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Home ed

Find advice from other parents on our Homeschool forum. You may also find our round up of the best online learning resources useful.

Home ed ??

9 replies

ellenjames · 08/03/2012 14:33

Hi I am going to post and run but will be back later as need to do the school run. I have 3 dc, dd6 yr2 ds1 5 yr1 and ds2 3 goes to nursery once a week. I am seriously thinking about home ed but all the posts i see on here are about kids being failed by their school due to many issues,eg autism dyslexia etc. My dc have none of these issues and seem to enjoy school but i am fed up of having 2 mardy fed up children all week, then just 2 days to try and spend time with them.
Has anyone else home ed because they want to rather than need to? Is it my childrens best interest or not? I am so confused at the moment. I don't know if I am being selfish but would love the opportunity to educate my children.
I have spoken to the children who don't seem fussed! I am in lincolnshire x

OP posts:
ommmward · 08/03/2012 15:32

loads and loads of people do it just because they and their children prefer it :)

toddlerama · 08/03/2012 15:37

Well we do it because it's fun, effective and works for us as a family. No learning issues or problems with schools. We just provide better by offering one-to-one attention for each child for part of the day and they are best friends. We go to a home school co-op which is fab about twice a week. You don't have to wait for a system to fail to improve it - mine are young but have never been to school. Nor have their cousins or many of their friends. It isn't as 'radical' or unusual as you think before you try it. Grin

dearth · 08/03/2012 17:13

We decided to home ed our first child because school was a total disaster.

We will home ed our youngest because we now know that home ed is almost 100% awesome for the whole family :)

Scout19075 · 08/03/2012 19:38

Toddler's only 2.4 but we're planning on it. I mean, we're already educating at home why wouldn't we continue it? Grin

bebanjo · 08/03/2012 19:53

Hi DD is 5 and i always said she would not go to state school.
DD is lively, talkative and full of confidence,she goes to rainbows and will be starting street dance next week. No issues, we just like doing our own thing and like you say 2 days a week is not much to fit in all the fun stuff.

ellenjames · 08/03/2012 21:05

thankyou all for the replies, just got back from judo/beavers run for my older 2. Think I am going to look into more local things see what sort of support there is in Lincolnshire. I live in the middle of nowhere which is fab but money is an issue as for taking them out to stimulate them!

OP posts:
ommmward · 08/03/2012 22:40

there is no state funding for HE - just so you are forewarned!

We all get extremely canny at picking the right places to have season tickets for; doing freebie stuff with other families at parks etc etc

lilyfire · 08/03/2012 23:01

I have 3 children, 8, 5 and 4. They've never been to school and don't have any SEN. I think they have a really lovely life being home edded. We all love the flexibility and fact we can be out and about so much and not working to anyone else's rules. I expect my children would have been sort of fine at school, but I don't think they'd have so much fun.
Definitely find out what's available locally. Eveyone's different in terms of how much social contact they need or want, but I don't think we'd have nearly such a good time if there weren't quite a few home ed families and groups near us.

Saracen · 09/03/2012 05:24

As lilyfire says, "I expect my children would have been sort of fine at school, but I don't think they'd have so much fun." I feel just the same about my older daughter. She has no special needs and I expect she'd cope with school as well as anybody would: she's averagely bright, very sociable, and eager to please. In fact she did try school for a short while but came out again after a term. There were things she liked about school but she said it took all of her time and she didn't want to spend five days a week there.

The way I see it is, why settle for "coping" at school when she could be actually thriving at home? The fact that your two are mardy and fed up for much of the time suggests that school isn't exactly what they need. Maybe school is OKish and even fun for them sometimes, but five days is just too much?

One thing I like about home education is that if there is something that isn't working well, you can usually experiment and find ways to fix it. If your child is finding maths dull, you can look for a different way to do it. If she doesn't want to read at four you can wait a few years. If she isn't enjoying the company of other girls her age, she can play with younger kids. If she's rattling around indoors acting hyper, you can take her outdoors. If other kids are picking on her you can stick close and help her sort it out, or take her somewhere else to find kids she'll get on with better. If the child is ready for more freedom than she has been getting, you can teach her to ride the bus and then let her go places on her own, regardless of whether other children of her age are ready to do so.

You wondered whether home educating would be selfish. On the contrary, I think that you are now hearing your instincts giving you a nudge in the right direction towards what your children need. It's the same reason why cuddling a baby feels nice and we do silly things to make the baby laugh. Go ahead, be selfish!

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