some basic questions about HE if any one can help please.

[byanymeans]

I have a son who is aged 6, he is currently in school but has come on tones over the hoildays compaired to term time. I have always held it in the back of my head that HE was a choice we would take if it was best for our son. He is currently realy starting to stuggle with keeping up with the school set academic targets but charging well ahead with otherssubjects, plus his two favourt subjects are not being cover untill next year. He has been bullied and it is still problem. For this and other resons we are looking at the possiblities of HE but have a few basic questions to ask if any one would mind taking the time answer them please.

Where do I start? Is there any good books, blogs etc that I can use to start researching if this is right for my son.

Soicalising: our son is an only child so is it easy to find other local HE children he can interact or maybe share a project with..... Where do I start looking for HE groups?

Long term exams: with HE do children have to do GCSE or simular? How do they sit them? Is there a costs because your not going though a school?

As you may or maynot see English is not my strongest subject. Is there a way that my son can join in a local group/lessonin the future if he needs extra suport in the furture that I can not offer?

Didn't want to leave this unanswered!

Where do you start: I'll bump a resource thread for you in a minute. THere are lots of good books and websites.

Socialising - remember that you can see families that use school at weekends and in holidays (our holidays are totally frenetic now with all the school people who want to meet up while they are "free"!!). There are active HE groups in most cities; it can be more patchy in rural places.

HE and exams - don't even think about it for now. No need to think about it till he's approaching secondary school age. People come up with all sorts of solutions: some people pay to do GCSEs privately; some go to school 14-16; some use FE colleges for exams; some skip GCSEs altogether and do other qualifications - just see what seems right when you get to that point

There is a lot of skills swapping among home edders. So one person will offer to help other people with (say) their gardening or ironing in return for those people coming and doing some writing skills with their children. It happens ad hoc and casual a lot of the time.

HTH. Keep asking questions!

Freedomhomelearning.blogspot.com

Sorry cant do links but a friend is HE and this is her blog. Worth a read. Sure she'd be happy to chat about it too.

Thank you so much for answering.
Our son has come home tonight balling his eyes out (again ) saying he wants to learn they just wont let him learn. Its heart breaking to watch as we went though this all last school year, the school can not see or offer what he needs.
I just needed to get a few things clearer in my head in order to make the best choice for my son.

Im off to read the blog
thank you.

You said your son had come on tonnes during the holidays as compared with the school term time.

So there is an answer for you. Start with where you are. Whatever your son was doing over the school holidays appears to suit him very well! Why not carry on with it?

One great thing about home education is that you don't have to have a grand plan before you begin. You probably didn't plan out the summer holidays in too much detail, though you may have had some things in mind which you thought might be fun and some commitments which you would have to work around. With home education, too, you can take it as it comes and make alterations and additions as you go along.

It is entirely different from the way schoolteachers have to plan. They have to know in advance when the school trips are going to happen, which maths scheme is going to be in use, and whether it is going to be the Tudors or the Vikings this term. You can be much more laid-back and responsive to your son's needs and your own.