Has anyone ever considered home educating?

[spidermama]

Apparently one in a hundred kids is home educated these days and the number's growing all the time.

I've just come back from a lovely little family festival in Somerset where most of the kids were home edders. There's something charming and different about them. It's similar to the difference between city and country kids if anyone knows what I mean. They seemed to be really comfortable with who they are. There's no sign of pressure to conform and they all seemed to be individual, unguarded, talented, non-judgemental in a way that city schoolkids aren't.

They were friendly with each other, welcomed my daughter immediately, hung out together in a pack. They seemed to be having a great time and there was hardly any trouble or tension from them.

My children go to a really good primary in a 'good' area but I'm so loving the summer holidays, and I find my kids are much nicer to me and to each other during holiday time. They also learn and grow more in the home environment.

I'm really begin to resent the looming school term time. I think they're too young to be herded around in uniform five days a week. The biggest thing they seem to learn is to wait their turn and bear the frustration. I don't think that's such a great life lesson at this age.

For over a year now I've been tinkering with the idea of home educating.

Does anyone feel the same?

sorry to barge in spider and apologies if you've already said earlier in the thread but what is the name of the festival you went to?

I'm a secondary teacher and I would have grave worries about my abiliity to teach Primary subjects....and my spelling is dreadful!

I would also find it hard to teach many secondary subjects....I'd be fine with science (my subject) and Maths and probably OK with History and geography, but I would brick it at other subjects. I would also feel that my kids might miss out on things like technology subjects....we don't have the kit.

But each to their own

Anyone thinking about home ed should read some of John Holt's books - particularly "How Children Fail" and "How Children Learn". He was a genius.

Hi Katierocket
It was called The Family Gathering. A tiny weeny festy of about four hundred people including crew. Great because it was very self contained in a field and the kids could wander off and find you when they wanted to.

My two children who are at school (about to start in yr1 and yr2) can both read and write better than most of their peers. They've learned most of this, very enthusiastically, at home.

It's the maths part I'd find hard. I'd plan to enlist the help of other home edders. There are also brilliant resources on CDRoms, DVD's and videos and of course the web.

thanks spider, sounds lovely. Have you searched through archived threads, I vaguely remember quite a long thread about home ed'ing with links to useful resources etc.

Just to reiterate Zoe's post - Having seen some of the products from Educating Minds, I can really recommend trying them. Many things can be tailored to your own needs.

like hmb I'm a secondary teacher and wouldn't be confident about teaching primary stuff or lots of 2ndary subjects.

I'd alos worry that they'd miss out of social stuff.

MIAM homeschools her 4 girls. I've not seen her posting much lately though.

ditto what the other secondary teachers have said BTW. Until Easter I was a secondary school teacher but I would not feel conifident teaching many primary and secondary school subjects right now. However, if my only chose was a poor school or my DD was suffering at school in some way I would be willing to consider home ed.

Thanks. I'll try the resources suggested and look in archived threads. I'm both excited and daunted at the prospect. I'll be making my mind up in the next fortnight. Gulp!

the whole idea of home - ed is relatively new to me. until this past year i though it was just done by americans and missionaries! however in past year i have met quite a few home-eders, and as a primary school teacher, have got to say that i hated the idea of it.....

however,

the children whom i have met / seen who are home-eded are a real testimony to how good it is... like was said earlier, there is something beautifully different about them...

i know that there are a wide variety of resources available which makes teaching older children ( ie 2ndry ed) very viable. there seems to be a very supportive community of home-educators too.

i still feel a little funny about the whole idea of no school, but can't help but admit that there seems to be a lot of good going on in the world of home-ed....

that's my tuppence worth.

Spidermama. As Tassis said (hi tassis!) I HE my 4 girls. If you want any info or just have a chat about it, please CAT me.

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