Home ed. can anyone help?

[passionforskiing]

Hello. My name is Stephanie. I?m pretty new to HE, in that my little boy is approaching two and so we are still busy with the usual round of toddler fun at the moment. I am a full time mum just now (loving it) but having worked in schools for years, I am quite keen to explore the alternatives! :)

My partner and I are very keen to HE when the time comes but I do have a bit of work to do to persuade some friends and relatives of why it?s such a good idea. Hmmm, usual story?

Anyway, I?m writing to ask for some help.

This year I?m doing the final year of an MA in Education. I am not the world?s most enthusiastic academic so I thought I?d better choose something that I am really motivated to learn about. I?m writing my dissertation about an aspect of home education. It has to be quite a narrow topic to be do-able, so I?m trying to research how home educating families collaborate for learning. I?m interested in hearing real examples of how home educated children learn; who supports that and how; to what extent home educating families learn with or from others; who the ?others? might be and what form the learning takes.

I have written a short survey and I would be absolutely over-the-moon if as many people as possible would be prepared to have a go at it for me. It is completely confidential and only for the purpose of my MA. However, I?m deliberately keeping this post as short as possible so if you require any further information from me to take part, please do contact me directly and I will be very happy to give you further information and assurances.

I am really aware of the uniqueness of different home educating family?s circumstances - if you find that some questions don?t quite fit your way of doing things, please feel free to adapt the questions in your own head to make them easier to answer. There are only 5 questions.

It can be found at:
www.surveymonkey.com/s/DDW8BQ7

I know you are all very busy people but I?m really interested in educating those who should know better, about the realities of home ed. If you think you can help, your stories will be hugely appreciated.

Many thanks
Stephanie
[email protected]

Does anyone know why all my apostrophes turned into question marks???

I've just looked at your survey, Stephanie. I have home-educated my two DC from birth. One is now at uni and the other is still EHE but approaching 17.

I'm afraid that I don't think your questions are going to elicit useful information. On the basis of the above intro, I was expecting to answer it with our robotics team in mind (see www.nwilts-he.org.uk/ - but not until it comes back up again, sorry) but I can't see how it would fit your questions.

I've PMed you with my email addy.

How is this survey going to help convince your family?

Ah, Ok. Thanks both for your responses.
I had hoped that my questions were open enough for people to be able to tell me about whatever they do with others. The Robotics team sounds absolutely fab - exactly what I want to hear about. Humph. I'll check the pm in a moment, thank you.

I don't know whether I will be able to convince my family other than by just getting on with it, but I think that my whole dissertation is about equipping myself with answers to be able to defend my choices with genuine information and understanding. When I started out on this journey I was full of possibilities and potentials but strong arguments need to be backed up with facts and evidence. One of the questions that my family have raised is about the range of opportunities that I might be able to provide when home educating compared to a perceived variety offered by school. I keep being asked about how children get exposed to different people's opinions and so on.

I have really struggled in forming my questions, not to sound as if I am valuing any particular styles or ways of learning above any others (because I'm not) and to be as inclusive as I can be whilst keeping the survey short enough not to put everyone off. Hmmm... Hmmm.... .

Thank you for taking the trouble to post back to me. Any further thoughts, very welcome. :)
Stephanie

I just wanted to say a huge great big thank you to the people that have taken part in my survey. I am delighted with the responses; people have been really generous in their time and the detail given .

The survey will remain open for another day or two and then I will start to collate the information.

So, thank you, Everyone.

Stephanie

Done :)