What are your views on home-schooling?

[Littleraysofsunshine]

Just out if interest

Its what works for you exotic. My dd seems to be getting satisfaction from finding things out for herself and some trial and error. However, if her opinion changes at all I will change method. I don't know how teaching her would be received atm, one of the attractions of H.ed to her is she hasn't got a teacher.

I was sort of planning to do it (and didn't send either of my children to Reception), but I suppose I chickened out. Plus by the time I'd spent 7 years with them non-stop, I was ready to do a wee without company.

Now I am glad I didn't go down that route - but I can completely understand why others might do it.

Oh, and my younger one demanded to go to school in the end...

Exactly-what works for your DC.

You also have to bear in mind that you might get fed up. A friend was madly enthusiastic to start with and loved it for the first few years - she didn't after 10yrs but was stuck with it.

Exotic.
Your poor friend and her dc. I wonder why she was stuck with it, I think I'd just register at school, if it wasn't working out. Is your friend ok now? I'm quite lucky that I know the initial attraction will wear off a little, but dd really wants to go for it. I have dh at home most days and he does quite alot too. As do her brothers, one of which has just graduated in Sport Dev and Coaching. So thats P. E sorted.

I think it's very true that it is about the individual child/family. It would have been a lot easier to have HE'd dd due to her health problems, but it was never what she wanted: she wanted to get back to school where she could have her own life with friends she chose without our input. And because she is very very close to me, I felt it was a benefit that she had frequent contact with adults who are very different from us, some of whom we would never have chosen as friends.

Also, if you don't drive, taking a child to a great variety of clubs etc gets very difficult, particularly if the child has health problems. And I do feel having a working mum has been a good example to her: given her health problems it would be so easy for her to give up aspirations of a career altogether.

She has sacrificed a good deal to stay in school, because she felt that was what she needed.

But for others, HE has been what they needed.

If you HE your youngest DC and he never goes to school you can't suddenly send him off when you feel like it! Not if he doesn't want to go. He decided to go to the 6th form and she got her life back- but she had wanted it back long before. If you have 3 DCs and start from 5yrs to university for all three it is a long time- what you start with enthusiasm you may not want 15 years down the line.

"As do her brothers, one of which has just graduated in Sport Dev and Coaching. So thats P. E sorted"

Really? Are you going to find enough 8 year olds locally to make a couple of hockey teams?

Some one was explaining earlier that they had team sport with 3- 9 year olds , which is fine if you are on holiday e.g cricket on the beach , but I can see the two of my DSs who are sporty being very fed up if this is supposed to be the PE and games- they want to play with DCs their level- a proper game and playing to win.

I think sport is one of the easiest things to find outside of school if you live in a reasonably sized town or city. There are plenty of local sports teams where we are that the children can join.

"I think sport is one of the easiest things to find outside of school if you live in a reasonably sized town or city. There are plenty of local sports teams where we are that the children can join."

Are there? It's cricket, rugby or football our way. Everything else is through school. And the point about sport is that unless you have the opportunity to try, you don't know what you might like to do. My dd plays a sport to a reasonable level that she hadn't even heard of until she had q go qt school!

My dd isn't really sporty tbh, but the local H.ed group use the football stadium once a week to do organised team sports. They have a coach and a parent (P.E. teacher) and do football, netball, hockey etc. She just uses her db for a bit of exercise really as she also dances for 4 hours a week.
I think if she wanted to do more sport there wouldn't be a problem as where we live the county run various clubs.

That's what I mean, morethan. You say "my dd isn't sporty"

She's 8! she has no idea whether she's sporty or not. But there she is in a not sporty box.

Cikey Seeker, where do you live?

We left London years ago, but even out here, I can't think of a sport that would be inaccessible.

There are the usual football, rugby, and cricket teams. Individual sports like horse riding, tennis, martial arts. There are also lacrosse, hockey and ice hockey, basketball and baseball clubs and teams crying out for members. There's even a hurling team at the local Irish club.

There are cycling clubs, swimming clubs, gymnastics and every type of dance you could imagine, often heavily subsidised.

And my 8 year old is more than able to pick and choose, as the pile of discarded uniform, kit and equipment will testify

Seeker.

I don't really see your point. The schools my dc attended had very little sport other than boys football and rugby and girls netball and hockey if they were lucky. Anything else my dc did out of school.
DD enjoys music and dancing and is by nature more arty, whats wrong with that? It is her choice imo and if she wanted to join I would encourage her. Her best friend and several others are in an athletics club and run at county level, my dd said she'd rather xxxx than have to go running. Our county has a very wide choice of sports clubs.

Honestly yet another thread where home educators are asked to defend their choices and demonized for their choices!

Why is it that others want to force their choices onto others, and make themselves feel superior by saying the way someone else chooses to raise their children is shite? Does it make them feel better about themselves to run down others? Do they get a warm glow of superiority? Ffs some people need to get a grip.

I went to a state school and I HATE organised sport; in our school it was run by pervy weirdos ALL of it for some reason!!

DS is fabulous sportsman he did go to schools off and on but he went to a basketball club out of school and excelled.

I really don't give a stuff about whether anyone else HE's but I don't understand why its not OK to point out some of the disadvantages without being accused of "demonizing" people's choices.

I'm perfectly aware of the limitations of school and I can quite see that school is horrible for some children who would be better prepared for life if they were HE'd. But there's a big assumption that home educators all provide all these marvellous opportunities and they don't, my experience of He'ers is that the majority have been very good with one outstandingly awful example that I have no doubt wrecked the education of the child in question and still has an impact on her as a young adult.

Most people in the school system are very aware of poor teachers or poor schools there are endless threads about it. I never see a thread discussing the limitations of HE (maybe I'm not looking) because no-one ever seems to accept there are any.

Sport is a good example - we live in London so access to lots of stuff but under 11 its mostly football, rugby, gymnastics and tennis (there may be more girly stuff but not relevant to me so I haven't looked). I have looked for cycling as DS loves it and struggled, he'd like to play basketball but no luck there either. Hockey only at teenage years and up. At school he's just learnt to play hockey - they also play basketball, school also run an "international sports" club though don't ask me what that entails! Now I don't particularly want him to sign up to a term of hockey but its nice for him (and the rest of his class) to get a taster of it - learn the rules properly, have enough people for a team, and play for a few weeks before they move on to a different sport/activity.

As I am not anti-HE I really object to not being able to discuss the pros and cons of it without being accused of being superior. Basically Catkitson you think we should only be allowed to say "HE is just fine, it has no limitations, only school does"

Just googled

nearest basketball for children is quite a shlep from here and they still don;t take children under year 5 - so we'd have to wait another 3 years

Kew I don't think many people are saying H.E. is the answer for ALL DCs. IMO and E its best to give everything a go and leave it to the child to make the final decision. I know we were lucky enough to have the means to carry out our philosophy.

I think it can work, if done right.

I've flexischooled DS1 in the past, when he was struggling with the school day. No way could I do it fulltime, though.

There are lots of sports available here; we're v.lucky on that score. The univeristy run clubs where children can try different activities, plus there's the usual football, rugby and cricket, riding, racket sports...

BUT these clubs really are for the children that find sport easy. PE at DS's school on the other hand is remarkably inclusive. I don't think that's an unusual situation, either.

no I know people aren't saying its the answer for all DC's my point was more even if it works best for your DC surely there are drawbacks - just like there are at school. Thats what I find odd - school parents are generally happy to express a view on the failing/drawbacks of school but very rare to hear the same from an HE parent and if you try to point out that there might be drawbacks, we are accused as Catkitson did of attacking your choices.

Thats not really a discussion is it?

the child I know who was disastrously home schooled made the decision because she made it based on one aspect and didn't have the maturity to consider the other aspects and her parents failed to investigate other options and then failed once HE'd to educate her properly. Ultimately she made the decision to go back to school but the dmage IMO was done then.

I don't think it always works to let the child decide.