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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:
TheodoresMummy · 23/02/2008 20:45

Hmm.

I suppose it's easier if to explain if you consider autonomous learning at somewhere like Summerhill, for example, because it's easier to seperate parenting and learning.

I don't know how to explain it with HE. Maybe I can't...?

TheodoresMummy · 23/02/2008 20:47

That was to MB's post.

ahundredtimes · 23/02/2008 20:49

You know I'm so zealous about education, I'd actually put Latin in primary schools.

I think I'm joking, but I might not be.

yurt1 · 23/02/2008 20:50

Ooh I'd love latin.

Did you know there's a latin rabbit or something that can be used for primary school teaching. i thought it looked fab- a whole series of comic strip type books.

Things like Harry Potter in latin as well now/

TheodoresMummy · 23/02/2008 20:50

I see what you mean, ahundredtimes, but I still think it's not always the case for everyone.

For example, I don't remember my times tables. Don't think I ever learned them properly. And I don't need them. Because I have a calculator. And I know how to use a calculator.

Not deliberately arguing, just trying to work through this.

yurt1 · 23/02/2008 20:51

Minimus the mouse (not a rabbit).

yurt1 · 23/02/2008 20:52

check out this play it's fab!

ahundredtimes · 23/02/2008 20:53

[swoon]

I was crap at Latin. I think I'm showing off actually.

I just think education should be about giving choices, and also I probably have a Socratic thing about the love of learning and knowledge, and that teachers are valuable and wonderful and that learning should open the world up, and that sometimes you might struggle with that key because it is stiff and difficult, but you should be made to turn it anyway, over and over again.

And that your desires are not of paramount importance in your learning.

TheodoresMummy · 23/02/2008 20:53

I would love to learn Latin.

But others wouldn't and it would be a waste of time for them to learn it.

Who says that what's taught in schools is good for everyone to know ?

ahundredtimes · 23/02/2008 20:54

Though I still subscribe to the 'fires to be lit' argument over the 'empty vessels to be filled' I guess.

yurt1 · 23/02/2008 20:55

I hated latin at school- it was very boring. It was incredibly useful when doing a Zoology degree and PhD. I had no idea when I was 11 and reciting Salve magestra.

Blandmum · 23/02/2008 20:55

Oh, I'd agree with that one too!

yurt1 · 23/02/2008 20:55

sorry cut off mid way- I had no idea aged 11 I would be using it in that way in the future.

ahundredtimes · 23/02/2008 20:55

I do. I say it.

It isn't the sum total of human knowledge, no. But it is a start and I think it is okay for children to learn and not always to discover.

Bubble99 · 23/02/2008 20:55

I've met a few HE families recently and one thing I've been struck by is the fact that they don't conform to the 'types' I had always imagined.

If I'm honest, I'd always pictured non-conformist lentil types or types who want their child to go to Cambridge at 10.

None of the families I've met in this area are. Only 2 of the 8 had children with SEN - the rest (like us) are unhappy with the NC and class sizes.

Blandmum · 23/02/2008 20:56

that was t 100x

I was nerdy enough to love latin in school. Teacher was excellent, if a little pervy.

actually more than a little pervy

TheodoresMummy · 23/02/2008 20:56

Absolutely !!

Education should be about choices !!

And the current education system does not do this.

It pretends to by letting kids 'choose' their GCSEs (from a limited range and combination).

HE is much more about choices, surely.

Blandmum · 23/02/2008 20:58

I'd never have had the range of choices that I had in school if I'd been educated at home.

Bubble99 · 23/02/2008 20:59

Would your parents have been willing/able to HE you, MB?

ahundredtimes · 23/02/2008 21:00

Oh sorry, I think I meant choices for life TM really. About getting as broad a base of knowledge as possible, and then specializing later on.

I should stick my hand up now though and say I send mine to private school. And I know I'm lucky to be able to do that, and as such do feel that I've had a choice about their schooling and the environment. They don't do SATS or anything for instance.

Blandmum · 23/02/2008 21:02

In school I did English, lit and lang, Maths, statistics, History, geography, french, chem, phys, biol at O level. But I also did music, art, needlework, cookery, Welsh, Spanish, Latin, RE, PE.

that wasn't a bad grounding

Bubble99 · 23/02/2008 21:02

SATs are the devil's work, IMO.

Blandmum · 23/02/2008 21:03

No, I don't think thay would have been. But often people post on MN saying, 'I'm not sure if I can HE' and the answer is aleays 'you can, you can learn alongside them'. And I'm not convinced about that TBH

ahundredtimes · 23/02/2008 21:03

Well it probably depends on how sensible the parents are about them, it usually does. But I suppose in the back of my mind I don't think they are being taught to be tested, and that's nice.

Though god, they do test them a lot to see what they've remembered and what they have to go back over. That seems like good practice to me.

TheodoresMummy · 23/02/2008 21:04

Def the opposite for me MB.

I was told by teachers that people like me didn't become actresses.

And I was told that I couldn't be a Barrister.

An odd combination, but they were the two things that I had a passion for during my secondary years.

I was average and I was told so.

I am 30 now and have returned to college (Access Course). I am doing Law as one of my subjects and my tutor keeps on at me to look into Law at Uni and as a career.

My parents always said and still say that I can do anything if I want it enough and am willing to work until I get it.

Now, I don't nec think I could do 'anything', but if I'd been HE'd at least I would have tried.