Considering home education but no idea where to start

[Helenagrace]

That's it really.

DD is Y5 and currently in a selective girls independent school. Until Y3 she was in the state sector which was a total disaster.

Business isn't great right now and we may struggle to pay fees in the near future. . I do some work from home but could scale that back to free up time to HE.

DD is dyslexic, dyspraxic and dysgraphic. She also seems to have some issues about writing creatively (finds it difficult to imagine things).

She also struggles socially. She always seems to be younger than her peers and is much less street wise. She seem immature compared to them.

I have a social sciences degree and DH has a maths degree so between us we should be able to cover the curriculum.

Where do I start looking for answers to the million or so questions I have?

How can I make sure DD doesn't fall back even further socially?

I also have a DS in Y1. He is happy in his state school at the moment. Should I leave him there or teach him at home as well?

Help!?!

Only you can decide what is right for your children.
You could try looking on education otherwise there is a lot of information there.

There are as many different ways of home educating as there are children.

You can ask any questions you've got here as well.
Socially, you have to be very active in asking people round, finding home ed groups and getting out and meeting people - this is one aspect I find very tricky.

There are threads here about books on HE, websites about HE, and one about finding home educators local to you.
I'll go bump them all for you.

My three children had all of the problems you list here, as do many of the other children that I know who HE. School so very often doesn't fit our children.
Depending on where you live your child/ren could end up like mine with a social life that was the envy of their schooled peers and cousins.

You don't have to follow the curriculum at all, many children learn informally and do very well indeed.

If you are on FaceBook come on over to the Mumsnet Home Education page where you can ask as many questions as you like.

Or if you'd prefer you can contact me directly by sensing a message via the Worcs HE network inbox I can then give you my number and I'll happily answer as many questions as you have........

and when all is said and done, you could give HE a go for a year or so, see how it goes. If after that you review it and were to decide it wasn't for you, maybe your finances would be looking up enough to put her back into a public school.....or the LA would be obliged to find a school place for her.

If you find the answers to your questions, it may help you decide what to do for your son too.

Helenagrace.
we have been considering H.E. for a few months now and more recently found these threads. The people here are friendly, experienced and can answer all your questions. It won't take long for you to start thinking like a H.eder even if you still have questions, like I do. Just keep posting and asking no matter how silly you think the subject, most on here will have either experienced it themselves or have the answers.

You need to take one step at a time and not factor in your other child at the moment. Deal with the issues relating to your daughter. I'd also not discuss it with many people as you could get conflicting advice, and advice that's not really relevant which could affect your confidence to HE. I assume you couldn't start until January due to fees in lieu?

Agree with julien, don't put such a burden on yourself by thinking home ed is forever. It may well be but if you know there are options available then it will take the pressure off you.

I agree with colleger that it's better to consider your dd without factoring in your ds1. I have been homeschooling ds1 for almost a year now with ds2 still at school. I will probably not send ds2 back to school next school year, but I think the time together was very valuable for me and ds1 and it would have been a different matter if we had all had to try to get used to being at home together all the time.

You can join home ed groups even if you're not currently doing it. You can find the local group and see if they have an e-mail discussion list so that you are aware what's going on. You could take her to a few events so you and she can meet the families nearby. That's what I did with ds1, and he loved the first event i took him to, which was great for both of us (especially considering how miserable he was at school at that point).

There are also groups specifically for children with special needs.

One of the real positives of home education is that you really can give your child an individual education plan! You can target the areas you feel she needs to work on, and you can also work to her strengths. You can do loads of learning together without having to do any reading or writing, and then dedicate other times to doing exercises specifically for dyslexia or dyspraxia. If you're worried about her social skills, you can work on that together. But you may find that she improves a lot being out of the school situation. My ds1 took several months to get back to being 'himself' but he's far more relaxed now and has friends both within and outside of the homeschooling community. I'm still thinking of doing some specific work on social skills but I'm really not as worried about him as I was when he was at school.

It is true that you have to work at finding groups and getting out to meetups. Neither ds1 nor I clicked with the people closest to us geographically, so we travel across town twice a week (once for fencing classes, once for a purely social meetup). I have had to drive far more than I like, especially when he was doing a robotics course at the local university. But what a great opportunity! At school I don't think they do robotics until Year 6 and it's probably one robot between three children for half a day.

It sounds like you've got a while to research your options, so look at the threads julienoshoes has bumped, ask questions, meet people and then you'll be in a pretty good position to make your decision.

Hi Helanagrace. What was most helpful for us was meeting up with families who did HE. We were lucky that we knew lots through church, but the groups and lists people have mentioned are good ways too.

The other thing I like doing is reading HE blogs. There's loads, on all types of education (structured, autonomous etc), abilities and family set ups.