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

[3Ddonut]

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!!!

seeker why must you reduce a dialogue to alleged personal slights i have never discussed your (alleged) personality.please refrain from ascribing erroneous slights to my posts

genuinely, why does a differing view irk so much?

don't get personal in your response either

It is very difficult to get any accurate info on HE. A lot of Local Authorities still don't seem to know that it is a legal alternative to school. Many will ask for time-tables and insist on home visits to inspect work when they have no legal rights or obligations to do so.

I'm not evading your requests for 'hard evidence' SM and the best I can do is suggest that you read the 'research' section on the site that I linked you to earlier.

Also the section on 'GCSEs' gives accounts from families educating for formal qualifications at home. It's worth noting that many HE children don't do GCSEs or A levels and go on to uni using OU courses as access.

terramum - thanks for elaborating.ok so repetitive questions irk.but they are nonetheless commonly held queries/beliefs

And on that note, I'm off to bed.

SM. If you're interested, look out for HE threads. Who knows? We may yet convert you.

Night all.

SM I didn't say you had referred to my personality, I said others had. I said that I disagreed with the way you expressed yourself, but that I too felt that it was hard to discuss the subject without it becoming emotionally charged.

Point taken SM - but can you see how annoying it is to have these questions posted on a forum devoted to HE? I can understand it if it were in a place where info about HEing wasn't readily available....but this isn't

I don't mind questions.
Questions are great.

I don't mind differences of opinion.
They make for an interesting debate.

I do object to ill-informed statements paraded as fact though.

Doesn't everyone?

HE does seem to provoke such strong reactions, doesn't it?

I wonder why that is? Even the State V Private threads don't get so heated...

And do you know what the very worst thing about being home educated is? When you grow up you becoame invisible. It's a fact!

Who said that???

Seeker, I'd thought it was that they grow up to become quiet and still!
The hope of that day is the only thing that keeps me HEing!

OMG just lookey at the conspiracy theories "oh invisible we be" this is not the norm of education.questions will be asked-why do you all get so defensive?

SM - I think that comment was made in jest....or am I misinterpreting the huge smiley face?

SM - what's really bizarre is that I have some sympathy with some of the things you're saying - I am just a bit horrified at the way you are saying them!

Humphrey - I've got some spare gaffer tape if you'd like some - it's the only thing that works for mine!

'Be Honest...What are your opinions on daycare nurseries?'

" I have no experience of daycare nurseries

BUT

All Children who attend nurseries are emotionally damaged by the experience.

Staff often leave children alone to cry without comforting them.

All children who attend nurseries have attachment problems.

etc etc.

How would anyone react to such a post?

Those who used nurseries would be accused of being 'touchy' when the truth would be that they were exasperated that such strong opinions were being stated as fact by someone with no experience of nurseries.

Good post Bubble.

And as many good employers want AAA or AAB at A level going to university with some kind of OU or access or unusual sixth form qualifications is going to mar a CV for life sadly although if you want an alternative life for a child away from the grime of capitalism, convention etc then that matters not a jot.

bubble you said, 'I wonder why that is? Even the State V Private threads don't get so heated...'

Hahahaha, just hang about a bit; there have been some state vs private threads that were incandescent. This thread is argument lite in comparison!

In fact this is a discussion for the most part.

amusingly, I think the first person to have a personal attack made on them in this thread was me But my thick PGCE created skin allowed it to bounce off.

Xenia. That's interesting. If two prospective employees with firsts went for a job and both perfomed as well at interview - would an employer necessarily choose the one who'd had the traditional entry to a degree course?

MB. Are we at breast V bottle level yet?

May be. A lot of the applications there days are on line I'm afraid and if you don't have the right grades to put on then you cannot get through. I have 3 children at university stage. It is very unfair - someone who messed up a levels because their mother was ill finds it hard to get an application in at all. They can try writing an individual letter to HR but if HR has 100 applicants per place they don't have much scope to work around their own sifting system. It's particularly hard on teenage boys who messed around at school and got bad grades but are quite clever and tried to make it up at university level.

But depends on the career. If it's not a typical milk round from the top 5 universities huge firm/professional entry thing then your exams may not matter a jot.

The problem for so many students is getting past the electronic application systems not just to a real HR person (who tend to be a bit bigoted and set in their ways and is a box ticker and who wouldn't be if you have thousands upon thousands of applications and want to work on time to put your baby to bed) but to the people they might work for who might be more liberal and probably messed up their own A levels.

I mentioned my neice about 1000 years ago. She has had to explain her unconventional education at every single interview she has gone to. This, and being 10 years older than everyone else going for the placements has not helped at all.

I have been following this thread with interest (reading 644 posts has taken some time!)
I had resolved not to get involved in a HE thread again but I love the debate and exchange of ideas. I would like to make it clear from the start that I am not bashing HE (I jumped in a bit too quickly last time not knowing enough about it). Reading this long thread in 3 bursts gives a good overall picture.
I think if your DC has tried school and doesn't fit in for whatever reason then HE is a good alternative for them. What worries me more is those that never get the opportunity of school because their parents have such a negative attitude towards it.
The NC has never had children doing the same thing at the same time and anyway primary schools are now moving away from it and going back to the cross curricular way. My DS did Latin in a state primary, he also planned and planted an allotment (this was when the NC was at it strongest).
Someone says wouldn't it be better to do horse riding, allotments and family trees. What is wrong with after school?
Children are in school for approx 30 hours a week which leaves 138 hours not at school,even if you allowed 10 hours a night for sleeping you have 68 spare hours, more than double the hours in school (and that is not allowing for school holidays.
People seem to discount a good teacher. I like to be taught with other people so that you can have an exchange of ideas.
My favourite subject is History and I was lucky to have excellent teachers but the best bit was the discussions and people having different points of view. You can't get this at home with a book and the Internet.
Very often a famous person will name a teacher who inspired and helped them in some way.
I think that it is good to expose DCs to lots of different teaching styles and personalities.
I was most interested in seekers opinion because she was HE'd but seems to be discounted because she isn't saying what people want to hear.My mother was HE'd from the age of 14, (through family circumstances not choice)and she found it a great disadvantage)The vicar taught her French and Latin-you can't pick those up on your own.
I think you used the word 'invisible'seeker and this is what she finds-even at her age! She would have loved to have been at school and she feels very left out when people talk about their education.
I think that teenage rebellion came into the thread somewhere in that HE misses it out and gives you reasonable human beings! ( I apologise if I have got that wrong, I can't find it now). I thought that rebellion was a good thing-teenagers are finding out about themselves, kicking against boundries and experimenting. I can think of adults that I know who had very strict parents who conformed as teenagers but have had no end of problems when they have rebelled later.
Adults have to do things they don't want to do and they have to do boring things (I am about to do the ironing which I class as very boring and I certainly don't want to do it!)so it is not good to have a childhood full of doing things if and when you want to do them. School also gives you deadlines, something it took my eldest DS years to understand! He got there in the end but he wouldn't have managed it at home; it was only a series of letters, phone calls and work not being marked that did it.
I am not knocking HE-just saying that school has a lot of advantages. I have spent so long writing this that I expect there are far more than 644 posts!

I would agree with the box ticking Xenia, any form filling is a nightmare to me because I never fit the boxes! I do the best I can and have to write explanations. I literally groan if I get a form because I know how it will be! People may get the impression from my posts that I am a very conformist person but I haven't done everything the 'normal way'and they don't fit into neat boxes.It is far more difficult in these days of electronic applications.

my DC have to do things they don't want to do - it's called being part of a family! They've had to learn to compromise, deal with difficult people, cope with deadlines, all the things that school supposedly is the only place to learn.
Also, AbbeyA , you need to add on the hours of homework required, to your 30 hours at school. DD1 has at least two hours a night, not including any extra revision she might want to do