Seriously considering taking GS out of school and educating him 'at home' - anyone done this?

[Joash]

Any ideas or suggestions wouldn't go amiss either.

Just found the other thread - no-one have any tips for a complete home-ed novice then?

BUMP

There's quite a few Home Educators on here, but most apparently not around at the moment...

What age is your GS? It makes a difference to the kinds of things you might want to do with him - eg my DS is 14 and is working towards iGCSEs, but many others on here have much younger children and they have carried on doing similar activities to those they did pre-school.

It also depends whether he has been having problems at school, either with the teaching style or bullying etc - if so, you may want to give him time to get over those issues first...

Most importantly, lots of people are doing it, and legally its an equally valid option. There's huge amounts of information on the internet, resources, groups, etc. Education Otherwise is one of the biggest.

Ooooh, there are lots of home educators on here. I am thinking of doing it when my kids get to that age, but in answer to your question - no I haven;t taken dc out fo school.

Have a look at education otherwise, and there are lots of groups on yahoo that you can join who are great support groups on home education. do a search on groups and then apply to the ones that interest you.

First thing to do is, assuming your circumstances would allow it, work out what home education is and what you would need to do - you can't just take him out tomorrow iyswim. and read up a bit about the benefits and the likely issues you coudl face (in particular criticism from family and friends etc)

Once you have done your research, you will know what is going to feel right. And if you have built up some contacts through teh support groups, you will have back up for whatever you do....

Good luck

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/2406/457490?ts=1202226396368

Try this thread which has a kind of roll call of home educators. Jsut found this myself today

Thanks for the website - I will look at it. He's only 5. But I'm not happy with a few things about his time at school and have been thinking about home-ed for some time now.
He was diagnosed as borderline ADHD and whilst he is not unhappy at school, he can be a bit of a handful if he doesn't get one-to-one.
He is fabulous in school holidays etc, when we spend time together doing things, but as soon as he's back in the classroom - he reverts. He has the attention span of a gnat (apart from in 1-1). loads of little things really - and the only thing I can put my finger on is the lask of 1-1 at school. Even his teacher says that when she sits with him to do an activity, he is great and whilst he is pretty 'average' in some things, he is way ahead in reading, computer skills and number work. Yet once he doesnt have sole attention, he becomes hyper.

Thanks PP - I want to make sure that I am ready for this and I guess what I'm really wondering is, whether people follow some sort of plan, or just go with the flow.

It sounds like the school environment doesn't really suit him, and HE could well be a more suitable environment. There are a few people on here who have only recently made the move to HE after having problems with schools, and others who never sent their children, who might be able to tell you about how they have found it.

If you find he is learning well with you in the holidays, then you would probably find you could do HE. It allows you to concentrate when it suits you, and burn off energy when that is what you need, which some children find works much better than having to work to the teacher's agenda (necessary in a class, but not when you are 1-to-1).

It varies. But I certainly plan to go with teh flow. DH was home educated until he was 14 and decided to go to school. He went on to university and has a good career now - so I have a real life example of it working! Have talked to MIL alot about it, and she said that any atempts to follow a curriculum was destined for failure (all 4 kids) - it's all about working with them to nurture their interest. E.g. children eventually do decided they woudl like to read. DH was 7 and he learnt in a couple of weeks. some people do follow a curriculum though, and that seems to work for them.

I don't see it as anything differnt from what I am doing currently iwth my pre-school age kids. Watching what they like adn are interested in, helping them find out about those things, encouraging them to try new things and coming up wtih ideas of things that might interest them... facilitating their own self directed learning rather than teaching a curriculum.

I have heard people talking about de-schooling. If your son has been at school, you might need some time to settle. I am sure others who are expereienced wtih that will be able to help you with that.

There's a huge range of styles - a lot of parents do what's called autonomous home education, which means that you follow the child's interests and they pick up the basic skills (and later the more complex ones) as they need them naturally, rather than because someone has decided a list of what they ought to know.

Others go for a more formal route and follow some kind of curriculum. Others fall between the two, spending some time doing the basics, then wandering onto other topics.

We are unusual in having started HE at 13 when there were no specific problems at school. It was a practical choice to give us the scope we need, and DS is studying with an internet school. This has a formal curriculum and works towards qualifications, so is very much at the formal end of HE.

By the way, if GS isn't a typo, I assume you have him with you fulltime?

Oh, and you could just "take him out tomorrow" if you decided to (assuming you are in England or Wales). At least one of the HErs on here found out about HE one day, spent the evening reading up on it, and went in with the de-registration letter next morning. But that was after a long struggle with the school, I'm not saying it is appropriate in your case

AMumInScotland - no you're right, GS isn't a typo - He's my grandson who has been with us since he was 5 months old and we have full residenc of him until he's 18 and makes his own decisions.

The idea of reading up one evening and taking him out the next day makes me panic LOL. I was thinking more about getting some sort of plan together (for me, not for GS and not a curriculum as such - just lots of ideas on how to approach things) and then de-registering him at the end of term.

I like the idea of following the child's interests and picking up basic skills as naturally, but as his interests are words and numbers (he's always been fascinated with reading, etc), that makes dealing with the basics a bit easier for us. And from what's been said on other HE threads, we wouldn't have to adapt to doing anything as we're always 'out and about' or discuss things in some depth as long as he is interested etc. He's also into geography (his Grandads 'thing') and history (my 'thing'). SO when we go places he always wants to know how, when why IYSWIM.

It was something I was thinking about doing just for a few years - but after looking at some of the other threads on HE, it might become a long-term thing as it seems to work well for so many people.

PotPourri - great to hear about your sone going onto university, although that's a long way off, it is one thing that concerned me. Is there anywhere that records how many college or university students were HE's?

He would still have plenty of interaction with other children and he goes to Stagecoach (stageschool) on Sundays - where he does dance, drama and singing, so that would be useful.

Gosh, if he's full of questions and interested in words and numbers, it sounds like a fairly autonomous style would be very straightforward for you. Have you had a look through some of the other threads yet? There are many autonomous HErs who'll be able to tell you how their days tend to go, which will probably reassure you that you are perfectly capable of it, and help you think through how you want to approach it.

There are also a number of HE groups in different parts of the country which would give him (and you) a chance to meet up with other families. You can find out about them through Yahoo Groups, or by joining Education Otherwise. That might let you know what is going on in your local area.

Thank you AMumInScotland I will spend some time looking at Yahoo Groups, and Education Otherwise. Thanks again.

IMO - I would take him out if things are bad.

I took my DS out at just 6 half way through year one. My DS was a bright child on starting school but the 30 a class system proved to be to much for him. The stress of having teachers shouting orders all the time and shouting loud at other children made him a nervous wreck and his abilty to learn nearly stopped totally as it was all he could do to cope with the environment.

After 3 years out he is a different boy.

Some people are just not made for school. Unless you live somewhere remote or rural you should find plenty of home edders.

Try Education otherwise, or if you are a christian try the Home Service. If you cant find them on google I will find the links and post, just drop a message here.

thanks beeper - found loads of stuff to read through at the moment. Just have to persuade DH that it's a good idea - although I do intend to do it with or without his agreement

You may find this thread useful as well here. I started it to help show other parents what can and is done within Home Educating families.
I only started HE'ing at the beginning of this term. I was one of the ones who had been thinking about it for a long time but thought it was illegal, so as soon as I found out that it wasn't the dereg letter went in the next school day and DS2 never went back. My son is SEN with a need to run off energy to his own needs, you may find that the diagnosis of ADHD is just that he is a lad with lots of energy and just can't sit still for 6 hours a day.
As to preperation what is there to prepare? Don't go buying equipment etc. straight away because he may not use it for 3 years. Start off with pens, pencils, paper and paints and add to it as you go. If you want to do 'lessons' make them short, 15 or 20 minutes should do, unless he wants to go for more and stop as soon as they want to. Make it fun, choose books he wants at times that are easy for you all.
Dont forget the advantages to yourself. You can take cheaper holidays, you can have lie ins when you want, you can do astronomy with a telescope because you know he can catch up on his sleep. You can travel to expand his education (now how many castles or cathedrals would you like to see?).

We havn't looked back, we have our happy son back, he is eager to sit down with his Dad and do the more formal lessons (his Dad can make them so much more fun than I can) and I do the weird, wacky and spontaneous stuff.

Thanks discoverlife It's so nice to here that there are so many people for whom this has worked out. I am a bit sceptical about the ADHD thing, as I think in SOME cases, if there is no apparent reason for bags of energy - it's too easy for so-called professionals to label kids (thats not to knock children that do have ADHD). He does have a tremendous amount of energy, and can't sit still for 5 minutes never mind a school day, so th short burst of stuff that interests him would be ideal.

The preperation is more about me, making sure that I'm ready for this. After bringing up three kids and them going to school, it seems like a giant step to suddenly take my grandson out of school. However, the more I read, the more I am convinced that this is exactly what he needs and what will suit him better.
We don't need to buy anything anyway as we have a cupboard in the kitchen full of pens, paper modelling stuff, computer software, and masses of arts and crafts stuff. He already has over 200 books that he likes (some educational (in the formal sense) but many others that he just loves reading and looking at. He's into maps and atlas' - hence having loads of those, and we do have things like a decent telescope and he has a digital camera as he's obsessed with taking photos of things (don't know if you saw the thread last year about his camera exploits . My DS even has a microscope and bug catching kit somewhere in his pig-sty of a room (I mean that affectionately .

Our situation would probably be like yours with grandad doing the more formal stuff (if necessary) and me doing the "weird, wacky and spontaneous stuff".

The more I lok into theis, the more I am convinced that it's what we need to do.
Did your DH agree with your decision?
I ask because DH isn't keen on the idea.

Oh and please ignore the spelling mistakes. I can spell - just tired lol

I was surfing MN and I saw a thread about HE'ing and followed through to Education Otherwise and read for half an hour. I looked over at DH, said, shall we Home Educate and he said 'Yes, Ive been trying to think of a way to broach the subject with you'. It goes to show that even after 20+ years we still can't read each others minds that well. But if your DH is a bit leary of it, get him to go to a HE meeting and meet some other HE dads.

Mine is also into maps and atlas's. We even have two poster size maps of Europe and Britain on the ceiling as there is no room on the walls anymore.

Hello Joash,
I know three grandmothers who are/were home educating their grandchildren.

Two in real life (one lad had reached 18 now and gone to college)and one I know quite well online from another forum like this one.

Email me through the info@ link on our website below, if you would like me to pass your details along to the two Grandma's I know who are still doing this.
I am sure they would 'talk' to you about how it works for them.

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

"He does have a tremendous amount of energy, and can't sit still for 5 minutes never mind a school day"

• I should hope so !! He's only 5 !!

• He sounds lovely, and I think you are going to improve his life dramatically.