Home education - tell me the bad stuff!

[Sonriente]

I am really close to going down the home education route with my two children (3&4). I've been watching the primary forum and this one. There are hundreds of threads about problems on the primary site. This site is all about support and sharing information.
Which is great, but I want to be sure I've considered everything.

So what are the negatives?

At 3 and 4 up - none! Seriously, in terms of your children, I can think of no downsides (mine were EHE all the way through compulsory ed and the younger still is, at 16).

Some people find that a downside is that you cannot have both parents working full time. However, if you never get used to the extra money, then it's not a problem. You can save money on cooking fresh food from scratch (it's very educational to walk to your local supermarket and consider the merits of buying items that are short dated), not needing to pay for childcare, run an extra car (assuming it is possible to get to work on public transport - otherwise you might find a car is necessary for both parents), buy work clothes, etc.

At 14+, if they are still EHE, then you cannot just leave progression to exams, higher ed and work up to someone else - you have to work your own way through the minefield - but I saw that as an advantage. :D

I can't think of any, but then I enjoy my children's company, and am able to arrange for myself to have breaks from them from time to time. I guess if you didn't like spending lots of time with your children, then the fact that you kind of had to would be a big downside.

Getting the wobbles every now and then is a downside, but very easy to overcome.

Not being able to 'pop' to the shops very easily...but that won't be a problem for ever for us, once they're all old enough to be left at home or sent to the shop themselves!

And naysayers - they're a problem!

I home educated three children from the ages of 13, 11 and 8, all the way through to the end of their compulsory education age.
All three are at college now and university and doing very well indeed.

We have a tighter budget because my husband is retired disabled and I work part time at a lower paid job, than I used to have, in order to home educate.
However as SDeuchars has said, we have time to cook from scratch, and we have become very resourcesful and our lifestyle is very educational!

The payoff more than make up for any disadvantages of having less money. Our children were miserably unhappy in school. HE has restored their self belief and self confidence.
They are happy people, following their own paths in life successfully.
We have had tremendous support from the HE community. locally and nationally and have so very many friends all over the country.

Our children's social life is the envy of their schooled peers and cousins.

and best of all-we have had a ball for the last ten years! I have really enjoyed their teenage years, as they have, without the hassle, stress and angst schooled teens seem to have (including their older schooled siblings) We have had such a good time.
We have no regrets-not one!

In facr I was love to go back to the beginning and do it all over again-only this time I wouldn't ever send them to school in the first place!

and on a final note, all three children fully intend to autonomously home educate their children, so they can have the freedoms and love of learning their parents enjoyed.

The bad stuff ... have to think about that one! Well, maybe (in our case at least) we had to make a bit more effort to actively get out and meet other HE families, whereas in a school situation you meet all the DC and families on day 1. However, once the social side gains a little momentum, there's no stopping it. Now I do actively have to rein in my DC's social life otherwise it just gets too busy.

As all the above posts illustrate, HE is really a lovely, natural lifestyle for children and families. We've had the most fantastic two years so far - so many highlights and great moments as a family.

Finally it is just great to hear all the success stories of older DC now at college, etc. We're up for a big family reunion in a fortnight or so and in two years of HE we've never met with an aggressively anti-HE response ... except for this one particular member of the extended family. I intend to store up all these lovely success stories and casually drop them into the conversation! So thanks for that (and come to think of that Sonriente, there's another possible downside: the odd blinkered person whose own personal baggage means that HE is a bit of a red rag to a bull)! Most people however are genuinely interested in how it all works even if it's not something they'd choose for their own family.

For me, the downsides pale into insignificance compared to the wonderful lifestyle and the opportunities my girls have had.

My personal list of disadvantages is as follows:

1. Money. I've done some p/t work from home but it doesn't add up to much. However, I often think the free childcare provided by school is overrated. I would want to be at the school gates to meet my kids from school, which means I'd still be working very part-time, 10-2 or so, probably not in the field of my choice. And as childcare goes, school is far from ideal.

1. Hardly any time off. This was only an issue with my older dd, and only for a couple of years. She was very wearing! Now she is past that phase she is lovely, her little sister is undemanding, and life is fine again.

1. Car use. You don't need a car to HE, but having one means you can do a lot more and your kids can see friends more freely. So there's the expense and the knowledge of what you're doing to the environment. If my kids went to the local school then they'd live most of their lives at home and school, rather than being ferried all over the place to do interesting stuff. All their friends would be local and they wouldn't have the time for the million and one activities they do now. Mind you, I have a strong dislike of our local school and would want a car to take the children to a school six miles away... so I guess that factor doesn't really apply to us after all.

That's all I can think of, whereas I've listed dozens and dozens of reasons I like HE!

Loss of potential earnings.

The nagging feeling that they might somehow be doing "better" in school.

Having to travel further for stuff.

Occasionally (and only very occasionally) wishing I could have a free day all to myself.

Being irritated at having to pay for GCSE exams which everyone else gets free.

That's all I can think of. However, I could fill pages and pages on the positives which way way, outweigh those small negatives for me.