Your 3 main reasons for home-edding

[BeNimble]

What are YOUR 3 main reasons? (Please, anyone who wants to talk about something else, start a new thread; or this discussion will lose it's value to anyone who's watching.) x

[McSal]

I haven't 'jumped' yet either, but my reasons for considering HE are:

1. Time to potter about gently, not being rushed, especially first thing in the morning which is a lovely time of day but gets very negative in our house because of time pressures.

1. Creativity cannot be forced and although they do some lovely art and stuff at school, it's very structured with everyone achieving (or not!) the end result.

1. Spirituality seems to be ignored. Yes, they do assembly which has some Christian based worship in it, but my daughter comes home singing all these songs about God and Jesus, and then wants to know who these people are and what it's all about! There's no open discussion for the children about what the children think God might be/whether there's anything there at all, and so on. My daughter asked me if God was a man, because they always say 'He'. I told her not necessarily, it could be he or she or both or neither... this went on for several days! She now sings 'she' in lots of the songs, but I don't want her to get told off as it might seem cheeky or disrespectful, which wasn't my intention at all - I feel spirituality is a very important aspect of life which needs addressing and discussing. She is very interested in reincarnation and angels/fairies and so on. Do they discuss these things at school?!!!!

My only real concern about taking her out is that she's with her best friend there and they just love each other's company, so it's a really hard one, with my daughter being an only child.

[Oracle]

Because having watched one of my autistic sons have a complete breakdown because of school I was not going to let it happen again to his much younger brother.

Because going to school was affecting his mental health and he was only 5

Because I knew that we could do a better job and we wanted our son to remember his childhood as being happy no matter what his diagnosis is.

Oracle

[Tinwhistle]

Because no self-expression is allowed - just to conform (her parents aren't conformists so that doesn't go down to well with us, lol) She is a free spirit and I didn't want her laughed at for not being a sheep.

She got hurt and bullied and NOTHING was done. The school even tried to cover up by lying. What goes on at school would never be allowed in the adult world/world of work so why allow it there?

The level of teaching was abysmal. She was bored out of her mind. I know what will inspire her.

I'm not as stroppy or as much of an old hippy as that sounds, lol. Well, not quite ;o)

[Saturn74]

Just wanted to add another thing to my list.....

: because we can stay up late and watch the stars - then have a lie-in the next morning. NO SCHOOL RUNS - it's almost worth it just for that reason!

[tamariki]

i have two pre schoolers and i'm already getting a lot of stares for not sending DS1 to nursery. reasons for home ed:

1. parents are responsible for education , and don't we do that naturally from birth, talking, doing, playing, showing? plus why would i want anyone else to have this time with my child?
   
2. i can provide the education that they specifically need, as individuals, i don't believe they should have/need structured lessons esp at this age, i want them to be free to explore, go at their own pace and enjoy their education
   
3. i don't believe in the educational system

[SueBaroo]

I'm bumping this as a few peeps have been asking for the reasons people HE.

[sorkycake]

1. We will do a better job than any school could ever hope to achieve.
2. Learning will be tailored specifically to their needs, wants, abilities. No school can say that.
3. I actually believe that the social aspect of school is damaging for kids, encouraging too much attachment to peers as opposed to their family.

Peer pressure when they're older scares me witless and I could shake with horror at the thought of bullying in Secondary, knives in schools, underage sex and drinking on streets.

1. (sorry) School does not prepare them for life. Only experiencing life can do that.

[HomeEd]

1: because the National Curriculum is a joke - it is narrow, restrictive and limited, and leaves teachers with no time to answer questions from children, so they stop questioning.
2: I want my children to take the qualifications that are relevant to what they want to do. They can do physics and Art if they wish - they don't clash on our timetable! I also don't want my children spoon-fed information just so the school can show that they have reached standards set by a government that cares little for education, but greatly for spin.
3: many secondary school pupils are switched off to learning, and see school as a chore. Schools are not a preparation for life as an adult, and they do not encourage individuality - they haven't got the time. I have.

[HowTheFillyjonkStoleChristmas]

no PTA parents

no school runs

if it aint broke why fix it? they learn fine before they go to school.

[arfishyheauheauheau]

I love the idea of home-edding. One thing I don't quite 'get' is the exam thing. Do most home-educated children go to secondary school so they can take the exams they need to go into the job market? We work overseas and want DD to be able to take the International Baccalaureate. I'm not sure this is an option for home-edding, I certainly don't think I would be qualified to teach it.

So, thinking about this sort of thing, is home edding normally for younger children?

[sunnysideup]

I think home educating is brilliant, have a friend who is doing it and it sounds like she and her DD have a magical time....

would love to hear from anyone who WAS home educated, about how they saw it....I wonder if any of you were? Or maybe that's a whole other thread!

I also wonder if it's something that stays static throughout childhood, or whether children do go back into the education system at some stage.

It's fascinating!

[HowTheFillyjonkStoleChristmas]

arfy in short, yes, a very good percentage do. some don't for myriad reasons (just as some schooled children don't).

unis are actually quite flexible about entry for HErs anyway. HErs have gotten into oxbridge and so forth, its not a huge issue really, AFAIK.

sunnysideup-no its not static. HE'd kids are, on average, 2 years ahead of their peers academically, I think...have references for this. anyway they seldom seem to have difficulty settling into school.

Do bear in mind that there are lots of different ways to HE. There is "school at home" where you basically follow the NC, with a proper school day, break times and so on through to unschooling, where the children entirely direct their own learning. HErs vary in their approaches, but also there is variance within families and also, it is common for families to change their approach over the years.

Some adult homeschoolers are very positive about their experience, some negative. I hope to learn from the negatives, but have heard nothing to put me off entirely.

[arfishyheauheauheau]

Thanks filly. I think I would have great fun teaching DD using museums and galleries and so on. So much better than classrooms. I'd love the challenge and would learn a lot myself.

As things are she's enrolled in a slightly different sort of school, which encourages much parental involvement and student autonomy, so perhaps the best we can manage in the circumstances of my working overseas (my visa means I can't give up work in the short term, being non-resident in Oz). It's also non-denominational and offers the baccalaureate, so right for us.

[HowTheFillyjonkStoleChristmas]

ah yes it sounds like a bit of \a bind

if you are interested in HE at all then have you read john holt?

I am very into the idea of lifelong learning, seeing learning as a consequence of living etc. i would find these vlaues harder to instill if i sent my kids to school. however, thats just me.

and we have NO alternative schools rond here. if we did i would def consider one.

[Runnerbean]

I spent two years helping out in my daughters class and would not have seriously considered HE if I hadn't had this experience.

My daughter was way ahead of her peers academically and was getting bored, frustrated and ignored! She started to lose confidence in herself.
The teachers didn't seem to enjoy their jobs, some seemed to actively dislike children!

I knew I could do a better job myself.

The actual 'learning' time was only a couple of hours a day, once you take out playtime, lining up, assembly, more lining up, waiting for teacher to tell half the class to be quiet and listen, stop fiddling etc., lunch time......
The kids would just start to get on with their work after sitting on the carpet 20 mins and having it explained (half of then still didn't understand what they were suposed to do) then it was playtime again!

2 hours a day one to one is more than enough for us to do work at home and then the rest can be music, art, dance the park, socialising, puzzles. Doing whatever they want, at their pace.

I also love being with my girls.

[bloss]

Message withdrawn

[sorkycake]

I don't think we'll have a problem with subjects up to and including GCSE tbh, we're pretty confident in that respect. We will encourage them to go to College if they want to study A-levels though. it's a while off for us atm, but the GCSE level doesn't worry us as the NC is so limited in our opinion that we'll be covering much more of each subject than they will if at school.

[HowTheFillyjonkStoleChristmas]

well take it as it comes

they can always go back to school

i am doing an ou science degree and so far have avoided lab work .

am seriously unbothered by science. theres not a vast amount you can't do in the kitchen, up to gcse, I reckon. then theres science fairs (which of course we can do in their entirety ) to take care of the particle accelerator demos . theres field centres that will do field trips for biology/geology which i am sure we can access somehow, not to mention wetlands centres and so on, zoos/museum educational programs-etc etc. there is a good OU course, Discovering Science, which I reckon is around A level standard. the textbooks are fabulous and there is a program of experiements. I will def consider either registering my kids or doing the course again, just to get up to date materials , when they are older.

In our immediate family the sciences/maths are pretty well represented. Actually most subjects are. We are weaker on languages really (except ancient ones and welsh).

oh and theres always tutors. my dad tutors a and gcse level maths and physics, for the fun of it, bascially. i think he'd love to teach a whole syllabus to a motivated kid, rather than cramming them .

[Blandmum]

YOu get to do the lab work in the summer schools Filly (as I'm sure you know ). My brother did his science degree with the OU, and it was very good. I did my PGCE with them (ditto). The summer schools are supposed to be great fun....we didn't have any, just staerday sessions

I think that planning long term for tutors for GCSE science is probably a better bet than depending on the night school route, since very few night schools offer physics and chemistry (I used to be an adult ed tutor)....or planning a totaly different option eg the OU thing.

I think it is great that everyone wants their kids to love learning. I want this for my kids, and all the kids that I teach as well

[HowTheFillyjonkStoleChristmas]

you can do the summer school mb

its optional at the S103 stage which is IMO A level equivalent

you do a lot of "kitchen science" stuff-microwaving potatoes and so on to test water evaporation. A lot of it is about collating data and running stats on them.

there is an optional summer school (I doubt they'd let under 18s do it). I haven't done it.

I have done 4 years of psychology at uni level so quite a lot of experiements there, also A level biology, and I have not felt that there was anything in this course that I needed a lab for, tbh. I think they have been quite ingenious in constructing the experiments so you can do them at home.

there are compulosy summer schools attatched to the later courses, but these are, at least in theory, actual degree standard.

(nice to see you here btw-but I KNEW you'd be on this thread after my post...)

[Blandmum]

according to bro the summer school was great fun, and useful beyond the strictly functional bits of 'doing' the practicals IYSWIM.

The same was true of the saterday sessions that we had. In many respect it was the networking/ sharing of experiences that was the most helpful thing we did, the stuff we did on the day was good, but would have been 'do-able' on your own IYSWIM.

[Blandmum]

PS I can give you a 'kitchen' DNA extraction if you like! Works like a dream. But we do more than just kitchen stuff in school

[HowTheFillyjonkStoleChristmas]

using wheatgrass?

see! see!

thought of you yesterday in treorchy btw . massive traffic jam.

[HowTheFillyjonkStoleChristmas]

(what might have changed since your db did it is that there is now a VERY good online conferancing thing, so there is already a lot of experience sharing. plus tutorials where some experiements are done)

I'd much rather do a conventional degree btw and all things being equal would have loved to do the summer school but...

I am limited in the weeks of childcare I can cadgfe and there is one summer school I can do which involves going to a majorican (clear skies) observatory...

(oh god any chance of picking your brian about microscopes and the minimum decent magnification? ignore me if, as I am sure you have, better things to do. but is 1200x basically useless?)

[Blandmum]

What do you need to be looking at?

If the stuff is very small you get to the point where you can have excellent magnification, but the resultion can't improve (because the wave lenth is smaller than the objects being viewd basically)

I must say that we have some 'good' A level microscopes and they are crap. Unless you have serious money to spend, you just don't get the detail you need. The one I worked with in university cost £10,000 plus!

You'd be better off trying to use one in a local uni...phone and beg, than buy your own for home use.

Good old Treorci!