to ask if you would consider home education?

[SundayBea]

Have read a lot of articles recently on how the numbers in home education have 'exploded' and it's on the rise by 80% a year apparently. I know of three families I think quite highly of, two of whom are ex-teachers whose children have never been to school and their children seem to be having an exceptional upbringing and education with so many fantastic experiences and opportunities. Also know of two other families who have withdrawn their children from school because of problems with their respective schools and I'm less certain of how successful it is going to be for them. Also know of several colleagues and DH's cousin who have DC under 5 who are debating not registering them when the time comes. Is this a big thing now or is it just coincidence I know of so many families like this? I was just wondering what the general consensus was.. when I mentioned socialisation one of my ex-teacher friends showed me the Facebook group she is in for her local home education community and I was amazed at the plethora of groups, classes, meet ups and outings with hundreds of members.. just for her local county! Have been debating with DP what to do about schooling at private school is unfortunately out of the question on our current salaries.. I'm now feeling like I've discovered a whole new option I hadn't considered? Sorry if this is rambling, only getting a 5 minute lunch break today!

Queen.

Point taken. I can only speak from my own experiences with home ed children and adults.

Yes, children who have had a mostly autonomous education can fit into school nicely and gain places in top schools, colleges and universities.
Sometimes, the fact they have been able to learn in their own time at their own pace the subjects they enjoy is the reason they are offered the place.

My dd school are happy to work on any part of education she didn't do at home, embrace individualism and know that the children are quirky.
She settled to the boarding aspect really easily and has made some good friends. It's early days yet, but so far I can only see the advantages she has gained from 3 years of H.ed

Yes of course. I mentioned upthread that before I HEd myself, I had much the same preconceived stereotypical ideas of what HE was about but once you're in that community, and seeing it first hand, regularly and long-term, you do see how different is to what you'd expected. Realistically, there are as many HE approaches as there are families who HE, because we all have different circumstances, outlooks, preferences etc so no two are the same. Having done it for seven years and still active on the periphery, I can say that each of the dozens of families I know does it differently.

larry. If you observe HE children you will probably notice that they are more open to trying a new activity and actually taking on a task and looking for the fun angle in it. In my experience, they are also more willing to work with others who would perhaps not be seen as particularly attractive partners - young children, for example. Children at school seem to develop a mentality that the only people who should really exist for them are other children of their age and older. HE children are the other way because their groups are smaller, the other parents are often very involved with them and there is a wider age range. That was the first thing my DH noticed - that older boys were much more willing to engage openly with him and help our little girl than he had ever known children to be. I actually think that there is a slight issue around HE children thinking everyone is going to be a friend because they meet so many adults who are not in an official position of responsibility but who they are able to trust. How do they know that not everyone in their little world may necessarily be safe? The level of risk is probably the same for every child but their upbringing conditions them to be very, very friendly.

I do wonder if the disadvantage of having one person responsible for the provision of learning experiences, usually I imagine the mother is like teachers. You get some good ones but you get some who are ineffective. With teachers, you may have a bad year with one, but soon move onto the next but with HE the parent remains constant. I've felt mine have benefitted from different schools due to the different approaches. I've also felt they should have a life outside my influence.

Head

first of all, many H.ed children have lots of input into their education from many people.
I think my dd had more than her schooled friends in one year as they did in 3.
You really can't generalise with h.ed, because everybody's situation is unique.
For schooled children the parent also remains constant and their parenting skills too, will develop and change over time.
The H.ed families I met, read about, communicated with found it important for their children to have many outside influences and made sure they facilitated this, the same as many parents of schooled children do.

Schooled children often attend extra curricular activities. There is a home schooled child in Dd's gym class. Her mother sees the gym class as her daughter's PE lesson where As I see the same gym class as recreation. I know another home ed child who sings in a council choir as a weekly music lesson.

My impression is that home ed children often have more hobbies. Dd does ukelele through school, swimming lessons, gymnastics and violin. The only activity she does where there are no home ed children is the school ukelele club!

For years I have rejected the idea of home schooling -despite many suggesting (including teachers) that I should consider it, since he was in mainstream Yr1. I was against it because I thought of the socialization aspect and basically, whilst I have enough knowledge to teach curriculum to GCSE, I'm also crap at teaching. Additionally I thought no way can I work and home school.

Nearly 10 years later, any career I may have once had has been completely destroyed, as was nearly my son and myself. He's been in an Indie SS for 4 years and benefited greatly for the first 2 years but it's been downhill since then. Socially a negative impact, educationally hopeless. We are leaving to try a new type of school. Hopefully there will be at least positives in socialization and a plus would be education too. Work-wise I have developed this to suit my son's needs and I can do it irrespective of his school-status and from anywhere (usually with access to IT).

He's now 14, I really don't know what Academic Year group he will fit into in the new school, but they differentiate each subject class by ability not by age/yr group.

This is our last go at 'school' - if it doesn't work out then we will home school via Inter High and live a free life full of knowledge gained through experience. And probably a smattering of private tuition where required.

SeoulSista I don't think all schooled children learn about EVERYTHING, lol, so when mine were home educated, I was happy if they were learning about a reasonably broad range of stuff, and were engaged and happy.

My dd2 refused to study any history at home. (Largely I think because her older sister liked it, and was often reading a history book. That sister went to school at 11, and didn't do history gcse.) She went to school in y9, did history gcse (A*), and is now doing history A level. I could probably supply you with an endless stream of similar anecdotes from friends.

You don't actually have to learn things in the order proscribed by the national curriculum. Learning stuff as and when you're interested turns out to work remarkably well If home educated children/young people hit a gap that they need filling for some reason, they usually just get on and fill it; it's no big deal.

(Honestly, how many people know how electricity makes a tv work? I vaguely remember learning about the old style sets at school, but have forgotten any details, and have no idea how new televisions work!)

I sort of get the kids learn what they want to learn, but does that mean they learn nothing about things they don't want to learn about or which they don't know exist?

I've always wondered about this as well. If my son was autonomously home-educated it would all be sport and cars.

I think parents trigger interest a lot of the time by presenting the child with a situation that will make them curious. Eg reading aloud a good book, making a cryptic comment that invites a question. If children aren't used to enforced lessons being stuffed down their throats, they tend to be more curious to start with. But many HE parents follow a curriculum and don't do the autonomous learning thing.

A lot of what's taught at primary school is stuff you would pick up in a good home naturally.

Sport and cars could lead you down all sorts of interesting avenues ...

As many PPs have already said, it's difficult to understand the realities of home education without doing it. Having that much time to explore things is a luxury and a privilege. It's really really hard to stop children learning stuff, it's their natural inclination to find out about the world. I truly don't think it matters so much what you learn, as long as you are learning.

There is so much you can do with sport and cars another - physics(engines, forces, speed, materialsk), physiology, chemistry (respiration, aerobic and anaerobic activity), maths, related literature and writing, looking at car adverts critically, related art and craft, engineering, animation, music to run or drive to, hI story of transport, thE olympics (Greek myths etc), sports in different countries....that's just off the top of my head. If you let him fully immerse himself in that interest, he would be learning loads.

I guess I do home ed on top of school....

I always say I home educate and that my DC's school is just one of the resources I use .

"I truly don't think it matters so much what you learn, as long as you are learning."

In primary, possibly. But sadly, at secondary age, you have to learn the "right" stuff as well, or very often your life will be much more difficult than it need be.

The older home ed kids I know are very motivated to pass their exams because their interests have developed, leading them to know what career they want and work towards that.

Absolutely eric that's what I am thinking!

In what way Bertrand? Serious question. How will life be more difficult? I think it will be different from what many others are doing but not necessarily more difficult. There are other ways and as others have said HE children, as they grow older, will look at what they want to do and then work as directly towards it as possible and often much more quickly.

Well, for example, one of my He relations is still playing professional catch up at 30 because she chose not to jump through educational hoops at 16.

So that was a person in school who refused to take exams?

We are taking about HE kids that decide what they want to do and then go for it.

I also think it can (and I'm not by any means saying this is always the case) cause an unhealthy and co-dependent relationship to form between parent and child that have spent 90% of their time together for 18 years.
Part of the philosophy behind Home Education is to rear a happy, independent and confident child. I agree that at a younger age a parent would be present for a large percentage of time, however the child tends to spend a lot of his/her time with other children, sometimes directed by other adults. Over the years we have attended various HE organised activities: gymnastics, forest school, sailing, mad science workshops, ice-skating, swimming, skiing, chess clubs, board-games day, hall meetings, educational trips... On top of the HE activities ds has also attended after school activities such as swimming, skating, ice hockey and music lessons and cadets.
Now that is older (14), I just drop him off at his various activities and he makes his own arrangements to meet his friends.

What if your own pace is pretty lazy?
Children are by nature inquisitive, a home-educator would use such nature to encourage and engage.
And how do you learn that to get to a great level, you often need to learn the boring bits first? Days before we officially began HE, ds and I had a 'practice' day (inset day at school); the day after ds told his teacher that she was 'so boring compared to mum'. I believe it is my role as an educator to teach the boring bits as pleasantly as possible.

However, school is meant to educate in the broader sense and that means that pupils learn how to deal with different children from different backgrounds, the ability to compromise, hierarchical structures and how to deal with them etc etc.
Why on earth would a home educated child not learn all of the above?
The home education community is just as varied as the school community; home educated children are still taught to respect one another, no matter the background, age or ability; they still learn social rules such as taking turns, sharing, no hitting, etc., being more tolerant of younger ones and compassionate towards those in need; they are still able to accept and follow instructions; they are capable of working independently as well as in a group...

The other problem is that the lessons often go where the pupil wants them to. Why would it be a problem? That is exactly how it worked in my school: on its brochure, it was called 'emphasis on self-directed learning'. Most of us attended university. The ability to direct a conversation (lesson) is an important skill in life, used in a variety of scenarios, from interview to leadership.

I enjoy when my ds (14) leads the 'lessons', as it means he is engrossed in the subject(s): he will be teaching me, showing me, asking multiple questions, researching, discussing, making connections, inventing... It would make for a very boring day if all we ever did was reading the textbooks -which, of course, he does study as he is preparing for his exams.

"So that was a person in school who refused to take exams?"

Where did you get that from? No- she was autonomously home educated and decided not to take exams.