What are your views on home-schooling?

[Littleraysofsunshine]

Just out if interest

I'm very much in favour, but then I would say that as I did it for two years!

Any reason behind the question?

I would love to be able to but don't think I'm at the level to be teaching academically! I want what any parent wants -the very best for their children

It's very much a valid form of education and I'm in favour (bit biased though as I'm am/going to Home educate my dc)

Most parents know what is best for their child/ren whether that be school, home education or anything inbetween.

Not for me! I love my dc but cannot be with them (or anyone else for that matter) 24/7.

I'm all in favour of parents having the choice of home education but it isn't for everyone, just as school isn't for everyone.

For us it's been great up till now.

Very pro, my two are at school and nursery, but I think that HE shoukd be given much more support and consideration.

I'm not very keen, although I can see that for some children it may be in their best interests. I'm a teacher and I (obviously) feel that for most children formal schooling gives them a broader based education from professionally qualified academics, which in turn gives them more choices later in life. I have in the past tutored children who have been home schooled and found that there were very obvious gaps in their knowledge. I was also slightly concerned that the choice of home ed was clearly parents choice from start - these were children who had never been given the option of school, IYSWIM. Clearly if your child is hating/doing v badly at school then home ed may be a better option, but I feel to never send them in the first place is probably a mistake. However, I know that lots of home educating parents will disagree with me. On a personal note, my eldest son has just taken A level Physics, Pure and Applied Maths and Further Maths, Chemistry, Economics and Business Studies. There is absolutely no way he could have achieved this if I had home schooled him as my abilities in these subjects are severely limited! My subject is History.

Well I am a teacher who thinks that HE is a very valid way of educating children. I think both approaches work well.

I have been a great fan of Michael Gove since he showed such support for Home Educators before the last election.

If you live in an area with dire schools, and private education is beyond your means, the HE is pretty much the only way to go. Parents (or perhaps one parent) often make great sacrifices in terms of career/earning potential in order to facilitate their childs learning.

It can be difficult, but there is nothing to stop HE children from reaching their full potential. Any university worth their salt will recognise a strong candidate, whatever their educational background.

Most of the HE kids I know are heading for A-level or equivalent courses, and then Uni. Some were HE until 11, and then went to selective schools.

Admittedly, my experience has been of children who were exclusively HE .

It sounds far too much like hard work to me. If my child had problems in/with school I might do it, otherwise division of labour works well for me and me not teaching my child helps ensure we both live to a ripe old age.

I would be a fan, and would very much have liked to do it. Especially for ds1 who has Asperger's.

However, as he listened to me even less than he listened to his teachers, and I was struggling to cope for even the 8 hours a day he was at home, it would never have worked.

It would have been fantastic for ds2 from an educational point of view, as he was bright, interested and willing to learn (all things that school squished, sadly). BUT he is also very sociable, and loves his friends and school sport and the social aspect of school.

It would have been a disaster for dd, as she is/was very shy and if she had stayed with me I suspect she would have stayed home for the rest of her life. School (especially the co-ed school she goes to) has been really good for her.

So - in principle, in favour, but it very much depends on the child.

And of course, the educator needs the patience of a saint, OR a partner who will give them a break at the weekend.

I would love to do it I think. But it would be an indulgence on my part. My children gain loads from their schools and are happy, and I think that plus the input at home is the best overall education experience for them.

So I earn my money educating other people's children.

In an ideal world I would prefer the dc to go to a non-competitive but highly stimulating socially varied school with understanding and dedicated teachers who did not evaluate them in any way and where sitting down teaching represented a small fraction of the day with much more of the time dedicated to practical skills and physical activity.

In the real world, we home educate because the schools available are just not acceptable to us.

What do you mean by not evaluate them in any way?

While I respect the choice of others to home educate, for me it would be an absolute last resort, I know that I couldn't educate my DC to the level they'd get at school in certain areas and that they couldn't do it alone.

I would love to do it I think
Ah now you see that makes me feel totally inadequate because it would be my idea of one of the 9 circles of hell (probably 7 - violence)

I wish I'd HE'd ds1. His first few years at primary were very unsettled, and he has developed a hatred of learning. My instincts by yr1 were that he would thrive at home, however, with 2 other dc at home, and because I'm not a very sociable person, we felt it would be the wrong decision and instead changed schools when he was in yr3, where he spent the rest of his primary days in a fantastic school, but with a teacher he hated.
I'm fairly sure he'd have a different attitude to learning if I'd trusted my instinct with him.

Not for me at all. I don't have the patience. Would worry about ds not socialising with dcs his own age as well (although it would be a blessing to not have to deal with some kids at his school)

Kewcumber - it probably comes down to personalities - I'd happily HE ds1 and ds3, but , much as I love dd and ds2 (I genuinely don't have favourites), we would all hate it and get very little out of it, plus they both get so much out of school that they wouldn't get at home, like being with friends all the time, and having a fairly rigid structure, both things that ds1+3 don't seem to need as much.

I'm a teacher though Kewcumber. It is my thing!

Maybe its because I'm a single parent - I adore DS but 24/7 every week relentlessly. Not for me!

And like your DS1 + 3 wilfred, he loves school, his friends and structure.

As a semi retired teacher I cant think of anything worse, have spoken at length to a few home educators and their grip of the National Curriculum and the requirements of GCSE is scarily absent.
School is not just about academic learning.

I wouldn't know where to start. DS1 is 13 and his homework is starting to baffle me.

I think it can be great and we home educatef ds1 and ds2 until they were 9 and 6yrs old. Circimstances changed and they then went to school. Ds3 and ds4 are now at school as well but if i needed to i would home educate again :)

My idea of hell.