Deschooling??

[pinkystinky]

Can i ask did everyone go through a period of "deschooling" or did you launch straight into home education???

We didn't, apart from the summer holidays between DS finishing school and starting HE. But we are very much "school at home" so there was no need to completely change his mind-set about education, and he never had any issues with the way that education happened in school or anything like bullying to "get over", so it was never a problem for us.

No because we've gone straight into HE without bothering with school on the way!

I think the amount of de-schooling time a child needs, if any, will depend intimately on why they are coming out of school. If there is any sort of social or academic trauma to recover from, I think it is quite important to allow time for that recovery before putting any expectations on the child about academics or even about joining in socially with other children, HEed or otherwise. And then whatever style of formal or informal home education you and they embark upon needs to be done with careful attention to whatever their school trauma was, so as not to trigger it in the home setting (I honestly can't imagine anything worse for a child who, say, has not been able to learn to read at school because of feeling under pressure to then come out of school YAY!!! but to find that that pressure to read is being replicated at home, which was previously their safe haven. And for learning to read, substitute whatever it was that they were suffering with)

we did deschool for a few months whilst we got to the root of her problems and whilst we built her confidence back up.

Totally agree, onward. We've deregistered ds because his autistic needs weren't being met and he has indeed suffered a great deal emotionally as a result. We're now trying to strike a balance between his clear need for complete rest and downtime, and his autistic need for structure and predictable routine. So although I'd like to give him time off to recover I still have to incorporate some workbooks, personal tasks etc to maintain his focus and get him back on track emotionally. He's highly unpredictable at the moment and it's difficult to assess what he can cope with, so what works for him one day doesn't necessarily the next.

So, we do intend to deschool because there are such clear benefits but I have no idea how long that will take for ds because it depends on his rate of recovery, which could be two months or two years or (hopefully) somewhere in between.

We didn't de-school at first.
I took my dd out at 7 because she is very able (don't like term 'gifted') and I felt as though we had to do school at home and more, to prove my point! Because her abilities weren't being 'catered' for at school.
We steamed ahead of her peers and she has been working at KS3 level for a year now, (she is 9).

HOWEVER

In proving my point I think we did too much, and I don't know how much actually 'went in' IYKWIM.

It was ME who needed to deschool, because I felt under pressure to say "Hey I can do a better job than you".

I think my dd 'burnt out' after that first year, for 6 months after we did de-school and now we are all much happier because she does her own stuff and just amazes me constantly.
It's about having faith in your kids, that they will learn in their own way.

HE has taught me many lessons and no matter how many books on HE you read or other HE parents you talk to, the total understanding of home education only comes with time and experience.

I started off with deschooling and it has developed into autonomous education.