit like indoctrination.)

An interesting question. I don't talk about my issues with the formal schooling system in front of them for that exact reason. If they ever ask questions about schools I tell them it's a place children go to learn and make friends, and that all schools are different. They often ask do children enjoy it and I say yes, many children do enjoy it.

Do you aim to follow the national curriculum so they could slot in later, or do you just do your own thing?

Depends on the subject. We sort of do with Maths but not for their respective school years as both are a bit further ahead. With English they are both avid readers and their writing, spelling and grammar skills have come largely from that. I find primary science in the UK very basic so we follow a separate curriculum for that as well. For other subjects I follow different curricula and we also do project based learning.

[PsycheEros]

What's your level of education and how do you plan to educate your children across all subjects when they reach secondary age?

I ask this as I know I could educate my children in the subject I taught to secondary level but I'd be completely out of my depth in pretty much all other subjects.

I'm educated to master's level in an arts subject. The answer to your question is - I don't! At that age if we are still home educating we will get tutors in for the subjects I don't feel able to teach them - this would be the sciences and foreign languages, largely, as their Dad has a maths degree.

[autienotnaughtym]

Where do you access your curriculum?
Do you meet with other home Edders?
Do you stick to traditional hours (9-330)?

[PsycheEros]

Where do you access your curriculum?

Many places - I don't use just one. For example, I use Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding for science alongside Blossom & Root, and Singapore maths.

Do you meet with other home Edders?

Yes, pretty much daily, but they also do after school and weekend groups with schooled children.

Do you stick to traditional hours (9-330)?

No, we don't need to as teaching them 1:1 means I can condense more into a shorter space of time. We do all our formal learning in the morning and the afternoons are for activities/projects etc.

[zurala]

Reading with interest as I've just taken my youngest out of school. I've read that you only need about 3 hours of learning to be equivalent to a school day, and teacher friends have confirmed this.

[SmartHome]

Are you worried about their social development? Do you meet with other home ed kids so they can learn to be around other children? What if they want to go to university or secondary school?

[PsycheEros]

@zurala

Reading with interest as I've just taken my youngest out of school. I've read that you only need about 3 hours of learning to be equivalent to a school day, and teacher friends have confirmed this.

Absolutely, and this is also not accounting for the fact that children are learning all the time. For example, on Friday afternoon DS1 spent a couple of hours writing a story (looking up words in the dictionary as he went) and DS2, who is really into Greek and roman mythology at the moment, was building the coliseum out of Kapla bricks.

[PsycheEros]

Are you worried about their social development? Do you meet with other home ed kids so they can learn to be around other children?
No. We meet up with other kids all the time. Schooled kids as well as home educated ones.

What if they want to go to university or secondary school?

Then they can. I certainly intend that if they are still home educated at secondary level they will take exams.

[ArseMenagerie]

Meeting up with others is not the same as being in a classroom though. In a classroom they learn to be around others all day and how to navigate that - through good times and bad, play time and work time, projects, physical education and group learning. I don’t see how you can provide that at home. However, I see all the time that school not for everyone and why should a childhood be blighted by having to attend? So no questions - just offering some genuine kudos for doing it, it’s a brave step :)

[PsycheEros]

Meeting up with others is not the same as being in a classroom though. In a classroom they learn to be around others all day and how to navigate that - through good times and bad, play time and work time, projects, physical education and group learning

We don't just meet up with others in the park or what have you, they do structured groups for longer periods of time in classroom-like settings - they do forest school on a Tuesday for instance which is an all day thing, where they work on projects together.

I do think people have a bit of a blind spot about children can possibly learn to socially interact unless it's in a classroom based setting - especially when you think that formal classroom based schooling for all children is a relatively recent invention.

[TinyOctopus]

Do you write reports or have home visits from the LA? I home educated dd (new to it) and I am on some home ed groups and they are very against home visits but I think I would prefer that over writing a report.

[Chasingadvice]

Why have you denied your second child the option of school being you believe it didn't suit your first one?

[PsycheEros]

Do you write reports or have home visits from the LA? I home educated dd (new to it) and I am on some home ed groups and they are very against home visits but I think I would prefer that over writing a report.

I prefer reports so I can have everything in writing, but I would be perfectly OK with a home visit. However, I've never been offered one. My LA are aware of us but the last report I submitted was two years ago and they've never been in touch since.

[PsycheEros]

Why have you denied your second child the option of school being you believe it didn't suit your first one?

Because, having tried home education and having seen what it had to offer them over traditional schooling, I made the judgement that I felt it was best for both my children. The same way that I assume you feel traditional schooling is best for yours.

[PsycheEros]

There is a bit of a pervasive narrative that it's fine to home educate as long as it's only being done because your DC wouldn't be OK at school.

[TinyOctopus]

@PsycheEros

Do you write reports or have home visits from the LA? I home educated dd (new to it) and I am on some home ed groups and they are very against home visits but I think I would prefer that over writing a report.

I prefer reports so I can have everything in writing, but I would be perfectly OK with a home visit. However, I've never been offered one. My LA are aware of us but the last report I submitted was two years ago and they've never been in touch since.

Oh really thank you. I thought they contacted yearly. I filled in the forms they sent (against the groups advice) and have never heard anything since but I’ve been told some can be very pushy.

[PsycheEros]

They are meant to contact yearly but mine are really hands off with me. I don't know why as others in my area find the same LA very pushy. Our home ed style is quite structured and academic so I suspect they feel they don't need to be in touch with us as much.

[zurala]

@Chasingadvice

Why have you denied your second child the option of school being you believe it didn't suit your first one?

Why have you denied your children the opportunity for home education, and forced them into school? 😉

[ReddishBrown]

How much does it cost you? I often see gyms etc have home Ed sessions. How much do you spend a month roughly on attending group sessions, buying book, online resources, travel etc?

[Greycheck]

Sounds wonderful OP. I withdrew my daughter at 14 after her school could no longer keep her safe and the change in her was astounding, literally overnight. I wish I had done it years earlier.

There is much misconception about EHE and yet many of the adults I work with are still working through the damage/trauma of their school days which continues to impact their life decades later.

Home education isn't for everyone just like school isn't for everyone.