Why does home schooling appeal ?

[SeptemberFlowers]

I myself would be far to scared to do it with my dc's as I'd be needing to reach for the most weekends of having to teach them curricular that I was shit at at school.

Why does it appeal to so many people ? There are a few children in the next village (live in a rural location) who are HE but only because their mother doesn't trust other adults with her children. I know this an extreme case but the only one I know personally.

How would you know your child is learning all the correct syllabus for different subjects ?

They were held up by 1 to 2 years. They had to complete lower level courses before starting apprenticeships or completing their level 3 and going on to university.

Ilovesooty

I will explainthe best I know.

We derigistered dd at the end of y3.
I sent a letter to school to the effect that she would be receiving an education elsewhere and stated the relevant part of the education act.
The HT then has to inform the LA by law, which she didn't do in our case and was in a lot of trouble. 6 months later I received a letter from the H.ed dept of LA asking me for brief details of what resources I would be using with dd, the reason for H.ed which is also called an educational philosophy.
I now provide a list of areas covered and resources used on an annual basis. In fact mine is due and I need to respond by a date in February.

As you are able to provide your own tailor made education and not follow the curriculum it is difficult to monitor progress, in fact I'm not sure how this could be achieved.

Her day consists of learning what she wants, when she wants to, although some restrictions such as a booked tutor have to take place at that time. She is enjoying it at present but would like to go to a particular school at some stage between the age 0f 12/18.

I don't HE because I don't have kids yet, so can't enter into debate about it. But it is something dh and I would consider for our future children. At the moment the schools in our area are performing very badly. Some of the private schools are good but it would cost more than I earn to send two children. We're going to see what the situation is like in 4 years time then make a decision.

For me, school was a bad experience which slowed down my education and (I believe) helped lead to severe mental health issues in my teens. HE would have been possible for me but, for whatever reason, no one thought of it at the time. So I think it can be the best option for some children.

"The research show that overall HE kids on the whole have much better outcomes educationally and socially."

I should think that is because they come from families who are prepared to invest time and effort into their education rather than because HE is better for everyone. It would be interesting to see how many HE children come from deprived backgrounds where the parents haven't had the benefit of a good education themselves.

I considered HE when ds was about to start school and we lived in a dodgy area. Some other mothers approached me to set up a sort of collective. One mother was sciency, another arty etc. I think that might have worked out rather well had we gone ahead.

I have thought about it from time to time with dd as she has social issues - but I thought that staying at home would make them worse.

I do believe that HE children should be monitored. Abuse may not necessarily be physical, but may simply be not providing a fit for purpose education. I'm sure all those on MN are busy doing exciting gallery trips and exploring nature etc, but there are children who are being HEd for dubious reasons or parents who can't hack the job. Why should these dcs have to emerge into society at some future point and have to ask why no one flagged up their situation?

Fwiw, dh's niece runs workshops at a museum. She was saying recently that she dreads the HE groups. She said she has never encountered such rude behaviour dressed up as free-spiritedness and non-conforming.

I'm not actually seeing why that's a particularly bad thing tbh mama. They did go onto university. For me, I would be delighted at that outcome for my ds. They're reaching the same level but taking a year or two extra to do it, different time scales, I don't find that hugely concerning.

This country rightly upholds the right of every individual to not have to be registered to any domicile etc if they so choose

I believe it said on my electoral register form that I could be fined if I didn't return it. I just don't see any reasonable argument against a child being registered as receiving alternative education.

Bunbaker - if she can do functional maths what's the problem? If she cant then look at the maths she will need as an adult and teach those as specific skills ie - measuring/weighing cook and bake- carpentry/diy/sewing for areas and following instructions with figures, Real life finances for percentages and budgeting etc. Most of us spend far more of our adult life as cooks and consumers than theoretical mathematicians :)

Mellow, I realise that - though it is perhaps worth sifting that data by 'socioeconomic factors' first.

Virtually all the HEd families I met were 'MN Middle class' - educated parents, often in or taking career breaks from professional jobs, and in general not from groups most statistically associated with educational failure in the school system (white working class boys, GRT families etc). The gap I was talking about was between their performance at that point and that by their 'matched, schooled peers', not between them and 'all schooled peers' IYSWIM.

It is possibly simply a different trajectory. In schools, IME even in very deprived areas, the number of totally illiterate and innumerate children at age 7-11 is fairly small, and where they exist they have significant SEN or are from very very difficult backgrounds. Yet such children were more common in a MC HE community. HOWEVER, by 16 it may be that the two groups are much more similar in terms of attainment.

Mamafratelli well here, most of the latest 'crop' went to uni last year or are going this year. They're at a good selection of uni's and entered with the same level grades as their school educated counterparts.

I totally agree. 1 or 2 years is nothing. However, for an 18 year old it can be difficult. Many of them were extremely able and having to do a lower level course was frustrating. One particular students sticks in my mind. I have no doubt that he was held back by not being in mainstream education. It wasn't his choice to be home educated. Thankfully his experience wasn't the norm.

I guess the issues that many people have with HE is that you are only ever aware of people for whom it had not worked. For example, if you know a socially awkward adult and someone mentions to you that they were home educated then you might associate the two together as both their behaviour and education are out of the norm. However there could be several other HE people that you know but it never comes up because for them it worked and they have grown up to become wonderful happy functioning human beings so why would you question what led to their behaviour? We assume that if nothing seems out of place then we have all followed the same path- e.g. The traditional school education system, because that is what most of us are familiar with. The unfamiliar is always scary (it is how our brains are designed to help the species avoid unnecessary risk) but that does not mean that it is wrong.
Some children "fit" traditional schooling for the most part, some children "fit" HE.
As with everything we are usually only aware of the times it goes wrong.

ilovesooty

I think there are many dc registered as being H.ed my own dd is and several others we know.
However, there are many reasons why some choose not to register. I don't think its a problem, and when people talk about abuse or children going missing, there is as much chance of this happening to a schooled dc than a H.ed dc.

HE can be very social with some professionally tutored lessons if desired (music sport maths etc). Parents need only do an hour and a half of work daily to keep up with the mainstream but actually the best thing is that learning is based upon the child's interests. A child can develop an interest in volcanos/growing veg and from that all sorts of cross cuticular work can stem. Parents can set their own timetables, spend a lot of time visiting various places of interest and can also control to a better extent who their kids mix with. I expect most kids HE this way would do well academically.

Another type of HE is autonomous HE which seems more about leaving kids to do what ever but I could be wrong. I think a child who is autonomously HE would need to get up to speed academically on attending college.

teacherwith2kids - I'd say my experience of HEd children I've known (quite a lot as I've lived in intentional communities / tend to move in those sort of circles) is rather different.

I'd say looking at the long term outcomes (ie late teens onwards) the 'results' are remarkably similar to what you would expect from schooled children. So for example a group of HE kids who lived in the same community and did much of their education together as a group - the family whose parents were both Oxford grads had dc who ended up in just the kind of university / occupations you'd expect (with the one non-academic in the family in a very good craft apprenticeship), the family whose parents had no qualifications and were very anti system/schooling etc went to the local FE college doing practical NVQ style qualifications. Not a negative outcome at all (all in work, doing well in their jobs) but really just what you might have guessed would happen if the same dc had gone to the local school.

To the OP - why would home schooling appeal - dd is in school, but as someone else who has a child who is at the extreme end of the bell curve, she is definitely square peg/round hole (and Ed Psych has said as much). If you live in a big city and have the cash for private ed potentially then it is a very different story to living in a rural area where there are one or two pretty small comps to choose from. ATM dd is OK, but home schooling is definitely on our radar as a fall back option.

morethanpotatoprints if you just google 'Romeo and Juliet Key Stage 2' you will find resources - it is by no means uncommon for a 10 yr old to be reading Shakespeare in schools.

morethan thank you. That is really clear and sounds very much like what I would hope the process would be (apart from your HT not informing the LA of course!!) In my eyes your daughter's progress is being monitored and I certainly wouldn't expect any more than that process. FWIW I think it's great that she's keen to start "Romeo and Juliet" and she sounds very happy in her learning.

*ilovesooty8 if you live there, you have to be registered to vote from there, if you don't, it isn't a legal requirement for you to be registered somewhere.

Well I can it would be a problem if a child had not wished to be home educated. For us there was no other choice sadly and luckily ds is very much on board because there is not much we could have done if he wasn't.

Bunbaker there is research that HE kids of parents with low educational achievement do much better than they would in school

www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/aug/13/education.educationnews1

This is an old study some of the newer ones show an even more marked difference

HE actually cures the class divide that school has failed to close at all if anything school discourages social mobility

Next objection ?

Takver, I apopreciate that. As we moved, and DS then went to school, I do not know the long term outcomes for the group of children i knew when HEing. I speak of my observation at that point.

(My other experience of HE is with GRT families who HE their girls to avoid them attending mixed secondary schools. That is perhaps less successful, because many GRT adults themselves have low levels of education, and it does very effectively tie many such GRT girls to their traditional role of 'wives and mothers' in the community)

The argument is the government requiring an education register would be in effect saying they are responsible for the education, which they legally are not and it could be considered risky if they do if they were to be challenged on it. Not all LA keep a register for it at all. It has also been repeatedly challenged by home education groups because if it were required to registered, that could give the LA power preemptively to deny it which they do not currently have (they need to prove a lack of education through court to get a school order at this time).

And not being educationally registered does not mean they are not registered anywhere. Children will be registered with a birth certificate, NHS number, GP surgery through which most of the social services concern would most likely take their first step.

Mellow, that's really interesting. Do you know of suimilar research with GRT families?

If you tell me what GRT means I can probably find it ;) was slightly involved in Badman and the welsh fiasco so have lots of data

Mamafratelli the lot I'm refering to were either h.e. all the way through, or came out to be, between 6 and 13.