starting home schooling abroad

[omyageen]

I live and work abroad we intend to home ed our children here until we will reside in uk
any experience or resouces
where can we take exams

I have HS'd my son for the past year using the K12 system. It's fantastic. I would highly recommend it. Here's the link:

K12

They have effectively banned HS in my country now, so he is going to school. But I am still going to be doing some K12 with him in the evenings and weekends.

Thanks for the link I will follow
Do you have an idea how to go back to school after a period of home ed

Well, you will probably find that your child is slightly ahead after a period of HS'ing, so I don't think the transition should be too difficult.

Where are you living?

I am in saudi arabia
my children so far are in an international school-english. Section

Integrating into school should be straightforward. My daughter didn't have any difficulty going into Y5 even though she is autonomously educated and hadn't really done any sort of formal learning. I really think it is much less of an issue than the school crowd would have you believe. (After all, from their point of view, if it were easy to just miss out the first x years of school and jump in later, without very careful preparation, then that would mean school is not essential after all. That's heresy )

There are two scenarios I can think of which might be critical and difficult to start school, or change from one system to another:

1. When childen haven't learned to read yet and are dropped into a class where reading ability is expected and where a great deal of instruction is given in writing. They'll cope and get extra help, I'm sure, but it could be very demoralising because in the school system reading ability is considered a yardstick of educational success. My dd might have started school earlier than she did, but I discouraged it until she was a fluent reader. She's a sensitive sort and would have felt a failure.

1. In the run-up to GCSEs. Even if you were doing GCSEs at home it would be tricky to start school right in the middle of GCSE study because your children wouldn't be able to continue with all the same subjects due to availability and scheduling issues.

If your arrival in the UK coincides with one of those tricky situations then you might just carry on HEing here for another year or two until the time is better for them to go to school.

Thanks for this informative analysis

Your suggestion is good and it will suit me to carry on h edfor a while in uk
What about legality
and how are the children assessed before joining school in uk is it dependent on their age or giving them an examto determin which grade they will join
any paper work needed for submission

Please if any information available guide me bcz the year is getting very near now

Hi, I also HE abroad. I've found workborks (Letts, etc - available from Amazon) really useful, as they let me know roughly what the child would be doing in the UK at specific ages/key stages. It's like an idiot's guide to the national curriculum! Which, um, I needed. They're not expensive, and once you know what they should be studying, you can supplement with free downloaded materials, books from a library (if you have one available), etc. There are always great teaching strategies and lesson plans online.

As for returning... Would you be going back into the state school system in the UK? How old are your DC? As Saracen says, really only an issue for GCSEs. State schools will aim to put children with their age group, and give support as necessary.

I'll add that if your children are in an international school, make sure they're learning about the host country. I know that sounds stupid, but some intl schools are so focused on teaching home country geography, history, etc, that the host country and region gets left out. Which is a waste of a good opportunity.

Aaargh. WorkbOOks. Just please ignore all other typos as too tired to scan for them.

Legality - in the UK HE is legal, and you will not have to register or ask permission, if your children have never been in a state school here.

For starting school here, it goes simply by age - the school will then try to give them any support they need in certain subjects if they haven't covered the same topics. There is no exam, though the teacher will test how well they can read etc once they arrive in the class.

The only paperwork you would need would be things like birth certificate to show their age, and something to show your address in the UK.

Hi. We are home ed in the Gulf too. Mainly I've relied on bookdepository.com, amazon.co.uk and friends who are willing to make room in the suitcase for a book or two. I don't know if we will be home ed when we go back to the UK. I am afraid of all the tales I've heard about the big bag LA! In any case, my advise is to connect with other home ed groups in your area. Not only you get support and opportunities for the children to interact, but they usually run used curriculum sales which can save you lots of £££.

I mean to say "We are home educating" not just "home ed". I wish I new how to edit a post.

LaLaLaLayla - Ive just looked at your link to K12
Its almost $5000 per year per student - which is £3000

There are many ways to HE that are so much cheaper that are IMHO a lot more fun than K12 looks (ie for that price I would want to have more fun!!!)

I am sorry to read that HE has essentially been banned in your country - thats grim.

Hi,

I'm also home schooling overseas. The textbooks published by Galore Park www.galorepark.co.uk in my view reflect the education offered by the best English prep schools. Along with websites like Mathletics, Spellodrome and the free BBCBitesize, they're a great resource for home educators anywhere.

LauraIngallsWilder, I think you are looking at the teacher-led courses. We pay $29 a month for each course for homeschooling. We have been doing Maths, English (Language & Phonics), Science, History and Art. It costs us $145 per month (GBP 88) for all 5 courses and we pay by Direct Debit. You can cancel at any time. You have to pay for the materials to be shipped which is quite pricey, though.

BleepyBloop, you're not in the UAE, are you?