New and interested in home ed from birth

[KateRosanne]

Hi all,

I'm new to Mumsnet and TTC for the first time.

I've been interested in home education for years and have read every book I could get my hands on.

We intend to home educate from birth and I just wondered a) if anyone on here has done that/ is doing that and b) if there's anyone based in Leeds who home educates I could get to know, or anyone on this thread who wouldn't mind a new friend to talk home ed stuff with?

Hi :) I'm near Birmingham.
I have homeschooled my ds since birth so to speak :) happy to answer anything you would like to know :) feel free to pm me..would love to chat!

Hi I'm from Barnsley and would like to do the same when our first arrives (fingers crossed) next year. Watching thread and introducing myself!!
What makes you want to HE?

Hi, my baby was born at the beginning of June and I'm hoping to home educate her. I like the idea of going at her pace, not rushing things, really getting stuck into topics etc.

Yes, we've done it from the beginning. It has been fantastic - kids are now 17 and 11.

I first became interested in home educating because my first child loved to play. I didn't want to take that away from her at such a young age by filling so much of her time. Even nurseries can have a lot of constraints on how children play.

What I liked best about HEing from the start was being totally relaxed about the speed with which my kids were acquiring various skills and independence in their early years. So, for example, one of my kids still really needed a midday nap at four, and I didn't have to move heaven and earth to try to wean her off it. The other was totally unready to be in a large-group setting for any length of time when she was small - but that was fine, because she didn't have to be!

My older child wanted to go to preschool at three, so she did. Most of the other children also wanted to be there, or didn't mind it too obviously, but a few were clearly very distressed by it. Their parents felt that the clock was ticking and they had to make them go to preschool at three in order to be ready for school the following year. That must be a heartbreaking feeling. By contrast, for us preschool was an easy thing to try because it didn't particularly matter whether my child liked it or not; she could just leave. (And she did leave after a few weeks, once the novelty wore off.)

Hi all, it's nice seeing some others thinking about this. I'm hoping to HE my DS, who was born in April this year.

Thanks Saracen for your encouragement!

To me the idea of a set curriculum, timetables and tests just seems restrictive. There are so many interesting things for a child to do and learn, and not all of them are taught in schools. I just want to support my DS to explore whatever he is interested in, and I'm confident I can facilitate that, at least through the first few years of what would be school education.

That said, I've already been looking at nurseries for when I go back to work part time, so I somehow need to square my ideal situation with my reality! I'll watch here with interest.

Hi all, I'm planning to home ed DD who is nearly 2. We have never been to baby groups as DD always needed a lot of sleep and I found her sleep schedule clashed with baby groups times. IMO sleep is the most important thing and facilitates all other things, so I've prioritised it. DD still has a 2/2.5hr nap in the mornings at this age but has dropped afternoon nap completely. I'm happy to wait for things like groups and learning to swim until it's convenient with her naps. I'm planning baby #2 (I'm LP, both will be conceived with donor sperm) so will be putting DD into nursery when she turns 2 and I get the 15hrs a week free childcare provision. This is to help socialise her and give me some time to rest (my pregnancy was tough, I was quite ill so I'm expecting that to happen again...). I'm going to give DD the choice of how she pursues her education: whether at home or school. She can be home ed whenever she wants. I was and will be in future a self employed person so am able to set my own schedule to fit in home ed. I won't be following the curriculum if I do home ed: I intend to unschool. I believe children's formative years (to age 7) should be spent largely playing, as per the Nordic model. We are animals, which everyone conveniently forgets and following the rest of the mammalian animal kingdom; young playing are learning essential life skills. Children show aptitude and interest in their own chosen fields. I don't see the point of forcing them to study an arbitrary set of subjects if they have no interest in them. Apart from English and Maths I don't intend to insist anything is taught, all else will be child led. I'm in the Manchester area and would be interested to network with other home ed families