My children are home educated AMA

[NotBackToSchool]

With all the talk about rising numbers of home educated children and increasing pressures on attendance with fines for parents, I thought there might be interest in a typical day for children who haven't gone back to school this week.

My kids as KS1 and KS2 age.

We started this morning with my younger child getting in to bed with me to read her current book - a ladybird 'read it yourself' version of Heidi.
My older child read the 4th Harry Potter book in their own bed.

After breakfast they both did a maths video lesson before I started work as a childminder.

We're using the book 'The Tiny Seed' this week to learn about seed dispersal and made seed collages.

They mostly played with their friends all day and we went to the park.

This afternoon one of them has a dance class, and later we'll be finishing off the Lucy Worsley Six Wives series on iplayer (SIX the musical obsession!)

Everyday is a bit different generally but today was pretty typical! If anyone wants to know more then just ask.

Did you start childminding to facilitate your home educating or were you childminding before? What work would you be doing/like to be doing if your DC were in school?

I think this is perhaps what the government really wants: mentally ill populace rather than strong, independent, clever individuals who see through Their shit

How many friends would you say each child has and how often are they mixing?

Do you have a plan for the year/month whatever like we will end up covering the tudors in history this year or we’ll learn all these geographical terms and then get it to happen more naturally? So yeah I guess how do you organise yourself?

How many days a week are they with other tutors for things?

How much time do you get to yourself per week?

Also what are your kids currently most interested in?

Thank you for this!

Last year I spent:
£30 on maths/science curricula
£30 on apps/games
£15 on workbooks
£75 on online classes
£300 on art supplies, board games, science kits, paper, printer ink etc - this is including stuff I use in childminding too though
£350 on home ed trips - this includes museum sessions, theatre tickets, aquarium, theme park, home ed meet ups and train tickets

Also spend about £75 a month on after school clubs.

You could definitely spend more or less. We use the library a lot and I try to get things in charity shops or facebook marketplace where possible.

And to add to that do you get the national curriculum, have a look through and then decide?

I was childminding before and was a nanny before that. So would probably still be working with children if they were in school. I quite fancy retraining as a speech therapist though!

How do you find online tutors btw?

One is probably autistic but neither have any learning difficulties/needs.

not back, good for you 4 members in my family were h schooled here the system is very well done. tests every 3 months online to make sure they do well for their age
monthly groups for social and tutors online if needed
godson was taught way because he passed his teachers and he got bored
at 17 university started medical now a trauma nurse and .bought house at 23
others are already in careers.oldest at 26 is mom and teaching hers.
all of us were able to read by 3.library of books shelves are in every house.i was history and art .the system is so broke
either not of the right lessons or or missing like art music which are very tied in to math,history, stem
sport is not everything.
there is long list of from all over the world museums
also wild life cameras all free
good luck and enjoy

We home educate in the south of Italy. It's much more regulated here, with yearly exams to check you are keeping up. I love the approach here. The regulation has silenced many of the negative opinions of HE, and post covid, home education has exploded here into a brilliant community of educators. It's staggering how fast children learn with one to one tuition, comparisons with a school day are a bit pointless really. We have satisfied both the Italian LEA requirements, and done I-GSCE's side by side. Our kids are bi-lingual, English-Italian, but also fluent Arabic, with Spanish and French as GCSE studied languages. It's a priviledge to be able to do it, but takes time, work and discipline. It's time the UK had a more accepting approach. Home educators get a lot of mud slung at them, and i think regulation and testing in the UK might change that.

That sounds like a good way to do it.

Op you haven't answered my questions
regarding number of school age children you mind and how many hours per week you mind, and given the above, how much thime your own kids are actually being educated

Another HE parent here. Your set up sounds perfect. I would've loved to follow the unschooling route but chickened out!
DS has all A/7's in his GCSEs which we took at an independent school as a private candidate and is now about to start his A levels in college. It's the best thing we ever done. No regrets whatsoever.

@Newsenmum - luckily my child school can outsource some children's tuition when they really struggle with working at school, my DD was so overwhelmed and unable to cope she tried to take overdoses so they set up something that would work. Turned out she was masking for years and hit rock bottom and it all became so overwhelming she just broke - took 2 years of self harming, continuous MH support and she's in many drugs to help her cope - not ideal but she's got complex issues surrounding ASD, Tourette's and sensory processing disorder - it's been a difficult 3 years 😓 and now her brother is struggling (3.5 years younger)

Kids in primary get around 3 hours of actual teaching a day (this is verified by my teacher friends, half the school day is herding and getting kids to sit down), so when home educating it's really easy to do more than they would do in school as a) one to one is worth double the same time in a group (verified to me by my eldest child's school tutor at secondary) and b) you can spend hours on one topic when a child is engaged and interested.

Also, learning when home educating is constant, there's learning in everything you do if you look for it and ensure you build on it, and independent learning teachers so many "soft" skills which are vital as an adult.

It's nothing like school at all, so people who are very institutionalised by school can't understand it. I can see a few of those kind of people on this thread.

I work about 35 hours over 4 days.

Impossible to say how many hours they are educated really as what do you count as education?
They're learning all the time.

I definitely couldn't do unschooling either, I don't think I could totally give up control

I home educated my daughter (she's now almost 18) and I hugely regret it. I had good intentions but it was too much to take on and she wouldn't cooperate with me. She's ended up with no GCSEs so I personally wouldn't recommend it unless you can afford tutors or if you are extremely disciplined and self motivated.

How do you ensure that your children are learning the right social skills? Negotiating friendships and the social dynamics of friendship groups. Giving them the tools to cope in the big wide world and push themselves out of their comfort zones?

By meeting up with other home educated children, and by teaching them in everyday social situations. School is actually a totally artificial environment and not at all reflective of how society operates in reality.

Mine have lots of children at home to play with, they go to home ed meet ups, clubs and classes, youth groups, play with neighbourhood children in the street and local park.

I feel this post may have come across wrong. I meant I wouldn't recommend based on my own experiences but other people are so much more driven and their children end up with a better education going down the HE route. You sound like you're doing a great job OP and I really wish I could have been more like you.

I’m in the U.K. and we have a yearly home visit and a six monthly meeting. We have to submit a yearly report , show progress and inform as to what our future plans are. I get torn to shreds over this on FB HE pages or groups I used to go to - majority of the home Ed community do NOT allow this but I feel happy to provide samples of work etc etc - they refuse as say it’s their child’s property and the child doesn’t consent.

I’m so sorry to hear about this :( this is exactly where I’m worried my ds will end up so I’m monitoring everything closely and all HE if needed. The system is not set up for ND people who can obviously do so well in life if it’s just done differently! I hope your daughter is ok.

this post isnt supposed to be rude, or goady i just cannot "get" home schooling!

My kids do the above, but they also go to school. I do homework with them, take them to days out, count, sing, read, write, visit museums etc i do what you do at weekends and holidays

they go to school to learn AND socialise - I have never got my head around home schooling. Unless there is a medical/bullying reason etc i believe kids should not be deprived of going to school

Why don't you send your kids to school?

Do you not think socialising with other peers is healthy for them? They are missing out on class parties/making new friends and most importantly a good education which unless you are a qualified teacher and follow the curriculum properly, they are missing out on a good foundation in order to do university etc