Can you work part time and HE your child?

[OTgirl]

Hi
apologies for my ignorance
Have toyed with idea of HEing dd who is now 2 years 8 months but now seriously considering whether this could be an option as schools in this area are not good. Local school is in special measures after appalling ofsted report so don't really want to send her there. dd is already reading well as she began teaching herself alphabet just before second birthday from one of those wooden abacus style alphabet thingys. What's that mummy? etc. just progressed from there, moved onto cvc and blends etc. She has very good ability to sound out words and literally knows hundreds of sight words. She loves reading and is devouring books at a great pace. She attends nursery 2 days per week who also comment that they think she is extremely bright in other areas too so on one hand I shouldn't worry as I'm sure she'll do ok wherever she goes but I want more than that for her (obviously ). I don't hot-house her - her favourite occupations at the moment are playdough, her sandpit and time in the veg patch(!) but am responsive to her natural curiousity and we love sitting together with a book.
I don't think she's gifted but do worry that she's going to be incredibly bored when she goes to school and be wasting her time there. School would still be another 16 months away and even then she'll only be just four as she's young in school year.
I work 3 days and dh has some flexibilty but wouldn't be providing formal input on days when I worked (not sure what we would do re childcare). So my questions are... do you have to do X hours daily or per week? and does anyone work part-time and HE and how do you manage it
I don't fancy the idea of flexischooling either. Not sure what to do for the best.
thanks in advance

Hi, your DD sounds similar to mine, only I made the mistake of waiting until this Easter to start home educating her (she's 8) and wish I had done it right from the start. She was in a special measures school, is very bright too, but she spent most of her school days being held back by teachers who were set on the whole class learning at the same pace, regardless of ability. She was constantly bored, and was sometimes teased about being better at certain subjects than some of the other kids. It also annoyed her greatly when she was really 'into' a topic, only for it to then end and work would start on a new topic. Certain teachers also did not seem to treat her fairly, in many ways.

You are HE'ing your DD already, and it sounds like you are doing an excellent job!

I don't work at the moment, so can't really comment on how that would work for you. You do not have to do X hours daily/weekly and you do not have to follow any sort of curriculum (although some do, some don't, and some do a bit!)

We haven't been HE'ing for long, but so far we have been following the national curriculum a little bit, in numeracy, but basically my DD just learns what she feels like learning each day. We're very informal, and haven't done much written work, as most of my DD's learning takes place through conversation/discussions, researching using the internet and books, or simply asking 'someone who knows' like other family members!

If you do decide to HE, without your DD ever attending school, you do not have to let your local school or Local Authority know - that's only for those that have been registered at a school already.

Hope this helps a little,
FBB

I'm not a home-ed expert at all, but I'm wondering would you really be able to cover enough ground with her part-time? I suppose while she is still young it would be manageable but what about as she gets older? How would you manage day care for a school aged child when her peers are at school?

Probably in your situation I'd look for a good/alternative school that suited my DDs aptitude and move to be close to it.

She does sound very bright and I think very bright children need an awful lot of support. It's very difficult to be ahead/different to your peers.

As she can already read you'll need to look at schools (if you go that route) to see how they'll deal with her alongside lots of other children who will just be learning their letters.

TBH You need a governess

Let us know what you decide, I'd be very interested to hear others' stories on part time home edding to see if it could work for you.

You don't think she is gifted - but she can read a long time before her third birthday - erm I think maybe she is!

Many home educators work part time and still manage to to HE their children. Some use a grandparents for child care and some use child minders (And some home educators child mind by way of work )

One of the great things about home education is that it doesn't have to happen between the hours of 9-3, so you can continue educating her, whenever you are together. There are no set hours per day/week to cover-remember you can cover a massive amount more, with a child on a one to one basis, than can ever be done by a teacher with 30 children in her class. In class everything has to be labouriously written down and then marked by the teacher so that she can see that all 30 children in her class have understood what she has said-in a one to one situation with your child, you can see instantly if she has understood and if she has, move onto the next question. Besides which a child who learns through experience as your child is doing, in the vegetable patch with you for instance, will come on in leaps and bounds.

There are home education groups all over the country now that meet together for activities and workshops so your daughter can have lots of HE friends to mix with.

www.muddlepuddle.co.uk/ is a website especially for families who home educate young children, it is also home to the 'HE early years support list', I'm sure you will find more support there.

If you can get the child care sorted the education will be no extra problem-that I can vouch for as someone who home educates and works part time and has been doing so for more than 6 years!

agree with julie, and sound like you are doing the right things. agree, don't push her, the early reading may or may not turn into anything but um, in the nicest possible way, it is probably just one of those things, I wouldn't get too distracted by it tbh. but thats me.

Think about whether you want to HE, not cos she is probably bright, but whether it fits in with your lifestyle etc etc.

Thank you for your encouragement, thoughts and advice. There are lots of gems of wisdom . It has certainly given me some more things to think on so I'm glad I asked the questions now and haven't got to make a quick decision. It's nice to know that it looks like HE is a possibility if I decide to take that route.
I guess I worry on two accounts with the schooling side a) that she'll be so bored and not challenged at all or b)that she'll be labelled as exceptional, pushed too hard and not enjoy school. HE would remove both those concerns. I know my daughter well enough to see that she is not 'gifted' although she has the ability to pick things up quickly.
fillyjonk - you are right about not getting hung up on the reading - having the ability to decode and remember words etc doesn't necessarily make a child clever, but I also recognise, as others have said, it can cause problems when they are outstripping their peers by a wide margin. It concerns me that others keep saying my daughter is gifted as I feel children being labelled potentially sets them up to fail and can rob them of their childhood (which is too short in this day and age anyway imho).
p.s thanks Julie for the muddlepuddle website link - looks great

otgirl, she is your daughter, you know her, and you need to do what is best for her. and you will know what that is!

as long as you are listening to her you can't go far wrong

i suppose i tend to see advancedness as useful for allowing kids to develop in other areas, if they so wish

(I am biased by both me and my partner being early readers. i was reading fluently by your dd's age also-I'm on video reading the hobbit out loud at about 2 3/4. Am not sure if I would let my kids read the hobbit at 2 3/4 but hey. For both of us early reading was just one of those things, not something that needed anyone to do anything more about. And we are both academic I suppose-both have firsts etc. )