May I ask why you wanted to home ed?

[WomaninGreen]

this is very much on the cards for us

I am prepared for all the criticism but just a matter of interest - new to this board in particular - I wanted to know what other people's reasons were.

Ours are many and varied but part of is that we believe we can offer more lifestyle options through home ed as well as a better education.

but for me in particular, I feel strongly that part of traditional school is about preparing your DC for a conventional world of open plan offices, work like a drudge, think of work in specific days, deal with office bully etc

I realise they might want to go to that route so they have to be prepared for it - but I am not sure a kind of similar onslaught from a young age is the only way to deal with it.

I was just wondering what made other posters choose home education.

thanks.

*days, should say "ways", sorry!

I started with the conviction that four is too young for formal education and that play is the most suitable way for young children to learn. By play, I mean completely child-led play with no adult direction whatsoever. Even many nurseries don't allow the sort of freedom which I have in mind. So for me, HE was initially just a means of delaying school start until an age when I thought my child would benefit from it - perhaps seven.

However, once we got stuck in I could see how effective HE was for my child, and for the older HE children I came to know. My reasons for home educating multiplied rapidly until the list was as long as my arm. There were numerous advantages I hadn't anticipated. The age at which my child needed school never arrived - she's 18 now!

Then the nature of my younger child's special needs were such that the very idea of sending her to school was unfathomable. It was just patently ridiculous. With the best will in the world, all the staff could have achieved would be to limit the damage school would do to her. Luckily we were well established in home ed by then, so the decision was easy.

We chose it because traditional school can be very boring, rigid, and one-size-fits-all. Also, one of our kids is on the autism spectrum and I just knew he would get teased. He is a very confident teenager now.

A friend (interestingly, she is British) once asked me: "if you don't send your kids to school, how will they learn to tolerate drudgery?"

This will probably get me criticized on here, but my response was that I hope that they don't learn that, but instead rail against drudgery.

Thank you for your replies

Pitiless I find that particularly interesting because even if DC wants to or has to enter the rat race, the idea that they need to spend a solid 14 years preparing for it is pretty excessive.

Why did we choose home education?

Because it was the optimal solution for our oldest child when the school-choosing moment came and because, by the time it might have been a reasonable fit for any of our children, we were (like Saracen) thoroughly immersed in successful home education.

I feel very strongly indeed that some children are "school shaped". They thrive on the structure, and being exposed to ideas all day long on an adult agenda, and the challenges and opportunities of being mostly among other children the same age and stage. Those children should definitely go to school, and all power to them and their parents.

For the rest? Meh. There are better things to do with 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, 38 (or whatever it is) weeks a year.