Has anyone tried a formal approach to home ed ?

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, My daughter is at school at the moment. She's 5.5. I've recently read the book "How children learn at home". It talks about informal learning more than a structured approach. My daughter has SEN's, a speech disorder, possible auditory processing disorder and developmental delay.
The thought of being laid back, if they haven't learned to read by 10, does scare me. I wouldn't know if she'd ever pick it up.
The Ed psych says that she'd benefit from a structured approach at school and that learning through play wouldn't be that beneficial to her.
I'd like to spend some time every day working on her letter sounds etc in a fun way. Perhaps following an interest, eg penguins. We could find some facts, then write a little sentence, talking about what letters we'd need etc. Then she could draw it. For maths, we have games and I'll give her pocket money and cook with her. That should cover it for a while.
Have any of you taken a formal approach? and if so, did it work?
When I read the report and all school would have to do to help her, I thought how can they dedicate all this time and energy in to one child? She works better in a quiet environment with no distractions. (Sound like school to you?)
Would I be able to still have the guidence of the Ed psych if I did home ed her ?
It makes me a bit nervous at the thought of not having profesional people tracking her progress and giving me advice.
I'd love to hear from anyone who's tried a more formal approach or those wich children with SEN's. Thanks.

We do structured HE and it works very well for us. DS1 is nearly 13, DS2 is 10 and DD is 8. The younger 2 have never been to school and DS1 did 2 years flexi-schooling. Whilst we take a more relaxed approach in the afternoons, the mornings are 'timetabled' to a degree and work is done at the table/computer.

We use a variety of textbooks/workbooks/e-books and everyone seems to be happy with how it works and knowing what they need to do. We also do lapbooks occasionally; learn French and Spanish in a small group and go to a book club once a month. DS1 does have some work to do some afternoons and they all have reading/piano practice to do as well as art/craft/sewing/cooking/read alouds.

I plan work 10 weeks at a time (so 4 times a year) and give each DC a 'work plan' which shows exactly what they need to do each week.

There is a structured home ed forum on ning but it's invite only. I can sort that out for you, if you are interested.

Hello
We home educated our three children, who all have SEN, from the ages of 12, 11, and 8.
Youngest had very severe dyslexia and other difficulties.
She couldn't read or spell even her own name after 3 years of school.

We took a formal approach at first-we knew no other way then. It simply didn't work for us as a family at all. We listened to experienced home educators and allowed a period of deschooling
And as we deschooled we gradually saw a return to the joy of learning in all three of them and we became autonomous home educators (as described in the book you mentioned-which our children were interviewd for)

For us it was very successful, following the children's interests and the directions they wanted to take-to be honest it was often a lot like what you were describing, albeit with activities for older children.

I think all families are different and need to take time to settle in and find what works for them. Some children do like more structure and others much less.
You do not have to have regard to what the Ed Psych says -lets face it he will only have experience of schooled children and have no idea of what home ed can be and how it works.

Have you found the Home Ed Special Needs website?
There is an email support list there,the people on there are the experts in home educating children with SEN-the parents who are doing it! You'll find a warm welcome and advice and support there.

There is also a book that you may find very interesting Home Educating our Autistic Spectrum Children: Paths are made by Walking with individual chapters written by home ed parents with children that have SEN, describing how home education works for them, some are autonomous and some educate in a formal way. There are chapters on getting started and on the legal aspects too.
I think you may find it very useful.

I'll also go bump the threads on websites on HE, in case you haven't seen them, so you can read more.

As for my children, after a totally autonomous education, living life and having fun, one went to college at 17 and did GCSEs and A levels and is going to Uni in Sept to do Psychology.
One used her life experiences to get a job with a well known national organisation and now lives and works away from home very happily.
The youngest finally began to 'get' reading at 13 (and yes it was scary at times, but I truly believe all children want to read, it is essential in our world, but she had a long way to recover from the damage done by school and well meaning professionals) By 15 she had started a starter OU course, in which she achieved all of the outcomes well, and used that to get into FE college.
She reads and spells well now and reads for pleasure all of the time!
She has finished her first year of college doing a BTEC National Diploma, and is predicted to get straight Distinctions at the end of the course and we now are looking at Universities next year! Something we never dreamed would be possible when we first started home ed and were told she would always need one to one help 24/7!!

hth

I just want to mention something briefly - I can't remember whether this subject has come up here recently. As a sort of shorthand, home educators often use the terms "structured" and "autonomous" as opposites. But they aren't really. "Autonomous" means that the child chooses what and how to learn. This can be done with or without any structure. Likewise, if the parent is directing the child's education, the parent can use structure or not.

For example, I educated my older daughter "autonomously" but she did choose to do some structured learning at one point. Specifically, she asked me to help her learn to read, and she wanted to use the Oxford Reading Tree scheme. Between us we decided that since she was keen to progress, and because there are lots of distractions in our house, it would be good to set aside a particular time for reading every day. Each day I asked her if she wanted to read, and she usually said yes. If she had said no then we wouldn't have done it.

So anyway, you've said that you'd like to try a formal approach. I wondered whether you'd thought about whether you're going to be making all the decisions about how that is done, or to what extent your daughter will be involved, and also whether all of this will be optional or compulsory for her.

Please feel free to disregard all of the above if it's something you've already thought through! To some people it seems obvious that a formal approach could be either parent-led or child-led or a combination of the two, but to other people it isn't.

Sara

Hello,
I home educate a son with multiple SENs, including auditory processing problems.
The first best thing I did for my son was to remove him from an overwhelming environment. The second best thing was to listen to Julienoshoes advice and give him a period of deschooling, which allowed for him to de-stress, for me to understand how he learns, at what stage was he at and what he really enjoyed best. Deschooling also allowed for both of us to relearn how to be together 24/7 again.
The result for us is to have a semi-structured/formal approach. We sit at a table for no more than a couple hours (with breaks) 2-3 times a week.If is a bad day, sensory-wise, there is absolutely no point having a formal approach it might cause resentiment. Ds also needs a break of a week every 3/4 weeks.
As for professional check as to academic progress, you can download tests from the department of education websites. There are also plenty of paying or free websites out there which are curriculuum based to guide you.
In regards to retaining the advice from an Ed. Psychologist it would really depend upon the postcode lottery, however you would definetely retain SALT and OT (if you have one).
I found that once we were out of the formal education system our priority was to concentrate on the emotional, social and physical development... the academic just follows

Thanks everyone.

I would like the day to be quite structured in the mornings eg, she gets up and makes her bed (with help) then choses her clothes after discusing what the wether is doing, where we're going etc. Then She'll dress herself as well as she can, then she'll help herself to the breakfast which I've set out. Then we'll talk about what she'd like to find out about and go from there.

At the moment, she has no morning routeen. She'll wake up and it's a complete muddle until she gets to school. I do everything for her for quickness and she now just expects me to do it and if not, it becomes a battle. I really think not having to rush in the mornings will help her independance.

She likes structure and routeen and likes to be able to predict what is comming next. These things will help to keep her calm. I'll make a picture board to help her too.

I'm glad that a more structured approach works for some family's.
It's good to know that we can down load tests too. Just for piece of mind, that she's making some sort of progress.

That's amazing Julienoshoes! It's very encouraging that your daughter did so well dispite being her problems.
That's so cool that your children were interviewed for the book.