Preschool home ed

[ButterPie]

Hi,
I have 2 DDs, one is 3 next week and one is 4 months. We are considering HE (DD1 has her name down at the local school, but we are ready to take it off at the slightest provocation as we keep thinking of more and more reasons to HE) but would like to get some kind of feel for it now.

We are kind of letting her choose, but gently nudging her in certain directions, iyswim. EG today she drew a space rocket, so we talked about it making a "rrrr" sound (for rocket) and then made a model rocket out of junk and painted it red (because that is a r word too) while talking about the different shapes in the rocket and what you might need to take to the moon. We do lots of baking and she loves to play on the computer (cbeebies and youtube videos of animals are favourites) as well as drawing and playing with playdough. I do worry that I might be missing out some vital areas of learning though.

My main worry is getting out and about. We are skint and don't drive, and live somewhere where it seems to be two buses to get anywhere. Would it be a big advantage for me to drive, as I keep having to cancel activities as we just don't get there on time, unless we set off two hours in advance, which means the kids spend most of the day in the pram being transported about.

Also, I am somebody who likes to make lists- what would a good way of recording what we have done be? I like the idea of being able to see how they are improving on paper, maybe some goals to tick off or something? Not to push them, more so I can reassure myself that we aren't just messing about, iyswim. Also, I can show the list to people who say we aren't doing anything.

How can I find out more about the school, without seeming like a pushy mother and marking DD out as odd if she does go there?

Hi ButterPie.

I also have pre-school kids and have decided to home ed them. I obviously don't know much about home ed yet, but I just wanted to answer your question about driving. I am learning to drive because of our home ed plans: home ed groups naturally tend to meet up in central locations in big cities, and I have found that you need a car to get to most of the home ed events local to us.

So I would say yes, learning to drive would be very helpful.

I am sure someone more experienced will be along to answer your other questions.

Hello

1. " I do worry that I might be missing out some vital areas of learning though."

Yes, as an HEor you will worry but you need to learn to accept that worry, as there really is nothing to worry about! Particularly at this age!

With my DD1 (now 6.5) we did like you did, loads of activities etc. - I was very excited about HE. She did learn to read very young, but she learnt on her own and I don't actually think it had very much to do with what we did with her, other than all the books we read together.

With my DD2 and DD3 (5 and 3), they had a much more relaxed and less-intense pre-school period - PFB syndrome had dissipated and I had more trust in the process of natural learning...oh yes, and less time! However, they are both at least at the level their schooled peers would be if not further ahead in every area.

But I do try hard not to think about what they 'ought' to be learning. My goals for them really are that they are happy and have good self-esteem. If they have those things, then they just will learn. They will be curious and learning will just come.

I'm not saying 'don't do things with her', I'm saying that don't worry about what you're doing with her. Have fun and time together as your goals of any activity, not education or you risk, IMO, creating the separation between learning and life that school creates and which, IMO, is what can damage the natural curiosity of children.

Phew! That was long!

2. Yes a car will undoubtedly help. It's not essential - I know quite a few HEors without cars. But I think not having a car would make us stay home more than we do, until my smallest children are older and are easier to take on the bus all together.

3. Recording things: Some people keep blogs, some people keep a detailed diary, some people just chuck any 'work' that's done into a bag. Personally? I've had a blog in the past, which I kept up for a long time but then decided I was abusing my children's privacy just a bit too much. Now I have a day-to-a-page diary and I write lists for each child on the days I remember!

I'm not bothered about monitoring, though. I'm not really into recording to check on improvement - I worry that doing that will, again, take me away from helping the children learn what and how they want.

I often ask myself why I do record things, because I'd much prefer not to - I'd much prefer to just let life take us where it takes us without analysing it all. But...I do get wobbles, as do all the HEors I know I think! I think listing what we've done (without judging it - giving it a 'subject' label for instance) reminds me that we are living full, interesting lives with plenty of opportunities for the children. Also, it will give me a bit of ammo should the need to prove ourselves to an outside party ever occur

4. Be honest. When DD2 was interested in desperate to go to school, we actually got her a place and spoke to the HT who was just lovely. I would have been very happy to send her there had she not changed her mind in the end. Anyway, the HT invited us to take DD2 there a few times, to see what school was really like. She was very kind and understanding. I guess speaking to other parents at the school would have helped to a certain extent too, although you'd want them to qualify any statements like 'the teachers are great' in case they think great means, for example, she makes them sit down to do spelling tests ten times every day, or something you feel indicates not such a good teacher IYSWIM.

I'm on tenterhooks, you know, about your decision I'm really enjoying hearing all your deliberations!

Butterpie, I'm in much the same situation as you - two littluns, strongly considering HE, also no car!

So obviously I have no wisdom to impart. But WRT recording things, we are planning on it. Not for anyone else really - I'm not worried about an inspection. Really, it's for the family as a whole - it'd be lovely in years to come to look back on it and remember what we've done together. I like the idea of keeping a diary, maybe taking photos, possibly a blog/write a book if we had time for such things!

As for the missing-out of learning areas, that's more of a worry for DH than me. He wants to be very structured as he's worried they won't be learning enough - I've told him he needs to chill! I'd certainly like to explore all curriculum subjects, but that's mainly because I want DCs to see what their interests are so it's less dictated by our own interests. We may take a more workbookish approach with literacy/numeracy though... not sure yet.

I just spent the afternoon at seven stories, which is a children's book centre/museum/storytelling place. It is bloody brilliant! I thought it was too expensive (and it is for single visits) but I got an annual ticket for £20, I reckon we could easily get bat least half a day a week there without getting bored, and there are science museums, history museums, an actual living history town, loads of libraries and stately homes, big parks, theatres, all within half an hours drive (bit longer by bus).

I am leaning more and more to HE. How could a school possibly offer all that?

That sounds awesome! We haven't looked into local stuff yet, the reason we keep leaning towards HE is more the ever-growing dissatisfaction with state education

BTW butterpie all those rocket-themed activities sound great. Whether or not we HE, I'm really in favour of cross-curricular learning.

Quite, Butterpie! And the best thing is you can do those things when your child is interested, not when the teacher has decided he/she needs to learn about it.

My DD2 got very keen on Victorian Farm on the BBC. We bought the dvd, arranged a victorian domestic day with other HEors at the local folk museum, and went to see cheese being made the victorian way at a local cheese-makers. She'll have learnt way more from those things because it was the right time for her, than she would had they been school visits at the right time for the teacher

We decided to home educate when DS1 was 1 year old. He is nearly four and I have enjoyed having the luxury of being able to plan and research and consider my ideas of home education before the school registration form arrived in the post.

www.boowakwala.com/
This is Boowa and Kwala. They are friends of ours. If your children like computers they will enjoy this site. Unfortunately it has the French approach to literacy acquisition, capitals and cursive to start. However everything is bilingual.

If you are worried about recording your child's progress, get snapping. A camera is as good to record how their drawing is progressing as well as how cute they are.

Driving won't help the skint situation.
We do big day trips sometimes. It takes us the best part of two hours to get to the city, but I can plan a few bits, art gallery, playground, chips, visit a friend, in one day.

We are car free, but live in a Manchester suburb, so fairly well connected. Invite people to visit you. Mostly they will be glad to mess up your living room instead of their own.