how would I find home educators in my local area

[bunnyhohohunny]

I am a part-time teacher, and though I love my job, I do think that home education is the ideal. ds is 1, so it's a bit early - i am just kind of dipping my toes in....
so a couple of questions:
I would need to keep working 2 days a week. Would I be able to HE essentially on a part-time basis, with ds going to nans the other 2 days?
And how do you find other HE groups in your area - for socialising etc?
thanks!

i only know a bit about this as DD is only 17months so we don't do it yet, but are planning on doing so. I joined Education Otherwise. Its about £20 for the year and they send a great contact list for HE groups all over the country. Once you get in touch with a local group you'll soon find the others who are around and about.
also, just google 'HE' for wherever you are and some links should get you close to where you want to get.
good luck. nice to hear a teacher supporting HE.

Yes you can definitely home educate when working two days a week-home ed doesn't have to happen 9-3 Mon-Fri!
And Nanny can/will be involved won't she?

We are informal home educators, where the children have learned from living life-and they have learnt from all of the adults that have been around them.

I agree with joining EO and you'll get a contact list of home educators near you, but there is also a page of local contacts on the EO website www.education-otherwise.org/About%20EO/About%20EO/LocalGroupsList.htm
and also one on the UK-HE website www.home-education.org.uk/local.htm
Both of these websites have internet support groups, where you will find a lot of experienced home educators.

Locally we have folks joining our group when their children are very young, so they mix with others who do not go to school from a very early age.

There is a website especially for families who home educate young children www.muddlepuddle.co.uk/ and they are linked with an early years HE support group groups.yahoo.com/group/EarlyYearsHE/ and you would find folks there in a very similar position to you.

You might enjoy reading about informal vs formal home educating too;
www.infed.org/biblio/home-education.htm

hth
Julie
Home Educating in Worcestershire
www.worcestershire-home-educators.co.uk/

thanks for your replies.

I have joined the local yahoo group, but though I live in suffolk, I live near the border or cambridgeshire too - things are never easy

It seems a really brave thing to do for some reason, though we all know all children will learn better if they are on a 1:1 or in very small groups! HE seems such an obvious thing to do to me, but then the big problem would be not being able to go back to work full time..

even if you WERE intent on doing 5 days 9-3, there will be weekends, surely? So you could theoretically do 5 days.

In practice, of course this isn't how it works. We certainly don't do 9-3 every day. We are much more relaxed, we are often still waking up at 9. But THEN we don't clock off at 3, either, nor at weekends. Learning really does take place all the time, all I think most kids need is not to be put off.

I think you are actually very wise to start getting your head around it now, when your son is very young. I did 90% of my reading and converting of dp around this time, and it makes it all a lot easier now, tbh. I have been chewing over the pros and cons for long enough now to be very confident with the decision. Also, although we are, and I think, sadly, always will get a lot of opposition from my in laws, no one can say that this is a whim.

Can I recommend some books? If you haven't already looked at John Holt's stuff, he is great. - this gives you a taste (I think that there is a link to most of the issues of GWS on the server of some HEing magazine but I couldn't find it just now)

Also, Grace Llewellyn's teenage liberation handbook is really good. I know your son is only 1. Get it for YOU and read it to get your head around what HEing could have meant for you.