New to home education

[buckbeak]

You may have read my previous thread, regarding my 6 year old getting badly bullied. ( had to delete as per solicitors advice)

So I'm new to homeschooling.

We are doing really well in maths and English. My question is DS is a massive history fan. Do you know of any resources and subjects that will be good to go through?

Also any advice on anything to do with homeschooling. TIA x

I didn't see your previous thread.

First big piece of advice is to let both him (and you!) deschool a bit before you leap into lots of formal top-down learning. Rule of thumb is one month per year spent in school, and allow a bit extra if there was any trauma involved. During that time, just enjoy destressing. Give him a chance to work out how he enjoys spending his time (is he a park boy? A local museum boy? Does he want to go to lots of home ed groups? join a sports club? does he enjoy being in charge of the weekly Sainsburys trip, managing the list or pushing the trolley or whatever? A walk in the woods boy?)

Then, once you've had a month or two to find your feet, THEN you can start doing workbooks or whatever!

He might be a bit young for horrible histories yet. Do you have any museums in reach? Or national trust properties/ other historic sites you can visit and chat (on his agenda, at his level) about how those spaces were used in the past? Do you have anything like Beamish near you? www.beamish.org.uk/ We have various museum type places near us, and that's really helped give an informal focus to conversations about history. It can be good to listen to music together, too, or look at art from the past.

Main thing, if you can: get yourself connected with local home educators. If you can find people among them who you are comfortable with, you'll find yourself hooked into a whole community of people who organise social, educational, sport type meet ups :)

That's fantastic information, thanks so much!

I'm letting him lead me at the minute, he had such an awful time at school, so I didn't want to rush into anything.

But we went out today and he wanted some books on times tables which he wanted to start. He's just doing things in his own time at the minute.

I'm planning to take him to the science museum In Manchester, but at the minute he won't leave the house, I managed to get him to a shopping centre today because he needed shoes, but otherwise he's terrified of leaving.

I'll have a look at the horrible histories books. We got him a book on ancient Egypt today which he is loving.

Like you said though, I'll take it easy with him, we are working on his mental health and that will always come first to anything else. But when he's wanting to learn and do something I'm trying to help him x

No advice yet but Go buckbeak!! XXX

Thanks @Italiangreyhound glad you've found me. I'll be updating with progress from solicitor here too.

Have to go to the school tomorrow to collect some things my solicitor has asked for, so fingers crossed that goes well 🤞🏻

Really sorry to hear your son was so badly bullied that he is afraid to leave the house . I hope he starts to feel safer soon.

I agree with ommmward.

It is totally fine for your ds to do times tables if that is actually what he wants to do right now. Deschooling does not mean "do nothing academic"; it means "let your child choose how he spends his time". It can be a little tricky if you suspect that he is choosing to do times tables because he thinks he ought to or because someone else is putting pressure on him, rather than because he genuinely wants to.

You might order a big pile of books from the local library on subjects which you think might interest your son, and just leave them lying around with an offer to read any which he thinks he might like. Be ready to abandon whichever book you're reading promptly if he decides he's had enough. We like watching history documentaries online. They don't necessarily have to be aimed at kids. BBC iPlayer is quite good. You might find some podcasts or audiobooks to listen to. My kids both enjoyed listening while playing with toys or drawing.

Thanks @Saracen

I'm not sure why he's so into timetables at the moment, he's just really interested in learning them, he can already do 2,5 and 10. I've downloaded some times table games on the ipad, so it's a bit of fun for him rather than 'learning'

Have had a look at horrible history, he will love them! Have just ordered the books, he needed some new books anyway, we've worked it that's his coping mechanism, he just takes himself off with a book.

And yes the bullying was awful, physical and mental, I'm truly shocked this happens at all, let alone at 6. But we are sorting him out, he keeps saying thank you for taking him out of school.

Thanks for all the replies x

Blimey, he's 6! I read yr 6!
Many countries don't go to school until 7 anyway. Let him play, climb trees, build stuff, anything and live normal life with him. He'll learn so much from just doing the shopping, planning a trip to the zoo etc
He's had a rough time. Let him be in control of his life and recover.
There's plenty of time for everything else later.

I've just had a letter from the LA, wanting me to tell them how many hours per week I'm doing with him, what subjects I'm doing, where I'm getting my resources from and when they can pay us a visit.

Is this normal?

Hmm, well, yes it is "normal" in the same sense that it's "normal" for schools to deny that bullying is happening. You want to nip it in the bud.

Did they tell you that a meeting was optional? If they failed to mention that significant fact, that's a warning sign that they don't plan to be above-board with you, in which case you're best off keeping them at arm's length. Meetings are rarely a good idea anyhow. Particularly with a distressed child on your hands, take no chances they may say anything to upset him, such as mentioning the possibility of him being sent back to school. Some kids can be traumatised by such encounters.

You do need to respond, however. Will post again when I am at a proper computer.

Are you in Manchester op? I help home school my neices aged 5 and 6. My sister has been homeschooling them since June. I help because I am at uni so have time and a car, which my sister doesnt, have a car she is training to be a chef. Today we went on a welly walk to find mini beasts, we looked at where they live, what they eat, how they reproduce and where they are in the food chain. When we came home we used our notes and photographs to bring in other subjects, such as art ( collages of hand drawn and photos and printed pics) maths, grouping objects and using times tables in a picture way. After lunch we did baking and made biscuits in the shapes of spiders. I generally find that trips out can inspire enough source material for many curriculum subjects to fill a day. Next week we are going on the east lancs railway so I am currently thinking of how I can expand this trip, the history side should be fine and I would also like to bring in some science and geography should also be covered

@Saracen it didn't say optional, it said we will need to come around to see how ds is getting on, please let us know when will be best. X

Thanks @calamityjam that's a good idea with the bugs. Will try that when ds is ready to leave the house x

Oh and @calamityjam I'm 45 mins from Manchester x

OP can you get linked to a local home schoolpng organisation?

Is there a national website?

Meet a few others, tentatively. So home schoolers have put nights out so you can suss the adults put before involving your son?

I'm not sure if you've heard of a website called Twinkl, it does lots of resources, and schools, teachers, home educators etc can subscribe. I've used some of the secondary stuff at my school, so not sure about home schooling and primary age but might be worth a look. I think it's about £60 for a year long subscription. Sorry he's had such a bad time.

@GriseldaChop I've done the subscription to twinkle and theschoolrun.

@Italiangreyhound my DH works away so I wouldn't be able to meet anyone in person on my own, without the kids just yet. And DS is not ready at the moment. But when he is I fully intend too x

The story of the world is very good, come with a activity book as well, my kids really like it.

Okay, the LA staff are trying to mislead you into believing that they have powers which they don't have. They have no right to require a meeting. The government's 2007 guidance to LAs regarding how they should deal with home ed families, which is still in force, states this specifically in simple language, so there is no excuse for their little game. It's a useful document which is well worth a read: www.gov.uk/government/publications/elective-home-education

As you'll see from the above document, it is also quite dodgy for them to ask how many hours per week you are educating your child, as this presupposes a school-style formal education occurring during certain hours, with no learning happening outside those times, which is fairly ridiculous in a home ed situation. (Would anyone expect you to answer the question of how many hours per week you spend parenting your child?) So this is another indication that the person in post is either completely untrained in even the most basic elements of HE and the law, or knows quite well what they are doing and are trying to impose their own agenda on you.

Letters from the LA should always be answered, even if it is only to challenge the basis of what they are asking of you. If you ignore them entirely, they may start legal proceedings against you, which is a hassle you can do without. There are various options open to you.

You could comply with their demands. I'd advise against this fairly strongly, especially in your case. You would be allowing someone who is either clueless or manipulative into your home to make subjective judgements about what they find there and create a report based on their interpretations. It's true that you could get lucky and find the person perfectly lovely, but why take a chance? If you want a lovely supportive knowledgeable person to visit your home and give you advice, you can very likely find such a person in your local HE community... with no strings attached.

The middle ground which leaves you on very firm footing is this. Write them a report describing the education you are providing, outlining your general approach and listing both formal and informal learning opportunities. It doesn't have to be very lengthy; a few sides of A4 should be plenty. If your son has only just come out of school then the LA should give you a few months to settle in, so you could start off by writing a brief letter now saying that you don't require a visit and telling them the date by which you will send them a report.

A more confrontational approach is this. You could quote the law to them, observing that they are only required to intervene in elective home education if they have reason to believe a suitable education isn't being provided, and challenge them to tell you what basis they have for believing this. (By analogy, you probably wouldn't be happy to invite the police in for a rummage round your house just to demonstrate that you have no stolen property lying around, when they have no particular reason to believe that you do. You might turn them away on principle even though you have nothing to hide.) This approach tends to be followed by the more politically-minded, as it can involve some back-and-forth with letters and can take more time than simply stumping up a report right away.

Saracen you are a gem! I thought this was so but did not have the authority to say it as you have. (My friend home schools.)

Aw thanks Italiangreyhound!

Just a quick note- our LA visits were actually wonderful. Our visitor didn't ask to see any paperwork, just chatted, had a cup of tea, and was hugely supportive or us. 2 nearby friends had similar experiences (all in Oxfordshire), with one LA visitor who ended up going to a couple of the children' concerts, and a different one who helped a rural family to connect with a couple of nearby HE families.

Our visitor sent a lovely letter, saying how nice a family we were and how well my son was doing (just based on chatting about music and football with my 14-year-old).

I guess my point is that not all of these visits are a big deal or a nightmare of form filling. This was about 5 years ago now, and I ignored the official requests for information, hours spent, curricula, etc. The official nonsense was silly and didn't apply to us (fairly unschooled approach), but the actual visitor was friendly, supportive, and helpful.

@Saracen thank you so so much I'll have a think about what avenue to take, Ds will be quite distressed if someone comes in mentioning school, so I'll phone them Monday before I do the letter to talk to them.

Thank you everyone for your advice x

claraschu that's wonderful, and how lucky you were that the LA bod in Oxfordshire was sympathetic and supportive. I've come across tales of LA bods in other counties who have a very fixed idea of what home Ed should look like (basically school at home), who aren't clued up on special needs, and who put huge pressure on families who don't fit their mould, to put the children back in school. The only way of knowing what sort of LA bod you are likely to get is to ask local home edders with recent experience. And make sure you know that those home edders have roughly similar circumstances to yours.

My advice would always be to avoid a meeting and keep everything in writing, so that you control the evidence flow (and also, as a point of principle: These LA bods have similar actual remit to health visitors -they are there to offer a service, which we can avail ourselves of or not, as we choose, and a decision not to meet with them just means we reckon can get tge advice and support we need from elsewhere. They tend not to like that, because it makes it hard for their team to justify the level of their departmental budget...)

Thanks Ommmward: I did feel very lucky. In those inevitable moments of self doubt, it was nice to feel that there was a respectable member of the establishment (former Secondary school teacher with 20 years experience in school, and 10 as a HE visitor) who thought HE was a great alternative, and that our son was thriving.

I agree that it is a good idea to find out if your local people are supportive and understanding, especially if your child is at all anxious. I also think that the requests for written records may have absolutely nothing to do with the actual LA representative who might visit if you decide you want him to. Our written records (which we never did send in) were never mentioned...