Information for families who are new to home ed!

[Arthur101]

Hi everyone!

I’ve been feeling like there isn’t much information to do with home education, and it can feel overwhelming at times 😅 I’m hoping to start a business that will be offering lots of home education opportunities to families as it’s just not something that is currently available sadly! I wanted to offer a free information and advice service, information evenings for families new to or thinking about home schooling, home education groups that are more consistent e.g every single Thursday afternoon etc. I always wanted to offer an assessment service in which you can get a detailed report on how your child is doing educationally and some advice on where to go moving forward. Finally I would like to offer tutors for families who are perhaps feeling overwhelmed, these would be regular qualified teachers who come for a few hours on days that suit you to teach at your child’s pace in their own learning style.

I just wanted some feedback so I thought this would be the perfect place!! Is there anything that you would like to see offered that you haven’t seen so far, or any further advice on any of the services I’ve mentioned.

I really do want to provide a better platform for home ed families, so any advice is appreciated! 😊

Can i ask how much experience you have personally of HE?

I guess it sounds like the tutoring would be the actual business? Open sessions and groups to draw people in? Nothing wrong with that, but I think you'd need to benchmark your tutoring costs and any group costs locally. I don't home ed but did look at it seriously a couple of years ago and contacted a few groups who were amazingly generous with their initial information so I'm not sure that's necessarily the best angle. I was interested in a skills swap with other parents. For example, I'm highly qualified in a particular subject and happy to educate in it, but not in others areas. That networking takes a while to set up so maybe something along those lines would be helpful?

Do you plan to make money from this business, OP?
If so I have to say I think it's a very cynical move to exploit families who are often struggling to keep their heads above water already. The home ed community typically support one another without profit-making. An attempt to monetise this situation is unethical IMO.

I'm afraid the general impression I get from your post is that you don't have much direct experience of home education yourself, or if you do, you haven't been associating much with other home ed families. Can you say a bit more about your background and sources of information?

Your perspective sounds quite school-based. Specifically, I am really struggling to think of any reason at all why parents would need the assessment you are proposing to offer. People do sometimes seek assessments for specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia. But a benchmark of a child's educational attainment is much more the sort of information which is relevant for a child at school, who receives little individual attention and who needs to be brought in line with what the rest of the class is doing.

I wouldn't say its unethical! I was planning to offer a large portion of free services, including free information talks that pointed families in the right direction - a lot of families I have spoken too struggled in the first few months, so that would give some advice and tips etc. The only profitable bit is the tutoring side of it. The groups I was planning on offering as either free or covering the cost of entry to places. After speaking to families about the reasons why they're home schooling I felt I wanted to offer a place for advice and support - the tutoring is a separate entity almost for people that want it. A lot of people I speak to don't know where to start so I wanted to set up a one stop shop to help families and children, it wasn't all about money at all so apologies if that impression was created.

@Francesthemute

Hi! A lot of the people I have spoken to are struggling to find regular opportunities in the areas I am in or don't know where to start and need advice. I found a lot of families were home educating their children who had special educational needs that perhaps didn't work with formal schooling and needed something regular in terms of weekly activities as a lot of activities I see are every month rather than weekly. Not all of them by any stretch but most of the ones I had seen :)

@Saracen

I've been working with family members and non-family members for over a year now who home school to gain some insight. I initially trained as a primary school teacher you are right, but found the lack of provision for some families who home educate was something that I was interested in. For the assessment side of it I was thinking more along the lines of helping families plan out some basic structure to their day if they didn't know where to start, or guide them in what to teach for things like literacy skills and maths. I find it's always much better when tailored to the child's interests and 'in the moment' as it were, but it gives some families who may not know where to start some starting point. I am aware that a lot of people are established and happy with what they're doing and these aren't quite the people I am talking about, more the people just starting out or feeling overwhelmed if that makes sense? :)

Hi, no that is what I mean in terms of information sessions, telling people where to start within the community, utilising social media etc. I wouldn't want to take people out of it at all! In fact I wanted to add to it with these home ed groups :)

No, I understand you don't think it's unethical or you wouldn't be considering targeting an already marginalised group of people to make money from. I do think it's unethical though, and as you asked for opinions I thought I'd share mine.

That’s completely fair enough! Thank you for taking the time to reply . It is all with good intentions though

But how is that going to be a business?

Who on earth is going to pay you for that?

Every thing you have suggested is offered currently either free by the local HE community or at a small cost.

Everyone who is established and happy with what they are doing were once just starting out - and they have managed to work their own way through it fine without paying for a service even through they felt overwhelmed in the first few weeks. Most simply talked to more experience people, read books, websites, posted questions on facebook groups and like magic they become established and happy with what they are doing.

I have no idea where you are in the country but groups close all the time around here due to lack of numbers because there are just so many groups - the hardest part is deciding what not to do - not finding groups to go to.

Honestly HE is not that difficult there is so much advice and support out there already - people may feel overwhelmed in the first few weeks but that normally disappears never to return once they have spent some time with other HE families and discovered it really does not need to be too complicated or difficult.

I HE my children and now my Grandchildren are HE - i volunteer running sessions for new people and offer advice on a number of facebook groups on HE and dealing with local authorities - we put people in contact with their local community and offer advice on exams and studying for them. I help at a number of the national HE festivals and conferences and i know there are plenty of people like me across the country.
But it was nice to be told my 30 years of work providing advice and support does not exist.

I think you’re taking it a little personally when it definately was not intended to be so. I can only talk from my own experiences where I live and that is a semi rural place where people are struggling for regular activities and there is a demand. It’s lovely to know that isn’t the case everywhere as it is something I feel very passionate about. It wasn’t intended as an insult, I’m just trying to get some helpful feedback, so there is absolutely no need to feel attacked in any way. When we’re all discussing “paying as well” as I’ve said that is a very loose term considering I’m talking about paying entry to events and educational places and free informational talks?

Thanks for explaining more.

As an analogy, consider a new parent who felt all at sea with their baby. It seems to me that where you are coming from - with your tutoring expertise set off against your relative inexperience in home ed matters - would be like that of a professional who had worked in a nursery and knew how babies are looked after in such a setting. It might appear that looking after babies in a nursery is similar to being a parent, but it really is a completely different enterprise. If anything, their advice would be more likely to be undermining and unhelpful, the more so if they were very confident of having the answers. I don't think you've been sufficiently immersed in the world of home education to appreciate just how different it is.

The message which long-time home educators give to newcomers is not, "here's how to assess your child to see how they would measure up in the system you've just left" or "here are some professional tips to help you in case you aren't up to the job". Rather, we go to great lengths to assure parents that "your child is unique and isn't ahead or behind: education is a journey, not a race". And "it's fine, you can do this, trust your instincts, you know your child better than anyone." And "there's no hurry, you needn't rush into spending money, you'll find your way in time". Those who feel all at sea are encouraged not to seek professional advice straightaway on what to teach for things like literacy skills and maths, but first at their own child, to watch and wait and gain an understanding of how that child learns and what makes them happy.

In fact, unless the parent or child has a strong desire to do otherwise, the usual advice is to start off with a period of "deschooling" during which there is no enforced formal learning at all, to allow the child to relax and settle in while giving the parent time to see how the child responds when she has the time and space to learn spontaneously.

The reason some of us react fairly strongly against non-HE folks offering advice to new home educators is because we have seen so many teachers and tutors who have a little knowledge of home education but who don't really "get it" offering their services to us. They are sure there's a demand for what they do, but they may well be driving that demand themselves. It seems to me that nearly always this is done in all innocence, but still it causes problems. (The same is the case with some Local Authorities' self-styled home education advisors, who may indicate that families should follow school-type lessons and timetables. I'm sure they believe what they say, but they don't know about home education and their advice may do more harm than good.)

There is a lot of expertise in the home ed community, which is freely given. Where parents can't access it locally due to personal circumstances or living very rurally, many forums are available.

Maybe some of the things you are proposing to offer could be helpful. But those aren't the things which will make you any money.

Samx - i was definitely not taking it personally - why would i when i do not know you or you know me.

What i am afraid you got was a Oh no not another non - HE person coming along telling us Home Educators that they know what we need - reaction. We see rather too many of you.

Honestly - i really do not think you know enough about this field to be thinking of setting up a business - i am not speaking from personal experience of my local area but years and years of experience in HE both locally and nationally. One of the friends i have from the national groups is the only HE family on a remote Scottish island - she does not struggle to access groups and resources - she travels to the mainland or uses non HE groups such as Scouts. Of course she would like a greater choice of groups more easily available but recognizes this could never happens and accesses what is there.

Of course not all areas are the same and some have more activity in them than others. If you could tell us roughly whereabouts you are i am sure we will know people in that area and be able to confirm whether your analysis of your local HE community - which appears to be based on a couple of family members - is accurate enough to be planning on a business enterprise there.

I think you should be getting an inkling from the reaction here that this may be a lot harder than you anticipated.

There are quite a lot of us, including me, who already offer personally tailored child led tutoring for home Ed families. There may be room for more, but any teacher who is qualified but, more important, willing to listen and understand what it is that a family is seeking when they approach a tutor can offer their services. I wouldn't choose to go through what is effectively an agency to offer my services.

I'd appreciate your service. For someone like me who may want to break away from in school education but does not have a clue where to start it would be the bridge between shit what am I doing and oh wow isn't this home ed stuff so natural. See this analogy.. its like offering an earth mother Gina Ford for a month til they find their feet.
I'd love to fee free of the institution that frames a lot of schooling these days, but I can't do 0 to 60 in a day. Home ed is not just about being intuitive with your child's learning, but also about managing the current situation with the tools at your disposal.

I'd be pleased to find something of a structure within this new unstructured framework. Would give me the confidence to develop my own thing over time.

This is quite a broad offer. There are different things missing in different places. For children who need study groups - then that should be the offer. For parents interested in a 3rd party assessment of their child’s progress ( either against NC cohort or a less structured choice ) that’s another thing altogether. For those doing online schooling who just need a regular place/themes for face to face meetups out side of their scheduled lessons there is another thing. ( yes I know there are after school clubs, but always being the odd one out home Ed kid can get tedious) I’m sure there are more, but it depends on area and needs. I can see a market for services of this sort, but you really need to survey by area unless you are looking to provide online services. ( and there are floods of those out there now for obvious reasons)
I’m sure there are opportunities to provide worthwhile services that are not necessarily available for people in their area - but HE comes in many varieties and children’s ages interests and needs vary even more. If you can really understand your areas needs and get your offer to the right families there might be some opportunities to make a difference and a living.