To home ed my dd

[Mishmashfamily]

After reading posts and posts about unhappy kids/parents at school I'm really considering it. Also I hate the fact that strangers that are apparently 'in charge' of our educational welfare can dictate when we take our children away, what they are taught ect....

I came out of the school system with nothing and had to learn every thing through college , taking courses. I think I could do a better job.

Would you do it?

I was saying the opposite!
People have such narrow minded, depressing views of schools as if they all operate the way you see on TV. I know schools where they don't have uniform, they can organise their own work as long as they get it done, therefore if they want to spend an entire day on one subject they can. I know schools where they regularly have different ages working together, from 4 yr olds to 11 years olds. they are all state schools. As long as it works they can be different.
Some things work so much better. Morethanpotatoprints seemed to think her 10 yr old DD wanting to read Shakespeare was odd,but when my son was 10 he was at least able to do it as Shakespeare intended and they produced the play. The advantage there was that he would never have done Shakespeare at home, but he had to and they all had a wonderful time. I have tried to encourage my children to garden without success. It was successful at school because they had an allotment with a friend and it was much more fun with a whole row of allotments and a free choice to design and grow whatever they wanted. One school I know takes it a step further and the school kitchen uses it all with other local produce. The meals are so good that parents and grandparents can book into eat with their child.

A lesson is only as good as the teacher and pupil make it......HE is a potential recipe for disaster with a poor pupil and poor teacher. School can be a recipe for disaster with a poor pupil and poor teacher.

You are far more likely to get the combination of good pupil / good teacher in an environment where the teacher is qualified and checked up on. You may well get that combination in HEd but, and it is a big but, who will notice when the parent is teaching nothing and the pupil is learning nothing. For every success story in He'd, I suspect I can give you dozens and dozens of success stories in schools.

Wow! Didn't realise I was going to start such a debate!

I didn't stay on the thread long, I picked my wine up , went over to the HE board, had some thing to eat and shuffled off to bed!

I dont want to drip feed, I didn't want to write an epic post I didn't think there would be this much interest on my post.

I'm a sports coach, I I teach schools, private classes and private 1-2-1. The difference between all three is staggering. I don't want dd to be a class of thirty. It is class management more than quality teaching.

I've had a placement in a primary class and even though the teacher was fantastic , I found that the amount of children she had to get through was time consuming and the amount of work that was achieved wasn't a lot.

With myself being in the sports industry, dd will always be encouraged to socialise to participate in teams - but if it's not her thing, there are plenty other routes she can go down.

The fact I can tailor make dd route through education to maximise all her strengths really appeals to me. The flexibility of her HE is an added bonus.

The fabulous aspect about it is, if it's not for her or me then she can join the school system at any time. If she wasn't achieving or was lagging behind her peers, she would be in there like a flash.

Thanks for your responses, I won't be back on thread.

I find he kids really great at socialising with everyone, not just a bunch of their own age group

This is just so not true of the school ethos and community at my dc's primary.

They spend a large part of the day with 20 other kids the same age as them, yes. BUT they also mix with the rest of the school. There are teams of varying ages, mixed age assemblies, plays and productions. They have a buddy system where the Year 5's and 6's 'mentor' the youngest kids...there is so much more interaction within a school environment than 'just' with their yeargroup.
Ds1 (6) has just had his birthday and he had a range of school friends there from age 3 to age 10.

The way I see it, I 'home educate' my kids anyway. Every good parent does and does since the day they were born. We learn things in a sit-down, one-on-one way when the dc show an interest in it. We go places and see/visit things that they find fascinating. We meet interesting people and do fun extra-curricular activities. We bake, we garden, we make things.

They do all this AND they go to school.

Sending your children to school and playing an active part in their education/allowing them to follow their interests are not mutually exclusive.

"The way I see it, I 'home educate' my kids anyway."

Actually you really don't. The school educates your child for you. Home educators (proper, full time, home educators) also do all of that besides providing/facilitating education.

I am with you Lifeisfortheliving. The school day is short and of course you educate them from the day they are born. Parents are the greatest influence and have the greater time with them. You can't stop children learning! They don't come out of school and go into a cupboard when they get home! My children went to school and we packed in a lot of other things- far more than the recent posts from HEers bemoaning the fact that they can't get them off computer games!
I do think that HEers want it both ways! Many a time if you mention work you get that it can be fitted in around it, the beauty is that you don't timetable it from 9 to 3 and yet suddenly, apparently, it doesn't apply to those who go to school! You can't fit just as much around the school day, despite having just as much time, even if you take out 10 hours for sleep and eating.
School left plenty of time for discussion, reading together, cooking, playing cards, board games, bike rides, swimming as a family, playing tennis etc- all after a school day.

The school has never 'educated my child for me', they have 'educated my child with me'- which is entirely different. And since I am very much a 'it takes a village.........' I prefer to have more people involved.

Sorry it should have been you can fit just as much in and not you can't!! The whole sentence was a mess. I meant to say that you have 6 hours at school and 6 hours at home - not counting eating and sleeping- although the eating is a great time for discussion.

They do the bulk of the education, clearly. Unless you flexi school. Please don't insult those of us (structured home educator here) who lesson plan, curriculum plan, mark work and arrange exams, by saying you do the same. You do not.

I think that you are seeing education very formally - that isn't the way that I see it. I wouldn't wish to replicate school at home. A game of chess is just as educational. I also think that you are in the minority of HErs,whitefonia, ( not there is anything wrong with it) but I am constantly told that they don't have school at home so they don't do the things that you mention.

And your extra curricular 'education' is probably true of almost every parent in the country, including home educators. You are not a formal home educator and wouldn't be recognised as such by the LA.

All it goes to prove is that there are many ways to HE and no two are the same , schools are the same and yet they are all lumped together.

I doubt there are many 'formal' home educators. Why on earth would the LEA recognise me as a formal educator when they go to school?
I have educated them since the day they were born, we have not sat down with work books but it is quite clear, as adults, that they have absorbed an enormous amount.

I'm not sure Tamer wants to be a formal home educator, why would she. She and her children seem to have a great time. Plus she doesn't gave to lesson plan, mark work or organise exams. Win, win.

I don't think we were discussing that, though. So not sure what point is proved. I haven't lumped schools together, or claimed there is only one way to HE.

I took exception to somebody using a school full time describing themselves as a home educator.

*Up thread

I wouldn't dare go on the HE board and suggest that parents should curriculum plan, lesson plan and mark work- my skin isn't thick enough!

Exactly LittleBear! I do the fun bits and let someone else teach apostrophes etc!

My children DO go to a school but I am their teacher. I do all of the things listed in school, plus doing all the other things listed at home.

Do I win?

Of course we all educate our children. The HEd brigade seem to think they have a monopoly on that

Who's suggesting that? I certainly haven't. How ridiculous.

But you did say we couldn't be considered home educators by the LEA. Which of us has said we want to be. But we do teach our children.

No I agree , parents do teach their dc things at home, they just get sent to some one else to learn the important stuff. Otherwise they would be full time home educators. Which they are not.

Most parents will read and do some spelling with their dc at home but full time H Edding is totally different.

Again, the extra curricular teaching, you say (or whoever said it) makes you a home educator is true of almost every parent in the country. Including home educators (formal, classical, autonomous, radical unschoolers). It doesn't make you a home educator.

If you teach your children in an institution (to poster who mentioned) you're not strictly a home educator either

I don't see why you have to have this complete distinction between the Important Stuff and Other Stuff.

I learnt French at school and English at home. Does that make French more important than English?
(for the record, I speak English rather better than French, but then my mother was a pretty inspiring teacher)

My db learnt science at school but music (in preparation for his application to the conservatoire) at home.

As far as I am concerned, school and I have taught dd to read between us. We have introduced her to literature and helped her to understand it between us. (In all honesty, our home library probably is probably better stocked than her secondary school library was, but they complemented each other)

Ds watches news programmes at home with us and then goes into school and discusses what he has seen in history and geography classes.

I have always thought of it as team work.

Whitefonia you sound like you have a massive chip on your shoulder to be frank. You take exception to me using the words 'home educate', so i'll replace them with 'teach'.

My children go to school. I also teach them at home.

I have no desire to be a 'formal' full time home educator - you mention that you set a curriculum, make lesson plans, mark work. I can't think of many things i'd rather do less tbh.

I take exception to the underlying tone from some home educators like yourself, that only those children who do not go to school get the chance to follow their interests, expand their knowledge and learn things outside of the nc.

That is not the case. I see school as an extra positive for my children. They get all the benefits of attending - educational, socialising with others on a daily basis, learning to follow rules and read social cues, gaining independence from the family unit and taking part in large team activities, plays, productions, class trips.

They get all of that plus they get the additional chance to expand their learning at home in whatever way they wish, with no curriculum, plans or marking taking up my time.

I agree with what a pp said...the school do not educate my dc for me, they educate them with me. A huge difference.

My dc attend school for 32 hours a week. They spend the other 136 hours of that week at home. For you to say that schools are solely responsible for educating my children for me is not only incorrect but ridiculous.