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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think there’ll be a lot of new home educators?

33 replies

Wildflowersbytheroad · 25/07/2020 13:09

Just saw article in the news which said 9/10 parents are planning to send their kids back to school... so 10% of parents are not? This is a lot of people! Parents will be fined if they don’t deregister, so AIBU to think there’ll be a lot of people now home educating longer term?

OP posts:
Hobnobswantshernameback · 25/07/2020 13:11

Nah, there'll be a few new ones who will run out of steam pretty quickly once schools
Stop providing online resources.
There will be a tiny minority that make the change
And there'll be a cohort who will strop and day that "my child isn't a guinea pig" "I'm not sending him back till it's safe" who'll last about a fortnight

lifesalongsong · 25/07/2020 13:16

Maybe a few more but I can't see many being able too it once jobs and life gets back to normal.

It annoys be a bit that people think they've been homeschooling, most have been supervising the completion of work set by a teacher, does anyone really think that's what homeschooling really is?

sirfredfredgeorge · 25/07/2020 13:18

Just saw article in the news which said 9/10 parents are planning to send their kids back to school... so 10% of parents are not?

Surveys are just not a reliable way of finding out that information.

cuntryclub · 25/07/2020 13:19

I wonder how many parents they asked? They didn't ask me, did they ask you?

Merryoldgoat · 25/07/2020 13:22

I don’t know a single person who isn’t desperate to get their children back to school.

Starbuggy · 25/07/2020 13:23

Does the 1/10 figure also include children who are shielding or who live with someone shielding?

bananaskinsnomnom · 25/07/2020 13:25

I think some will like the idea but the reality of actually having to plan all the work themselves and everything else, I think people will see the reality and change their minds.

The concept of homeschooling to me though sounds amazing- but I don’t think I could do it!

Sindragosan · 25/07/2020 13:25

I know a few people who were waiting until September to send children back, but they all have a SAHP. No-one who wants to educate full time, apart from those already doing home ed, and even they want things back to normal so they can have their usual groups, outings etc. Anyone with two parents working is absolutely desperate for regular schooling.

Potayto · 25/07/2020 13:27

The WhatsApp group for one of mine once they announced that their year could go back was insane ‘not guinea pigs, not safe, how could you consider it’ etc, not one parent admitted they’d be sending their kid back. By week 2, all bar 3 children were back.

So from experience - These strops rarely last long!

EatDessertFirst · 25/07/2020 13:39

Agreeing with PPs. You'll get some using the guinea pig line, some frothing about the lack of vaccine, some trying to just be alternative and 'fighting the state' etc. But in reality, the majority are not going to home educate properly and will have their kids back in school as soon as they are asked to deregister their kids (if thats what happens) or they realise what a massive undertaking it is to home educate.
My two will be first in line at the school gates.

YgritteSnow · 25/07/2020 13:46

I think there will be a lot of talk about how they're going to home educate but not many will actually do it.

I home educated for 9 years and it was the right thing for my ds but I wish I hadn't been forced to.

Chickenkatsu · 25/07/2020 13:47

Did your school actually provide useful information? We had to everything ourselves. We've made loads of progress, I want the schools to open mainly for the social benefits.

MinorArcana · 25/07/2020 13:48

I think how people feel now isn’t necessarily how they’ll feel in September.

Potayto’s experience sounds very like what happened at my DC’s school, lots of talk about how no one was sending their DC back in, and then a fortnight later, school was sending emails saying that they’d filled all the places.

And out of the families I do know who’ve been wobbling about sending DC back in September, only one of them has actually deregistered their DC so far.

lazylinguist · 25/07/2020 13:50

There might be a slight increase, but 10%? No way! Most people seem desperate to hand their dc back to the teachers from what I've seen.

user8558 · 25/07/2020 13:54

Why are people being so unpleasant about this? Some strong language all this talk about frothing and so on...

BilbyBlue · 25/07/2020 13:58

In the us lots of families are creating "pods" and hiring private teachers.

Original poster
Wildflowersbytheroad · 25/07/2020 14:07

@BilbyBlue that’s so interesting.

I was just thinking the other day about what will happen if there are further lockdowns/school closures. Home educating pods (with tutors perhaps) seems like it would be one way to go...

OP posts:
Boom45 · 25/07/2020 14:09

The time of school was not good for my children's mental health. Even if I didn't work full time I would be sending mine back. They did go back after half a term because we were both too busy to give them the time they needed at home and the difference in them both when they were back at school was amazing. I'm sure home education can be done well but you really need a full time, enthusiastic and well informed stay at home parent to make it work and even then I think you probably need links with other home educators for socialisation and stuff.

BiBabbles · 25/07/2020 14:14

In the UK, I don't think so. I'm a long-time home educator and I'm not really expecting or seeing a significant uptick. There may be some short-term for the first term, but nothing big or lasting and I don't really expect many of them to view themselves as home educators.

If anything, there is more conversation going the other way with how the qualifications were handled. I don't think private candidates with no centre backing are going to get any qualifications this time and there are questions of when they'll be able to test and if they'll be allowed at the centres they paid for with the bubbles and everything. Even looking at next May/June, a lot of home educators are nervous whether our private candidate kids will be able to sit or get results and more than a few are looking for alternatives that gives them a safety net of getting at least something.

The US home educating community is far more philosophically driven and I have heard rumbles of upticks there, but the UK which has far fewer philosophical home educators or those who started with home education compared to those who pulled kids out of schools due to issues. A lot of people have had issues with their schools during this, but not the kind that generally leads to withdrawing kids in the UK. It's normally more bullying, school anxiety, and similar so I'm not really expecting a significant uptick.

rosiejaune · 25/07/2020 14:16

@bananaskinsnomnom

I think some will like the idea but the reality of actually having to plan all the work themselves and everything else, I think people will see the reality and change their minds.

The concept of homeschooling to me though sounds amazing- but I don’t think I could do it!

Home education doesn't have to work like that. Most of the home educators I know (including us) take an autonomous approach, so their child learns through play and everyday life.

They don't have to do any structured work if that's not what you both want. Some people do "school at home", but it's not that common, certainly not to the same extent as it would be done in school.

Mintjulia · 25/07/2020 14:29

Lockdown has taught me that I am not a natural teacher. DS will be back in school the moment their gates open. Grin

SantaClaritaDiet · 25/07/2020 14:31

It annoys be a bit that people think they've been homeschooling, most have been supervising the completion of work set by a teacher, does anyone really think that's what homeschooling really is?

It can be though.

Some homeschooling families rely heavily on tutors and external structures and follow a set curriculum - might be from another country for example.

"homeschooling" in this country only seems to mean "not sending your child to a local school", the ways or managing it seem extremely varied.

Original poster
Wildflowersbytheroad · 25/07/2020 14:42

@BiBabbles that’s fascinating thanks!

Agree with other PP that the full range of home ed often seems to be misunderstood - I don’t do it myself but have read books etc and ‘school at home’ approaches seem to be in the minority AFAIK.

OP posts:
lazylinguist · 25/07/2020 14:51

I find it quite strange that home learning has apparently simultaneously destroyed a generation of children's education and mental health while also being a revelstion about freedom from the terrible restrictive shackles of formal education, leading many to abandon school in favour of home schooling.

It would be nice to think that these two contrasting views arose from the fact that different children respond better to different settings, but I think it's probably mostly to do with parents' class, financial and employment situations, political motivations and social aspirations tbh.

DennisTMenace · 25/07/2020 15:00

The time off has taught me that attempts to home school whilst working from home on the computer are doomed to fail. Reception age ds1 was struggling in school and refuses any kind of reading, writing and maths .Ds2 ranges between jealous hijacking when we try to sit down to being ominously quiet elsewhere. Quiet toddlers are usually ruining something. Both kids have been on the screens much more than usual, so I can get any work done.

It has reinforced my thinking that the current school system is not right for all. Ds1 is simply not ready for the reading etc and I genuinely believe that delaying by a couple of years would have made him much better able to manage. But private school such more child-led Steiner is not financially possible.