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Home ed

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Original poster

Be honest, I want everyone's views......what do you think of home ed???

696 replies

3Ddonut · 16/02/2008 15:19

I suspect this may get nasty, but please try to keep it nice ladies (and gents) I really like the idea of home ed, I would dearly love to home ed my dc but there are some problems, firstly I work 3 nights a week and my dh works 2 full days,my eldest dd is 5 and she really loves school, but some of things that she says about school unsettle me, I always said that it is their choice if they want to go to school or not, which is why she is there and my ds is in nursery but I wish she'd want to stay home and the longer that she's there, the more I feel that we're wasting time...

I've read a lot of the other threads and see that you can do some home-ed stuff alongside school but I don't think that it's enough for me, I want them to remain interested and not be moved on from one thing too quickly or forced to spend time on things they dislike.

We're already a close family because of mine and dh's shifts there is nearly always someone in the house and we get to spend a lot of time with the kids. I suppose I'd just like it to be more of the same.

My main concerns are that the dc would resent us for it in the future (although I would not take a happy child out of school) I also worry about the effect of home ed-ing the children would have on future employers and university places, I do worry about the socialisation aspect although the kids are in a few groups and are very social, they interact well with adults as well as other children, I'm concerned about how much time I'd have to work with them with working full time myself (no opportunity to cut hours)

I'm going round in circles at the min, I think my ds would be more open to the idea and I'm considering not sending dd2 to nursery at all.

The other biggie is that the school they attend is out of area and it's a really good one, they wouldn't get back in there if we deregistered, I've considered flexi-schooling but I feel that would bring more problems than solutions....

OK, Open fire!!!

OP posts:
Cam · 22/02/2008 21:27

HE's are not facilitating anything different

yurt1 · 22/02/2008 21:29

Basic maths yes, and basic english yes, but not trigonometry or literature analysis.

Not all children can learn autonomously. Ds1 certainly couldn't- he only learned to imitate aged 7, before then everything had to be taught repetitively hand over hand. Now obviously he's an extreme case, but I think its true to say that some children will learn better autonomously than others.

terramum · 22/02/2008 21:35

yurt1 - why not trigonometry or literature analysis? I read books & talk about them with others. I also used trig last year when planning out a planting plan of crops for my allotment....I guess it just depends on what you do in your everyday life.

Cam · 22/02/2008 21:40

Yes yes terramum most of us involve our children in learning activities naturally outside of school.

One complements the other I find. We educate continuously in other words .

Doesn't everyone????

seeker · 22/02/2008 21:40

I read and talk about books a lot, but not to the level or in the way necessary to get A level English.

terramum · 22/02/2008 21:41

Cam - why do you say "HE's must be imposing structured learning on their children albeit not in a classroom"? I certainly don't.....maybe I'm not understanding you right. What do you mean by "structured learning"?

Blandmum · 22/02/2008 21:43

So if your child wants to learn to knit, do you just give them the pins and wool and a book?

When does 'facilitation' start and teaching begin?

What will you do what they want to learn to drive, just give them the keys?

Julienoshoes · 22/02/2008 21:43

Some do-they do school at home.
Some do a mixture of formal and informal home education.

But then a great many home educators do not.
We don't.
We don't impose structure in any part of their lives.
We don't do any formal work at all unless they request it-which is very rare.
No sit down lessons. None.
We are totally autonomous educators-called unschooling in the States
There is an Unschooling Wiki page that goes someway to explaining it.

I also like the article by Alan Thomas that compares formal and informal/autonomous home education

Then there is an excellent article called Organic Structure on the EO website. It explains very well, what we do and why.

We have been home educating like this for seven years now. It has been very successful for us.
Our ds chose to go back to college post 16, to do A levels, where he fitted in very well academically and socially according to the tutors-and got results that far exceeded what school had predicted when he left.
In common with many other home educators our younger two have chosen to forgo GCSEs and A levels and to go straight for OU courses instead.

We have educated them by living life, following their interests and facilitating what ever they have needed.

Children who are able to follow their own interests are involved and enthusiastic about their education.

No need to impose anything.

Cam · 22/02/2008 21:43

When my child was learning about Pompeii in school, I took her to see the real thing

Doesn't everyone

When she was learning about Matisse in Art I took her to the Tate

Doesn't everyone

When she did ballet I took her the ROH

Doesn't everyone

juuule · 22/02/2008 21:45

If your goal was to get an A'level in English then surely you would find a way to reach that level. If the A'level qualification was unnecessary then you might still be interested in reading to A'level standard. If it wasn't necessary and you weren't interested then you would more than likely not bother

Cam · 22/02/2008 21:46

Child-led?

My child says she loves structure

Blandmum · 22/02/2008 21:48

Ds do mine Cam. In fact if ds doesn't have structure he gets very unhappy.

juuule · 22/02/2008 21:52

Then you would provide structure for her, Cam. Isn't that providing for a child what it needs?
As regards knitting, yes, provide needles and wool but you do have to show (teach?) them what to do with it. If you don't know how yourself, then find someone who does.
Everybody benefits from being shown by someone experienced in whatever it is that they want to learn. That is how humans progress or develop imo. There doesn't seem to be much point in having to re-invent the wheel every time someone wants to do something. Well, not unless they are happy and want to do it for themselves,their way.

Cam · 22/02/2008 21:52

Structured learning opens up the academic child's head

Big Time

juuule · 22/02/2008 21:53

But there are some who would argue that for some children it can close down creativity.

Cam · 22/02/2008 21:54

Teaching knitting is structured learning

Blandmum · 22/02/2008 21:54

well, what I do in my lessons is show people who understand less than I do. and for the most part, they enjoy themselves and learn.

Cam · 22/02/2008 21:55

There's nothing more creative than being taught How To Think

terramum · 22/02/2008 22:00

martianbishop - no I'll go round to MILs & she can teach us both. I have always wanted to learn to knit & never have been able to

The line between facilitation & teaching are somewhat blurred, certainly in our house. DS has absorbed a a lot so far just my watching us do things...then one day he asks to do it himself. But yes some things do need to be 'taught'...I'm not saying teaching never happens just because you follow a child-led style of learning. The idea (for us anyway) is that the child chooses what they want to learn about....so we don't do maths or science just because it's Tuesday 10am....'subject' & the detail we go into are led by DS himself or arises out of us doing/seeing something. So for example we talk about weights & measures because we are baking a loaf of bread or look up rainbows on the pc/in a book because DS asked about them.

juuule · 22/02/2008 22:02

I don't believe that you can be taught how to think.
What do people understand by structured learning? I'm beginning to think there must be different interpretations of this.
It may be structured learning to learn the steps of how to knit but as with some of my children when they get bored, they walk away. They leave it. It is a structured as they want it to be and so is unstructured in that they are not forced to learn to knit. It's their decision. I don't think it's possible to learn many (any) things without going through certain steps to learn them. However, these steps might be in a different order for different people and I do think that for some it can be detrimental to the learning process for the steps to be prescribed.

Cam · 22/02/2008 22:03

Everyone does that terramum - so we're all home eddders

You just miss out all the fabulous school stuff

juuule · 22/02/2008 22:04

Maybe fabulous for some but not for all.

Cam · 22/02/2008 22:04

Of course you can be taught to think

Have you not heard of epistomology?

One of my favourite subjects at university

MicrowaveOnly · 22/02/2008 22:06

I am bemused at this phrase 'facilitation'. It sems to have been hijacked by HEs to pretend that they have NOTHING to do with that nasty teaching idea!!

They are pretty much the same thing in reality, just a play on words. Teachers cannot make a child understand something unless that child wants to learn. So isn't that facililitation at the end of the day, i.e. helping them learn something they didn't know before?

Teaching is no more aggressive than facilitation. I think its a shame HEs try to distance them selves as if we're on opposing sides.

Even more worrying is that some kids must pick up on this and think school is this nasty place where people try and teach you stuff you don't want to learn.

well the fact is real life is bloody boring sometimes and we all do things in our jobs that we don't like. What a shock that must be to those Hedded kids when they enter the real workplace!

Janni · 22/02/2008 22:07

I was sure I would home-ed when my first child was little. I found out all about it, convinced DH that it was the right option. Gradually though it seemed unfair to not give DS the experience of school. He is now 11 and although school has been an up and down ride, he is ADAMENT that he would not want to be home-educated. His younger brother feels the same. Their little sister has health problems and I will keep an open mind about her schooling, but it feels right to me to allow children to have an experience of school so that they can make an informed choice. They might have all sorts of weird fantasies about school if they have never tried it.