Alternatives to primary school, those who home Ed/use tutors/unschooled...

[Blossom4538]

How old were your children, did you withdraw from school, what approach do you take, how has it gone and why did you make that choice. Any regrets?

Thanks!

I've home educated from the start and I take a structured approach. This means, for me, set subjects, resources, and times to work. I take their interests into account and sometimes let them pick out of a range, but I'm planning and giving the lessons.

It's going pretty well, I have two who are primary age who are fairly happy and learning well, one older child who transferred to a new local secondary earlier this year though still enjoys additional lessons when off in areas not covered by her school, and my oldest who will be attending college part-time in autumn for a GCSE and engineering course alongside other lessons at home.

I don't really have regrets, though I'm aware that there are risks as well as benefits to how we've done things. Some days are a lot harder than others, days when things go wrong and the weight of the responsibility of educating them feels really heavy. I know for myself and many others, being out of the school system has had benefits for dealing with certain needs, but it's also really hard to access certain things without school support. I just do my best and work hard to give them the best opportunities I can.

Thank you for your message, really helpful x

Sorry - just saw this. Both my younger children home ed - one since he was 5yo and one since he was 9yo. I wish we had done the home ed from the start as it has made a huge difference in our lives.

We went with home ed as neither child was getting the appropriate support at school, both were being bullied and not coping well. My two had very unpleasant and rather traumatic experiences in school, and both have insisted they do not want to return to school. I'm aware of the whole "qualifications" thing, and we're looking at what options will be available for them in the future, but bottom line for me is their mental health had to take priority. Only regret is that I didn't start home ed from the beginning.

We take a semi structured approach. More structured on maths and reading, as I feel those are extremely important, but then more child led on other things. Some subjects or areas of study we will do the basics, and whether or not we dig further into it depends on the dcs' interest in continuing. We have done some home ed meetups, but have found that we do much better getting together in small groups with friends. Structured activity groups tend to be stressful for my dcs, so we go with less structured, non-competitive, more social activities - such as the trampoline park or jr park runs, and so on. We could go out to activities every day - there are loads going - but my dcs need down time, so it's generally a couple days out, then a more relaxed day at home, exploring things the dcs want to look at, with maybe a local walk during the day.

It's going quite well for us. There are hiccups here and there, but overall, it's drastically reduced the stress levels for myself and my dcs. They have a say in how they socialise, so it's more comfortable for them. They can focus more on things that interest them, and because they don't spend all day trying to mask or fit in at school, we don't have that 3pm meltdown every day. It means we actually have a family life, rather than "after school fallout" and "before school fallout." It also allows for my dcs to learn a lot of "life skills" alongside their academic learning which is important for them.

Thank you ☺️