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?

@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?

Please don’t deprive your kids of the social interaction (among other things) kids get at school because you’ve liked playing teacher for a few months. Unless you’ve trained to be a teacher, then you will be risking their education.

Academies and free schools are a terrible idea for this very reason though! There aren’t any where I live but there is no way as a teacher knowing what I know about how they are run that I would have sent my DC to either
In my experience there's good and bad, just like any variation within a sector. I'm ideologically opposed fo breaking up the school system, and have questions about how some trusts use money/are run, but many cover similar things because they have to get students to sit GCSEs at the end.
Whether we personally agree with academies or not, it doesn't change the fact that if a child has a broad and balanced home education experience, they aren't automatically disadvantaged by not following the national curriculum.

There's some comments throughout this thread that feels like some posters think that facilitating remote learning during a pandemic makes them as, or better, qualified to comment on the very varied arena of elective home education as those who have done it.

I think my kids would love being home educated. Not this crap we've just been through, where mum tries to make them do the work set by school, and they refuse to do any of it unless spoon fed, but more guided by their interests, and with lots of groups and social activities.

I have been tempted in the past and know there's a big home ed community where I am. I think it could suit them as they both have their reasons for finding school hard.

However, what I've realised over the last year is how much I bloody love my job! I'm self employed and have had to cut back my hours a lot to juggle stuff with the kids. I'm finding myself resenting that I have to be at home supervising them.

I stopped work for a few years when they were little and was a SAHM, which I struggled with for much the same reasons. I need my own space and independence.

So, back to school they go.

Academies and free schools are a terrible idea for this very reason though! There aren’t any where I live but there is no way as a teacher knowing what I know about how they are run that I would have sent my DC to either.

I haven’t heard this kind of scaremongering about academies for about ten years. Academies don’t have to follow the NC but they do. They don’t have to follow STPC but they do. I live in a local authority with only one secondary school still under LA control (and that is in name only). They’re just schools and they are very much the norm in England now.

I preferred it first time round - we did get a pack from school but most of the time it was homebrew/twinkl worksheets plus DuoLingo for languages.

The boys liked it - second time round its sucked for them since the schools have set it up - they seem to spend more time cursing the interface than doing work.

Both are looking forward to Monday with trepidation - it's a myth for many that socializing in school leads to making lifelong friends if you don't fit in. I knew that for my health and sanity my days in my hometown were numbered as soon as I went to secondary school - even kept a tally of days left - remember in year 9 when it was less than 1000 to go!

My friend who homeschools, her dc don't see anyone outside the nuclear family. I mean anyone unless we go to visit. She might see her family or her ILs but she's not even really on good terms with them. I think she tried to reach out to a group but they were more anxious and insular than she is.

I used to have loads of romantic notions about homeschooling pre-lockdown.

Then I homeschooled.

It was a 'scales falling from the eyes' experience. Never again.

I didn’t enjoy trying to homeschool while working from home and with no other activities to do. In normal times and if I didn’t work I can see doing a bit of maths and English, going out with friends, doing a sports/dance/drama class then back for a bit of project work could be a lot more fun.

Absolutely not for the same reason l don't service my own car or cut my own hair - l am not very good at it. And school isn't just about what they learn in the classroom - so unnatural to be together this much!

@isuckathousework

Sorry, I dropped off the thread because I felt I was having to justify the social side of things.
I’ve found many classes/activities for my DC locally. Perhaps we’re just lucky having a vibrant home Ed community I don’t know.
Examples of classes/groups are:
STEM/Science: run by a couple of (clever!) parents. You pay a nominal fee to attend. Very practical & hands-on.
Book club in the library- run by the librarian.
History club: again run by parents. Many are ex teacher btw (as I am)
Gymnastics classes (they work through the ‘badges’)
Outdoor athletics class.
Forest schools: there are loads of these, they are very popular. My DC go to two. They learn lots (survival skills, all about nature, geography of the local area, conservation skills, problem solving, team work etc) & recently completed the John Muir bronze award which culminated in my oldest two giving a presentation, making a documentary and mapping the area. They are also working on the Wild Passport.
There are also lots of groups that are a bit less academic and more for socialising.
My DC also do swimming lessons, brownies/Cubs & music lessons but these aren’t specifically for home Ed kids.

There’s so much i find I have to limit the classes/groups so that we get enough time at home to do some ‘kitchen table’ learning!

At these clubs, we tend to see many of the same children but also different children. For example some of the children that go to forest school also go to their sports class. And some also go to Science club.

I hope this helps you make your decision. My advice would be to join your local Facebook home Ed group and look to see what is on locally. Ask on there too. I found that there is a main ‘general’ group but that lots of the classes had their own separate FB page so it’s definitely worth asking what there is locally to you.

Just to add, it’s a misconception that they learn everything at home. I mean some might, no-one I know does.

We’d all find it stressful to be at home ALL the time!!

My parents help out in a sense too. They have them once a week for an afternoon and they bake with them, do art activities, garden with them, take them on nature walks, my dad does woodwork with them. They even set them quizzes on topics they are learning.

I joined my local home ed group (we were considering delaying DD school entry). There's one EYFS meet up in my town and a teenage art group 20 miles away. That's it in my area.
Some friends who speak the language I'm teaching DS started a language meet up for the DCs when DS was in preschool and one local home ed family came. We met about 3 times, this was now 5 years ago and nothing more has happened. TBH the adult first language speakers just chatted while the kids ran around and spoke English...

Ah that’s such a shame @drspouse

I guess different areas have different levels of access to these things. I do know we are VERY privileged to have so much locally. When I say locally none of it is walking distance. I have to drive everywhere ranging from a 5 minute drive to a 45 minute drive.

@maddiemookins16mum

Please don’t deprive your kids of the social interaction (among other things) kids get at school because you’ve liked playing teacher for a few months. Unless you’ve trained to be a teacher, then you will be risking their education

This!

@crazyontheweekend
STEM/Science: run by a couple of (clever!) parents.

This is the sort of statement that worries me, Just because a person is ‘clever’ does not mean they can teach.

Also referring to people being ex teachers isn’t relevant either. There is a reason why there are return to teaching and refresher courses for anyone who has been out of the education system for more than 5 years. Things change in education on a regular basis. You wouldn’t trust a doctor who had left medicine 10 years ago to treat a health condition so why is it ok to trust someone to ‘teach’ your children if they’re not currently teaching?

I do find the whole ‘I’ve done it for the last year so it will be easy’ mentality a bit concerning too as well as referring to remote/ online learning as ‘home schooling’ too. The majority of parents have been supporting their DC to complete work planned and set by teachers. I would be a bit miffed if the parents of any of the children teach considered themselves to have been home schooling kids in my subject when I have been spending double the amount of time, planning and marking as well as delivering all lessons as live lessons!

I wouldn't home educate (unless it was necessary) because I feel my children thrive from having time away from us to build their own independence and personalities.

We don't have the choice anyway. We both need to work and I don't think we could afford the tutoring and exams to allow them to do whatever GCSEs they wanted. I think many who always suggest home educating as an option when schooling is difficult forget that many are not privileged enough to afford to have a parent at home all the time.

HELL NO!

Not least because I work full time.

@NerrSnerr

I wouldn't home educate (unless it was necessary) because I feel my children thrive from having time away from us to build their own independence and personalities.

We don't have the choice anyway. We both need to work and I don't think we could afford the tutoring and exams to allow them to do whatever GCSEs they wanted. I think many who always suggest home educating as an option when schooling is difficult forget that many are not privileged enough to afford to have a parent at home all the time

Exactly! Both parents and children benefit from that time apart.

True! I don’t know many families where both parents don’t have to work these days!

I always wanted to homeschool but thought I wouldn't be up to it as I'm ill, and the DCs would fight me to do anything. However we found in the last year that actually they thrive learning at home and teaching them has been so enjoyable. So they've been officially pulled out of school just after Christmas.

Both late primary, and the intention at the moment is to finish primary at home then start high school in school.

Their school weren't providing enough work btw, so I've been teaching alongside school-from-home all along. And due to us shielding they stayed off in September, so have been off for a year already.

Please don’t deprive your kids of the social interaction (among other things) kids get at school because you’ve liked playing teacher for a few months. Unless you’ve trained to be a teacher, then you will be risking their education
@Baws completely agree, I was relieved when my 18 year old nephew was accepted onto his BSc in astrophysics as it meant he would finally be getting a proper education after all those years of HE.

We're considering it, but to be honest we were considering it pre-lockdown anyway. DS has ASD and ADHD and finds learning easy enough, but the school environment absolute hell on wheels. We're at the point of trying one more configuration at school and if that doesn't work out he'll be deregistering and learning at home.

We have a thriving home ed community locally so lots of opportunities for interaction, plus a local specialist play centre for SEN kids and young adults, access to libraries and museums, and we can manage well on one salary.

@MyDcAreMarvel
😂 Very good!

@MyDcAreMarvel

Firstly not sure why you tagged me when I was quoting another poster!

Even if that is true, (which I doubt!) It would have to be the exception rather than the norm.

I’d rather shit in my hands and clap