Home ed a place to really let rip and debate

[singingmum]

OK so it seemed needed so I'll start.
I HE.It is best fro my dc's in my opinion and that of my dp.
Why? Well a number of reasons really.I'll be short as have tired fingers from posting on other HE threads where anyone who wishes can see the full story.
My dp,my brothers,my friend and myself all attended the same comp over diff years.It was crap.
I actually became bored of learning the same stuff over and over again.My dp and brothers were pigeon holed for having learning difficulties(ie dyslexia)and were taught very badly and left to rot.My friend could learn much but was often left to it and did not do as well as she could.
My son had mega probs caused by nursery and am not putting either of my dc's go through that as my ds is bright but may have aspergers and my dd has dyslexic tendencies.
So as everyone has been letting rip indiscrimenently(bad spelling sorry)I thought I'd put it all in one place.
Let rip ladies and gents

I'm often struck by how HE parents say that a child can go into their favourite topic in great depth in their own way. That's lovely when it happens and it often does but it's not unique to home education. School educated children learn from the world around them too. And museums and galleries and parks and woods aren't off bounds to them.

ruty

If you are worried about your ds's opportunity to socialise-seriously, get yourself involved in your local HE group. It CAN take time to build up relationships, obviously, but I would say that we have easily MORE social opportunities than we can take advantage of-and ds is only 3 (nearly 4).

NKF the trouble is that there's so little time out of school to actually do anythig else, by the time you've done a period of de-stressing, read the reading book, done the rest of the homework, tried to have a chat about their day, and so on.

weekends, half term, easter, whitsun and six wonderful long weeks in the summer. Its not as if we schoolers lock our kids in the shed when they are not in school

at mb

you don't beat them into submission of a morning either?

is fagging no longer commonplace?

seriously I think for a LOT of HErs the choice is a pragmatic one, because the schools avalible are, for whatever reason, is unsuitable for their child(ren), their aspirations, whatever.

There are certainly schools that I would send my kids to. Sadly most of them are in Devon.

LOL MB - Easter this year was for SATS revision, half term was for Maths GCSE coursework, somehow the summer holidays have become only 5 weeks long, and weekends are for catching up on sleep, ballet lessons, and homework. However, perhaps I should lock DD1 in the shed, then she might actually get on with the homework, rather than moaning that she doesn't really need to do it as she's never doing French again in her life after the end of this term, so why does it matter.
(I do make her come on days out to places of interest - I'm just trying ot be a bit provocative as we're all agreeing far too nicely on this thread )

It hasn't been a really ripping sort of thread has it? I thought there were far more people with opinions about HE on MN.

tries to think of something controversial

um...

SV - all I can say is I just don't find the day like that. Nor the weekends. Nor the long holidays. I just don't recognise the schools many home educators describe. I can understand the view that goes "my child had a horrible time or the local school is awful so we're home educating" or "we have specific beliefs so we're home educating". But the argument that schools turn out drones/conformists or crush the spirit/individuality out of children seems innacurate to me.

oo..oo..I can disagree with something!

Riven, I disagree.

See what I did there?

But my kids don't like going to bed at a reasonable time, or eating veg either, but I'm the grown up.

When they pay the bills they can call the shots

I agree MB.

Hey, wait a minute...

C'mon, SB. Must try harder.

Ok, well, Myself and Dh are their authority right now. There's room for personal preferences, but that's in a framework of doing what you are supposed to do.

really wants to say each to their own, but feels obliged to carry on the rippingness

Well, as part of a family, everyone has responsibilities. Dh goes out to work and earn the money. He doesn't always want to, but he does it anyway. I change the baby's bum. I don't want to, but I have to.
Dd1 doesn't always want to clear the table, but it's one of her chores, so she does.

Making certain choices is beyond their remit atm. Dd2 likes wearing just tights and a beanie hat, but I'm not going to let her decide to go to the park dressed like it.

If we had decided school was appropriate for them, they wouldn't be the ones to decide otherwise. We decide loads as parents without them having a casting vote...

Our family is not a democracy. The dcs have a say, and lots of opportunity to voice their opinions. They even have the casting vote on some issues. But there are lots of things where it is our job as parents to make the decision, because we are grown ups and they are children and children often do not know what is best for them. I don't either necessarily, but it is my job to try to make good choices and to take responsibilty for them.

we have a family framework of rules and responsibilities.

the kids are members of our family. they may not have chosen this, but they are. they also didn't choose to live in britain and be subject to the myriad rules (and privileges) associated with it. They didn't choose lots of things. Some things just are.

More importantly, I think responsibilities are vastly important for kids self esteem.

But I do NOT have sole responsibility for the housework. it is everyones responsibility, to exercise as they are able, to keep it clean. If it was something that became assoicatied with the job of sahm i would go back to work. I am not a drudge.

Are you all familiar with the radical unschooling movement? sandra dodd et al? here

I will say that in 5 years of contributing to internet debates, including some real firepits, the ONLY place I have ever felt really personally belittled and attacked was by sandra dodd on one of the unschooling yahoo groups. Basically because I asked for clarification on something. This made me a bit about school being a unique conformist factory for bullies.

I HE as well. My children have learned more but it is a lot of work. A person really does need to have the patience and time to do HE.

OMG

did you go on there with TCS ideas?

that is EXACTLY what I did!

my god she does NOT like them. The trouble is, she is so bloody aggressive and horrible that I really can't take her writing seriously somehow. I mean, if thats how you treat people who disagree with you... I suppose, to her, TCS is kind of her competition.

am reading rest of post now...