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!

I’ve honestly no idea why you’ve written a massive post of assumptions about what I think about schooling.

what’s it based on? The fact that I pointed out eating on a climbing wall is dangerous and unhygienic?

Are those two things related somehow?

Very strange !

What did you mean by "formal classroom based schooling for all children is a relatively recent invention"?

Could you explain a bit more please? Thank you!

I suspect the poster means that it is only since Victorian times that there have been state provided schools and compulsory education for all, with the school leaving age gradually increasing over time.

Yes, this is what I mean.

I assumed you were the first poster who has a massive problem with children eating croissants on climbing walls and feels this is indicative of a type of parent and indeed child after observing a home ed outing. If you were just chipping in to that exchange halfway though, well that's odd.

its not true, it has existed for thousands of years!

In England? I think the 'for all children' is somewhat relevant surely?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_education_in_England

Yes but my point was that people often cite school as essential to socialisation and/or learning, but people have managed to socialise and learn for many thousands of years without attending school. Classroom based schooling for all children, in the UK, is a relatively recent thing. School in this country is opt in, not opt out.

I hope OP might forgive me answering a few of the points about exams, as I have / had HE dc at that stage.

• Yes, home ed kids can and do take exams. They register as private candidates (either at a school or commercial centre, we use a local private school). This tends to be quite expensive.
• Some subjects - generally practical things such as art, music, PE, food tech - are trickier outside of school. We tend to find alternatives such as arts awards, music instrument and theory grades, coaching awards, sports gradings, etc.
• Conversely, there is also a wide range of subjects available not offered in all schools, and students are not limited by options blocks or timetable clashes (for instance, ds1’s previous school didn’t offer separate English language and literature, but he could choose both as HE).
• Some dc will sit exams early / late / spread them out (the latter often for cost reasons). IME this is very unlikely to cause issues with next steps.
• For us: ds1 sat an average number of GCSES in y11 equivalent, attended college 16-18, and is now doing well at uni. Ds2 will take less (mainly due to sen) and a mix of academic / vocational qualifications. He’ll start college at a slightly lower level.

No it really hasn't.

For someone who claims to work in education you do seem remarkably ill-informed.

. I know a lot of home edders say you don't need to begin any kind of formal learning til age 7 (if at all)

This is interesting.

In the country I live in school starts at 6. I was thinking it might be fun to join the home Ed community and start home education at age 4 to give my DC more experiences and opportunity to learn. As a parent, I'd also like to add structure to more our day. My question is: what is the youngest age you can realistically start home ed with the support of groups and a formal curriculum to follow? I'd want to have some sort of structure to guide me so we don't end up pissing about every day.

The 0-5 curriculum is pretty informal and play based.
This is a non-statutory document but shows what 0-3, 3-4 and 4-5 year olds would be learning in a registered setting https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/development-matters--2

@alyceflowers thank you 😊

I mentioned the croissant on the climbing wall as that’s what I witnessed, I think it sums up parents who can’t possibly say no despite that being a dangerous and inappropriate thing to do. OP graciously admitted that these types of parents are often over represented in home schooling groups.

I suppose I wonder how home educated children manage when exposed to challenging situations? I wasn’t home schooled but went to a small primary school that was very gentle and my parents raised us in a gentle way - secondary school was such a shock! College even worse for me and I really struggled to adjust.

I went to a primary school that was very much non gentle and secondary school was a shock to me too, I think that's pretty universal tbh as everyone I've spoken to about it has said the same.

College (sixth form) was great for me though, I enjoyed it very much.

In answer to your question, I should imagine home educated children cope with challenging situations in the same way schooled children do - in a variety of different ways depending on their individual personalities. I certainly haven't noticed a difference in the coping mechanisms of my home educated kids vs their schooled friends and cousins.

I think it depends what you mesn by ‘well’. At least as well, in terms of long term lifetime happiness and health of the child in question, as the state education option available to them at that point? Possibly quite a high percentage. As well in ‘paper qualification’ terms as an average state-schooled child from a similar background? That’s a harder one.

In order to answer your question, I would need to understand what you mean by "well".

Hope you don't mind me jumping in with advice! I've home educated my two, who are now 23 and 16. We follow an unschooling approach but mix with all sorts of home ed families, so I'm familiar with how it can look.

You don't have to wait until you are ready to start formal learning before joining the home ed community. You could join as soon as your child shows an interest in playing with other kids OR as soon as you want to chat with other parents about how it can look. That way you can start building a social network for both of you as well as gathering information to help you decide how you want to go about it... or rather, how you want to start off. Most families find their approach evolves considerably over time. You can experiment and see what works for your child. Ask people what resources they use.

In this country it's a bit unusual to use a single curriculum-in-a-box. People usually mix and match resources for different subjects in order to get a better fit for their child's interests and aptitudes. You might find a provider you like for maths, but go elsewhere for history and so on. There's great freedom to choose whatever works best, but on the flip side you'll probably spend quite a lot of time hunting up different resources and choosing between them!

In the meantime, before you start formal learning, you might enjoy joining in with all the informal opportunities which may be organised by local HE parents: pond dipping, gardening together, cheap-rate trips to a petting farm, etc.

Which is what, when it comes to home education? Qualifications? Happiness? All of the above?

But, I suspect you're not actually making the comment in good faith.

I can tell you for instance that I have two happy, sociable, well adjusted kids who are working academically beyond where they "should" be in terms of school year, who are avid readers, spend lots of time outdoors, have lots of different interests and have lots of friends.

If this is your definition of doing it well then no, I don't agree with your assertion that less than 1% of home educators are doing it well.

It’s odd for a poster to answer a question asked on a discussion thread?

i don’t think you understand how discussion threads work. Unsurprising since you’re clearly quick to make assumptions