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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.

My first batch of (probably) stupid HE questions

6 replies

Helenagrace · 07/06/2012 22:52

We've talked about nothing se but HE for the last 48 hours. DD is very keen to try it.

Initially I'm thinking it might be for 1-3 years and she'd go back into school in Y9.

Is it feasible to cover the national curriculum at home?

My goal is to get DD writing fluently and quickly and work on the creative content of her writing. Also i want to improve her maths accuracy. Can I really just focus on this for a few months or do I have to do other stuff as well?

How do I make sure she's keeping up? Do you test children against national levels? If so how?

How much does HE cost?

Am I likely to get hassle from the local authority?

I'm sure there are more questions. I tried to join the Facebook group but couldn't seem to send a message so you'd know who I was.

Any help appreciated - my mind is buzzing with possibilities! Not least with possibly saving two hours a day by not having two double school runs.

OP posts:
Colleger · 07/06/2012 23:02

I have a similar predicament as my husband wants DS back in school for Year 9. I'm not so sure and I also don't want the pressure of having to get him to a certain point by then. I'd only send him to two schools that I think would fit and one is super, super selective and requires so many subjects for the exam. I definitely think for some subjects you could just read interesting books and do some maths and English daily. I don't think Hist, geo, RS etc need to be studied formally.

I'm toying with going autonomous and I probably will whilst I deschool but I'm going to focus on promoting languages as I see them more valuable than anything. The other reason I wouldn't worry about Hist, geo etc is because new topics are covered from scratch in GCSE.

I don't think many test but if you want to then just get a book with a test in it and do that every so often.

morethanpotatoprints · 08/06/2012 12:03

Yes it is possible, I have found tes website very useful for planning, schemes of work, resources as well as info on topics and what each subject and KS includes. Even if I don't H.E during primary our dd is definitely not going to secondary. I have used this site for many years as a teacher and it is second to none for curriculum related "stuff". The guardian also has a resource section. I know there is less options over which GCSE's you can choose, due to either project or course work which has to be done in school. There are people who have experienced this here though and I'm sure they can advise better than me.

Colleger · 08/06/2012 12:08

If your child is definitely not going to secondary then you may as well home ed now!

Marjoriew · 08/06/2012 16:36

Love the TES stuff.

morethanpotatoprints · 08/06/2012 19:12

Colleger, I guess your right. I hadn't looked at it that way.

ommmward · 08/06/2012 19:30

Is it feasible to cover the national curriculum at home?

Meh. You can if you want (very easy to google it and find out what's in it; very easy to download worksheets and activities aimed at teachers). But why would you want to harness your child's learning to something which is aimed at meeting the needs of the average child? Of course that's an efficient way of doing things with a class full of 30 children, but why not instead follow your child's interests and needs? It's just a somewhat arbitrary selection of what one committee thought children of that age should all know - it has an ideology behind it. You almost certainly don't share all parts of that ideology, so why teach it?

My goal is to get DD writing fluently and quickly and work on the creative content of her writing.

Make it not look educational as far as humanly possible. Write shopping lists together. Get her to write treasure hunt clues for her friends. Use writing functionally - if she has a reason to write then it will get more fluent.

As for creative content - maybe that's not her language? Her creativity might come out in imaginative play; in dance; in music; in pictures; in animations. All of that is just as creative - they only concentrate on making people sit quietly and write stories in school because having 30 people crashing around the classroom pretending to be Hannah Montana would be carnage.

Also i want to improve her maths accuracy.

Again, use maths functionally. Just in baking and going shopping. And when she's interested, treasure hunt clues, and finding fun patterns in the world together, and just let it be non-threatening. (paint lots of 7-petalled flowers and label them up with the 7x table - that sort of thing, only at whatever her level is)

Can I really just focus on this for a few months or do I have to do other stuff as well?

You are legally responsible for ensuring that your child receives an education suitable to her age, ability, aptitude and any SEN, at school or otherwise.

You need to focus on whatever is suitable to the three A's (plus SEN if relevant). That might mean a lot of imaginative play; a lot of dancing around the room to crazy music; a lot of walks in the woods where you talk together about what you are hearing or seeing. It almost certainly won't look anything like school - if an education suitable to her a-a-a was going to look like school, you wouldn't be wondering about removing her.

How do I make sure she's keeping up? Do you test children against national levels? If so how?

Personally, I think the best way for someone to learn is for them to learn at their own page and their own stage. They might be way ahead in one area, and way behind their peers in another. But in both areas, they are learning at a level that is appropriate for them. I don't believe life is a race. Just because someone else is learning differential equations at 7 doesn't mean my child is behind or a failure because (s)he isn't.

We don't have to try to look like everyone else once we are HEdding.

Me, I follow the child's interests. We both learn a huge amount from that. Go and read Alan THomas and Harriet Pattison's book how children learn at home. It is life changing!

How much does HE cost?

Everything and nothing. We do all our shopping in charity shops; we don't buy workbooks and things; we have season tickets at the places we like to go, so it's very cheap on a trip-by-trip basis (and the season tickets we have shift as the years go by)

Am I likely to get hassle from the local authority?

Not if you make sure you ask here for bolshy and legally-grounded advice on a regular basis Wink

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