Home education, online schooling or stay at school.

[Katiebellj10]

Hi there,
My dd is 13 years old, she is bright, for her age. We have tried HE (for 3 months) but she missed the concept of school and her peers, also she didn't feel confident enough to achieve anything at home. I suppose she was used to school life and being taught by teachers. Although we worked together with subjects, she couldn't get her head around the fact that we could find answers out ourselves on Google etc.

Anyway to cut a long story short, she has gone back to school, been there since January, just got her report and her grades were average for her age, whereas she is normally above average. She only missed 3 months of actual school and at home she was covering different topics.

Dd has now expressed an interest in online schooling. Has anyone managed this successfully? She needs to knuckle down and start studying for IGCSES/GCSES, either by staying at school or HE.

Any advice will be appreciated!
Thanks.

I don't have personal experience of online schooling but I know of people who have/are using online school or long distance courses and are/have been happy with them.
My son is also 13 and we have started IGCSEs on our own. There are so many free or next to free online resources. :) learnerscloud's videos are excellent; youtube is a never ending source; s-cool is also good; there also a number of sites dedicated to single subjects.

I have no experience of online schooling, but it seems to work well for some people. If your dd is keen, it could be worth trying.

If you don't mind me asking, why did she originally leave school, and why is she now thinking of coming out again?

Home education can be much more relaxed than school, even for ambitious academic high-fliers. It is more efficient than school and so it frees up a lot of time either for hobbies, or for additional academics if a child has a deep thirst for academic study. For this reason, I'll quibble with your idea that your dd needs to knuckle down and start working toward GCSEs any time soon. The school may be pushing that idea, but at 13 your dd really does have plenty of time to find the best approach and work towards it. In home ed circles, the clock is not ticking for a 13 year old, not by any stretch of the imagination. When she gets stuck in, she will zoom ahead rapidly without all the wasted time which can be so draining at school. So try to encourage her to relax about that!! Perhaps meeting some other HE teens would help your dd to get some perspective on this?

DS had chosen to do both independent study by himself and he also studied some subjects on and off on line. He also did music which had a group playing and individual performance. There is no need to do everything in a specific way - see how she learns best and how she feels and what works for her best. Every DC learn in their own pace and specific way. Some online courses do quizes and have tutors.

Thanks everyone for replying with all you useful advice. I took her out of school in the first place mainly due to having to travel an hour each way to take her to school! I'm in South East London and there isn't anywhere nearby that I would be happy to send her to. So we ended up trying out home ed. I will do some more research with your useful links and advice. We are so used to school life so it's hard to adjust and take a relaxed approach. When she received her school report this time her grades were down slightly :( but I supposed that is comparing with other pupils. Also we covered different topics on geography and biology. She found doing these at home, tedious and boring! Her Maths is great, we used text books for everything. Also she doesn't like the idea of her Mother 'teaching her' and then marking it. :-/

Thanks threetomatoes, it sounds like I need to go through the unschooling process aswell. I should relax more about the whole approach. I will have a look at your links. :)