Any home edders out there?

[Pumpkin&Piglet]

The most recent opposition I've come across is people saying it will be so full on and I will have such little time to myself - whereas if the boys were at school I would have time to get chores done, have hobbies or work.

While I think this view is a little selfish and I hope to share hobbies and chores with my children I wondered if there was any reassurance people could give regarding these things.

I'm also a little concerned about how I would manage to home ed if I had another pregnancy/baby to deal with at the same time.

[demi]

where do you get the teaching material from for home eduction?
i assume you have to buy all the books and everything.
can you just buy them yourself or is it set out what material you need for specific time frames?

[Pumpkin&Piglet]

There's no specifics for what you have to teach or material you have to have. There are guidelines online but they don't really have very much authority. As long as your children are learning how to be valued and productive in a society (that can be any type of society) I think you can do just about whatever. I think thats roughly how it's put.

If you take your children out of school you need to inform the correct authority (no idea which one - LEA?) you are home educating them.

My boys are 3 and 7 months and I'm collecting books now ready for when they're older on activities like Cooking, Origami, I'm a maths tutor so have some of that. I ride horses so they'll take pert in that. We grow veg and make jams etc so they'll be involved in all that.

There's loads of support online directing you to other home ed families and giving ideas for appropriate activities or learning material.

I'm really enthusiastic about it all even though my children are still so young. I just worry about carrying on my responsibilities to them in this area if I have more children.

[Rosendula]

The most recent opposition I've come across is people saying it will be so full on and I will have such little time to myself - whereas if the boys were at school I would have time to get chores done, have hobbies or work.

While I think this view is a little selfish and I hope to share hobbies and chores with my children I wondered if there was any reassurance people could give regarding these things.

I'm also a little concerned about how I would manage to home ed if I had another pregnancy/baby to deal with at the same time.

No idea about the pregnancy/baby thing because the one I'm home edding is my youngest. The other two went through the whole school process (one of the main reasons I'm home edding my youngest )

As much as you love your children, and want to be with them and share your lives, you WILL need to have a little mind space of your own. It might sound selfish, but sometimes it's impossible to have a single, full thought, and sometimes you need to think about something "boring". If you're taking the children on an outing, for example, you might need to make the arrangements and plan what you're going to take, and sometimes that's not easy when they want you to do something else. For me, if I'm feeling a bit mind-boggled, I wait until OH comes home from work and then I'll go and potter in the garden and I try to get to the allotment a couple of times a week for 1 or 2 hours which gives me total a mind break. I love home edding Katie, but I don't want my every thought to be centred around the Smurfs (used to be Thomas the Tank Engine and ALL of his friends). I also usually get some time to myself in a morning because Katie is not a morning person. Other people get their mind space in an evening after the children have gone to bed. Or when their children go to clubs. Yes you DO need time to yourself, but you WILL get it. You just have to notice when you have got it and make the most it.

[celticmyth]

Unless the HE rules have changed in the last couple of years you DO NOT need to inform the LEA that you are home edding,you have to deregister your children,if they are registered at a school,but that's the only thing that you legally need to do x

[PurpleViolet]

I've got 2 boys, 3 and 8 and we've been home-ed for almost a year now. HAND ON HEART IT'S THE BEST THING WE EVER DID! For all of us. My eldest has learning difficulties, ADHD, autistic traits yada yada yada... mainstream school was an ordeal for all of us and he learned nothing. He's come on in leaps and bounds this last year of home-ed. I'm so so proud of how e've all done!
It is a lot of work, but a different kind of hard work, if that makes any sense? There is so much free stuff available online that I haven't stuggled so far to find resources. I've hardly had to buy anything at all, and those things we have bought have been fun enough to double up as birthday presents. E.g an electical circuit building kid that does all sorts of cool stuff. I think home-ed is probably what you make it.
I had many lengthy convo's with the school who tried to talk me out of taking my eldest out of school (I didn't get on with the headmistress either!!) I was told I wouldn't be able to manage, what a terrible idea it is. And now it's rather gratifying to be able to turn around and say how much he has achieved. There are good days and bad days, but the good times are so worth it. Oddly I find I still have plenty of time to do 'me' stuff as well.
www.homeschoolshare.com is a good resource to start out with and ease into things.

[mrsflibble]

you don't need to register anywhere, but WHEN we deregister sophie (Julie J will smile at that one, she's been my guru ad bee with me through all of mine and jim's umms and aaahs recently lol) we'll be joining the council-run home ed group. It's free to join, and we'll be doing it for access to resources, help with exam applications when/if the time comes and subsidised trips and meetings with other home ed children ad families.

for us the decision isn't just about sophie's well-being and self esteem (which are currently at an all time low), it's also that it could change life for us as a family. no more worrying about whether we're near enough to school when we finally get a council place (we can apply for more areas too), we can work her "school" around jim's shifts, eventually we could move further north perhaps...? rail wages are similar up there than down here, and on the whole, housing is cheaper......we may even emigrate to Scotland because, goodness knows, it'll be independant by then lol.

I know that the major part of my depressive illness comes from a deep seated feeling that I'm not good enough because I didn't follow the path my school drummed into me as being the right, the only way to happiness. you do GCSEs and get high grades (for me, 10 a-c). you do A levels and get high grades (this is where I slipped, 3 alevels, c, d and an e and a old style a/s which was an e too) then you go to university ad pass that, you get an amazing job and you'll be forever happy.
I did all that. I had a nervous breakdown at nearly 20 because of it. it has taken me the last decade to retrain myself into thinking that no, exams arn't the be all and end all. university isn't for everyone, there's no one RIGHT path and that my life IS a valid one.

I've spent the last week talking to people who home ed, and people who don't and would never consider it.
I'm also reading School's Out by Jean Bendell and Unqualified Education by Gareth Lewis.

James ad I will b spedig the easter hols making a final decision, but I can already see me writing letters and joining groups next term lol.

people say they wouldn't do it because it's financially hard. No. you cut your cloth according to your budget. I'm so used to doing that anyway, adjusting boundaries, changing goalposts etc... but I figure if I take at least the money that would have been spent on the once or twice a week school dinners she has, and uniform, and I save it we can use THAT to buy resources we may need, or to join and pay for clubs and swimming lessons etc. for instance this week she's had 3 school dinners. that's £5.10. I spent £2.50 last week on after school club subs and raffle tickets and a non uniform day "contribution".

finally, any school that sends out a text like this does not fill one with confidence.

[mrsflibble]

By the way, typos in my posts are not carried forth if I am writing by hand. 1. my typing is terrible, 2. there's something stuck under my N key.

[Pumpkin&Piglet]

hehehehehe

I'm not sure you will be judged for typos - no one is perfect! i can't believe the text fron the school, that's outrageous.

My eldest son is three and a half and does two mornings and one day at a playgroup and I plan to home school him once he stops going. Not told the mother-in-law yet (that will be an experience!) but my husband is fully on board and I'm sure the positives will shine through all by themselves once we're in the full swing of it.

Good luck with it x

[Saralexis]

I home ed mine- 6,4 and 1. Socialisation is a bit of a red herring issue-wise. There are plenty of opportunities to socialise (as in make friends and spend time with them) both in the home ed community and the wider world. As far as *being socialised* (as in having societies values transmitted to you and learning to live in society) I think there are better ways to achieve that than being shut in a room with thirty children of your exact age and one busy adult who's job is to interact with children.

[Chaldeonmenthe]

Joining the home ed crew with my little ones (not technically school aged yet) of 3, 2 and 12 weeks old. We are focusing on more of a natural learning approach. People are amazed when I tell them about home education, and even more amazed when I explain that, guess what, I have actually been educating them since birth! Apparantly education only begins at age five at school. It makes me wonder.

[Penny Lane]

We planned home ed-ing our son before he was even born!! Both me & the OH had rubbish school experiences and we have learned so much MORE since leaving school. OH works on an IT helpdesk and gets calls daily from teachers and headteachers, he is disgusted by their attitude and shocked at their incompetence!
He's four next month and I did go to a nursery thing last year, when I had a wobbly 'I'm not good enough' moment. I'm so glad I went that day and it confirmed everything I believed and feared. He's definitely not going to school!

We're following a semi-autonomous route at the moment, it suits us and we'll adjust what we do with what our son wants to do.
Child led education!

[Rosendula]

2. there's something stuck under my N key.

That's a shame, I quite liked being a "guru ad bee"

[oldjerry]

[quote="Penny Lane"]

OH works on an IT helpdesk and gets calls daily from teachers and headteachers, he is disgusted by their attitude and shocked at their incompetence!


I'm pretty keen on the idea of home educating,and ours(5,6and12) would have done it were they not fortunate enough to go to a couple of great schools,but I don't think you can make a good case for it by merely trashing all teachers with generalizations like that!

[Rosendula]

OH works on an IT helpdesk and gets calls daily from teachers and headteachers, he is disgusted by their attitude and shocked at their incompetence!

I'm pretty keen on the idea of home educating,and ours(5,6and12) would have done it were they not fortunate enough to go to a couple of great schools,but I don't think you can make a good case for it by merely trashing all teachers with generalizations like that!

To be fair OJ, Penny Lane was referring to those people her OH receives calls from. Perhaps the ones with a good attitudes and a decent level of competence don't call? When I think about all the teachers I had at school, plus all the ones my son and my eldest daughter had, there are only a handful that I could say were good teachers. Some were abysmal. Most were mediocre.

We had a knock on the door the other day, totally unexpected, from an Education Welfare Officer. I wasn't in and my OH refused to let her in the house, telling her he wants me here before we discuss anything. She went away again and the next day we received a letter. It looked as if someone had taken a bag of commas and apostrophes and just thrown them at the pages, and the presentation was very poor. That's from the LEA! As if that isn't bad enough, the information leaflet they sent us "to help us", apart from telling us nothing other than what they WON'T help with, was written in a very threatening manner and contained quite a lot of false information. Needless to say, I have been fuming about it ever since.