Autonomous home ed - am I doing this right?

[Lookslikerain]

Background is that DS is 5 and a half, dx with autism at 3, and technically should just have started school (Scotland). He attended an amazing mainstream nursery for 2 years, but school is just the wrong thing for him.

His attention can be awful, especially if he isn't particularly interested. From what I've read, a child-led, autonomous approach is definitely the best fit for him. I'm just concerned that I'm not doing it right, or missing something. I guess the problem is that we're just continuing to do what we've always done day-to-day. He tends to stagnate if we stay in the house too much, so we've always been a busy family both during the week and at weekends (also have DD and baby DS). We do lots of museum visits, parks, library, baking/cooking, playing, meeting friends anyway, and he's always really enjoyed that stuff. And we do all the other stuff like going to the shops, post office, running errands etc. We have also met some other home-edders too, though he was pretty uninterested.

At the moment, he's into bugs and was trying to build a bug house in the garden using an empty box today so tomorrow we're going to the library to look for some books on bugs, and we might try and build a proper, big bug house so we can attract lots of them for watching. But this is something I'd have done anyway, just because he was interested, not something I'm doing because we home ed.

Am I getting this right? I almost feel like it should be more difficult and less fun!

[NickiFury]

As I say imperial I am sure they exist but I have been home educating for four years and never come across a parent who wasn't fully committed to providing their child with a well rounded and varied education. I could launch into a description of my observations of the HE community in London, but frankly it's not particularly relevant and nothing that hasn't been said before. As for my experience of mainstream schools, my own ds, with ASD was utterly failed by the system to the point where his physical well being was in question. My dd on the other hand, also with ASD is thriving in mainstream school.

I simply do not accept the catastrophizing on this thread, I can understand how if this is your job, as it is Charis's and the world you are immersed in, then it may be difficult to think outside that and assimilate that other institutions may not be so rigid and others have very different experiences, i.e actual on the ground home educaters such as Norman. In fact I find any discussion on MN as a whole regarding education of any kind rather obsessive, the panic and rigid views are not something I see reflected in RL and never have. I have seen Charis on a few threads and do find that her opinions on HE are overwhelmingly negative and she is not open to opinions that do not match her own.

I do not deny that the easiest route (for many but not all) is the 5 GCSE's in year 11, but I don't agree that it is or should be the only way, it isn't and I don't think it's at all helpful to be constantly spouting those opinions as fact to people who may have no other choices how to educate their children. It's scaremongering and should be questioned and refuted where possible.

[NewLife4Me]

Lookslikerain

It sounds to me like you are doing a fine job and your ds will be learning so much from this approach.
I really wouldn't worry about nc, levels, targets etc, this is how the system works and not necessary for H.edders, at all.
There is no need to teach anything formally, in fact for many children being taught something is not how they learn best.
Going with his interests will fuel a love of learning which is far more important than meeting points of a curriculum.
If you want to be a little more structured you could look at the nc and see how what you are doing fits into the different topics and subjects.
We found that it was difficult to get away from the nc because everything we did could be found there somewhere if I was prepared to look for long enough.
Our dd is soon to start school again after an absence of 3 years.
No formal teaching at all since y3.
She asked to do some SATS tests and has gained a level 5 across the board, so it goes to show that school isn't all that.
The subject in which she is G&T has seen her offered a place at an elite specialist school and all fees paid.
There is no way she could have prepared for this if attending school.
As parents we know that if this doesn't work out for her and she wishes to H.ed in the future that we could support to A level and beyond with better results than she'd achieve from a local state school.

You are doing fine, you know your child best.
An education is important, school, curriculum and bureaucracy isn't.

[insanityscatching]

Ds aged 20 has just finished the first year of his level three course. He has autism, he did GCSE's at 16 in a unit placement and then he did three years at an independent specialist school where he did no academic study at all purely life and independent skills. There has been no difficulty whatsoever getting a placement and now EHC guarantees support up until age 25 then it will be increasingly common for students with ASD to complete exam courses and enter university later when they are more developmentally suited.

[CrabbyTheCrabster]

Very interesting thread. As usual, in these situations, I think that the truth lies somewhere between the extremes of opinion. I have certainly come across HE parents who think that the world is the oyster of their child, regardless of exams/study/actual learning. But many of them recognise the importance of qualifications in accessing further ed.

[Lookslikerain]

Sorry, posted last night, fell asleep and this is my first chance to come back! Thanks for all the responseps and I'm glad to hear that those who follow a child led approach don't think I'm too far off track.

For now though, this is definitely the right choice. If he wanted to go to school in a few years, we certainly wouldn't stop him. Following the NC and making his learning quite formal and school-like at this stage would be totally pointless. His attention is virtually zero on things he isn't interested in. He has learned through nursery that in a desk/chair type environment, you sit still and quiet. However, he doesn't listen and does the bare minimum on the task.

Our educational psychologist at nursery said we had to get tough with him and he'd have to learn that sometimes he would have to do things he didn't want to. It just seemed like such a bleak way to look at his primary education and surely there was another way.

Please don't worry about derailing the thread, it was interesting reading and has given me other things to consider longer-term.

[insanityscatching]

I he'd dd for a short while at about the same age. She has autism too. We did no formal learning just followed her interests. She wasn't in any way hindered by this when she did go back to school. Just like her entering school at the latest possible point and only attending nursery two mornings a week didn't make any difference. So much of the early years is devoted to crowd control anyway that you have to put in very few hours of teaching with a child individually at home to match productivity IME.

[Lookslikerain]

That's good to hear insanity. It amazing to see the difference when we're talking about something he likes. He's listening, engaged, animated, asking questions... But try and make him sit at the table to write his name or do a jigsaw, and it's another story!

[insanityscatching]

Dd is 12 now and we had a letter at the end of term congratulating dd on her achievements which placed her in the top 10% of the year (secondary school) so it obviously didn't matter in the slightest. We went to the seaside, to zoos, farms, parks, playgrounds etc (I remember going to see many scarecrows as she liked them) We very rarely wrote anything, she was a whizz on the laptop though and I read to her but it was all having fun. I enjoyed every minute tbh and they are special memories. I always think with autism the readiness to learn formally comes later anyway.

[BertieBotts]

As somebody who has done education in a bit of a jumbled way, and fairly recently, I'm really surprised and shocked by this GCSE/A Levels thing. Admittedly I skipped that particular hurdle as I did GCSEs at the normal time, but after that, I did a BTEC National Diploma which got changed to a National Certificate at the last minute as I was about to fail (equivalent of 3x A Levels down to the equivalent of one AS Level).

Went on to do AS Levels. Due to twat of an ex boyfriend (and okay, yep, my own distractability) I tailed of these and ended up with crappy grades and dropped out. So I have GCSEs, an almost worthless National Certificate and three AS Levels which spell BED.

A couple of years later I wanted to go back to the original plan of university. I assumed that due to aforementioned lack of qualifications that I'd have to redo A Levels or do an access course. I made a careers appointment at the local college to ask about this and they advised me that in fact it probably didn't matter; that at 20 I could technically apply as a mature student (no, this didn't make any sense to me either, but that's what they told me) and the fact I had studied at A Level level and my personal statement would tell them that I had the study skills and the articulation to manage, so I should just apply directly.

I did this, and I got in. They didn't worry about it at all. I was getting consistently high marks in my first year. As I was studying part time it took me two years to complete each year and during the second year of first year I had personal stuff going on which ultimately led to an international move looming and I decided that I wouldn't continue with university (which was a bit of a stupid move, in all honesty, but I think I also would have regretted not coming.) Anyway as part of the intl. move I applied for a course at a local college to become a qualified English Teacher (EFL). The requirements of this course were that you were supposed to have a degree, but I applied anyway and got on and passed with a mark which only 5% of students get from this course. So I effectively blagged my way onto a normally Postgrad course with only GCSEs and four AS Levels.

Sorry, I know the thread has moved on a bit, but just wanted to provide a bit of support for the idea of alternative education routes post-16. :)

[BertieBotts]

This all happened over the period of 2002-2012 so fairly recent.

[jussi]

Singsongsung- you are soooooo naive!!!!
And that's from a teacher, parent of a home educated child with autism (who has a statement) and governor.

[insanityscatching]

Singsongsung our LA is one of a tiny minority that funds statements outside of the school's SEN budget, most don't and schools have to fund them from their own funds. In that case a child with a statement is a drain on resources. A child with a statement like dd's that specifies the support needed would not be relished in many LA's particularly when my child has a parent who insists that the support given is documented. In that situation it's easy to believe that schools will deny needs because otherwise they may be beholden to using a good proportion of their budget supporting one child to the detriment of other children who may have greater needs but no statement.

[AGnu]

My eldest is only 3 & we've just started the ASD dx process but we're planning on HE for the foreseeable future, pending requests for a mainstream education from him or a change in our family circumstances. For those with experience of the GCSE/A level stages, does the curriculum change much from year to year, other than big sweeping changes like we're currently seeing? What I'm wondering about doing is covering a lot of the curriculum before the KS4 years & then using those years to build on their knowledge before they take the exams. Would that work? I'm assuming that things like maths/sciences cover broadly the same topics every year but perhaps the English texts change but concepts could be practiced before?

No idea yet if we'll get as far as trying to do GCSEs while HEing, or even if GCSEs will still exist then, but I'm trying to be as prepared as possible, just in case!

[ouryve]

Charis has some particular views about kids with SEN which demonstrate strong bias and ignorance, TBH. Take with a pinch of salt.

OP, what you're doing is absolutely right at this age and stage. You may get to a point where sliding into MS education seems right. You may never reach that point but find that you get to a stage where you have more specialist options. I can't see that a happily home educated child would be educationally disadvantaged compared with a child who has been continually failed in MS, at that point.

DS1 starts the secondary phase of his education, in a few weeks. He is super bright, but held back by language and communication and by poor concentration and rigid and impulsive behaviours. Had we not found the extremely special school he's at, he'd be home educated. The rather opinionated PP does not appreciate that kids like ours cannot be merely wished into a one size fits all mould.

[NormanLamont]

That's essentially what we did AGnu(tailoring some bits, and speeding ahead or slowing down depending on subject).

Outlines of the whole NC used to be available online. I'm not sure if it still is or where it might have been moved to in the great coalition gov.uk shuffle.

[Charis1]

Charis has some particular views about kids with SEN which demonstrate strong bias and ignorance,

bias and ignorance? My knowledge comes of decades of experience with thousands of children and families, and the centuries of combined experience of my colleagues, and the combined years of training we have all been through - I am now an free lance advisor, employed regularly by two boroughs, and still doing agency work in several schools regularly.

[PieceOfPaper]

That's pretty much what I'm hoping/planning to do, AGnu - assuming dc don't want to go to school before then. I'm sure topics in things like maths and science must stay broadly the same (otherwise how would children cope if they moved school?). As you say, set works for subjects like English (but also music, drama, art, maybe foreign languages - do they still have set texts?) may well change frequently, but presumably the underlying concepts will remain the same, as again, children move schools during KS3, or have upper and lower school systems, and still manage to pass their exams.

Anyone who's still concerned about following the NC might be interested in the thread about academies that's currently going on in Chat. Apparently, academies don't have to follow the NC, and the government is planning to turn more and more schools into academies...

[PieceOfPaper]

Oh, and I had read the universities, particularly RH ones, tend to prefer exams taken in a block (ie plenty at once, not a couple a year over several years), so it's good to have that reiterated. It might be useful for me and my NT children, but presumably exceptions are made for those with SN. Probably useful to be aware in advance so that prospective students can check if necessary, though.

[PieceOfPaper]

Sorry, that should be RG (ie Russell Group) universities, not RH - autocorrect!

[Iamatotalandutteridiot]

Wow... Interesting thread... So much speculating for a child aged 5 with some SEN!

I deregistered by son after 4 weeks in reception and he has been autonomously educated since. Now, aged 7, I believe he is ready for the structure of school and he will start an SEN inclusive school.

One thing that having a child with SEN teaches you, is you cannot predict the future. There is a chance my son will never get an exam - not because he lacks the IQ but if he cannot cope with exam conditions for a 3 hour period, the IQ is meaningless in that situation.

Did I do the right thing taking my son out of school? Some will argue yes, others will argue no. I will say this: if you cannot be happy and secure at the age of 4, life is looking pretty bloody shit! So, OP, do what feels right for your son and for your family and bugger everyone else.

You have years to let your child mature and develop before you need to think about his future :-) good luck and have fun.... Autonomous education is a blast :-) xxx

[NewLife4Me]

My dd hasn't had any official diagnosis but also struggled in some ways at school.
If she has sn it is as a gifted child and whilst I appreciate it isn't the same sn, these children can also find some aspects of school difficult.
For her she couldn't see why she had to do Maths, English, PE and all the other subjects. If it didn't have anything to do with music or language she wasn't interested.
Taking her out of school and allowing her to pursue her interests has really paid off for her.
There are so many reasons why school doesn't suit every child, and I have never heard of a H.ed teenager who hasn't been accepted onto a course of their choice.
I know of one girl who is excellent at art, didn't get any GCSE's or A levels and went straight onto a level 4 course in Art as her portfolio was undergraduate level. A few free lessons of Maths and English gained her an accepted equivalent to GCSE in the form of a level 2 C&G.

[NormanLamont]

Several sets of admissions criteria from 'good' universities I have looked at recently now have sections that specifically address Home Ed and issues arising. Manchester Uni springs to mind. Worth having a nose around.