Home education Brighton

[Homeschooldream]

Hi, I would really really like to home school my twins but I'm worrying that it isn't in their best interests? I worry I will let them down and they will not have the best chance as if they went to a mainstream school. Aibu to think this way? I would love to home educate just lack confidence in this decision and just want what's best for them. We live near Brighton which apparently is well geared up to home education. Anyone offer any advice/ opinions? Thank you very much in advance!

In RL I only seem to see people that have been forced into home educating when they are unhappy with it for one reason or another, so it's nice to hear how it can work well. Go for it, but be prepared to reassess the situation if you need to, and don't let yourself get backed into a corner either way with the company you keep. That would be my advice.

Youaredeluded I support all educational choices as long as they are made with the best interest of the child at heart, which seems to be the case with the op here. But to say all state schools are a joke is ridiculous and offensive- there are many many excellent ones offering top class teaching and a fantastic learning environment.

Search home education and the place for groups. Some like you to know someone who can vouch for you, but you can find out what's going on and meet up with people for that. I HE my teen and there are so many activities we could do something every day of the week. You're better to chat with people who are already doing it via FB than people on here who have no experience.

Despite many flaws in the education system there is much my eldest loves about school. Sometimes it sounds like the teacher spends a lot of time simply doing "crowd control" but other times I am so impressed by how inspired and enthused DS is by the teaching.

There is a huge homeschooling community in Brighton, all sorts of opportunities. I can't see socialising being a problem ever. I considered it.

In hindsight I think I would have made a terrible job of homeschooling.

I have been a SAHM for 8 years. For the first 4 years I threw myself into it with a passion. But after that I think I started to get bored. I am job searching at the moment. My youngest is in nursery a couple of short days and it's probably for the best. He gets to spend time with other children and does lots of activities. I am much more enthusiastic when we are together.

I can't wait to be in an adult world and use my brain thinking about something other than children. Of course many parents don't feel that way, just one perspective.

I HE my 5 & 4yos. They've never gone to school & already I'm at the point of wondering how life would work if they did. DS1 occasionally asks about going to school but he has ASD & struggles with the amount of socialising we do now - a total of 4 things over the whole week. I have to carefully plan how much we do to give him lots of down time. I can only imagine how stressed he'd be if he were in school 6 hours a day.

So far, he's thriving. He's just got to the end of what would've been his reception year & is obsessed with reading/writing. I seem to spend a large proportion of my time having a conversation along the lines of "how do you spell..." "What do you think it starts with?" "[Letter]... What comes next?" "What do you think?" etc. Rather tedious for me but he's always so proud of what he's written!

My just-4yo is working on letter recognition & counting atm. He's a lot more go-with-the-flow than DS1 so I'm aware he's going to need more encouragement to seek out things to learn, rather than just do whatever DS1 does. For me, that's one of the best things about HE - I can tailor their education to their interests while subtly incorporating all the basics & keeping them wanting to learn. Good schools have a lot of advantages but there are disadvantages too & for our family we feel like the advantages of HE outweigh the disadvantages, & vice versa for school.

My kids thrive at school.

Education is Scotland is topic based. Last term at primary school involved making a treetop hide, based on stilts. The class worked on project management. some approached the council and went through planning application, a cement mixer was hired, one of the parents was an architect who helped, local carpenters were involved, they publicised, raised funds, worked with arborists and the forestry commission,, set up a web site took photographs, made crafts.
The structure was built, and the class celebrated by having a woodland party with BBQ, again organising the whole event. They had surprises for teachers, made speeches and performances.
They then planned a presentation for the whole school and parents back at the school.
The whole experience was totally empowering for a bunch of 12 year olds, and not unusual. This type of project was common place at my kids' primary school.
My kids learned to work in group settings, to care and respect for others- even those they did not choose to be close friends with.
School runs for 190 days a year. 56% of their time.

Plenty time to educate at home. My science hungry kids were eager to learn at home about atomic theory and the electromagnetic spectrum at age 7 ( I am a chemistry graduate). School was no handicap to that learning process.
School has been a hugely beneficial aspect in my children's lives.

Like you I'm very well educated but I wouldn't dream of homeschooling. They need interaction and they need to learn to operate in an environment outside of pure personal dedicated idolisation from mummy. I didn't meet any at college and I don't meet any now that I'm In a profession which takes highly qualified graduates.

It's a bad idea, even if you can replace all those different teachers in all those subjects. Are you doing it for the, or because you are a highly educated career woman who has given up her career and is worried about being bored and irrelevant? If the latter, just go back to work in a few years.

Search home education and the place for groups. Some like you to know someone who can vouch for you

• I'd avoid this sort of group as it sounds suspiciously like they are building an echo chamber of their own views and opinions! Home ed must get to be like being in a bubble if you are not careful. You'd miss out on having to make accommodations towards people who aren't like you.

Absolutely not barbie no one's excluded on the basis of anything else other than not being a home educator. Unfortunately there are people who want to be on the group for less than honourable reasons and I don't think it's an unusual safeguarding step for groups that involve children.

Brighton would be a great place to home educate. One thing people forget is that you can always change your mind. Lots of HE children get interested in school at around 10 year old, in my experience.

There will always be people like KimmySchmidt around, and it is certainly worth considering the downside of HE, one of which can be that some people do create too much of a bubble around their families.

Most of the HEers I know have actually done the opposite, and their children have the advantage of having an unusually rich and varied experience of life, because they haven't been stuck with a group of people exactly their own age for most of their days.

Thank you very much everyone for all your comments/ perspectives, it's so helpful. Kimmy - actually I feel more fulfilled dedicating my time to my twins than when I worked, hence I haven't gone back despite having a job I could easily go back to and one which I very much enjoy... just not as much as nurturing my children and being part of the small window of time when they are children, if that makes sense! For me considering home schooling is purely as I felt it would be the best option for them, I didn't really think about what i would prefer and I am certainly never bored as our days are pretty filled already. I'm going to check out the groups and see how I feel. It would be until they are 7 and then they would go to school in line with European countries where formal education does not begin until then. That way I feel they get the best of both worlds - a play based 1-1 learning environment whilst they are very young and then school and everything it offers once they are 7. It's such a difficult decision but they are just doing so well at the moment and thriving, despite being 24 weekers that I want to carry on how we are going.

Thank you to those who have pm d me, please can something tell me how i access those? Thanks!

It's not 'a bad idea', it's a wonderful idea. We're 12 years in with 4 children, the older 2 are at college now.
In Hampshire there is a huge HE community and I've heard there's an active community in Brighton too. There are multiple activities to choose from every day of the week, generally organised through Facebook so little chance to feel isolated unless you keep DT's in a cupboard. Look for 'Brighton home education' on FB to find people.

I'm curious about the social aspect of home schooling children. I personally would not home school as my dc thrive in a school setting and the teacher is fantastic - knows the methodology and child psychology as well as being a disciplinarian which I like.

Curious about what exactly?

Tbh there is no one way to skin a cat. School isn't the answer for everyone and nor is home ed. It would be quite blinkered to assume otherwise.

Sycamore - I think this is where we differ, I would hate the twins teacher to be a 'disciplinarian' as that is truly not my parenting style. My twins have boundaries, manners and know how to behave appropriately but none of that has been achieved through me being a disciplinarian so I would not be comfortable with them being treated in this way at school, age 4 (and given how premature they were they would not technically even be 4).

Velvetbee - wow, sounds like you have home ed sorted!!

I'm curious about the social aspect of home schooling children

My DD goes to workshops, tutor groups, day trips (educational and fun), leisure and sporting activities, music sessions, sleepovers etc. She mixes with a far wider range of people than her narrow social group at school. I've met some lovely people too. And the good thing is that if you want to do an activity that isn't already running you can set something up and there's nearly always other people that want to do it.

We HE, started 3 years ago. Best thing we ever did. Kids are really happy and thriving and it suits our family life well.
I doubt you'd regret it from what you've said and I wouldn't worry too much about what others think, trust your instincts.
I imagine Brighton will have a very active HE community. You'll probably be spoiled for choice with activities! good luck with what you decide.

If you're going to do it (and you sound like your mind is made up) but you plan to move into school later, please plan for this.

I'm a teacher and have had lots of home ed'd children move into my classes through the years (I'm secondary) and with the exception of 1 it's been an unmitigated disaster. The children have found it really, really difficult as have their parents.

It's important to really think through the skills and demands that will be on them when they go to school and not let that come as a surprise to them/you.

I'm not saying it can't be done, just that it's not sensible to just assume they will slip into school smoothly.

Thank you. I'm not sure if you saw but the plan is for them to move into school (if we decided on home ed) at 7. Definitely not secondary. This is what happens across Europe and there aren't any issues. I could understand it being difficult if no curriculum was followed / there was no structure to the day how a teen may find a transition into secondary difficult but I'm sure this doesn't apply in my specific case.

Thanks for the other comments too, great to hear success stories!

This is what happens across Europe and there aren't any issues.

The European model is great, but the difference there is that everyone is startlng at 7 - there isn't an expectation of "formal" schooling (although in the main children are in kindergarten settings). Your children will have had a very different first 2/3 years of schooling.

As I said, not saying it can't be done, it's just worth considering how the transition is managed.

Thank you, definitely something I have given / continue to give a good deal of thought.

Homeschooldream we originally started home ed with the plan to move into school after the first couple of years. Ds1 will be 7 this year and we have no plan to put him into school yet as we are so happy with how things are. If any of my children want to try school that is fine but for now we are having too much fun.

Here is Scotland we have real deferment.
Which means if you have a winter born baby then you have the option of holding back school entry and joining a later entry group.

So my son was 5 years and 9 months old before starting school.

Smileeachday does have a point - there's a lot of formal stuff going on before 7 in the U.K, rightly or wrongly, and the children I've had in my class from other educational settings haven't caught up by the end of KS1 assessment. This does massively impact the predictions and expectations school staff have on them for KS2 and beyond, sadly. If I was going to home ed I'd consider this. The system might not seem fair but it's important to be realistic - if you are desperately trying to keep up so that you slot back in, don't you lose some of the point of home education? But if you do your own thing, you end up turning your back on the curriculum and assessment, grades, qualifications and so on. I don't think I would, all things considered, in case I was closing too many doors.

One thing I did see some parents doing was having their children attend part time until compulsory school age and filling some of their time with activities and so on, which seemed to work ok with a foot in both camps for a little while.

I can't remember exactly, but you can search for Brighton / East Sussex home education as suggested - there are several and they're all pretty active.