Considering Home Ed Ramble..

[kattyo]

I have three year old twin girls. they are bright socialbe little things. I am a stay at home (single) mother. we went to a lot of music/ballet/playing with friends together until they were three and a half, when I put them in a fantastic nursery school two days a week (to give myself some time off). They loved it. Now we've upped to three days a week (beucase they love it) and it's too much. It makes me realise that a september entry to primary school is going to be overwhelming and exhausting for them. five days a week, six and a half hours a day. it's ridiculous. i think they need the kind of social interaction away from me that school privdes, but i'm not convineced they need full time schooling. maybe part time (but our local school doesn't do flexi schooling). i've considered steiner because it's only half day but for various reasons hesitated to comit there. i'm trying to work out options. i am not worried about my capacity to home school or their ability to respond. at this age it won't be any different from what we do now. they are very inquisitive little things and very keen to learn. there is also a local homeschooling group that meets collectively once every few weeks and quite a few homeschoolers in the area.

my concerns are: 1) cutting my kids off from other children 2) not giving my children enough time way from me (I think they need to interact in large groups away from me - it will be good for them) 3) not giving them time away from each other and 4) finding time for myself. I'd like to go back to college, or restart work again (I could be freelance and have flexible hours) but i'm not sure i can do this AND homeschool. do any of you manage to homeschool and do some work and if so how (i don't have a partner who can take up the slack while i'm busy).

my children love life and i don't want to dim their enjoyment by sending them somewhere htat doesn't bring them the joy that i know at the moment staying at home with me provides (so I suppose i could home school till they were seven or so, and then reconsider?).

anyway this is a muddled confusion, but any pointers/thoughts very gratefully recieved.

It would be worth you finding HEers in your area, to check out what the scene is like. I am very lucky that we have a good local network, and loads of activities. Also, my children go to various clubs (e.g. brownies).

If you know other HE families, you'll not fret about the social side of things.

Our groups contain plenty of parents with pre-school children.

You can certainly reconsider school at an older age.

1) cutting my kids off from other children
If you can meet up with other EHEers (and children from clubs, etc.) you will not be cutting them off.

2) not giving my children enough time way from me (I think they need to interact in large groups away from me - it will be good for them)
Hmmm. The question is "how much time?" - 30 hours a week? As DC get older, they can join Brownies, music group, drama, etc. All of that will give time away from you, without it being the all or nothing of school.

3) not giving them time away from each other
This may not be as necessary as you think it is. My DC were together most of the time growing up and it has been good for them (IMHO). They are not twins (or even the same sex) but many EHE children are more accepting of siblings - and there are no problems with age which are encouraged by the fixed strata in school. With twins, I'd see EHE having the advantage that they will not constantly be compared.

4) finding time for myself. ... do any of you manage to homeschool and do some work and if so how
I have worked throughout the EHE and was a single parent from DC being 13 and 11 (although they did go to xH at weekends). When they were small, I childminded with a friend so I could work for real money 2 days per week. When they got older, I worked (freelance copyeditor) at weekends and in evenings and early mornings. Once they started formal study I worked while they did that (and I also took days off for EHE activities). However, it has been a lot of juggling and I feel permanently under pressure. I'm looking forward to having some time in about 18 months when DS will also be over 18 and therefore not my direct responsibility!

Before DD went to university, she was sharing cooking and other (vital) housework with me.

Re working and HE: my DC are still pretty young. I also work as a writer/editor from home. We have been home edding since my DS was 5 and my DD 8. I would set out an activity, eg a puzzle for my DS and some Maths for DD and then that would give me a window of about 20 minutes which would be enough to put together the bones of the stories I was doing then. Then I'd put out another activity for each and that would give me another 20 minutes, etc. We often all work in the same room and although it can be distracting, it's no more so than working in a noisy office. (Before going freelance, I used to sit next to a lovely but very chatty marketing guy with a huge voice and it took a while for me to be able to concentrate with his larger than life presence, so now working with my DC in the room is much the same.) I don't work all day so there are other periods when they do have my undivided attention for explaining new concepts etc so I reckon it all evens out but certainly work and HE is possible.

Why don't you just send your kids in for the mornings and collect them at lunchtimes?