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Home ed

Find advice from other parents on our Homeschool forum. You may also find our round up of the best online learning resources useful.

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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:

Janni · 22/02/2008 22:09

ADAMANT - I can spell, honest

Cam · 22/02/2008 22:10

Indoctrination is not confined to institutions

juuule · 22/02/2008 22:18

Everybody thinks, Cam. You can be introduced to ideas which might make you challenge your ideas of things but the thinking originates in the person. You can't force people to actually 'think'.
As for teaching and facilitation. I think that they are very similar beings. However, I do think that teaching (for me) is associated with 'delivering the curriculum' and forcing a certain pattern of learning on children, where facilitation is more providing the means for a child to develop what it is interested in. If that meant tutoring by a teacher then I would have to facilitate that, too.
Facilitation, to me, means providing for a child to follow it's own path of learning and that may include school or tutors if that's what they need.

Cam · 22/02/2008 22:21

Force

I'm talking about the study of knowledge

You know, that objective stuff

terramum · 22/02/2008 22:21

Microwaveonly - show me one school that doesn't try to teach you stuff you don't want to know! I've never heard of a school that let pupils skip classes that they didn't want to do...Heck I did GCSEs I didn't want to do simply because I had to choose something in that option group!

Cam · 22/02/2008 22:22

Sorry juuule your arguments aren't intellectually rigorous enough

MicrowaveOnly · 22/02/2008 22:24

juuule from what I'm seeing on here though, especially the knitting is that you seem to be saying that if your kids do not want to try and learn something, then they don't have to. But I think some things worth learning are hard. Subjects like science may seem inpenetrable, but things worth knowing aren't always easily learnt.But the joy of fighting through the fog of incomprehension and having that eureka moment is worth the struggle.

hence you cannot leave a child to judge what is worth knowing. and I quote:

?Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.?

IYSWIM!!!

Cam · 22/02/2008 22:24

If only I'd known the Ancient Greeks were so wrong

Poor old Aristotle and Plato

juuule · 22/02/2008 22:26

terramum, I couldn't take subjects I wanted to because they were all in the same group - biology, chemistry and physics. I could only opt for one.

MicrowaveOnly · 22/02/2008 22:30

terramum, yes schools do teach you stuff you don't want to know because a child needs to be exposed to all different subjects in order to know which one interests them. I mean at 6 you might think art and craft is the biz but by 11 you hate it and want to learn geography, but then at 16 you realise you want to be a medic, but bugger you weren't forced to do chemistry and now you are 5 years behind and can't do the A level and hence the degree you want..

You have to keep kids options open as they get older their interests change and if they aren't being exposed to all subjects they CAN'T develope an interest. Hence my quote from above...?Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.?

juuule · 22/02/2008 22:32

"?Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.? "

I'll agree with that one.

juuule · 22/02/2008 22:34

So why can't you take chemistry at 16?

MicrowaveOnly · 22/02/2008 22:35

juule what school allows you to do only one science...how crazy!!!

These day you can do any and the weirdest combinations photography, latin and biology for example, (I jest not) problem being that actually leaves kids unable to get into university on any related course!

pollyfingle · 22/02/2008 22:35

We're home edding our dd1 who is 4 (5 in may) she would have started reception last september. She spent a year in nursery, where she was happy but i was told she couldn't do this or that when she could at home. We decided to home ed and so far it is going well. There are lots of home ed groups and activities near us, she also goes to dance classes and will start rainbows in may. She keeps in touch with old nursery friends.

It isn't suitable for everyone, and i'd never stop her from going to school in the future if that's what she wants. It can be a great thing, but i'm sure for some people it could also be terrible. I'd say do what you feel is right -and if it doesn't work out, then the schools will still be there

yurt1 · 22/02/2008 22:36

"I read books & talk about them"

so do I. But then I had a few discussions about books with someone with an Oxford English degree and realised I had no idea how to analyse them in the way he did.

How did you learn the trig you use to plot out your veggies? I might use trig when navigating, but I was taught it first. I wasn't just dropped in the middle of nowhere and left to sort it out myself.

"DS has absorbed a a lot so far just my watching us do things..."

DS1 couldn't do that because he couldn't imitate. He had to be forced to learn everything until a year ago when imitation kicked in (which incidentally we taught in a structured way). It's been life changing for him.

Julienoshoes · 22/02/2008 22:37

I agree that every parent who cares about their children home educates them out of school.

I have parented my stepson all the way through school, and my three children until they were aged 14, 11 and 8.
We did all sorts of things together outside of school.

What we do now is kinda like that-but much more of it-and a massive amount of it is based on purposive conversation on a one to one basis-some of the links I posted explain more.

What we do now suits my children so much more than school did. It is very efficient.

BUT what i am passionate about is giving parents accurate information about home education, being a legal viable option.
This includes the information that HE doesn't have to be structured lessons or formal work, and that child interest learning can be efficient as well as fun-and get the child up to the level where he can do whatever qualifications he chooses-if he chooses.

Then I believe that all parents will make an informed decision about what is the right thing for their family at that time

juuule · 22/02/2008 22:42

Well, my school did that and my children's school also had some odd combinations that excluded certain choices.

terramum · 22/02/2008 22:43

I agree with you Microwaveonly re having a eureka moment - it is very rewarding to finally get something and really lovely as a parent to be there & enjoy that moment with them. Learning autonomously doesn't necessarily mean you never get that though...I think you do children a great disservice by saying that. Autonomous learning doesn't necessarily mean the child will go for the 'easy' subjects all the time.

...and schooling doesn't necessarily mean you are fully prepared for every career eventuality. If anything the way schools work & timetable lessons, choose which curriculum to use etc means somewhere along the line someone will have to compromise on what they want to learn...like juule & her science options. That's the difference between schools & HEing. Schools have to be "broad & balanced" to cater as best they can for a group of people with a wide variety of interests & abilities. HE can be truly personalised to the child's abilities and interests.

yurt1 · 22/02/2008 22:45

What do you think about seeker's earlier point that sometimes you have to learn to do stuff that you don't really want to?

Cam · 22/02/2008 22:46

"I agree that every parent who cares about their children home educates them out of school."

Oh dear, back to the extremism

terramum · 22/02/2008 22:48

yurt1: "How did you learn the trig you use to plot out your veggies? I might use trig when navigating, but I was taught it first. I wasn't just dropped in the middle of nowhere and left to sort it out myself."

Well DH tried to explain it to me first (having a photographic memory means he remembers everything he did at school unlike me )....& I really couldn't understand what he was on about so went & looked it up on the internet

yurt1 · 22/02/2008 22:49

Cam I think she meant that if you care about your child you do extra with them at home whether they're HE or schooled. Although I had to read it a few times as well

yurt1 · 22/02/2008 22:51

The trouble with internet learning (and I do a lot myself) is that it is shallow. It's a good way of revisiting ideas, but I think it would be hard to learn trig from scratch using it.

I've revisited navigation recently via the internet and outdoorsy magazines but I could remember enough from 20 years ago for it to make some sense. And I've decided I need someone hands on to take me through a days worth of proper teaching as well in order to be safe. Partly I realise that because I know how well I used to know it when it was drummed into me (in quite a boring fashion).

terramum · 22/02/2008 22:53

yurt1 - is that aimed at me? Which post of sekkers are you referring to...I must be tired coz I can't find it!

Julienoshoes · 22/02/2008 22:55

Sorry i didn't mean to be extremist-I was agreeing witth you Cam when you said;

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

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