Home education

[Chortlesauraus]

Inspired by another thread but......AIBU to think that home schooling is a bit weird and the people that go down that route can sometimes be a little strange themselves?

I can't even really put my finger on why I find it all so odd....but maybe I'm missing something that home schoolers can enlighten me about

I always get the sense that people who home school are cut from the same cloth as Steiner School enthusiasts.....but that's just me casting wild aspersions 😆

“I spoke to a friend the other day who is considering home schooling her child because she doesn't think she will manage to get her DD to school on time”

I knew someone who did exactly that. She took her daughter out of school, didn’t start the next two children in school, didn’t do much educating, and failed to spot that all three of them were dyslexic. She had the common sense to send them all to school when she realised that she was failing them. The dyslexia was picked up straight away by the school.

Home educating wasn’t for me, or DD. As an only child she would have had a solitary existence. She is doing A levels now, two of which are science subjects. There is absolutely no way I could have taught her what she needs, and I don’t have the resources for the practical work. I would have had to rely heavily on tutoring which kind of defeats the idea of home educating.

I would also find it quite isolating for me as well – not being able to go to work, not being able to go to the doctor/dentist/hairdresser/hospital appointment etc if you have young children that can’t be left on their own.

I take my hat off to parents who have the inspiration, skills and resources to successfully educate their children. I agree with a pp that it isn’t an easy option. I don’t, so DD goes to school.

Just thought of other reasons families I know chose home education other than those I mentioned in my last post:
Child being bullied at school and school not dealing with it appropriately.
Child with poor health and missing chunks of school.
Families who like to travel/holiday a lot / have family abroad etc.
Sure there’s lots more reasons too, these are off the top of my head.

lonicera tutoring certainly doesn’t defeat the idea of home education. Most families I know use at least one tutor. One-to-one for a couple of hours a week with a tutor your child would probably learn the same as being in school for a week!

It’s also not isolating at all. There’s more socialising to be had than school. There’s child minders or fellow home we friends for dental appointments:hairdressers etc.

I am happy to be corrected Black
How would you go about the practical element of science subjects at A level if you were home educating?

I would have had to rely heavily on tutoring which kind of defeats the idea of home educating.

That really depends on why you’re home educating though, doesn’t it? Off you’re home educating because you want to teach your child everything personally then yes, tutoring would defeat the purpose but people HE for a huge variety of reasons.

My parents homeschooled. You might think we were "weird" in that we were raised devout Catholic, but that wasn't the sole reason for it. Three of the six of us are highly intelligent. (My IQ falls in the 135-145 range and my brothers are smarter than I am. An IQ of 150 is usually considered genius level.) I attended public school until the end of Grade 3. My Grade 2 teacher told my mom that I was wasting my time being in that classroom, because I was very advanced in my learning. She said she couldn't adequately teach me because the curriculum I needed was so far beyond what the other kids needed that they wouldn't be able to grasp it, and she couldn't sacrifice their education for mine. My oldest brother was also very advanced. Mom had taught him all of the Kindergarten (Reception) curriculum at home, so they wanted to start him in Grade 1 at 5. The principal and the Kindergarten teacher were all for it. The school board said no. That was the last straw. We were homeschooled until between Grades 7-9. We attended an online school for high school, with the exception of my youngest brother who attended a public high school. (Our next brother up was 3 years ahead of him in school and had already graduated and moved away. Mom didn't want Bro4 to be alone at home for 3 years.) All of the teachers at the public school said my brother had the best citizenship skills of any student. He would routinely help the teachers clean up after class and always made a point to thank them after class. If someone else was acting up he'd call them on it. Today he's about to start training to become an RCMP officer (Mountie). We also boast two freelance musicians, a nursing instructor (me), a music teacher, and a SAHM who is also qualified as a day care worker. Three of us graduated valedictorian from our high school. People used to say they could always tell we kids were homeschooled because of how polite we were. We had lots of social interaction through music ensembles, sports programs and teams, church youth group, and Guiding and Scouting.

I think you'd need a science background to do a good job of home Ed science a levels. But there are community options for aspects that can't be covered at home. Also the practical elements of science a levels aren't that difficult to do at home - certainly biology and physics experiments are straightforward to do with a bit of imagination. Some of chemistry might be more tricky.

I home educate my youngest. I started in year 5, I wish I'd never sent him to school where I begged and begged for extra help for him from year 1 but despite being promised none was given. I knew he wouldn't cope with the SATs that he would have been doing this year. Not just the actual SATs, but the endless days of practice papers, and the after school sessions and the homework booklets. And no art, science, music, fun. Just maths and English, maths and English. And it was already like that in his school when he was in year 3 & 4. Soul destroying, especially for a boy who struggled with writing but never got any help. A boy with ADHD (and also ASD) so concentration issues, and then made to stay in at break and lunch to do the work he hadn't completed.

Now, he gets to be as active as he wants. Which means when I do sit him down for short bursts he can concentrate and actually learn. I can give him 1:1. As well as helping him improve his handwriting (a very slow process, his writing still looks like that of a year 1 child) he's also learning touch typing so he doesn't have to rely on doing something he hates so much.

Now we can follow his interests - ask him about history of the railways, the human body, the periodic table, he'll tell you all about it.

He had 1 friend at school. He has so many friends now, some home educated for the same sort of reasons, some who have always been home educated. He goes to loads of clubs, both home ed ones and after school ones.

I really hate the school system at the moment for the pressure it puts on kids at such a young age.

That said, I have other children in school (mainstream and special) and they are doing very well, so it's not like I'm totally anti-school. It just doesn't work for some kids who have additional needs, but not enough to get an EHCP.

And I'm weird, what's wrong with weird?

My children aren’t A Level age yet Lonicera but we’ve had no issue with GCSEs which my dd is studying age 13. Home educators can sit their GCSEs at exam centres or private schools and there are centres that will invigilate and assess prac work (dd hasn’t sat science yet but is doing art atm which has practical elements).
There are a number of different options for formal study / exams e.g. one to one tutor, sharing a tutor with other students, study groups, education centres...
Another point that someone else mentioned about home school parents being unable to teach children without being qualified teachers.. as a teacher I would say that my degree involved studying how to teach a class - it’s crowd control, it’s how to get 30 odd different children with different abilities to learn the same things.
You absolutely can teach a child without a teaching degree. It’s a completely different ball game. Yes, it can get difficult at GCSE stage but that’s where tutors/study groups as mentioned above can come into play.
The joy of home educated children is that they don’t see learning as a chore or a bore. They enjoy it and they are able to learn more independently than a schooled child - in my experience.

I'm a teacher and recently I have noticed an increase in children being taken out to be home educated. I have to say that I'm a little dubious about the motives of some of the parents. One child is a very needy girl who struggles with social situations and friendships. She was also the one who never had a water bottle/ packed lunch/ coat. Her parents never signed permission forms for trips and had to be constantly chased. On one occasion the children were actually on the coach when the mum finally got round to giving permission for her daughter (who was distraught at the prospect of missing the trip) to go. The parents never remembered it was MUFTI day. I do wonder how her education and her life is going now she is home educated. Another child was a boy who never did any reading or homework at home and his parents didn't come to parents evening. Another one was the youngest of 3 children and, although the family is lovely and mum would do a great job of educating her, I can't help feeling that empty nest syndrome has a lot to do with her home education. Only the first girl was in my class by the way!

See, I would find it weird if someone in the situation we were in left their child in school to continue having to put up with the level of bullying my DD endured for too long.

I pulled her out of school when the HT declined to even make one tiny change by making the bully go out of a different gate, so DD did not have to face the bully, her mother and several others who joined in, in order to get home.

There is no other school nearby. We are happy HE. My DD has grown in confidence and we have positive plans for her 14-16 education. She will go to a special unit in college, 2 days a week.

yoyo1234 thanks

My son has been Home Educated for the last 2 years as he's autistic and has crippling anxiety making it very difficult for him to leave the house. I now wish I'd never sent him to school at all. Although he still has the anxiety and rarely leaves the house, he's a lot happier and willing to engage and actually learning now. He struggles to get to sleep at night so when he's had a bad night, there's no need to get up early for the school run. There's so many benefits for us. My son's health will always come before his education.

My son's health will always come before his education.

But now, his health and anxiety is getting better, his education should flourish

I have one in school , and one home ed. The home ed one absolutely loves learning. The one at school hates it. Says the pressure is too much.

I hate Micheal Gove, as an aside.

soimpressed

Did any of those children get flagged up whilst attending school as possibly being at risk. Not sure how it works but surely not having a coat in cold weather and not being sent with food would be enough for some intervention that could have continued when the child was removed from school. It's very worrying that with the lack of monitoring HE gets these children could be in danger now.

I know one of the mums at school did go in to speak to the headteacher to discuss some concerning things she had seen/heard concerning a friend of her daughters in the same class. The headteacher said she obviously couldn't discuss it but told her it had already been noticed and 'things' were in place. Whatever that meant. She is still in the school system though, so hopefully the family are being helped.

Actually, at least in Canada, the science for younger kids is pretty straightforward. We started attending online school when we reached junior high (between Grade 7-9; the actual start date varied between us kids). The school sent some science kits and we did some activities and labs online using animations. In fact, when I was in Grade 11 physics, we did an animated lab and my dad told me he had done the SAME lab in high school, but using physical materials and a spark timer.

I home educate and would say we are a pretty normal family apart from the fact that my children have never been to nursery or school. It is quite a big thing to go against the norm of sending your children to school, we get alot of people asking about it.

I love that home ed means my children can learn at their own pace without being labelled ahead/average/behind academically from a young age.

Sorry to derail a bit but I had literally never heard of Steiner schools before this thread - can anyone tell me more about them? Google is a bit vague.

@BasilFaulty look them up- you'll find loads about them online- I personally think democratic schools are much better (main ones now being Summerhill and sands although more and more part time ones are popping up everywhere) but Steiner is the most well known alternative education although not ideal in my eyes and hasn't been updated for 100 years!Also if alternative education is of interest for you some good things to look into are child led education, play based learning, unschooling/autonomous education and democratic schools/learning and would really recommend reading some John Holt books but the Internet is a great resource too. X

I’ve met some home edders who were pretty mainstream, and others who were definitely quite odd.
I’ve also met both these types of people in the playground.
My conclusion therefore is that people are basically the same everywhere

www.steinerwaldorf.org/steiner-education/what-is-steiner-education/ This is a general page although the Steiner fellowship page is obviously very pro Steiner but I think Steiner views are a bit outdated and the guy behind them had some very strange views though I know lots of people that went to them and most enjoyed it. They are all very different though since it's the teachers that interpret the 100year old philosophy. I think kids should be given freedom to learn.

I home schooled one of my (5) DCs.
I am not very weird, I just wanted him to reach the school leaving age alive, and I honestly think, if I hadn't taken him out of school, he wouldn't be here today. I didn't want to HE particularly, but the school failed us utterly, and the situation was out of control and I really thought he was reaching the point where he would harm kill himself if it continued as it was.
It was a necessity rather than any kind of ethos/lifestyle choice.
He is now happily living his own life, with a flat and a steady job in a city a couple of hours from here, and he has friends and a life.

Agree!
Kids go to school not only to learn but to SOCIALISE and learn how to mix with other human beings!
I’m sure if you’re home schooled you can do as well academically but I reckon you’re missing something..........

Yeah cos HE children never leave the house or meet anyone /endsarcasm