Anyone starting home ed during teenage years?

[ebenezer]

I'm really keen to hear from you because we're seriously considering this route for one of our DCs. He's 13, bright, but for all sorts of reasons, not enjoying school or achieving his potential. He has a thirst for knowledge and we feel could benefit greatly. DH would take responsibility for HE (he's a qualified teacher). In particular I'm interested in: Any problems with starting HE at this stage? Do you buy in tutors for specialist subjects? How do you ensure your child gets a social life/friends (I just have a feeling this might be easier with younger children when you can do the networking for them - with a teenager, I'm not sure how to approach this) and lastly, how does the whole exams thing work for GCSE. I would imagine at A level he'd go to 6th form college.

I did/do home educate teens.
They were 13,11 and 8 when we withdrew them from school.
We started off quite structured and then slowly became more autonomous-child interest led.
Our eldest returned to FE college post 16 and did a couple of GCSEs one day a week and then went on and did A levels-with very pleasing results. The younger two are/will be using the OU for qualifications and bypassing A levels altogether.

There are lots of different ways of home educating and each family is different.
I'd suggest you look at the main HE websites and also find local groups-where abouts are you?

We are involved in local groups here in Worcestershire but also join in with events in Birmingham and Gloucestershire. Our teenagers have done all sorts of physical activities-such as rock climbing/skating/swimming/rugby on a regular basis-and today the youngest has the last full day of her sailing course.
We also go to all the HE camps and gatherings locally and nationally, that we could and the children made friends++. They now have a social life that is the envy of their schooled peers and cousins!
The young folks travel about the country quite a lot, staying with home ed peers and their families and their friends come and stay here.
In fact we have just had an 18th birthday party here over the weekend-with some schooled friends and 20 or so home ed ones.
Socialisation is something almost everyone new to home ed worries about, in fact it can be a problem for our home ed teens-sometimes there is just too much of it!!

We have had no problems at all-we have loved every minute of this home ed journey and it has been very successful for our offspring-and a much less stressful time through teenage years that we had with our first teenager, who went all the way through school.

The websites that may interest you to start with are;

home-education.org.uk/

www.education-otherwise.org/

These two websites have links to local groups and also to national HE internet support groups-it is well worth joining and asking questions there.

There is also;
home-ed.info/

This is another independent HE website run by the mother of two, that she successfully educated at home through their teenage years and the site has links to lots of ideas and resources.

groups.yahoo.com/group/HE-Exams-GCSEs_alternatives_others
This is a new email group for Home Educating families who have children who wish to take GCSEs, IGCSEs or similar qualifications.

groups.yahoo.com/group/Home_Education_Resources/
This is an email group to pass on links and resources for home educators, especially sites useful to those of us in the UK

Then there are ways of doing GCSEs by distance learning;
National Extension College
01223 400 350
www.nec.ac.uk/courses Provides correspondence courses for GCSE.

Oxford Learning -GCSEs and A levels by distance learning
www.oxfordhomeschooling.co.uk
0800 9 75 75 75.

Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA)
83 Piccadilly, London, W1J 8QA
0207 509 5555
www.QCA.org.uk For information regarding the National Curriculum and GCSE coursework.

Little Arthur Independent School
01720 422457
www.littlearthur.org.uk/
Little Arthur Independent school in the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, is geared exclusively to the needs of home-educated children, offering a personalized educational service for 11 -16 year olds. Courses cover National Curriculum Maths, Science and English for 11-14 year olds (Key Stage 3) a range of University of Cambridge International GCSE's for 14-16 year olds and the school offers exam centre facilities being an approved University of Cambridge International Exam Centre

www.aqa.org.uk/index.php Some home educators choose to take qualifications from home using curriculum downladed from the AQA site and then to sit exams as an external candidate. Often the cheapest option but can be challenging to organise.

hth
Julie
www.worcestershire-home-educators.co.uk/

Thanks for that Julienoshoes - really helpful. Definitely makes me realise it could be a possibility. The social network seems to be great which would be a weight off my mind. One more question - do you or your partner stay at home full time to take charge of the home ed? We currently both work full time - obviously this couldn't continue, but I wonder how possible it is to combine part time work or some supply teaching with Home ed? I just feel that for one of us to completely give up paid work would be quite tough, not only financially but also because we both enjoy our work.

I do know of lots of families who work part time around home ed, especially when child is around teenage-home education doesn't have to happen between the hours of 9-3. Forget all ideas of education only happening in school times and in school terms. It can happen any time you want it to.
It really is up to you.

Some folks have grandparents or other family members having the children for regular periods of time-my mom used to come over and spend time teaching the children to cook on a regular basis, each week, when they were younger, for instance. This was enjoyed by grandmother and grandchildren and gave us a break too.
You can make it work around your family life, in whatever way you want it to.
hth

There's also an egroup aimed at parents of secondary school children who want to know more about home education:

groups.yahoo.com/group/HE12plus

Hope this helps.....:0)

Worth while checking out the rules on GCSE course work etc, and the newer GCSEs are increasingly marked at school.

So while your dh could do the tutoring, you might need to get someone 'impartial' to do the marking etc.

We've 'hosted' home edded kids in the school I work in for their final examns.

Check out what is on offer in night schools are the courses offered there can be rather limited. FE collages and tutoring may well be a better bet for GCSE type options