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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

How is it going with the other new home educating families??

22 replies

milou2 · 14/03/2008 10:03

My younger son has just had a lovely 3 days away with his father. It was spur of the moment and it meant I had a peaceful 3 days with my older son.

I'm waiting for a load of HE books to be delivered and also for the KS1 and KS2 National Curriculum handbook. I had a session in the charity shops looking for history books, and came away with a good atlas!

I keep on reminding myself that I have done quite a few years of home educating already, while the children were of pre school age. So I do know what I'm doing really.

OP posts:

samkearsey · 16/03/2008 16:57

hi
we dereg our daughter 2 weeks ago and is the best decision we have ever made she is happy, still not good in group situations but will take time to get our old girl back!

were do you get handbooks on the national curriculum from have been trying to find one for ages would love to hear???
thanks

Original poster

milou2 · 16/03/2008 20:25

I searched under national curriculum, looked at The Stationery Office site, then bought it from amazon. It hasn't arrived yet, so I'm hoping it will be a useful resource. It's about £24/25, so quite a tome!

I'm so glad you are seeing the difference in your daughter.

I felt very wobbly the first couple of weeks, so outside mainstream society. Every time I told a member of my family I'd go down a bit. But calling on my friends was great, I literally asked for them to come and be with me at home for a visit

OP posts:

samkearsey · 17/03/2008 18:59

thanks for that please let us know if its worth getting, i want something just to tell us roughly what she should be doing!

juuule · 17/03/2008 20:21

SamKearsey, if you've not already seen them, you might find these informative about the NC.
National Curriculum in Action
National Curriculum Online
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority

fillthatnappylittlekiwi · 20/03/2008 00:13

We dereged at Christmas and our girls are just getting back to their old selves. It is so nice to see them playing together and enjoying simple things instead of banging on about the newest computer games or absolutely having to have this or that.
Definitely made the right choice.
Now wading into finding local families who also home ed from choice so the girls can meet other people and have some fun.
Just out of curiosity- have any of you made moves to clubs such as brownies or ballet or sports? The home ed link person from the LEA came round the other day and said 2 clubs per week wasn't enough for them and they should do more.

ShrinkingViolet · 20/03/2008 08:01

LEA person talking rubbish tbh - do you think your children need ot do more organised clubs? Do your DCs want to? That's all that counts .
Although, DD2 has something on every day (music lessons, band, dancing, sport), and DD3 does a couple of things. Alhtough they were already doing most of their activities before being HEd, so we're probably ni a slightly different situation.

Runnerbean · 20/03/2008 11:49

2 clubs a week not enough!
What tosh!!
Are the LEA going to fund extra clubs for you then??!!!

When we first started HE two years ago I felt that I needed to shove my dd into as many 'clubs' as possible for fear of the dreaded socialisation issue, but not only is it soo expensive,but I spent everynight chauffering her around!
She got fed up with it and so did I.
My dd chose the ones she really wanted to do. Now it's just Brownies and dance.
However, she also does golf lessons (paid for by FIL) and we go to a tutored French, latin and history class (HE kids so very relaxed and unstructured) and two HE groups, (lots of play).
Sometimes though the girls are happy just to bounce around on the trampoline or play on the computer. I think solitary time for a child is just as important as 'socialising'.

Had a major breakthrough today, dd (8) and I did some algebra, we both understood it, and now she is coming to love maths!

samkearsey · 21/03/2008 06:31

Thanks for those links, will be looking into them today

we are now on our third week of HE, and she is loving it! still not happy in group situations but will take her time to get over all the school pressure and negativity she has experienced!

she does swimming lessons, horse riding and hopefully netball after holidays with one HE group, and i feel that is more than enough on the socialising issue which does not include people we meet everyday at the supermarket, shops, doctors etc!!!

jollydo · 21/03/2008 21:25

I'm quite pleased to hear that not everyone is at a different group / activity everyday. We have come recently to the decision to HE our ds1, who is nearly 4, and I suppose I do feel pressure (from myself) to suddenly fill his week with lots of outside activities when he is perfectly happy pottering about with me and ds2 a lot of the time and doesn't like big groups.
He does go to a football class and a gym class (loves both), and we have just started a music session too. The music session is quite busy and he isn't over keen but his little brother, 9mnths, loves it so we might perservere. We are also going to go along to some HE activites, but maybe I don't need to feel bad if we take it slowly.

Original poster

milou2 · 21/03/2008 23:01

My 10 yr old isn't keen on going out to groups, but he's off to the football tomorrow with his father, plays a lot with his older brother and sees his grandmother nearly every day.

He's very happy to invite friends over for a birthday party, or go over to play with a friend or go to a sleepover.

I had pressurised him to do music lessons and swimming lessons over the past couple of years, so I have stopped those now I am learning to respect him more and listen to him.

I'll just wait for him to branch out socially when he's ready.

OP posts:

fillthatnappylittlekiwi · 24/03/2008 18:52

Thank you for restoring my self faith. The girls don't want any more clubs at the moment. The LEA bod was a retired head teacher whose DH is still a head teacher so bit biased IMO. Trouble is she wasn't very discreet in her observations about the clubs and waved school swimming lessons under their noses like a bone to a dog. Maybe time to rethink the September update to paperwork instead.
Thanks everyone.

jollydo · 25/03/2008 20:26

FillThatLittleNappyKiwi - From a message you put on another thread (re. letter in Independent) I think you are in Cambs - is that right? I am too. If so, have you joined CHEF?

Runnerbean · 26/03/2008 07:52

fillthatnappylittlekiwi,

How old are your girls?
I have two dds 5 and 8.
We are holidaying near Kings Lynn end of April.
Are you anywhere near there?

barksgirl · 26/03/2008 12:43

Hi jollydo, I have emailed CHEF but haven't heard back yet. What's it like?
I've just dereged ds6 and am just trying to find some local groups etc, I'm just outside of Peterborough.

Julienoshoes · 26/03/2008 18:17

What about trying the East Midlands HE support list?
I think that the area they cover, would stretch that far-and if it doesn't I'll bet they come up with some other contacts for you.
They are a lovely bunch of people on that list.

jollydo · 26/03/2008 21:08

Hi barksgirl. I joined CHEF about 2 months ago as we are planning to HE our ds. There seems to be a lot of people around Cambs HEing and the group seems friendly & welcoming. A lot of the activities are close to / in Cambridge but some further out.
There is also a group in Peterboro which I have a contact for. You can CAT me if you like & I'll give you more info.

barksgirl · 27/03/2008 14:10

Hi jollydo, thanks for that, Morag from Chef has emailed me today and I have registered with them, she did also give me the contact for P'boro group .

jollydo · 27/03/2008 21:09

great - I might see you at some activity or other...

fillthatnappylittlekiwi · 28/03/2008 17:55

Our lot are 10,8,3,2,1. We're about half hour from Lynn. Whereabouts are you holidaying?
Off to have alook at CHEF.

barksgirl · 28/03/2008 20:14

fillthatnappylittlekiwi...you've got 5 ? and you get to go on the computer?!!
I put ds6, what i meant was ds age 6, i do have 4 children, age 13,11,6,1.
CHEF has plenty going on in Cambridge am still waiting to hear from p'boro.
Wondering if I should join EO ? or will it be the same people as CHEF?

jollydo · 30/03/2008 22:48

I emailed the EO name for Cambridge & it ended up with Morag from CHEF!! The Peterboro EO name was the one she gave me too. So I'm not sure you'd find any other people through EO.

Cadmum · 02/04/2008 13:14

May I join you? I have four DCs: DS (nearly) 11, DD 9, DS 6 and DD 2.

Currently only have DS1 at home but I suspect that the schooling arrangement for DD1 and DS2 may not work out so I am keeping my options open. Just finding my feet with the HEd/school combination.

We have recently moved to the french speaking part of Switzerland and I really want my children to learn to speak French quickly so that was my main motivation behind sending DD and DS to a Montessori bilingual school.

I have HEd in the past and this is DS2's first time in school so we will see how the next few weeks/months go.

I should be unpacking boxes and sorting out our house to facilitate the homeschooling plan but who is watching? I am enjoying a cuppa as DD 2 drifts off to sleep in my lap and DS1 is writing a letter for his history assignment beside me.

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