Home schooling 12 year olds

[uniquewoman]

Good morning to you all, I have almost come to the end of my tether with my twins secondary school and am now looking into home educating them for a few months whilst I attempt to get them into the school that I want them to attend, they are suffering both bullying and racism and as much as the school is trying to sort it out, the school itself is too big and they are unable to cope with this paticular year 7.. I have read though a lot of your posts but most of them seem to be about primary age children. I want to keep them on track with the national curriculum and am quite capable of doing so ( with some help from my seventeen yr old in maths..lol) I understand that I need to de-register them at school and that the LEA will be on my back to check that they are progressing, question is is there any support for children of this age, where do I get the books from? will I be able to register them again with any problems, as I really do want them to go back to school? Is it harder to move them to a different school if they are HE.

I am sure that this has been asked before and I apologise if it has, but cannot find it on the forum

I am under the Leeds LEA

Any advice would be appreciated so that I can make the proper choice for my twins

Niki

'Surely taking her out of school means the bullies win.'

I don't think that any bullied child or the parent of a child being bullied thinks this way.
So who gives a toss whether bullies win or not? In the first instance, the natural reaction is to remove their child from an institution where they don't feel safe.
Forcing a child to go to school everyday, knowing that they are at risk of physical/emotional/psychological harm is irresponsible on the part of a parent, just so 'that the bullies don't win.'

music posy, I had the same thing from grandson.
We ventured to the local HE group and grandson said 'What if they hit me, mummy?' It is heartbreaking to see and hear a child so frightened of their peers and the adults that are responsible for their personal safety,that they can become physically ill.

Hi all, I homeschool my DD (age 13)who has dyslexia & APD. We've been homeschooling for about 2 years now. She couldn't cope in school and didn't get enough help with her dyslexia. Since homeschooling she has been a different child - now she is realy enthusiastic about her learning. At school she made 6 months progress in 18 months and in our first year at home she made 12 months progress in 12 months. She'll never catch up (reading age of 9 , writing age of 7) but we've proved that 1 to 1 is best.

StressedHEmum - dygraphia is difficulty in handwriting. This is a really good site to find out more & lots about dyslexia, dypraxia, dyscalculia etc. www.dystalk.com

Hi StressedHEMum,
one of my son's has a similar writing disability. His anxiety has become so bad he is out of school at moment. I am seriously thinking of HE.
Its nearly a year since your post.
How is it now?

Hello Nomanual

If it's any help to you, I took my eldest 2 out of school a year ago. My eldest DD was crazily anxious for many reasons, at school and had been given a few labels, including Language Processing Disorder.

She is now 12. We have spent the last year finding our feet and trying to shake the label. It seems to be working..I now have a daughter who has so much more confidence and willingness to try new things. She has been allowed to find her own path and relax. without the multitude of pressures school brought for her.

The change is, quite frankly, unbelievable: although we struggle in ways (have 3 others at home too); by the time I finally de regged them, she had tics that were so bad, my heart was breaking.

She has none now. She had a huge problem with Maths (possible dyscalculia): although it's never going to be a passion of hers, she is no longer frightened by it. We get over the fear by using it in ways that are relevant/realistic/interseting to her, in real life. I am sure the same is true of dysgraphia (DD2 cannot STAND writing, despite being a good reader, but willingly tries if it floats her boat!).

I think HE is something that you could definitely give a go: it can be tailor made to your family in whatever way suits you: a year on and we're still taioring, but the support I have had on the MN HE boards during my wobbles, has been so inspiring and anchoring.

Wishing you luck and the best in whatever you choose..

Oh gawd..tailoring is what I meant..sorry for copious typos but knackered!

Thanks Catbus, I didn't even notice your typos lol.
I have told my 12 yrs son he does not have to go back to school, that has helped a little.
Now the challenge really starts.
What sourses do you use?

Well, many sources really: anything from library books to various websites: some definitely 'educational' like Education City, BBC Schools, etc (think there's a thread with useful websites here), but we're pretty much autonomous these days, so websites/resources that we use can range from iplayer to dvds or discussions or by visiting places or meeting people or going to a workshop..

I think there is a lot to be said for de schooling, even if you end up with structure: if your son is so anxious, maybe you should let him be for a while and follow his own interests/paths, until his anxiety dissipates. Maybe he will write at some point when he feels ready: it can't help being made to write at school.

I did use some Galore Park books for a bit, which do resurface from time to time! Got them from Amazon. Perhaps don't see it as a challenge: instead see it as getting your son back to his, presumably previously, relaxed state..

Good luck!

Hi Everyone.

I have just joined mumsnet and was reading this thread as I am in the process of removing my 13 year old daughter from school to home educate. I noticed that some of you were asking about teaching resources. I have done a lot of 'trawling' online recently and found this fantastic site called TES.

It has 1,000s of resources to download, work sheets, lesson plans, etc submitted by actual teachers. It covers the whole curriculum and all key stages in early years, primary, secondary and SEN and also has links to other useful sites.

It is completely free to download the resources but you have to register on the site as a teacher. I put 'teacher' and 'home education' in the relevant categories when I registered :)

After going into information overload I was so pleased to find this site with everything I need in one place and plenty of work to be going on with. Highly recommend that you take a look.

All the best :)

I've been a member of TES since 2006. Some of the resources are written by the teachers themselves and I've used quite a lot of them. I also like the discussions, especially the opinions on home educators - very entertaining!:)

I was on there for a short while and then forgot about it. I must take another look (if I can remember my username/ password or anything else).

Marjorie, do you get worked up about some of the opinions? I might be in a continual state of annoyance!
Still, somewhere to go if I'm feeling grumpy and want to spar with someone other than DH, I guess

Well, someone has started a thread a few days ago about how concerned teachers feel when a parent deregisters a child for the purpose of home educating:) So far, there have been no takers.

just to add to this - keeping your child in school to be abused by schoolchildren is putting your child's health and welfare at risk and 'letting the bullies win'

removing your child from a toxic situation and giving them a safe education is letting your child win.

education is a must school is not , i just pulled my son out and am now homeschooling due to him being bullied its sad really can anyone point me to any places i can get worksheets or study work from please? he is 11 in year 7 level

There are lots and lots of links here swtrita08

hi, im a single mum to twin girls, same situation as the lady in the first thread, kids being bullied by other kids, stomach aches, swearing, recluses, deregestered them on the last day before half term, already my kids arent swearing and havent got attitude anymore. I know ive done the right thing, but to say the colour of terror is brown would be an understatement. My dad thinks im stupid for doing it, my brother has disowned me, so its just me and my girls with no other support. I wonder if anyone out there has a group in eastbourne, east sussex that i could get involved with, i feel totally isolated but knowing i did the right thing, its a strange feeling :) help please!!!

Hi

There are links to Eastbourne/East Sussex groups here edyourself.org/groups/

Hi everyone!!
Firstly...Thank goodness you are all here!!....HELP!! my 12 yr old hates school, has done since he started secondary. He struggles so much with the work and can never explain to us what he has learnt. He doesn't even understand what he is supposed to be doing for any of his homework, so keeps getting into trouble, but apparently, his recent dyslexia assessment showed that he has some areas that are in need of extra support, but overall he is not dyslexic. This result has pushed him over the edge and he is getting sent home daily with "headaches" and stomach pains which we know are related to stress. He has begged us to take him out of school and home school him. We feel that we need to support him as the institutional approach of school clearly is not doing him any favours, and in today's society we fear that he will go "off the rails" if we don't help him. We have decided that enough is enough! if they won't offer him extra support and understand his lack of self confidence, then we have to. So today we picked him up when we were called into school as he had another "headache" lol We decided that we are not sending him back. It is not fair for him to suffer so much! plus we feel we can do a better job of tailoring his home ed to his individual requirements. I just need some advice as this is very new to us. We are in Swindon Wiltshire, can anyone help? lol P.S It's great to know we are not alone ( HUUUGE sigh of relief) xx

Birdieswifey - it might well be worth starting your own thread, because your questions will probably get lost at the bottom of this old one!

Most important thing: give yourselves all a bit of a break and a holiday until Easter, to find your feet and recover from school a bit. Just do lots of fun things together (parks, local home ed meets, whatever) and think gently about what sort of home education you want to do from curriculum-based and formal to completely informal. Lots of ideas for books and websites to read on another thread in the Home Ed forum here, and don't forget to deregister him from school! (instructions on another thread - I'll bump them up the page for you)

Hi ommmward!
Thanks for the reply, I shall try and start new thread..... not sure how but it's a learning curve! lol thank you for the advice, I totally agree as he is relieved but still a little nervous I think I shall start a new thread and see if it works :) x

Have sent a PM, OP.

hi, i just signed up and wanted to say hello. i started home educating my youngest children 11 and 12 years old in september of this year. its going well but feel like i have become boring in my teaching and looking for any hints and tips.

Hi my name is Kay i am just looking for advice about homeschooling as i am considering homeschooling my 12 year old daughter. I just want to know how people find all resources and how to get started or any advice would be great thank you in advance :)

Hello ladyluck2441 and kay2204!

I think 12 is a lovely age. They are old enough to really get stuck into things, but still young enough that nobody is feeling the pressure of iGCSEs yet.

ladyluck, what about asking your children what interests them most in all the world? What would they like to do; where would they like to go; what are their dreams? Make it clear that you aren't restricting this to traditional "academic" subjects. Motorbike repair, scuba diving, space exploration, foreign languages? Then go from there.

If you are looking at education in the widest sense then you can just directly explore those interests and trust that this will benefit them and that they will learn lots of unexpected things as a side effect. If that idea doesn't appeal and you want to work in a more formal way, you can still use these interests as a launching point. For example, if a child likes scuba diving then study biology by learning why people get "the bends", do an art project involving painting a scuba diver, look at the physics of why people float or sink while diving, do maths by calculating depths and quantities of oxygen needed in order to stay underwater for a certain amount of time, look at geography by talking about the culture of diving, watch nature documentaries about sea creatures and so on. A stack of library books or some googling about diving will give you some ideas.