the brilliant things about home education.

[LetZygonsbeZygons]

Ill start!

world book week. other threads on other sites on mn panicking/moaning about the dressup things for going into school. Phew! no more of that faff.

no more being called in cos DCs had a meltdown yet again (sn).

the dreaded schoolrun/parking/school gate mums.

being 'persuaded' to fork out your non existant cash to pay for trips/food/workshops etc etc.

bloody sports day.

assemblies and xmas plays which would all freak DC out.

being able to go places while all the other kids are at school so museums/parks/playplaces/libraries etc are not choc a block with noisy screaming sweaty kids.

ah, bliss.

anyone else? anything else?

[morethanpotatoprints]

I know this has been said before, but not being affected by any policy considered by teachers, HT's, or Gove.
In particular, school holiday length or how many and when.

[bochead]

^ Ds is much younger than yours but I'm finding generally long weekends as needed when energy levels are low, work so much better for us than set longer holiday breaks generally^

Our breaks now have a purpose, rather than being holiday breaks for the sake of it iyswim.

This means we never have that awful draggy end of term feeling so common in the run up to Xmas in school. It also means he stays fresh and ready to learn more efficiently. DS has a sleep disorder so during the storm season this year I also let him have the very occasional afternoon nap which did him the world of good. No way can you do that at school! (Mind you some schools near us were closed altogether so perhaps that's not an entirely fair comparison).

[streakybacon]

The freedom to take a day off when it all gets too much. Ds has exam stress and it just wasn't happening for him yesterday, so we stopped. He spent much of the day gaming online with friends, and we had a really good talk about what he was finding so difficult. It's good to take that time out when it's needed, rather than keep pushing at it like he'd have to in school, and he's in a much better mood today .

[sonlypuppyfat]

Ok thanks Morethan I'll look into that.

[morethanpotatoprints]

Hello Sonlypuppyfat

My dd used to dance quite a lot at a dance school which helped, but has stopped now. She tends to do lots of keep fit type exercises and dancing for fun inside if the weather is bad. When its good she runs round the park, climbs etc. I try and encourage her to be active with friends through play, which helps too.
You are entitled to join any groups your LEA runs, just as schooled children, in case you aren't aware of this. Obviously the ones run by individual schools aren't open to us as we aren't on roll.
I would get in touch and see what they offer, if she would like a group sport like netball, hockey, football etc.

[sonlypuppyfat]

Loss not lose what a nit.

[sonlypuppyfat]

I'm really new to all this and we were enjoying swimming as her PE well it's made her eczema really flare up and now I'm at a lose what sporty to do I'm not very good with walking I've got arthritis in my feet. I was wondering what everyone else does.

[morethanpotatoprints]

term time holidays and likewise choosing holidays to fit in with the family. We will probably have about 4 weeks summer holiday and take the whole of December off to fit in with concerts and extra rehearsals.

[MistletoeBUTNOwine]

Sleeping til you wake up! No dragging tired kids out of bed
Kids get involved in the running of the house; cooking, washing, pet care etc. teamwork.

[MakeMineAMartina]

exactly Cais.

and no more homework.

poor things brains fried all day at school and on top of that theyre given homework/projects (not the teachers fault, bloody government laws).

kids can chill out in the afternoons now.

[CaisleanDraiochta]

When your washing machine breaks down, you don't need to panic about how you will get the school uniforms washed and ready to wear. You just wear whatever clothes are clean or if the worst comes to it stay in your PJs all day!

Also on the same theme- no more paying out for expensive uniform and then having to pay out again for the privilege of not having to wear it for a day

[morethanpotatoprints]

Not worrying about what to do with them over the holidays.
no having to spend hours on the road and queuing up for things.
Ditto, to knowing your children.

[Scout19075]

Not stressing about school placement day tomorrow! (I realize that's only for would-be reception children but so many parents of SmallBoy's friends are wrecks about tomorrow.)

[MakeMineAMartina]

Agree.
KNOWING your children.

makes me so sad reading posters at a loss with their children.

[MistletoeBUTNOwine]

I'll add that I'm home on mat leave ATM but when I go back it will be for 2 days, dp has gone pt (3 days) so we all get to spend time with children and together. And yes, we have taken a pay cut to do this, but not on any welfare! (Not that there's anything wrong with people who need them claiming benefits, I have in the past as a lp)

[MistletoeBUTNOwine]

Going back to thread title- just getting to know your children. Really knowing them. Seen posters on other threads not knowing what to 'do' with their children in the hols (usually ppl who work ft and kids in school plus wrap around care). When dd was at school it's like you're living parallel lives sharing a house.

[morethanpotatoprints]

Zygons.

We have a rest from academic subjects, but dd is music crazy so her music lessons and practice continue. She has at least an afternoon and evening free though, we avoid the crowds too.
She has friends that she had from before and during school and enjoys meeting up with these over the holidays and of course several sleepovers. Dh has just taken her to her gps for the weekend, so we get a break too.
I'm spending my time downloading resources for rest of the year, so some break

[bochead]

Yup!

We are rearranging our summer months to suit us and not the school timetable iyswim. In early July we'll have a week off just to chill and go to nice places like museums that get really crowded in the main holidays. Then we'll work again till the 1st week of August when we head off for a home ed camp. Then nose to the grindstone till the bank holiday week, when again we go on a home ed camp.

In September normal service will resume .

So 3 weeks "summer holiday" in total rather than the 6 that schooled children have. However I reserve the right to a couple of long weekends later in the year when energy reserves naturally deplete with the cold/flu season and shorter days of winter.

I don't know if that's how I'll handle every year but DS is only just mastering reading fluency at rising 10. Now he's finally found his groove it just seems important to maintain the momentum at this stage of his development.

I do fantasize about taking him abroad for a couple of months at some point when he's a teen, if he proves capable of learning a foreign language to any meaningful degree. To do that though we first have to master English basics & I have to increase my income by a considerable margin lol!

[LetZygonsbeZygons]

thanks. what a difference. and as its the easter hols for schoolkids, we're continuing the HE as DC cant cope (Nor can I) when everywhere chocablock and once school starts again then WE have a week or a few days off and go to places.

anyone else do that?

[morethanpotatoprints]

Ah, I missed this last post. How lovely, and she really sounds happy with this type of education.
It sounds like such fun, who needs school?

Hope you continue to enjoy yourselves.

[LetZygonsbeZygons]

Dc was a bit niggly today (autism) so I gave her a choice of 3 subjects (never make her do what she cant manage) and she chose a car project -she loves cars and Top Gear so we had a calendar of classic cars id bought from poundland, cut them out, stuck each one on a page, she copied the details of the car in her best writing then drew the car at the bottom of the page. she loved it!

I love home schooling, she learns, she writes and draws all in one go and shes happy and interested.

then we read a couple of stories and watched The Plantagenets which Id taped for her.

love seeing a different child to the one so stressed and traumatised at school.

[Nigglenaggle]

I will add for people who work weekends it means that you get to spend proper time with your kids and aren't just Sunday mummy

[LetZygonsbeZygons]

Crabby my full support for you too.

I can identify with so much you are saying.

Also, Ive been very ill recently, so weve taken the HE easy as much as I can do in a day, it happened a few years ago I was so ill as well I couldn't even take DC to school, no one else to do it for me, no one ever offered, and DC was put down as UNAUTHORISED absence FFS.after id been honest and told school why.

no such probs anymore. and yes, we concentrate on what DC can manage, if shes having a bad medical day well do something like arts and craft as that soothes her, other days after her 'usual' lessons well dabble in the more difficult subjects even if its only 10 mins she can manage shes not being forced into it.

[CrabbySpringyBottom]

I am and that some people feel the need to come onto a positive thread about HE on the home ed board and start slagging off people's choices and evangelising about schools. Do home edders go onto the school education threads and start slagging off school and evangelising about HE? No? Well why do it here then? So fucking rude.

Positives about HE for me...

DD is much happier than she was when she was at school.

She has a really lovely group of friends who accept her for who she is. Nobody excludes her, teases or taunts her (unlike when she was at school...).

We can take her learning at her own pace... she picks some things up really quickly (so is probably ahead of where she would be at school), and struggles a lot with others (maths) so we can spend more time on that and take it slowly.

When teaching her one-to-one I can make sure she stays focused and on task; much more difficult to do when she's with other children as she's very easily distracted by other kids.

Flexibility. She recently spent a month in New Zealand with her dad, which wouldn't have been possible when she was schooled. Term time holidays, flexibility to have longer stays with family members, visiting places when they aren't crowded with people. Not being tied to the school day.

I get the best of her (and the worst, of course!), rather than the over stimulated, stressed out meltdowns that we had almost every afternoon when she came out of school.

I was amazed at how smoothly the assessment process for Aspergers (diagnosed last year) was, having heard/read so many horror stories about people battling for years to get a diagnosis for their child and to get their child's needs met by the LA/school. Mainly I think that we were very lucky to see such skilled professionals (developmental paed, SALT, clinical psych), but also I think that it's because we didn't have to fight to get a referral through a reluctant and unsupportive school/LA. I went through the GP, who initially said it would have to be via school, but referred me directly when I said we HE.

When I read about children on the spectrum being desperately unhappy or bullied at school, especially as there are a whole different set of issues for girls with AS/ASD, I am profoundly grateful that I have the means and the knowledge to HE DD and that she won't have to go through that.

[LetZygonsbeZygons]

morethan that's an idea, thanks.