Any HEers in GRANTHAM LINCS?

[tilly1note]

Hi, am thinking of home ed for my daughter (3.5) and want to first see what kind of support network there might be locally in terms of groups, etc. Especially interested to hear from anyone locally who has child around her age - she will be 4 in August and is supposed to start Reception this September...

she can already read the first few of those Peter and Jane books confidently and can do jigsaws quicker than I can, so not quite sure what would be the point in sending her? I'm home anyway with her baby sister, tho not sure if I'd be doing her or myself the bigger favour - I'd miss her terribly if she spent most of her waking hours away from me. I do feel I could do a better job in terms of academic stuff than she'd get in a class of 30 odd kids, tho not sure for how long, but am extremely worried about her missing out on social aspects...am I a total control freak for wanting to hand-pick nice kids for her to spend time with??? any advice much appreciated.

tilly, probably the best place to start is education otherwise
Members get a contact list, so you would be able to get in touch with Home Educating families in your area.
Yahoo also have lots of different groups for home educators.

hello Tilly
HumphreyCushion has given you the link to Education Otherwise-there is a page on that site for local groups and there is a contact for Lincs.
Likewise there is a local groups page on the Home Education UK website, which I highly recommend people reading. The local groups page again has contacts for Lincs;
home-education.org.uk/local.htm

There is also a webpage specifically for home educators with children under 8 'Muddle Puddle' www.muddlepuddle.co.uk/

All three pages, EO, HEUK and Muddle Puddle have links to internet support groups.

Thanks for advice. I'm new to this whole chatroom lark and dh (my first acronym!) always hogging computer...

OK, so socialisation aside, would really like to hear some advice on what I should do. Obviously you see the value in HE or you wouldn't be on this thread, but why do you do it? My current thinking is:

DD is different from other kids. OK, all kids are different but she definitely stands out as a bit slower than others her age when it comes to eating her lunch, for example, or following instructions, and she still wets herself a lot. Just not sure how she would cope for 6+ hrs in a large group situation (without me!);

Given that she can already read upwards of 50 words without error and remembers every tiny detail of everything she's told, (and did I mention the jigsaws?!), I'm not quite sure she'll actually get much learning done at school - which is what school is supposed to be for, is it not? If I were to keep her at home I would be quite structured in the way I approached her education, I think, although I reckon I could get done in an hour what she might learn in a week of school;

I've noticed that she responds far better when given individual attention and is quite passive and a bit overawed when in a group situation. She is a really subdued child in that she's extremely well-behaved, eager to please, happy and smiling most of the time, and loves nothing better than spending the whole day in the lounge with her books, puzzles and baby sister to read to!

God I do waffle, sorry. Right, baby asleep so going in bath (she still doesn't go through the night unless she's in my bed but that's another topic altogether! she's so cosy and warm though I can't resist...)