quick quick heeeeelp- 13 yo poss HE

[SpringHeeledJack]

for various reasons, most notably 13yo ds being lazy as arseholes somewhat unmotivated at school, I am looking to see if we have any other options

he's clever academically but does the bare minimum he needs to scrape by. He has massive potential, but is doing as little as poss (I know all mothers say this about their dss, but have heard it x times from teachers, so it Must Be True )

I try to give him gentle shoves at home, as does xp, but he's always "done homework at school/didn't get any this week/lost my homework journal" yik yak yik yak

I HE much younger kids but have to admit I'm baffled about older kids (always assumed would cross that bridge if/when we got to it)

...basically, what I want to know is- how do you get kids through GCSEs when they're home edded?

thanks. And sorry for waffle.

don't worry about responding,anyone

he was quite keen on the HE idea till he found out the amount of meet ups and general stuff he'd have to do. He said he thought Home Ed meant you were at home

then I (cunningly) showed him the Summerhill website that someone had linked to on another HE thread, saying brightly: 'of course if you'd like more choice in what you do all day, there's always this'

...he was absolutely horrified, said it looked like Woodcraft school, and has gone bouncing off to school today with all his pens, books, homework and notes

I take it you aren't interested in trying autonomous home ed, then? Which would mean he could hang about at home doing his own thing, so long as he does his share of housework and doesn't bother everybody else.

Eventually (so they say) kids who are given time to relax and do their own thing realise that they are in control of their own learning and rediscover that curiosity they had when they were small. Sooner or later they find what they are interested in, whether that's art, computer programming, BMX bikes or chemistry. Apparently you have to be prepared to wait quite a while - perhaps up to a year for a child who has been at school for so long - because children who've got used to associating learning with being told what to do may have fallen out of the habit of self-motivation, and think learning is a kind of punishment.

I don't have any experience of this myself, not having had a child at school for long, but my friends who have withdrawn teens from school and done autonomous education with them say that's how it works.

I don't know about GCSE's. We had a little chat about it yesterday, my autonomous home edded 13 year old and I. I moaned and humphed and he replied that he'd sort it out or similar wording. I am waiting and wondering to see what that might mean.

His older brother is going through the system so we have past papers lying around and revision guides in heaps. His GCSEs are this summer.

He recently found his reading mojo by himself though and reads out interesting snippets from the net to me while we sit around in our kitchen. It's not GCSEs, but it is progress :)

thanks for your responses

I'm not a huge fan of autonomous home ed, I have to admit

I like it in theory, but my kids would all rather watch Sponge Bob dvds on repeat forever than do just about anything else, and I fear the so-called process of "de-schooling" would last my son up to- ooh- about 30

A lot of home educating or choosing schools is about knowing your own limits, so is a very personal matter.

Maybe someone will come along with tales of easy GCSE taking... :)

There is lots of information here:

www.home-education-exams.org.uk/

Join the yahoo group on home educators who have children doing exams to get a feel for it.

Anyway, it's good your son is cheerful again, that's the most important thing.