Is it possible to home ed whilst working part time?

[dillite]

I am beginning to seriously consider home educating my dd (due to start primary next September) as, quite frankly, the idea of me sending her to school makes me physically sick- she is a very introverted, quiet and calm child and really, really, really hates being surrounded by a lot of kids. She just freezes around them and refuses to engage whatsoever. And there are other reasons that I won't be going into.

So, my question is, is it possible to do whilst working part time? I need to add that I'm on my own, so it would all be up to me. I can't afford not to work and would manage just about if I were to be part time. Is there anyone else that has been in the same situation and would like to share their experience?

How many hours will you be working? Who will be looking after her while you're at work?

My DD1 is reception age and we do very little formal learning. She does an activity sheet every now and then and likes doing the activities in her Cbeebies magazine. We don't spend all day every day 'working' like at school, and because you're working one-to-one you get more done in a shorter space of time, so time shouldn't be an issue.

I've got an option of doing 30 hours a week with two long days of 12 hours each and then 8 hours from home spread over the other 3 days, which basically would be leaving me with 3,5- 4 full days of being at home. There's also a possibility of going self-employed (that will be known for sure once I've finished my degree). She would be going to the childminder when I'm at work same as she is now and the cost would be still the same more or less whilst she's still getting her 15 hours. There also might be an option of mother helping out every now and again- I don't know for sure yet, which is why for now I am simply looking into childminder only option.

I guess my main question is whether or not enough learning can be achieved in 3 or 4 days. We have been doing simple learning already of mostly basic things like drawing shapes, counting, etc., mostly as and when she's requested it (roughly an hour a day).

Don't worry about the education part at all. If you are engaged with her, answering her question, doing interesting activities, going to fun places, then she'll be getting more than enough in terms of tick box learning.

It'll just be a matter of making sure you can make ends meet financially, that's all - good luck :) Have you found other home educators nearby?

This has been the biggest challenge to me too. I have not found any childminders who have older children and I am reluctant to keep my DD (4yrs 10months) with a childminder who is obviously getting younger children and babies in but then losing them as they come up to school age. Unfortunately it might be the reason that DD might have to eventually have to go to school. You might have other options though... especially family around to help. If you are in an area with CMs who have older children that would work well for you too?

No, I haven't yet found any local home educators- not really sure where to look! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated (I'm in North Kent).

I do answer all of her questions/ show how things are done/ explain how things work (like why do clouds move or the sky is blue and so on). And we also do go out a lot and travel quite a bit as well.

My current childminder has some older children 6 and 7 that has after school and during school holidays as well as a young 18m old boy, whom my dd absolutely adores. To be honest my finances would probably improve as I wouldn't be paying for 4 full days any more.

Also, when would I be informing my council or is it LEA that I wish to be taken off the school register? I did apply for schools earlier this year just in case, as at the time my mind wasn't yet 100% there. And how do I go about it?

I started whilst I was a student and then worked in a 30 hour night job when DS was 11 -12 for around 18 months. It worked for a while because he was already involved in home ed activities. I resigned and went self-employed part time for two years and in the last year did a combination of self employed and paye flexible work. I worked as a carer (adults) or nanny mostly and also online on a forum. DS is now 16 and gone to FE.

The only difficulty was the night job meant I negotiated with my mother to sleep over and went to clubs/classes etc. zombified due to lack of sleep. Also the forum job took up a lot of time as I got hacked a lot. I also had some help from my mother at first but it was more of a negotiation where I paid her fares and expenses and in return she took him to groups or slept over. We are not the closest family so that was hard. He also had an au pair one day a week for around 6 months when he was around 10 which freed me up for a day a week and gave him some free time to go out and about more freely.

I think if you are in touch with your local groups you might be able to find other families in the same position. If you end up childminding then you might be able to find other home ed families who might want to use your service. Being a nanny is also another option but you will have to work in the child's/children's home with your own DC tow.

I found it easier if my work fitted DS's schedule. We were harassed in his last few years so it was a bit more difficult than usual. However it was in the exam years so it disrupted our normal activities a bit but a lot of that time he needed to study on his own. There weren't many lone parents in our groups so not all understood that I had to find ways of earning money whilst home educating and they started excluding us but I guess you will choose your company from the beginning.

Good luck whatever you do.

You are already doing plenty of education. Just carry on as you are, unless/until it seems to you that your daughter needs something different. Her needs won't suddenly change the moment she turns four or five.

I agree with other posters that the challenge is not education but childcare. If you can create a childcare solution which works, you'll be sorted. You can carry on claiming the preschool funding with the CM until your dd reaches compulsory school age in the term after her fifth birthday. If you are on a low income, you may qualify for the childcare element of Ta Credits which will bring the costs down considerably.

Your daughter doesn't necessarily need the frequent company of older children. After all, what if you were her sole carer and you had one or more younger children? She'd still be OK, though she might like to go out and meet some older kids sometimes. It may be that her current CM will continue to work out well. Your dd likes the toddler and has the occasional company of older kids, and if that isn't enough then you could take her to see older kids when you aren't working.

It depends largely on the child's personality. My older daughter had a huge social appetite and particularly liked bigger children when she was small and medium-sized. My younger dd is not too bothered about playing often with other kids, and when she does, she likes younger ones!

If you are completely sure you won't be wanting a school place then you could withdraw your application for a school place now. Otherwise you could wait until you are offered a place and then decline it. You don't have to inform anyone that you will be home educating. It's likely that the LA will press you for the reason why you don't want the school place: they have a legal obligation to try to keep track of the whereabouts of all school-aged children in their area and make reasonable efforts to establish that they are in education. You have no corresponding legal duty to help them do this. Some HE families hope the LA won't discover that they are home educating because if the LA knows, they will want to correspond about it, which takes time and energy which families might rather spend doing other things. As I say, if they don't know that your daughter is HE, you have no obligation to volunteer the information. (The legal situation is slightly different when a child is already attending school and is withdrawn in order to be home educated. In this case, you have to tell the school that you are going to HE and then the school has to tell the LA. Then the LA may try to persuade you to fill in forms or allow their staff to visit your home, which you are not required to do.)

I don't know if this is the best group for your area, but it is one place you could start: groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kentandlondonHomeEducators/info

Thank you Saracen, that's really helpful. I have requested to join, so hopefully it won't take too long!

Childcare probably won't be an issue, as she's happy where she is at the moment and it seems to be working just fine.

It's good to know that I won't have to inform the LA, don't think I could deal with all of that bureaucracy.

Great! Glad it helped.

I have heard that some childminders are nervous about the idea of having a home educated child, wrongly thinking that because they are looking after the child in the daytime they will be expected to deliver an education, and fearing that the arrangement might be illegal. So when you bring the subject up, you could assure her that all you want is childcare, that you will educate your dd yourself and that you aren't required to stick to traditional "school hours" for that.

Of course, we all know that your daughter actually WILL learn loads while she is with the CM as well as during the time when she's with you. She'll be learning through her daily life, through playing, being read to, talking. It may turn out that that the CM is actually quite willing to do some educational activities from time to time if you supply the stuff and if it fits with her routine; I expect she may already do some homework supervision with her after-school charges, for example. But you don't have to bother explaining all that or making arrangements for it at the outset, because you'd manage fine regardless.

You can claim Child Tax Credit until DD is 16. From 16 to 19 you get CTC when child is in ft education. HE is ft education. I claimed CTC until DS became 19. here

Saracen’s post is very good

I see from your timetable that HE is doable. You plan to spend 3-4 days at home which is good for HE. I am sure you will search well to find a childminder who is openminded about homeschooling and suitable for the needs of your DD, so that is doable as well. I feel the possibility of working as self employed is also a good thing as this will give you control over you job as well. I feel you have very good conditions there.

HE Children learn independently. They organise their learning themselves they self-direct their study, and they learn how to learn. You will be enough time at home with DD.

Has your dd had a chance to develop socially in nursery or any other child care setting, or has she always just been home with you?

If so I dont know if the answer to develop her social skills is to shield her from other children and groups of kids indefinitely?

Do what's right for your child socially right now. That gives her a base of confidence from which to begin expanding, on her own timetable. And that might mean that you just have quiet playdates with much younger children for a few years, or with much older children (quite often, 10-11 year old girls can be really nurturing and caring to smaller children). The glory of the home ed community is that you are likely to find other families who need precisely the kind of social fit that you are looking at at any one time.

Just wondering - do you have to be a qualified teacher to home educate your children?

BabyMummy29, no it is not necessary to be a teacher to home educate. Parents come from different jobs and some might be teachers. I have friends who were school teachers and chose to home educate heir children. When the HE children become 16, some of of these might choose different directions. Some examples are: some moms - I read here - enrolled in the Open university, continued in a 6th form college, enrolled in an online school and had other classes locally, some followed sports, dance or art classes or go to conservatoires etc... Some children decided to follow only music from a young age and some chose a combination .

Sorry for the typo. I meant some children enrolled in the Open University, so I read in some posts.

Shadows yes my dd has had a chance of being around lots of kids- she's been with a chilminder for 3 years full time going 4-5 full days a week. Whilst there she has been exposed to many different social interactions with other children and also surroundedby different children in her care setting aged 1-16. She has always been very withdrawn when surrounded by large groups of kids- even with almost daily visits to large playgroups it took her almost a year to start interacting with kids that weren't part of her childminders mindee's. We also spend most of our weekends out and abouf engaging in various social situations but she still is the same. Weirdly she's ok with adults and will interract with them very happily, and she's fine with small groups of children (no more than 5) at any given time.