please tell me about pros/ cons of home-ed for reception year?

[DoubleLifeIsALifeHalved]

i have this dream (prob will remain a dream unfortunately) of home educating my ds for the first year of school at least. please come and tell me the pros and cons, and what it would entail for me? how much time a day would you spend on 'teaching activities'? and how do you make sure they socialise enough?

the reason i would like to is that i believe we put children in school too early, and i want him to have the joy of learning and gain confidence before he gets let loose in a school environment.

pro: it makes life almost embarrassingly easy. Children learn things when they are ready rather than on someone else's timetable. They don't learn to compare their achievements with others (and with adult expectations), but (depending on how you educate them) can be self-motivated and intellectually self-sufficient.

con: you get a hell of a lot of raised eyebrows from everyone you meet. Everyone has an opinion about how you are ruining your child's life, and can really thwack you around the face with the strength of their anxiety over your child's well being.

what would it entail? Answering his questions. Going on fun trips with him. Playing with him.

How much time on teaching activities? People vary from a full structured day to half an hour or an hour of formal activities to absolutely none at all (I'm in the latter group)

socialise: do what you do now. playdates, random encounters in parks, organised groups if you're into that sort of thing.

We home educated for the reception year... and never looked back. Our children are about to go into year 2 now. I guess the cons I can think of are: it is time consuming and you don't get a break..... you may not get a school place in year 1...... and people will think you are really weird.
Pros...... you get to enjoy being with your child..... your child gets the education that suits him/her..... you are not bound by timings..... your remove peer pressure and therefore can build confidence..... you can be consistent with everything you have so far..... you can let them rest when they need to..... you get to teach them better social skills as you can talk about situations as they arise - people think school is better for this but schools have their fair share of children with big social skill problems and school has not solved their problems!... it is really enjoyable seeing children learn.... you can go out and about much more - there is a whole world out there to learn from so why stick them in a classroom?! ... your child can develop into the child they will become and not one who feels insecure because they want to be like someone else, or have all the things the other kids have, or feel odd they don't watch as much tv, or learn things that are not appropriate for their age before they can cope with it... enough for now. Hope that helps.

Sorry, I wasn't clear - our children are still home educated and would be going into year 2 now!

I agree with ommmward and take3!

If you are keen to do this, I suggest meeting up with some home ed families. Rubbing shoulders with them and seeing the reality is likely to give you a confidence boost.

You say that your dream will probably remain a dream. Why is that? What obstacles do you anticipate that might prevent it from becoming a reality?

It's cos I'm ill & need carers to help me in the day, & the council are just counting the hours til they can cut my hours when ds starts school :( they keep saying oooh it's such a shame he's not in school yet... He's 30 mths old ffs!!!
Basically I feel like I am having my parenting choices taken away from me & hate I can't do things the way I think is best for me & ds. they trying to make him go into full time nursery now plus weekends 12 hrs at a childminders, purely cos cheaper for them. I am refusing point blank as I would never even see him and call me old fashioned but his place is with ME & vice versa.

So pipe dream is I get a bit better & can manage more easily as ds gets a bit older anyway, & I get to take the time & space to be a 'proper mother' & teach him & steer him & help nurture & develop him - instead of him being thrown into school to suit the council!

I hate that I can't be the parent I believe is best for ds (u may have guessed!), I do believe there is alot of sense in the idea of 'taking back our kids' (or whatever the book is called), which is about being present & strong parents in a world where everything is geared to peer orientation. I don't want ds to be brought up by his peers & by institutions, I want him brought up by his family!

Feel v emotional today reading all the bun fight threads about first days back at school, I don't want that for my little one yet, and pretty sure I won't in 1.5 years either.

So bottom line is I can't home ed unless I get better BUT if I could home ed & also have a carer around to help I wonder how that would work?

Is it possible to sort of reverse the school day & have ds at home with me in the daytimes & then with a nanny in the afternoons for play dates/ park???

Have you looked into having direct payments and employing your own carers directly? I have 40 mins per day at the moment, plus 2 hours per week cleaning, from the council, but under direct payments my budget buys me more, so I am going to employ a personal assistant for 11 hours care per week instead. I have gone through all the process of application and writing a plan, so just waiting for approval now :)

I also get a support worker through Access to work, as I am self employed. They are with me for 18 hours per week allowing me to continue working from home.

I have only had care for the last year, but my dd has been home educated during this time and it has worked out ok - although she is much older and self motivated so not needing as much of my time as a little one.

You are the parent and the choice of education for your little one is yours. They shouldn't treat you differently because you are disabled, instead they should be taking your parental role into consideration when assessing how much help you need. Home education can take place at any time, not only during school hours, and you don't have to follow any prescribed form, so long as he has an education suitable to his age, aptitude, ability and any special needs.

Not sure how you feel about nursery from your last post, but a friend who is home educating in reception year, found out that legally her child was still entitled to attend the nursery he'd been going to (I'm not sure if that means the free sessions continue but I'm presuming so). That might be a good compromise which would put less stress on your health if you felt happy with him attending a nursery part time.
I'm sorry to hear about your difficulties RE your health. From what I hear from friends about 'the school run' I'm not sure whether sending him to school would really make things easier! I hope you manage to get something sorted that suits both of you.
By the way, I'm not home educating yet (well not officially at least) but I hope to. DS does not attend a nursery yet, but we hope to send him to a nursery when he's 2, that many of his friends attend. This is a religious based nursery and when I mentioned this to health visitor she said that 'might not be the best thing for him'. I smiled sweetly and assured her I would look at other nurserys, while thinking 'I'll decide what's best for my son thank you!'

They do virtually nothing in reception except play so even if you did do a max of one hours work a day cut into ten minute slots then your child would be ahead of peers. Another pro is that kids aren't exhausted so it's still easy to keep up activities after the school day.

Cons only really come down to your area that you live in. If no one home eds then DC may be lonely.

The other con is whether/when you want your DC to start school.

Places are allocated for yearR as main point of entry, and class sizes are restricted by law in years R-2. It is highly likely that popular schools will e full, and all that can be offered to you is an unpopular school which may be some distance away.

Now, if you think you might HEd all through the Infant years, or are confident for some reason you will secure an acceptable school place at any age, this is irrelevant.

If it it a concern, then another course of action to consider is applying for a reception place in the normal round, then deferring the start date until say the beginning of the summer term. (You have to start at some point in Reception, you can no hold a place over until year1).