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 😆

What? I'm supposed to let my home educated child mix with other human beings? Suppose I'd better let him out of that cage then.

I never understood HE until I had an autistic child. There is no provision for high functioning autism here. You either tough it out in mainstream, or home ed. My DD is just hanging on at the moment. She has an EHCP but she still has to cope with social, sensory, and academic demands. I actually feel guilty for working but I would hate to home ed. It may well come to it and a lot of financial sacrifices would have to be made.

Kids go to school not only to learn but to SOCIALISE and learn how to mix with other human beings!

Even if you have zero interest in home ed, it's pretty easy to find out that this ^^ point of view is real, really out of date.

My friend HE and I so admire her. Her DS and DD 5 and 7 are soooo well mannered and lovely. They can go on holiday and visit attractions in school time when things are quieter / cheaper. IMO her DD is more mature than my DD. She has regular meet ups with other HE. Her children seem so well rounded and lovely. I, on the other hand could not do it, haven't the patience

I home school my daughter and will be homeschooling my son too. Schools aren't the same anymore, there's too many tests, not enough support for bullying and too much focus on attendance.

"Kids go to school not only to learn but to SOCIALISE and learn how to mix with other human beings!"

Absolute nonsense. My two are way more sociable than other children their age that are at school.

Fireandflames I would be interested to know how well home educated children cope with the transition to higher education and the workplace where the day is going to be far more structured.

LoniceraJaponica my ds is on the spectrum and absolutely couldn't handle primary school. He struggled for years until we finally home educated him and he thrived. He started secondary in year 7 as normal (his request) and he has absolutely thrived. He gets some extra provision, but no one to one or anything like that. He will probably need extra help for his GCSEs bit at the moment he is enjoying school and is learning well.

I think the variability of lessons, the seasonal changes (Christmas plays, for example), the trips and mufty days etc etc were too much for him. Going to the same set of lessons every week, having more control over his lunch food choices, being given options for eating alone or sitting in the quiet library at break times - secondary school has been much, much better.

My first paragraph wasn't very clear - he enjoyed being home educated, thrived in comparison to primary school, but he has enjoyed secondary school even more. He makes me laugh, actually, because he gets irritated when kids muck about in lessons and says "what's the point of going to school if you don't want to learn?"

It has only been over the past 200 years that the government has increasingly taken an interest in mass education. In evolutionary terms that is half a blink of an eye. We are a diverse species. It makes sense that a one box fits all approach won't work for everyone. With denser population there isn't much choice in schools, despite the right to express a preference. Some people suit school well and others don't. Some schools are more accommodating than others. What happens though to all these people who can't fit in though? They go off and find roles in life where they don't need to conform. One of mine will do 'adulting' much more successfully than she does being a child. She won't want a job with a uniform, she won't a job in a traditional office, she probably won't want to live and work in a city, but there are hundreds of other opportunities open to her.

I think that there should be checks and balances, and support available to people who HE a child with SEN. I don't think that everyone should follow the curriculum in the same way at the same time, but some monitoring of access to educational opportunities should be in place and health and welfare checks.

I send all my dc to school because I work and I wouldn't have the patience to home educate them.

higher education and the workplace where the day is going to be far more structured

REALLY? really? No one cared at Uni if you turned up (I know now increasingly they take attendance). In my job I have a ten day suggested turnaround for work and a few fixed sessions, but beyond that my work is completely up to me to structure and complete. I could work 09.00-17.00, or 08.00 to 14.00 and 19.00-22.00 or 19.00- 03.00 and no-one would care or possibly even notice. The world of work is no longer the same as it was in the 1980s, there are niches for people to have increasing flexibility in when, where and for how long they work.

I think most people (including me previously) think of primary school as the holy grail. You have lovely memories of your own of Christmas singing, trips, long lunchtimes on the field in your summer dress etc. As an adult you think you send them through the doors, they do loads of lovely activities, socialise with friends, learn lots and come home educated and it's it all lovely. The reality of school now is very different.

My SN son has had a terrible time at school so over the last few months I've been in school and in class supporting him a lot which gave me a very eye opening view of school. Currently he is on a very reduced time table and we are home educating him the curriculum that he would have been doing in the class daily.

The work that takes the class of 30 all day to do with the constant setting up/clearing away, crowd control, behaviour modifications and sanction, constant telling small children to sit, be quiet, don't have an opinion. Don't move, don't disturb etc, movement in school for breaks / lunch and getting 30 children to get their coats on etc.........takes us under an hour each day 1:1. The work is dull, has a lack of differentiation and a general test focus and regularly repeats the same information in 3 different ways doing 3 similar activities. Children's learning is not the main focus (if it was, they'd employ more child focussed methods), the ability for schools to demonstrate that they are teaching is the main focus.

Schools naturally focus on the highest common denominator. Huge swathes of children don't fit that. Just like in the adult world, many adults don't suit a traditional office role for example, so they do something else. We don't offer that flexibility to children. Schools were set up to mass teach factories workers, I believe it was never the intention that all children would learn that way. If more parents had the opportunity to see the inner workings of the schooling system like I have, I know there would be uproar but most parents are in the dark.

We're not home educating as ds isn't ready for that yet, he wants to be at school but school isn't suiting him. We'll get the right path eventually but no we're not weird, just a normal professional family (teacher and medical parents) with a child who doesn't fit the mould.

shouldwestayorshouldwego I really meant the workplace for attendance. There are still a great many jobs where you can't just turn up when you want to, and where too many absences and poor timekeeping will result in dismissal.

I would be interested to know how many posters on here have home educated up to A level. I simply don't have the knowledge or skills to be able to teach DD to that level. I wouldn't know how to critique an essay, and the work I would have to do to familiarise myself with the content and syllabus is beyond me. I imagine that at this level there would be more tutors involved and more correspondence online.

In our case, we chose to home educate because two terms of reception had already started to knock the intellectual curiosity out of my child. He was spending time in a class where crowd control is the focus for large portions of the day and where almost all his questions went unanswered.

Even at 4 he complained about 'spending all day waiting' (for the other kids to sit down, to go out into the playground, to come back in from the playground, for lunch, to go home) and his individual interests simply couldn't be nurtured or even accommodated in any way on a class with 28 other kids.

He'd stopped asking us to look things up or explain things to him, because he was getting used to not being able to discover more about the things he wanted to know and the curriculum didn't make provision for most of the topics that spark his interest.

Now we can spend a whole day learning about something that comes up in conversation over breakfast and he's learning how to research, how to assess the reliability of sources, how to think critically about the information he discovers and how to enjoy learning. It may be weird but it's a lot more suitable for my son.

Thanks so much ibicus
I agree with you - definitely feel the education system has become less about the child's individual needs.

Another home educating ex primary school teacher here.

Families who choose to home educate are as diverse as families who choose to send their dc to school. It's that simple.

Really good posts Blackandwhitepostcards, could have written that myself!

I’m sure if you’re home schooled you can do as well academically but I reckon you’re missing something..........

Nah, I reckon it’s you that’s missing something. Begins with I and ends in magination.

lonicera just because my children aren’t educated in school it doesn’t mean they have poor time keeping or attendance.
We have to attend and be punctual for study sessions, tutor classes, forest and beach school, activities such as horse riding, gymnastics, swimming.. excursions such as museum/art gallery/science centre visits.
Activities and study sessions are block booked and pre paid. If you’re late the class will start without you and if it’s something like horse riding or forest school you wouldn’t be able to take part at all if you were late as it would disrupt the other children/horses. If you fail to attend then you’re only wasting your own money as you would’ve pre paid.
For excursions, if you fail to attend again you’ve lost the money you’ve paid and if you’re late your group will have already starts and you will have missed the start of the tour so will also lose the money you pre paid.

My point is that we have a lot of things we need to attend regularly and attend punctually.
I think there is a myth that home ed children sit in their house doing nothing, seeing nobody, lazing around all day. It’s the complete opposite. We get out more than when the children were in school, they are engaged and interested in their learning journey, they are hands on with their learning. We are busy and socialise more than ever before. We have to plan more strictly than when we were at school. It teaches punctuality, responsibility, organisation skills, independence.
As for the question about A Levels, tbh most home schooled children I know go to college for A Levels. I imagine it would be fairly difficult (and expensive) to do it at home, though some do.
The home ed journey usually ends when school would end so I’d say GCSE age. College offers more than school in terms of freedom and choices and flexibility with smaller class sizes and children who choose to be there so are less likely to be disruptive etc.

I don't think it's weird but I think it can be selfish and incredibly arrogant.

I'm employed as a Governess/Private Teacher so home education is literally my job but I would never think that I have the knowledge and experience to adequately educate a child completely by myself.
In the UK teachers have to be educated to Masters level, I often see parents online who claim to be bettering their child's education by keeping them home and teaching themselves right up to A-Levels. It's obscenely arrogant to limit a childs education where in main stream schools they'd have access to fully trained professionals many of whom with extensive education in each subject.

Teachers do not need to be educated to Masters level in the UK.

A PGCE is not equivalent to a masters, although it can count towards one.

Let’s not forget that teachers are going to become less and less qualified as the government has to lower standards to attract anyone into the ‘profession’ and underfunds it.