Dipping a toe into home ed... Help!

[SconeForAStroll]

Dd (10) is in year 5 and has had a terribly demoralising start to year 5. A teacher who appears to have taken an instant dislike to her has resulted in a child who, for the first time ever, has been sobbing before school.

Before I had the dc I was a primary teacher, I love children - particularly the tingly lightbulb moments I may have been too influenced by deads poet society, I like sucking the marrow out of life and I am terribly sad that dd is losing all her confidence and desire to learn stuff.

The trouble of course, is that I used to be a teacher! I am relentlessly enthusiastic about even the dullest stuff - I am aware that this is deeply annoying (and embarrassing apparently as I tend to get random children following us when we visit places)

So, lots of waffle sorry, how do I go about home schooling? Based in South Warwickshire if that makes any difference. Would start with dd and probably move ds out when he reaches year 5 next year.

Hi Scone! Here's what I suggest:

Step 1. Take your daughter out of school immediately. You do not have to have detailed plans in place before she comes out of school. She is very unhappy at school, so unless you have some major worries about home ed which you haven't mentioned, there is no need to make her suffer any longer. In England, a child who is not at a special school can be deregistered upon demand with immediate effect. See details and a sample letter here: www.educationotherwise.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=77&Itemid=69

If you or your dd or your partner is unsure whether home ed is the way to go, just say that she needs a break from school for a while, and in a few months you will all sit down and figure out the best way forward: continuing to HE, returning to the same school either now or in Y6 with a different teacher, changing to a different school.

If your daughter is so fed up that she doesn't want to go back in at all now, you can just send the deregistration letter in instead of her. Possibly she would like to say goodbye to her friends and swap phone numbers, in which case she could either go in for one or two more days, or just meet them outside the school when you are collecting her brother.

Step 2. Let her have a break from all things academic, maybe until after Christmas. After all, it's only a few more weeks until the end of term and at school, much of that would be taken up with special activities rather than learning core skills anyway. Let her relax and play and do whatever she enjoys. Join in with her sometimes. Take her to the places she likes to go - swimming pool, shopping, a day out in a nearby city. Just spend time with her, noticing what sorts of things make her happy and enjoying her company and suppressing the urge to make everything educational.

Meanwhile, read up on home education, chat with people here or on other home ed forums, make contact with a local home ed group, and start thinking about different approaches to home education. It sounds like you feel that the main danger is you coming on too strong with the educational stuff and putting your daughter off, especially since she already has become somewhat disengaged from learning recently. There are ways to avoid that. It will be an adjustment for both of you, but you'll find your feet together over time. There is plenty of time to experiment.

Hello.

To answer your question about how to get started, have you deregistered yet? If not, this is the first thing you need to do.
Once this is done that is it, you just H.ed as you feel fit.
I think you may find that your dd will need time to deschool. This is basically as it sounds, getting school out of the system by doing nothing formal at all for a while. I have heard it is a month for every year they attended school. So for your dd it would be about 5/6 months.
We didn't do this but went straight in but gradually, because fortunately dd hadn't had any problems at school.
As far as work is concerned being a teacher isn't such a drawback as long as you realise it is a completely different way of learning to school.
My dd typically does 2 hours school work per day including Maths and English. It does vary though depending on her interests at the time.
It isn't necessary to produce plans or follow the nc and you don't have to see anybody from the LA if you don't want to.
My best advice would be to post specific questions or a list and to research as much as you can.
People on here are lovely and some very experienced H.ed parents too.
Good luck and let us know if there is anything specific you need to know.

I have no idea how I missed Saracen post, do apologise sounds like I just repeated everything.

how have you got on, Scone? Did you take your dd out of school yet?