Home Schooli ng at Primary School age

[Andthenjust]

Hi,
I've done my research on home-schooling teens, but I'm at a bit of a loss when it comes to younger children. I've read a bit on it, but I'd rather hear from real people who have done it. So has anyone homeschooled rather than primary school? and if so, what is your experience of it?

Thanks

Hi,
I home school ds aged 6. We sit down and learn for 2 and a half hours per day and he picks things up quickly as its 1 to 1 learning. I am really busy with it but i feel it is right for him compared to the school he was at.
He gets to take a day off in sync with his dad so that they can have quality time and i catch that up on a Saturday. It is very flexible.

We home educated from the start to 16. I would do some of it differently now but it was a great experience for all of us. What specifically do you want to know about?

We do a maximum of an hour a day mum-directed stuff. DSs at home are 11 and 13, 2 older DCs are at uni now but were HE to 16.
They do some Maths, reading and project work each day (Geography of the U.K. currently, Anglo Saxons in the autumn, Islam by Christmas.) with ad hoc music, art, science, design...
They go to organised HE classes in French and dance in termtime whilst another HE mum has organised a ‘Science Club’ through the holidays. They also do non-HE code-club, gymnastics, riding and disability sport.
They spend hours building, ‘the Roman Forum in Lego, mum,’ or ‘Can I have some sandpaper I want to make a ramp for this car..?’ I just facilitate most of the time.

No curriculum here - i read to them lots, they read lots, we do a bit of maths, lots of lego, tree climbing, library & museums

Thanks for all your replies, I've on ly just seen them (weren 't notified).
My kids (dd,6) and (dd,7) were in an academy school until last Friday. I've been considering home schooling for over a year in terms of primary school, but kept wanting to give the school 'one more chance'. Unfortunately, I've had to deregister them due to a multitude of reasons.
Basically, what I want to know is everything! Lol. My main question was to ask if you dc were at one point in primary school, how did you go about telling your kids they 're no longer going? and ho w were the y with this? Not sure if it's a relevant question as you all seem to have home schooled from the start.

My other question is, how do you find other local home school groups? Is there a forum or somethjng similar to Mumsnet? I'm already familiar with homeschool.org and a few others, but weren't sure if there was something I'd missed. A lot of what I've found tend to be American sites!

Also, if it's relevant to any one, or if you know of someone who has done it, did you deschool?

I apologise for the long, rambling post, and I hope it coherent!

Hello, I home educate my 4 children; they've never been to school. The oldest is 14 and the youngest is 2. There are lots of local groups, some will have facebook groups which you may find by searching, or they may have other forums. You can sometimes find a local contact by getting in touch with EO, but a lot of the info on there is out of date wrt local groups. www.educationotherwise.org/index.php/local-he-groups-directory

Sometimes the library can give you a contact! Or just ask friends and see if anyone knows someone?

Sorry I can't help with the taking them out of school questions. Do you think your children would benefit from deschooling? We're pretty much unschoolers anyway, so mine are permanently deschooled

Hi, thanks for you reply. The deschooling thing - if I've understood it correctly, it's leaving your kids to it, and to let them (shock horror) be kids and play right? for my kids, they've always been interested in learning/studying/experimenting so to them (even before they went to school), their version of play is what some would consider 'school-like education'. the main part of trying to deschool them would to give them a break fro m the general stress/crap fro m their previous' schools environment.
I've noticed the education otherwise site is a bit outdated, still love it thougn it's he lped a lot. Aaarrrgh unfortunately I'm not on fb! I absolutely can't stand it.
One of my qualms is the 'socialising ' part. Although I don't agree that schools and being put in a class of 30 kids and having playtimes forced on them at set times is genuine socialization, I do worry that my kids may get lonely.

Hi Band, if your kids like doing schooly things in their free time, just let them get on with it! Deschooling is just time away from pressure and stress, as you say. If they're initiating school type activities themselves you don't need to step in and stop them

I understand what you're saying about fb. Hopefully your local forum will be on another platform, then, but I have to say all the local groups I'm aware of now run on fb. I can understand hating it, but if I were you I would really consider just joining up under a false name and not friending anyone or joining any groups except for your local home ed groups. Personally if I wasn't on there I would have zero idea what was happening locally and my kids would be missing out on all the meet ups, clubs and activities that happen. Just think of it as a tool and use it purely for information about what's going on locally with home ed, then log off for the day.

About being lonely - if your kids are sociable types, they probably will get lonely if you don't join local groups and make an effort to meet up with other families. Hopefully that will be easy to do locally, though, and you can be out and about taking part in the home ed community.

Just a suggestion - when you search for groups or info, use the term "home education" or "home ed" to get more results. "Home schooling" is a bit of an American phrase and disliked by some home edders as what we do is not school! You might find a local group online if you search for "my town home education / home educators / home ed".

Another voice saying you really have to hold your nose and join facebook. You don't need to have "friends" on there, but you DO need to use it to join the local home ed networks. I only know 2 or 3 home educators who aren't on facebook, and there's always that "oh man, someone needs to tell Susie" moment - with the best will in the world, they don't always know what's going on!

I dont use facebook! I use a local area HE forum.
You need to make contact with a group & then go & talk & try to go back to some regular meet ups although you may find it quiet over the summer holiday - things are usually fairly dead around here!

Also if you dont gel with the first group keep looking!

Facebook is really helpful in terms of getting to know people in your local area but if you're in the NE of England, I may be able to put you in touch with some people who will probably be meeting up over the summer! Just PM me.

My older ones came out of school at the end of years 1 and 3. I gave them half a terms notice and they were thrilled. DDs first comment was ‘Can I have my ears pierced then?’ as I’d told her months before that she could have them pierced ‘when you leave school.’ We hadn’t imagined it would be quite so soon.

We handed our details to friends they wanted to stay in contact with and on the last day of term we sat on a picnic blanket in the garden and pierced DD’s ears!

I’m going to go against the grain here.

IMO home schooling is wrong. Kids are developing the social skills and interaction needed for adult life.

Ah, we'll have to agree to disagree on that one, NorthernSpirit.

first, it's "Home Education" not "Home Schooling". Very important distinction. Very few of us do anything that looks like School At Home. Instead, we can respond to the individual educational needs of our children - dead easy to do with only a few of them rather than a class of 30. And because they are learning what they are interested in at the time they want to learn it, it is quite terrifyingly efficient. (and it sticks, too, because they genuinely want to learn it). I sometimes worry about how "lumpy" their education is, because they are streets ahead of their peers in some areas, and (apparently) miles behind in others. And then there's a moment where they drop some casual remark, and I realise that that whole area of knowledge that I thought they were completely ignorant of, they have quietly been picking up stuff about, and then a conversation can begin to extend it.

And then on the main point about developing the social skills and interaction necessary for adult life: this is a major reason why I don't want my children to go to school. I don't think school is very good at helping children develop positive and mature social skills. Society more widely, though? Yes, in spades. I'd much rather have my children out in the "real world" than in a school, in terms of the social lessons they are learning, and the culture of social interaction that they are imbuing.

I worried about the social aspect, but then I read an artic le that clicked with me and it made sense. To summarise it, they said being forc ed to 'make friends' with 30 or so other children (and adults), and hav ing playtimes dictated to you even down to what and how you play isnt 'socialization '.

I had a discussion with a lecturer when dd1 was first born, at the time I believed all home educated kids were either VERY religious or freaks or both. I mentioned the social part of school, and he put it like this - ' when you see teenagers outside the school gate and how they behave, is that what you want your own kids socialising with? Is that what you want your kids to accept as standard behaviour?' He also made a point of how the vast majority of school kids have no idea how to talk face to face with others as they're all on phones.

And I couldn't agree more.

Also, thank you to everyone who corrected me on homeschooling/home education - I wondered why I could only find American stuff!
My etiquette has improved lol

:)

Just wanted to give my input regarding social skills.
My ds used to be very shy and anxious outside of the home. Now after 1 term of home education he will comfortably talk to anyone and everyone.

I'm lucky because we have friends outside of school that live on our street so ds plays with them alot.

NorthernSprit
It’s totally not wrong

My child was so badly bullied at school she now sees a Councilor . She went from
a confident little girl to sitting for hours alone not speaking with anyone , not sleeping , nightmares , constantly being sick and very low self esteem Thank god i took her out. After 10 months of home education she is slowly slowly starting to regain her confidence . No thank you if thats what school
Socialising does for you She has meet some lovely confidence HE children , it’s so nice to see her laughing and playing with them . Even my family and friends can’t believe the change in her and they were against taking her out of school . I truly believe she would suffer serious mental health problems if she stayed any longer in school. She is also enjoying learning and doing much much better . At school she was in a constant state of fear. It’s time British education got a good shake up, it’s not actually working that well!! I feel totally blessed my daughter is not attending that institution they call school. She is in my eyes privileged to be HE.

Indybindy, so true.

So often I see home ed criticised, usually by people who have no experience of it and who are pre-programmed to think schooling is the only way. They invariably cite poor academic achievement and lack of socialisation as reasons not to Home ed, not realising how the reality stands these arguments on their heads.

In fact, one of the main reasons why parents home ed is that they have bitter experience of (or the good sense to foresee) the terrible effect that schools' version of 'socialisation' has on children.