Home education

[loodledoo]

My DH is really keen for me to home educate our DD, she’s currently only 18 months so we’re a way off but I’d be really interested in others experiences of home educating their children in the UK. I’d love to know what a typical day looks like and what resources are available to you in your local area to help with home educating, such as groups with other home educated children, and what made you decide home educate your children/ what you think the benefits are, please. I’m looking into this now because if we do decide to home educate I’d like to do some sort of home preschool prior to her being primary school age. Thank you so much in advance.

What do YOU think about home ed? What do you feel HE offers that benefits your dd better than school would?

Home education is a good idea but i think children miss out on the social side.

It’s something I’m looking into and considering as a possibility, I would just like more information so I can make an informed decision nearer the time as to what would be best for our daughter. My husband is very rarely home during the day, as he runs a business which pays for me to stay home with our daughter, so it’s less what being home with him would offer and more what I could offer her. This is why I’d like more information about a typical day, etc, so I can work out whether being home would be of benefit to her, as I only want to do it if I’m able to provide her with a really good quality education, whether that be solely with me or with the help of tutors etc.

This was one of my concerns, which is why I’m looking for further information. I’m under the impression that home educated children attend groups with children of similar ages who are also home educated, so hopefully someone can clarify about this.

Ime there is no typical day in HE.

What do you mean?

Could you give me an example of any day? Or any information about the resources you have/ had available to you whilst home educating, please?

Op it depends on what home education groups there are in your area?? I know someone who has home educated all 3 children. They never socialise or have any qualifications 🤷 also your little one is only 18 months old....is your husband forward planning too much

That’s absolutely not want I want for our daughter, if it’s something we’re going to do I want her to regularly socialise with other children and come out with her qualifications. I am looking into groups in our area but it looks like we might be moving areas before she is of school age so I’m just looking to understand how widely available these groups and resources are. I understand it’s early to be considering this, however this decision will impact whether she attends a nursery/preschool or not and I don’t think there’s any harm in planning well for your child’s future to ensure you have all the information you need to make decisions.

https://educationalfreedom.org.uk/styles-of-home-education/
https://educationalfreedom.org.uk/real-life-stories/
https://www.educationotherwise.org/starting-out/

You can do exactly what you want during the day. That’s precisely the point - there is no typical day. You could stick her in front of Peppa Pig with a jumbo bag of Maltese’s if you want. Or you could follow what she seems to be interested in. Or you could arrange trips and classes. Or you could have tutors. Or you could arrenge meet-ups. Or a mix. But there is no typical day. Your days should be spent on activities that benefit your child - so what suits one kid won’t be ideal for yours.

@loodledoo fair enough good luck with it 🍀🙏❤️

Thank you for the information - this is really helpful.

Thank you 😊

Ex home educator here - we were far more isolated at school than we ever were in home e’d. I do g know egat people think home edders do but it’s a rare home e’d family that stay within their own four walls.

we did (and I helped organise)

Art group
Scuence group
360 group
Nature group
Horse riding group
Climbing group
Meet and chill group
Gaming heoup
Computing group

Just a small selection.

This is really helpful - thank you.

This is really good to know, thank you for the information!

🤣 classic.

Yup.

We all buy curriculums and then only leavd the House to go shopping

I don't home ed but know a few home edders and their approaches really differ so I don't think there's a standard day. One "unschools" and despite her child being what I would think of as behind on things like reading she has a real confidence she'll get there in her own time given the space. One does a lot of nature based stuff and goes out with a parent to work in an environmental outdoor job. One does lots of clubs and uses an online tutor. One does Flexi schooling with some days in school and others at home. They seem to all follow the child's interests.

If only they knew. My HE kids are never in 😂

Well sometimes they are, doing some actual work ya know.

As an ex teacher myself, my opinion on socialisation is that school is in fact the experiment. That school is the most unhealthy form of socialisation for children.

Thank you for the information, it definitely seems like there’s lots of ways to approach it.

You'll not get a balanced, favourable answer on here. Try the websites mentioned above plus HEFA (Home Education For All) on Facebook. HEFAlumps in particular is good for parents of little ones wanting to find out more about home ed.

I’m beginning to see that haha! Thank you very much for the information.

Some areas have quite well organised networks with lots of groups you can join, others not so much.

I used to live in Cambridge and there were a lot of groups there that offered a lot of diffeeent things.

home eddng is relatively easy at younger ages - there are many groups for pre schoolers anyway, and at ks1 the focus in school is on phonics and basic maths which if you are doing 1:1 with a child or even two or more children it’s relatively easy say to keep up.

in addition extra curricular groups like rainbows/briwnues/cubs etc plus the usual swimming/tennis/football/rugby are open to home ed children outside of school time so socialising isn’t a problem at f you get them in groups.

secondary is much more of an issue. Few parents have the knowledge to teach the breadth of GCSEs that most teens do. My own kids I could have coped with English and maths but one really liked languages and did three for GCSEs.

that’s when the tutors and costs of exam entry start to mount up.

i did home ed one of mine post GCSEs as she was very ill and not ok for in person school. It’s much trickier at that stage.