Anyone thinking of switching to home ed after this?

[woollylizard]

Interested to know if this bout of forced homeschooling is inspiring anyone to take their kids out of school after the pandemic has passed?

I imagine for most people it's a 'HELL NO' but I was intrigued as to whether it has inspired anyone and whether the rates of home ed will increase dramatically after this?

I am actually considering boarding options after this 🤣🤣

Yes to all the posters saying this is a big change than our usual home ed, I agree, it's really tough not having the balance of getting out of the house and doing more formal 'work'.

Our local area has a huge and very active Facebook group for home ed- look for your local one if you are interested.

Thanks for everyone's replies- it's really interesting to hear them :)

No way and I say that as a teacher myself . I can’t wait for them to go back!

Kind of. Only because my eldest is a weird kind of genius and she gets all her school work done fast when she's in school so she's doing similar amounts (as a full school day) in 1-2 hours at home. Not quite sure how we'd fair without any teacher guidance tho so I wouldn't actually do it. Plus she is bloody hard work so school keeps her out of my hair lol

God no.

I'm thinking I'm going to take in the biggest box of chocolates ever for his teacher when they go back though

I'd rather dip my boobs into a piranha tank.

DD needs structure and teachers. I need gin.

Genuinely I don't know is the answer. Both of mine have additional needs one ASD and they are certainly calmer with just a week out although missing friends and one with speech needs who thankfully is still getting therapy although online. I can see the plus and minus to it continuing.

One thing I'd like to ask everyone who does it normally how much would you say it actually costs you to home educate? Not the normal evening clubs as they are already done but the online classes or tutor groups, the memberships to different websites etc. Doing it would mean giving up work and it wouldn't work if in reality it meant costing lots.

On the contrary actually. I think it will put a lot of parents who were considering it,right off!

Anyone who thinks this 'isolation schooling' is home education is very, very mistaken.

We home educated before all this so whereas we are used to doing various things at home, all of our away from home activities, trips, visits and clubs are cancelled, no face to face tutors for the various subjects and no seeing all of our friends that we meet up with. The freedom has been restricted just as much for home edders as it has for everyone else.

One of the very reasons we decided to home educate was for the freedom of choice and flexibility it gives our lives. We're very much looking forward to getting back to normal as much as everyone else. This isn't home ed.

We home ed ds back in primary - from May of year 4 til the end of year 6. It had its pros and cons, just as school does. This isn't like home ed as we're home all day (he did trips/workshops etc back then), but also because he's a teen now.

However, it's reminded me that ds isn't really very well suited to school. He's ADHD and quite oppositional by nature/not a rule keeper. He needs to see the purpose behind everything - so form time is pointless for example and he doesn't agree with uniform (and I can see his reasoning!). I do find it very wearing having calls from school/ behaviour points popping up in my parent account etc and having to nag him about homework.

He's actually doing his work without a fuss now - having set the ground rules that he's ditching anything he's not doing for GCSE (he's year 9 and not expecting to go back before Sept!). I'm wondering whether we should reconsider what we do for years 10 and 11.

He basically says he doesn't like school but doesn't want to be at home on his own, as he'd miss the social side of school. Round here, most home educators are in college part time for years 10 and 11 anyway so maybe that would be an option. It's a difficult decision....

No way

@wintersdawn
I have three kids and it currently costs us very little. We have no Memberships to websites, we use a curriculum from America for language arts, geography and art that is free to download and print at home for years 1-5 (they are not equivalent to grades or English school years). The other years that are not free are very minimal. My 6 year olds one was £8 for the full year. I have it downloaded so if I had younger children than him I can reprint it so no further cost for another child to use it.

We use a totally free online US curriculum for maths and science.

It costs paper and ink (hp instant ink £3.49 a month) and then the downloads for us that aren’t free. We use pens, pencils, art supplies etc more than most but again doesn’t cost much.

My kids will do the American exams when they are older if they wish.

We go to home Ed groups, £2-3 a visit if they are indoors to pay for venue hire. We also go on trips to the zoo, museums, etc as groups. Some are free and some cost but we usually get the group discount rates.

One of the very reasons we decided to home educate was for the freedom

Having my DC with me 24/7 is quite the opposite of freedom for me

@wintersdawn I home ed 2 primary school age dc.

I would say I spend roughly £70 a month on specific home ed groups/activities, sometimes a bit more. For websites/printing I pay around £10-15 a month. I probably spent £20 month on stationary:workbooks/books. There is also transport costs to activities depending if you drive or use public transport. I could easily spend so much more and sometimes do but that is my must have spending.

Interesting not as much as I expected you guys to say.

I am an ex teacher and have worked with some spectacularly challenging children over the years, yet not one of them (even the one who chucked a keyboard at the Head Tecaher's head) has ever been as difficult as trying to teach my own DC.

Not in a million years. I loved teaching, love my DC, but putting the two together is painful.

I always wanted to home ed but actually I'm finding I'm just as crap at it as I suspected I would be, which is massively disappointing but probably for the best it happened this way!

I'm lost without a structure and deadlines. I fall prey to constant "I'll do that later". It's a huge shame because in theory I'm a brilliant home edder maybe I can give ideas to other people instead :o

Definitely not. Will appreciate DD's teacher a lot more.

We home educate and crisis education is inspiring me to put them IN

( just kidding, but if we'd had to home educate without libraries, museums, sport facilities, parks, workshops, group activities, friends. It wouldn't have been nearly so much fun for any of us)

Having a network already has been helpful. It means my kids still continue their maths, language and music lessons and there are other sessions going on online with friends that they can dip in and out of. I don't feel like I need to muster up the energy that Mrs smith who's been home educating for a week has, do to lots of whizzy looking activities with the kids.

I home educate one, but not the other. This enforced situation has confirmed I'm right in my choices.

They are both driving me mad, because DD is missing her normal activities and DS, the child normally in school, is very happy with easy access to his xbox. It is incredibly hard to get him to do anything productive.

tutor groups, dance class, horse riding, gymnastics, forest school, park meet-ups, trips to museums/castles/galleries etc

Totally busting the myth of home ed as a bastion of middle class privilege there..,

Hahahahahahahahha

HELL NO

Fuck no, for my sanity aswell as theirs! I’m really struggling at the moment and my mental health is taking the brunt of it

I'm loving it, have home edded in the past but they're all in school right now. I love following their passions, working at their own pace, finding meaningful activities, letting their imaginations run wild, see them charging round the garden playing incredible games as a pack of feral children. That said, I'm being very naughty and largely ignoring the suggestions from school, I (and my kids) have better ideas. I dont know how long I'll get away with it. I dont think I'd be brave enough to try and get 4 kids through to exams, and they are missing their school friends, but Ill be sad (and very very relieved; this is exhausting) when it's back to rushing, deadlines and homework.

No and it's actually going well, ds just gets on with it, no stress. But, he really misses his school, teacher, friends and social life and he gets way more exercise running around at school with his pals. Plus there's the small matter of my job which cannot be done from home.