Why do YOU Home Ed ?

[TheodoresMummy]

Especially interested in hearing from people who decided they wanted to HEd before their children reached school age.

I thought I was sure about HEding my DS (3.3), but am now having some serious doubts...

DS is 32 months & we have decided (barring any major disasters or events) that he & any other children we have will be HE, probably in an autonomous/learning through living style. The main reasons for us are: the opportunity to be totally involved in his learning and for him to learn at his own pace, with as much one-2-one attention as he needs, without all the pressures, tests, national curriculum, restrictive hours that school education involves. He managed, with a little encouragement from us, to teach himself to walk, talk, eat etc when he was a baby, and now he is a toddler he is mastering counting, letters, numbers & colours recognition, browsing the net (well the cbeebies site anyway!), dressing himself, using a video or dvd machine...etc etc...he seems to be learning just fine at home & I dont really see any benefit in sending him to school - its just too restrictive for my liking

Hi,
We decided to He our youngest child, now age 3.3 almost as soon as she was born.
I have a grown up dd and my husband has two grown up ds's.They all went to school.
We have the bonus of hind-sight as far as education/schooling is concerned and we simply decided we could do a much better job with our youngest than school ever could.
Admittedly, we first looked into HE because of the serious issue of bullying in our schools. But,the more we researched, the more we came to realize how school fails so many of our children in so many ways. Bullying is only part of the problem.
Our DD is unique and deserves a unique education. And apart from that we kind of like having her around

Why are you having doubts?

My doubts have come about because my DS is at a wonderful nursery at the moment and is definately THRIVING !!!

However, it happens to be a nursery which operates very much in the way that I try to raise my DS anyway. They have let him settle at his own pace and have let him do as he pleases (within reason). They only use positive discipline, they are not afraid of cuddling the children, they embrace the different personalities. He has gone from a 2.9 year old who freaked out if another chld went near him, who needed my constant attention, who threw tantrums at almost anything, who could barely speak - to a 3.4 year old who likes to join the other children at group times and LOVES to take his turn in these activities, who approaches others to speak to them (even if his speech is still tricky), who let's me attend to other things more and more without throwing a tantrum...

I was so convinced that I would HE for lots reasons, but now feel that I don't want him to leave this wonderful experience and not replace it. Finding a suitable school, however, is proving to be quite a challenge and I will not compromise now I have the experience of his nursery.

...maybe he would have 'grown out' of his tantrum phase regardless of the nursery...?

My son went to a fantastic nursery, where he received loads of hugs, understanding and attention. He wasn't forced to do anything he didn't want to, and was always well behaved.Most of all he adored going there, and ran in every morning.It would never have crossed my mind to HE him. We looked at 5 schools in the town and chose the one we thought most suitable.However, he has generally been unhappy with school, and even though he has the most wonderful teacher this year, he is desperately unhappy.I am now considering HE, purly out of desperation. I personally think every child should be offered the chance to go to school,and I don't want to put you off sending your child, I just wanted to share my experience.

What's the big deal with offering the chance to go to school? If your child is at a good school you don't think you'd best put them in a bad one just to see if they'd have liked it anyway.
Saying that, I do think many HEers give their children the option to go to school, and I will too!!!

What's the big deal with offering the chance to go to school? If your child is at a good school you don't think you'd best put them in a bad one just to see if they'd have liked it anyway.
Saying that, I do think many HEers give their children the option to go to school, and I will too!!!