To ask if anyone is now considering home education full time?

[PogTheDog]

I know most people can't wait for their children to return to school on Monday. However, is anyone now considering (all already decided) full time home education?

I have loved teaching my primary school aged children and they have enjoyed it too. I will send them back to school on Monday as I'm not brave enough to make a commitment to it yet, but may consider starting in September. Anyone else?

I've never met a home educator that wasn't a bit full of their own importance, maybe all the lovely ones just stay quiet about it! I definitely think school is brilliant and so are qualified teachers.

I mean this is just so ignorant. Since when is a community only accessed through an institution or only relevant if you're interacting with people of your own age? And why do you think kids can't socialize with their peers outside a school environment? Just because you can't imagine it doesn't mean it's not possible

Of course you can socialise outside school, and you can be part of a community, but I cannot imagine facilitating the quantity and quality of interactions for my dd over a sustained period without school. I'd love to know how people make this work, as none of the home educating families that I have come across manage anything close.

Of course, I do understand that some kids are more introverted and need less contact with others, and I'm sure that it's easy enough to facilitate sufficient social interaction for those kids, but I just don't know how you would create the same level of interaction, and continuity of relationships, that kids get from a school environment. I'll happily be corrected if anyone can tell me how this would actually work in practice.

One thing that I understood very clearly during the lockdown is how poor the school provision is. When you actually see yourself the quality of the education delivered, with some teachers apparently unable to do maths at the primary level themselves, and "well, the answer sheet says so"... very eye opening.

Full time home schooling is, unfortunately, not an option for me, but I will definitely take home education much more seriously now, I lost faith in the school system almost completely.

I'd consider it if it could be a sixty:forty split with normal school!

Hopefully not! I think that on most cases kids and much better off in school for a number of reasons. I’m a secondary teacher and I could teach my own subject but there’s no way I could teach all the other subjects to the same level. I just don’t see how home education can meet the needs of most kids.

@AlexaShutUp

I mean this is just so ignorant. Since when is a community only accessed through an institution or only relevant if you're interacting with people of your own age? And why do you think kids can't socialize with their peers outside a school environment? Just because you can't imagine it doesn't mean it's not possible

Of course you can socialise outside school, and you can be part of a community, but I cannot imagine facilitating the quantity and quality of interactions for my dd over a sustained period without school. I'd love to know how people make this work, as none of the home educating families that I have come across manage anything close.

Of course, I do understand that some kids are more introverted and need less contact with others, and I'm sure that it's easy enough to facilitate sufficient social interaction for those kids, but I just don't know how you would create the same level of interaction, and continuity of relationships, that kids get from a school environment. I'll happily be corrected if anyone can tell me how this would actually work in practice.

This is my worry. DD benefits from being with similar aged peers and there would be no guarentee of that in the home schooling community, thats not to say that it's not a great option, I would just be worried about this side of things.

I’m going to quote something I read recently about this exact subject.
“I would rather cover my tits in honey and staple them to a bee hive”

Each to their own. I’m a secondary teacher and I found home educating/ schooling my own three DC (13, 9 and 4) incredibly challenging while still going in to work myself- and that was with lessons and resources provided by their own teachers. I can’t imagine how challenging it must be for hone educators to organise all of that effectively at home . I have the utmost respect for primary teachers in particular as they have to deliver such a wide range of subjects. My kids love being in school- they love seeing their friends and participating in class with their peers. I take my hat off to anyone who does it themselves but it’s definitely not for me or my children. The curriculum isn’t perfect and I think the experience of the last year has amplified the fact that there is too much emphasis placed on SATS etc and some changes such as bringing back more opportunities for practical/ creative learning would be beneficial.

I just don't know how you would create the same level of interaction, and continuity of relationships, that kids get from a school environment.

I don't know any home ed families that are trying to replicate a school environment.

Spending five days a week with the same children isn't necessarily everyone's idea of the optimum way to socialise, and home ed families can do whatever works best for them.

Bloody hell, absolutely no fucking way!

"I would rather cover my tits in honey and staple them to a beehive"

No, I love my daughter but I also like my job, she likes school and we basically need the cash that mummy makes or we’d starve!

DC1 is at primary school....Jesus no way!

Maybe if they were at secondary school...?

....scratch that, there is not enough alcohol in the world to cope with home bloody schooling!

Spending five days a week with the same children isn't necessarily everyone's idea of the optimum way to socialise, and home ed families can do whatever works best for them.

Sure, I get that. Not all kids have the same social needs, and it's great that home educating families can do whatever works for them. I totally understand that a school environment won't suit all children.

I'm really just talking about more extroverted children and those who really benefit from seeing their friends (and teachers) at school every day. I always knew those relationships were important, but I have become more acutely aware of this as a result of the pandemic. It's also the casual, everyday interaction that I hadn't fully grasped the importance of, and the exposure to a wide range of people, not just their own friends.

I would be really interested to know how home educating families manage this side of things for children who are highly extroverted.

Thisis a genuine question: how do home educators cope with the academic demands of teaching secondary age children? In secondary teachers are (ideally) experts in both the subject itself and the curriculum. Most secondary teachers have a degree in their subject or a closely related subject. This level of expertise would not be possible across none subjects in one household. So where do teenagers at home without remote teaching get the modelling, explanation and feedback from the subject experts? A raft of tutors?

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Mine aren't school age, but as a teacher through lockdown it's only made me want to home educate more.

I think you have to be a certain type of person to take on home ed and be successful. From what I've read (I briefly considered it) true home ed is following the child and their interests, providing inspiration and 'teaching' in a very different way to school curriculum (elements like poetry tea times, morning baskets, read aloud time etc look lovely). It really appeals to me, but I know it would make me a worse mother. I simply don't have that 'go with the flow', 'trust in the process' nature. The thought of teaching 3 different ages, particularly at secondary level would make me too anxious. The weight on me of being responsible for their entire education when I have zero teaching qualifications, would mean I'd constantly worry about if they were at the right level and if I was failing them. Selfishly, I also wouldn't like having no separation between home and school. I just know I wouldn't cope with the constant nature of it. I take my hat off to anyone who homeschools.

@likeafishneedsabike

Thisis a genuine question: how do home educators cope with the academic demands of teaching secondary age children? In secondary teachers are (ideally) experts in both the subject itself and the curriculum. Most secondary teachers have a degree in their subject or a closely related subject. This level of expertise would not be possible across none subjects in one household. So where do teenagers at home without remote teaching get the modelling, explanation and feedback from the subject experts? A raft of tutors?

Home ed doesn't necessarily mean all the learning happens at home, think of it more as coordinated from home. Most home ed families are in groups or community, so one childs parent might be a mathematician, another family in the group might have a history expert, and they meet or go to each others houses.

Some colleges also work with home ed kids, they don't attend full time but might do a science session a week, and then get topics to study before the next session. Tutors as you mentioned are also an option, though expensive. Or online learning can work well for some.

If you have enjoyed teaching your children, you don't have to stop when they go back to school. You can teach them stuff whenever they are with you. Lots of people seem to think education is 100% the responsibility of teachers, but parents can have a big input without resorting to giving up work to homeschool 40 hours a week.

Why do so many people think home educated children don’t interact with friends. They socialise more and in a more natural way than school children.
Also remote schooling is not home educating.
Is really sad that so many parents are counting down the hours until 9am
Monday.

Absolutely not. Not in a million years.
As pp have said, it's not even the learning side of it.
My kids have been largely static and lonely for too long, they miss their friends and need interaction with their peers.
I'm lucky that my kids have each other and get on really well, but it's no substitute for their real friends.
And yeah... they need to step the fuck away from the damn fridge.

I'm really just talking about more extroverted children and those who really benefit from seeing their friends (and teachers) at school every day.

But children can benefit just at much from seeing different people every day - there's more than one way to meet a child's social needs. School may be the default option, but it's not necessarily the gold standard for children of any particular personality type.

Why do so many people think home educated children don’t interact with friends. They socialise more and in a more natural way than school children.

I often read this on these boards, but it's so different to the HE kids I know in real life. Please could you tell us a bit more about what socialising might look like in a typical week for a HE teenager, @MyDcAreMarvel? How much time would they spend with other kids and in what kind of environments? How many other kids would they see in a typical week, and how much time might they have with their closest friends? What kind of adults do they learn from in addition to their parents, and how are these relationships facilitated and maintained?

FWIW, I'm not particularly counting down the days till Monday at all, as I'm quite anxious about covid, but dd is really looking forward to getting back to school, and I'm happy for her.

But children can benefit just at much from seeing different people every day - there's more than one way to meet a child's social needs.

Yes, indeed. I agree that there are some benefits to be had from seeing different people every day, but I also think you would lose a lot of the closeness that comes from seeing the same friends every day. It's a different kind of relationship, isn't it? My dd has some lovely friends from extracurricular activities and so on, who she would usually see for a couple of hours two or three hours per week, but they're not at all comparable with the friendships she has in school, where they have so many shared experiences and with whom they spend so much time. I guess I'm curious about how home educators facilitate that kind of close friendship which grows out of really regular and extended contact? I can see how that would come from HE groups that meet daily, but for me, that's where it just starts to look like a different type of school.