home education-till theyre 7?

[picnicinthewoods]

Hi there,

Im new on here, so firstly 'hello'! I am living ut of the UK at the moment, but theres a possiblitity I will be moving back home to England in Sept. I have been considering HE for a long while now.

My daughter has been attending playschool and loves it. She chose to up her days from 3 to 5 morns. My son, a year younger, hated it and eventually I took him out (think screaming & holding onto the doorframe etc).

In England my son would be due to start school in Sept, but he will have only turned 4 in July. I feel hes too young and so I will be HE'ing him.

My daughter would be going straight into year 1 in Sept, so joining an already established class. We have only recently known about the possibility of going back to England so we do not have a school place for her. If there are no places at our prefered choices, she will be on a waiting list I assume?
Im wondering whether school is right for her because she loves playschool. However, Im also thinking that if Im He'ing DS, I may as well HE both.

My original thought was to HE until theyre around 6-7 years. There are many reasons I believe this is beneficial. What do people think about children then going to school, into an established class? Anyone HE'd for just the early years?

How about HE'ing one child and notthe other, anyone do this and how is it?

Would be great to hear some thoughts, thanks.

Excuse my typos!

I home ed 7 year olds, and have another in school (at secondary). My dcs have told me they want to go back to school when they're 8. I don't forsee many problems about going into an established class- but then there are two of them...

I'd just see how it goes, if I were you.

I do hear a lot of home edders say that they started HE-ing one of the dcs, then sooner or later the rest came out!

See what options are open when you get here. I home ed'd my (august born dyspraxic) boy until half way through Y2 as that was the right thing for him but my (april born NT and very social) girl started in reception.

I really don't get this worry so many people have about joining established friendship groups at school. This fear is now driving many parents to send their children to school just after they turn four though they don't think the child is ready, rather than exercising their right to defer, just because "everyone else" is starting school in September.

Many young children are often changing friends anyway. Most kids would happily have an additional friend even though they already have friends. People who are moving house don't fear that all the neighbour children will shun theirs simply because they are new. When my daughter started school for the first time at the age of nine, the other kids absolutely flocked around her. She was new, and therefore exciting. She knew different things to them: different songs, different playground games, different jokes. Why wouldn't they want her for a friend?

I intended to home educate my older daughter for just the first few years, but we loved it so much that we continued. She tried school for a term at nine but found it took too much of her time from playing and going places and following her hobbies. Her little sister is so obviously unsuited to school that I never even considered sending her.

Your daughter might enjoy school and she might not. It's easy to change from school to home education or the other way round, so maybe it doesn't much matter which one you try first. (If you were in Scotland it might be a bit easier to start off with HE, because families living there require permission to leave school, but you say you'd be in England where you can leave school on demand.) You know you have a choice, which could make all the difference.

Many families have one child in school and one out; it's very common. The main disadvantage people mention is that you can't go on all-day home ed outings because you've always got to be back to collect the other child from school. But I am sure you'll find other things to do that fit in with the school timetable. Many areas have quite a lot of home ed activities, and some of those fit nicely with the school run. Groups in my area often meet from about 10-2 in order to accommodate families with children at school and allow the rest of us to avoid the school-run traffic!!

There's a home ed forum here on Mumsnet where you can post also. When you know whether and where you are moving, you might like to find out about local activities for home educating families.