How do you work and home ed? Also how can home ed children find friends?

[Aloha]

Am seriously thinking of pulling ds out of school as of now, really. But dh and I both work from home and have no idea how we would cope with home educating ds. We also have a two year old who is looked after two days a week but don't think the au pair who is brilliant with dd would cope with both.
He has Aspergers and we are thinking of doing this for a year or so as he is not getting on at school at all. We are also applying for a statement so would aim to find him another school with much more help when he is nearer seven.

Any ideas?

anyone?

Hello Aloha
I home educate three children who are all have SpLD and have done for more than six year.
Personally i know work for a direct selling company in order to be able to work and home educate.
But you don't have to do the educating between 9-3 or any specif hours at all.
There is a list of child minders somewhere who are willing to take home educated children to fit around the parents workstimes.

The best place to ask all of this IMHO is on one of the support lists
www.education-otherwise.org/ The website of the largest HE organisation.

home-education.org.uk/ -Brilliant (imho) independent website.

www.he-special.org.uk/index.php For families who home educate children with special educational needs.
Support lis here www.he-special.org.uk/content/joinhere.php

www.muddlepuddle.co.uk/ A website especially for parents who home educate children young children.
The support list for that site is groups.yahoo.com/group/EarlyYearsHE/

The above websites all have links to relevant home education internet support groups, where you can get valuable support and information about home education in the UK from the real experts, the people who do it, home educators themselves.
I would have thought the two most relevant ones to ask your questions are on the HE Special Needs one and on the Early Years/MuddlePuddle one, there are some very experienced people on both thiose lists and you'll get lots of ideas and support if you ask there.

home-ed.info/ is the other independent website that I would recommend.
Together all of these websites will lead you to everything you need to know about home education in the UK. All sorts of resources and information can be obtained for little cost from the internet.

Then there is
www.infed.org/biblio/home-education.htm -an article that compares ?formal? and ?informal? home education styles written by a Dr Alan Thomas, which will give you an idea of different ways of home educating.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for all that. I do realise that I don't have to do stuff in specific hours, but I also realise that ds will be at home all the time and I can't just stick him in front of a video, much as he'd love that, and we both need to work. We can share working hours quite a lot, but it will still really cut down on time.

Why didn't I run the spell checker before posting the last reply!
this dyslexic should know better by now!

I forgot to answer the question about friends.
Where abouts do you live Aloha?

The Education Otherwise website and the Home Ed UK one also have a page listing local groups and contacts.
If none for your area are listed, try asking on the actual support lists-and you may well be pointed in the direction of a local internet support group, like the one we have here in Worcestershire.

Many areas have local groups that meet up for social gatherings, team games and workshops to name but a few.
www.worcestershire-home-educators.co.uk/

It really is a mistake to believe you have to go to school to enjoy a social life!
Besides mixing with people all the time in our local community, when we are out shopping, at the library or swimming/ice skating/bowling (without huge crowds and much cheaper in term time),our children have a social life that is the envy of their schooled cousins. The activities they take part in range from drama productions, rugby, music groups to canoeing, history workshops and lots and lots of craft based meetings.
There is so much going on, sometimes we have to try and timetable a day at home! We have a local newsletter so families can keep up with all that goes on!

There are also after school groups too, such as brownies/cubs/woodcraft folk and things like swimming lessons and drama groups. Our youngest daughter has dance classes, is part of a dance company, goes to choir and 'Explorer Scouts' for instance, as well as all the masses of things she gets up to in the home ed community.

There are also home ed gatherings and camps that happen through out the summer and our children have made friends nationally at these.

julie has covered everything I think!

all i will add is another voice saying it can be done, there are people i know working and HEing and really, socialisation ISN'T a problem for the majority of families, as long as you make an effort (for a few, for whatever reason-mainly, I think, just happening not to have kids around with whom yours click, i think it can be)

I have made BETTER friends, as have my kids through HEing that I did through parent and toddler groups, because HEing parents share my values.

I am sure for NT children finding friends will never be a problem, but because ds has Aspergers his social skills - though far from non-existent - are distinctly, um, different. I mean he does have friends at school but he can't make friends casually, the way my 2yr old dd can, and he will find groups difficult. That's the key problem with school, I think. I send him to a small French class but you can't make friends there as there is no playtime or anything. He can't do crafts or sport (dyspraxic) - it is my key worry.

Oh, I live in SE London.

I will take a look on the websites too.

A large number of children in our group have Aspergers. They haven't fitted in schools at all.
It is a pleasure to see them settle, grow and make friends -in their own time. In our group lots of the youngsters play Magic together and we often find most people have a go at some of the other activities. Some of them share computer interests. Things like British Bulldog and tag rugby go down very well too. Doesn't matter in home ed worlds whether they are very good or not. No one bullying about it, no competitive side-just fun.

'Warhammer' has been brilliant for our son. He saved up his own money and used Christmas and birthdays to get the figures. he has read loads about the subject, all the codex's, the guides and White Dwarf magazine. Lots of the other lads in home ed circles play Warhammer.

Dyspraxia is one of the things that made things very difficult for our youngest daughter. She couldn't attend the same dance school as her older sister, couldn't sequence and was hopeless at remembering what came next and very clumsy. We found another dance company where there were no assessments, instead they put on shows and a group would be on stage at the same time and she could stand at the back and copy everyone else.
Slowly, slowly without pressure, she has improved. Without being bogged down with home work and being free to practice whenever she wants to, has meant she has improved so much over six years, she is now part of the dance company and a very good dancer.

Try getting hold of a local group if possible and go along and see what is happening. I believe there are groups all over London.

Aloha,

I'm in SE London, Eltham. Where are you?
There is a group that meets in Lewisham, one in Dulwich and others in Bromley and Orpington.
I know quite a few other boys around your ds age on the 'autistic spectrum' (if that is the correct thing to say).

I'm very close to Dulwich - do you have any info please?

Hi Aloha,

If you go to www.groups.google.com/group/SLHE this is the South London home ed group, you can request to join this group and you get get in touch with HE'rs near you who go to the group in Dulwich. I don't want to give out too much information on here.
hth

Warhammer is really popular here too (both of my eldest are on the autistic spectrum) - however dh has painted the models for years, so they did have a bit of a starting point.

Runescape (on t'internet) is also very popular.