Home education

[Petal40]

Thinking of home educating my son. He's nearly four. Anyone else in the same boat

I thought about it . He hated school nursery and didn't settle. But as I've said elsewhere on another thread today I looked into schools, researched and sent him to a different one further away this year. It's better academically and more structured. He feels lost when given too much choice of toys and activities. The local school was very relaxed and carefree and that setup didn't work for him.
He's settled well, very happy and loads of friends. Last year before I pulled him out of nursery he only had four close friends, the five of them (quietest ones in the class) would shut the rest of the class out of their group .
If he hadn't settled home ed would be next.

never ever considered it.
Met too many HE kids who have no manners and social skills.

You can find the home education board here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/home_ed. There are several here on MN, do you have any particular questions?

And you can be assured that there are just as many school educated children with no manners and social skills, it doesn't mean they will be that different from his peers .

talk that is a bit strong isn't it?

As TheSpork says there are plenty of illmannered school kids around

You are utterly right - lots of kids who have really ill mannered parents are ill mannered at school.
Thank goodness they are taken away from their parents for a few hours most days.
Its one of the arguments in favour of state funded boarding places

Home educating is a massive commitment. I do know a few people who home school (north London). It's worth getting into a community of home schoolers so that you can do group activities and get some support.

We are keeping it as an option for late primary/secondary depending on how we get on with school. This possibility is surprising us more than anyone! Our experience of he kids (autonomous learners) is quite different to talk's.... Cogent, confident and off to top flight unis.Socially more adept due to modelling adts rather than peers. With so many kids coming out of school with all A grades and carefully constructed CVs it seems that he marks you out as an individual and whatever area you are interested in, having got there by your own efforts (rather than being the product of an institution) is very impressive. The downsides do seem to be regular crises of confidence (parental) and extra stress/expense/responsibility but it is much more interesting than i had thought it first apppeared! Good luck.

Adults not adts!

"Met too many HE kids who have no manners and social skills."

You're absolutely right, Talk. One of my home educated daughters is like that. Thanks for pointing it out!

Has it occurred to you that her differences might be the reason why she is being home educated, rather than the outcome of her education? Looking around the HE groups, it seems that a disproportionate number of home educated kids have special needs. It could be that such children are more likely to suffer in an institutional setting than their more average peers, and therefore are more likely to be home educated than their peers.

Her sister's manners and social skills, on the other hand, are often praised even by judgemental twits at the bus stop. They cannot understand how she can be so friendly and polite "despite" being home educated.

Found this link about an hour ago.

www.educationalfreedom.org.uk

I never really wanted my barely 4 yr old daughter to go to school fulltime and repeated admin errors, non communication, about turns on fulltime/part fulltime attendance by the waste of space headmistress, is making me think I've made a huge mistake.

I have a friend who is part of a fantastic home schooling community and her children (who are lovely) very rarely school alone and she doesn't do all the teaching.

Home schooling is a big commitment and flexi-schooling would be preferable. But, thanks to tossing Ofsted and the government that is near impossible to come by now....

Sorry, feeling very ranty about schooling at the moment.

I have HEd (DS was at that time a selective mute with pronounced ASD traits). My children are currently both in school, and I have since trained as a teacher. So I can see a variety of sides of the argument.

I have also met a variety of homeschooled children. One thing I would say is that there is almost nothing that can be said about them 'as a group' because almost by definition they are even more wildly diverse than schooled children. Equally diverse are the reasons for HE - SEN, lack of a suitable school, wish for accelerated learning, wish for autonomous learning, wish for less structure, a need for greater structure and order than a typical primary classroom can provide (that was DS). I have met those who studied a full school curriculum plus hours of sepcialist practice / tuition in music, maths, chess, sport, and those who at 10 had not really accessed books or reading as yet and lived very unstructured lives.

I loved HEing DS. At one point, I thought it might be a long term arrangement (as his then head had stated that she felt he would never be able to re-enter mainstream). In the end, returning him to school turned out to be the best option and one I have never regretted. As he grows towards teenagerdom, thriving in a secondary with specialist teachers, a vast range of equipment and subjects we would have found hard to study together, it turns out that school is right for him after all. Just not that school, at that moment.

It's a very personal thing.

petal40 come on over to the HE pages - we're a lovely bunch, with wonderful kids and many doubts/joys/experiences to share! I never planned on HE, but now almost a year in (after a horrific start to school for our daughter forced us to think about other options) we love it! It makes so much sense and if we had known about it and had time to think about it before she had even reached school age, I doubt very much we would ever have sent her.

I should also say that I have never met a nicer bunch of people than HEing parents. Unconventional, often. Charistmatic, dogmatic, both frequently. But open, welcoming and friendly, always.