to want most parents to consider themselves home educators?

[Butterpie]

At least part time, anyway? I think you would find it very hard not to educate your child in any way yourself. I HE. My children are six months and three years old. It happens that we are not intending to send them to school for part of their education, but even if we were, it's not like when they were at home they would be sat in a darkened box is it?

Why doesn't every parent (especially of preschool children) say they home educate, at least part time? School is just another tool that some parents choose to use alongside their home education. You would hope.

Sadly, I hear too many stories of parents refusing to be involved in any way (not even reading bedtime stories or talking about the world) and maybe this more enpowering approach could help. Plus as soon as I started seeing myself as a home educator, I felt a lot better about myself. No longer was I a part time worker/unemployed, hardly any qualifications, with two unplanned children, unable to afford various things. I suddenly became the main educator of two beautiful girls who were growing and learning every day. I read up on various activities and learning methods, I made a special effort to be active parent and so on.

I might be talking rubbish (quite possible as I am typing whilst supervising Art, Technology, Science, Literacy and Numeracy-otherwise known as decorating gingerbread men) but wouldn't that approach enpower parents and help children, as well as making the school's job easier?

i agree with mrsgravy and lovechoc - why label it as home educating when actually what it is is being a normal responsible loving parent.

All parents ought to be educators - I agree with the OP about that. Some aren't, either because their own skills are sadly lacking (and no-one can impart skills they do not possess themselves) or because they don't have the time/energy/desire to do so.

But I don't think that children who attend school in the standard way need to have that experience repeated at home - they may need structured reinforcement in some areas, but mostly children need to get enriching experiences at home/with parents, and opportunities for practical experience and real life use of the basic skills school imparts.

An example: DD and I do a lot of birthday card writing and present shopping and wrapping. This brings together a mass of skills, the basics of which are taught at school (writing, arithmetic, geometry, thinking about others, matching colours etc) but are used together as a sort of mini-ongoing project at home. Every time there is another birthday, she gets another opportunity to develop her skills.

I would agree with the op. We are all 'home educators' and I enjoy that aspect of being a mum.

DS1 is starting school in Sept however I joined a home educators site to see what was 'out there' in case I want to home educate him in the future. One thing I found quite worrying was the amount of grammar errors and other mistakes in the parents' posts. I'm not sure you can teach your own children very effectively if you don't have a reasonabe standard of education yourself.

Another point is that whilst some people are born teachers who love doing all the educational stuff with their kids, others do not but may be better at doing other things with their children. At school, everyone has an equal crack at the whip in terms of being taught by qualified professionals.

Actually, all parents educate their children- even the feckless and irresponsible ones; even the abusive ones. They just don't teach them good things.

Children learn lessons from parents whatever you do.

Far too much nobbery in the OP for my liking, sorry.

It's great when you find something wonderful and want to evangelise about it but don't be surprised that not everyone feels as strongly or as postively

I do sincerely hope that home edding works for you and your family, but as both your children are pre schoolers , i think you need to give it a bit of time...

children seem to learn a lot by osmosis, i agree that if paretns are not invovled, then that is not a good thing

but not reading a bedtime story is not necessarily indicative of uninvolved parenting.. never realyl read one to either of mine, but we have a house full of books and we look at them together, DS makes up and writes and draws stories, and DD pretneds to read to me.

do't be so quick to judge on what makes the best type of parent

i have always felt that myself and DH were primarily responsible for ensuring the DCS became well rounded, educated childrne.. part of that was sending them to the right school for htem and for doing the things we do with them

i think bigging up making gingerbread men into something akin to spliiting the atom is a bit, well, precious

but if you are happy and secure with your choices, go forth and enyjo!

SeasideLil- but therein lies the problem! Why should children want to "not have to do learning"? They are learning all the time, that is what children do. It isn't a case of standing there pointing at a blackboard, it's about talking to them about the world and enjoying it. You can see in the thread how people seem to see education as some kind of chore. That can't be right. Playing IS education, I just want people to value it, instead of thinking what they do at home is a waste of time, just keeping the kids safe and fed until the trained teachers can take over. Playing is vital, in fact some people even say that it is more important than sitting down at a desk...

I have nothing against teachers, it just isn't something that we have chosen to do in our family, just like some people choose to send their kids to nursery. When I had to study outside of the home I sent DD1 to nursery and she loved it, now I work from home in a flexible job the kids don't go to nursery, they do playgroups and things with friends and me instead. They are both valid choices.

I have had problems with PND, and I think some of it was to do with suddenly being "just" a mum. It may seem obvious to some, but when I realised that what I was doing was a vital and hard job, it really helped, and I honestly think that I became a better parent when I started valueing what we were doing. It MADE me get up and take them places instead of sitting inside feeling depressed, because it was my job. Maybe it is just me, but I do think it needs to be made more clear that it is the parents who are responsible ultimately for the child.

I spent my first two years of being a mum scared of officials, everyone from the doctor to the playgroup leaders seemed to have ideas on how I should be behaving, and I jumped around trying to keep up. As soon as I realised that, actually, I am in charge, and what I do is valuable, whether it is cuddles, feeding, reading or arranging trusted people to look after them and do things with them, me and DP are the experts on our children. Other people might know more about certain aspects of children in general, but nobody knows our children better than us.

And for those accusing me of being smug- maybe I am. What I am saying though, is that you should all be smug. Just because you don't get a wage or a learning framework (or whatever it is called!) doesn't mean you are not doing an important job. Everything you are doing with your child (including sending them to school) is teaching them something, and you are in charge of that. Well done. :D

Sorry OP, i just find your post really cringe-inducing.

I am a parent to three dcs. I love them, read to them, talk to them about the world etc etc. Much the same as the majority of parents I know.

I just don't feel the need to label myself a home educator.

It's called being a parent.

Sorry, have just seen your post.

Sounds to me like you're extrapolating from your own experiences, and applying your epiphany to all parents. Am sorry to hear you had a tough time and glad you now feel better.

Just Please don't assume your personal journey applies to all of us.

I know I'm doing a great job.

Shit, I was supposed to teach my pre-schooler colours and shapes? Please don't tell me craft was necessary as well, I fucking hate craft.

I don't home educate, I parent. He goes to school for the learnins'

of course pre-school parents dont home educate.stop attributing silly terms to everyday activities.your gushing self praise is cringey

my children attend nursery full time.it so happens i do plan to send my children to school.

perhaps this is all about you finding your status and thats great.but dont asssume your epiphany is applicable to rest of us

because it isnt

my work,my career give me approbation and affirmation.i didn't need to have children to feel fulfilled,i already was

And now I am noticing my own spelling and grammatical errors

Tbh though...I have quite a few primary teachers as friends on facebook, and they can be much worse...I would hope they are more careful in school though.
I have friends who are qualified teachers who really don't have what I would consider to be very basic life skills, but then I suppose that isn't what they are teaching. My sister is a teacher and many people on her course had to delay their graduation because they still hadn't passed the basic skills tests. They eventually passed on the 30th or so try. These are the people who are now being paid to teach 30 kids at a time to read and write, and I would think it a lot harder to learn together in those kind of situations.
I do also know some amazingly clever and dedicated teachers, it must be said, but I really don't think you can assume a teacher is some kind of genius. They may not have to be, I realise that teaching isn't all about that, and I wouldn't know where to start with a class of 30 kids, all at different stages and from different backgrounds, so kudos to them!

My parents never read me bedtime stories. But they did teach me Latin and Greek and to sail a boat and paint a house and cook a three course dinner, so I wouldn't say my education was entirely neglected. People do things differently.

Butterpie, thanks for sharing your personal journey, as oliviacrubmle very well described it with us.

Luckily, I already knew what you have learned along the way, when DC1 was born.

Parents = main educator. Don't most people know this? [hhm]

I'm not going to win any prizes for sentence construction tonight, am I?

cory your dp taught you Latin and Greek at home but they weren`t school subjects at all, just something you did at home with the dp?

nosey emoticon

"I find that most parents want to do their very best for their DCs. School is a very short part of the day, only 6 hours, 5 days a week and with at least 12 weeks entirely free a year! There is masses of time to read stories, have long discussions, cook, garden, do art work projects, visit museums, walk in the country etc etc etc"

piscesmoon do you live in a bubble somewhere?! I teach a class of 30 children - can think of 3 parents at most who might ever have done one of the above.

OP, where did your sister go to college?

Am curious to learn more about an institution which would allow students thirty or more attempts to pass their "basic skills tests" ( or am I just ignorant?) in order to graduate.

Now I think you're just being silly...

My ex's mum was a school teacher, she once had a parent hold her agsinst the wall yelling at her because their child couldn't read. When she asked if the child read or was read to at home at all, the parent got angry and accused the teacher of trying to get them to do her work for her.

and this illustrates what exactly

That her ex's mum had a really bad experience with a parent once.

Personally, I think it's a sad day when you consider "decorating gingerbread men" home educating rather than just having fun.

St Martins in Lancaster. They were allowed to retake as many times as they needed to, they started taking them when they started the four year course. The tests are (I think, I may be wrong on this) the same as a C in Maths and English at GCSE.

The course did sound very hard in other areas, and the workload was certainly massive, but that rings alarm bells for me. It was only a few of the teachers that year, and maybe it goes on their permanant record somehow so they might not be leading classes yet, but still...

Like I say, I don't think the basic skills tests are the be all and end all, but it does show that we can't assume that somebody with a teaching degree is somehow a mastermind in all areas. Nobody is.

Who is presuming anyone with a teaching degree is a mastermind? you don't need that many A'levels to go in to teaching do you?

All the teachers I have ever come across are quite ordinary individuals.

Butterpie - so what will your DDs do for formal qualifications? I'm thinking that since you don't think much of them anyway...