Few daft questions

[chocolatestar]

I am hoping to home ed ds who is 2 just now if I am able to stop working ok but I am nervous about messing it up. I feel I don't have good general knowledge at all and would hate to let him down.

Also do you ever have bad days? I am on holiday right now and mostly have been having a great time but did feel a bit frazzled after day 7 of rain and ds wanting to make things with glitter glue. How do you know you are cut out for it?

Third daft question, we will have no money but want to be able to take ds to the theatre and to some classes, how do you manage financially?

1. If DS asks something, you don't need to know - Google and the library are your friends.

1. Yes, you have bad days! But that happens i all families. IMO, it is easier to have them around all the time than suddenly all to be together for a few weeks when you are used to being apart - except in summer, the holidays are not long enough to adjust and know what works for you. He won't be 2 for very long. Soon, he'll be able to get out (and clear up!) his own glitter glue. There sill still be things that frazzle you but they'll be different.

1. Since DC, I've worked from home and we have been below median household income through the last 16 years. Some of it depends on your priorities - if the theatre is a priority, then you'll cut out other things. You can start saving (small) amounts now - £1 per week is not much, but it represents two trips a year to your local theatre. Also, DS is small. As he grows, things will ease off a bit - you may be able to work part-time or from home.

When you stop working, there is no outlay for it (you might like to keep count of what you spend because you work - clothes, travel, food, drinks, whip-rounds) and you can, e.g., cook from scratch, shop for bargains and generally live at a slower (and usually cheaper) pace.

PS: not daft questions!

Also I can't cook. Somehow I feel I should be able to cook to home ed!

Thanks! When I read about other people who home ed it all sounds so natural and easy and lovely. I really want to do it just scared I am not up to the job.

You don't have to be able to cook, I guess. But you could learn. Delia Smith's complete cookery course is good at explaining things and my DD (18) just bought herself a book really cheaply in Waterstone's which tells you how to do everything basic (including boil water, IIRC). It's not that she can't cook, but she wanted a reference to fill in the basics in case she discovers something she doesn't know, IYSWIM, when she goes off to uni.

The problem with EHE is that you really can't tell what it will be like for you when standing on the edge - you have to get into the pool and try it.

Your DS is 2. Think about simply living with him (at his pace) - the education will come naturally because he is fascinated by the world.

I guess I was thinking every day has to be all singng and dancing to prove that I am up to the job. I probably need to learn to trust that it will happen just by living.

re: the cooking thing, what about getting a children's cookery book and making things from that, with your DS 'helping'?

I can cook but tend to get a bit flustered about it, so I sometimes get those boxed kits to do with DD - little cakes or whatever. I'm not brave enough to bake from scratch yet!

We spend a lot of days simply mooching. Following the child's interests, just playing with them when desired, is about the most valuable thing you can do for their education. take their lead, and don't try to "teach", with a 2yo, and the rest of life just follows naturally, one day at a time

I had a big bee in my bonnet about baking with the dcs when I started home ed. God knows why!

...it has taken me this long to realise they're really not that arsed about it and only interested in licking the bowl

...as for "good general knowledge"- I was a proper smart arse thought I knew quite a lot before I started HE but nothing prepares you for the sort of questions 6 yos ask on a daily basis while you're eating your coco pops. You'd need a degree in astrophysics for a start!

we google everything

"I had a big bee in my bonnet about baking with the dcs when I started home ed. God knows why!"

It's because everyone goes on and on about young home educated children not needing to do formal maths because they learn it all by baking . Which is true, but baking is just one of a thousand ways of learning maths hands-on.

One day my daughter had two HE friends round, siblings. I was making gingerbread (not a common thing!) and I asked if they wanted to help. The boys were deeply suspicious and asked a number of questions: "Do we have to MEASURE things? Are you going to make us double the recipe? Do we have to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius?" I said no to all of the above, and that they could do whatever they wanted. What they wanted was for me to do all the mixing and them to do all the stamping-out.

I think possibly their mum had been coming on a bit too heavy with the "educational" side of baking!!

Good grief!

We did the doubling and measuring (but only when we needed to - the idea of having three times as much gingerbread because you are doing the 3x table... LOL!) but it's never occurred to me to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius - our oven is gas so it'd have no functional use.

The whole point of mentioning baking (and other practical things) is that if you do them, you cannot help using the mathematical words and they have a built-in intrinsic motivation that usually appeals to kids (i.e. being able to eat the results).

In everything I said above, I meant:
Live your life! You are human - humans are not good at doing nothing. If you do stuff (whatever that stuff might be), your kids will learn! They can't help it - that's what humans do if you don't actively prevent it (by telling them it is work, they'll find it hard and should try to avoid it, and it can only be done in certain pre-ordained hours of the day in a certain building).

When you look back, you'll be able to see how much they've learned but it will be a patchwork, not a mass-produced blanket. It will be unique and individual... but that is good! Much of it will not be quantifiable or demonstrated by bits of paper. Who cares? When you need the paper, you can go and get it. Problem-solvers used to doing stuff their whole lives will not be afraid to go after the paper when that is stopping them doing what they want.

Oh, and it is important IMO for the adult to model doing stuff. When I baked, I did it because I wanted to (or was asked by a child) and although I asked if they wanted to help, I didn't get upset or drop the idea if they did not.

School does a lot of stuff that has no purpose other than to get a child to remember, demonstrate or practice a skill that someone else thinks is important. Why EHE if you are simply going to replicate that?

saracen that's a bittersweet story! funny but sad as it sounds like they were being put off the 'learning' aspect.

it's funny that everyone cites cooking as a means to do maths at home... I wonder what level you could get to?

couscous calculus, alfalfa algebra perhaps?

ooh - meringue matrices! nom nom nom

chocolatestar I'm in the same position as you, DS is 2 and I also hope to home-ed. They're all valid points that everyone probably worries about when they start out, but don't let it stop you trying. You can always try HE for a year and see how you get on with it, just because he doesn't start school at 5 doesn't mean he can't start later if need be.
And with regard to the cooking, start with the basics and just try, no-one will mind if you mess it up! The first time I cooked for DH I boiled rice so dry the saucepan had to go in the bin afterwards!!

any of you who are planning to HE your kids who are preschool age, come join the Preschool Home Ed Thread