Home Education

[cer35]

Interesting to hear where other people are at with this. I'm considering HE (eldest is 3 years so don't have to decide just yet). I've basically concluded that HE is definitely a better choice over school, but I'm pretty sure that my little girl will be very keen to start school and can imagine her being upset if I don't send her. Anyone had this issue?
btw, before becoming a sahm I was a newly qualified primary maths teacher, and everything I learnt in my training and in the year and a half of teaching I did pointed towards home "un-schooling" as being the best way to learn!

[Shirley]

That's really interesting Cer...

Now.. I'm all for this HE, but obviously have to discuss it with OH... now, he is a teacher and thinks he could do it much better than I could... I, naturally!, disagree...

[liwymi]

I go to a Rudolf Stenier school in Sydney Australia.
I went there from Kindy to Class 8 - I then wanted to change to a "normal" school, that was good as I think my RS background helped, but I evetually came back to Rudolf Steiner as I found the attitudes really unlike my own at the "normal" school. I did enjoy the other school, I met new friends and I had a better understanding. I'll never regret changing.

However I really like the idea of unschooling.

Doing rudolf-alternative/unschooling 50/50 or 20/80 sounds kinda cool to me, so the children get more variety and socilaising, maybe even the parents could participate (not exactly sure how) in the rudolf-alternative part to give other children the benefit of their knowledge.

ps. I'm in year 11 now, 16 y.o.

[albert onglebod]

I think we do have Sreiner Schools in the UK but there arent many of them. Most schools here are not open to negotiation regarding flexi schooling but some maybe,it just depends on the head teacher.
There are also Montessori schools but they are an expensive choice.

[liwymi]

I've just heard and read about Sudbury Valley School. Sounds fantastic!
Anyone had any experiences?

[Magpie]

You can buy what I gather is a pretty good Steiner curriculum, called Oak Meadow http://www.oakmeadow.com/ . I know several home educating families, who use this, and seem happy with it.

[AnnetteR]

After seeing my son get hit and kicked by two children in under 5 minutes, and the teachers barely acknowledged the two incidents I decided that I'd had enough of the public school system. As it was they were manually making my, then three year old, write everyday by putting a pencil in his hand and moving his hand for him. They were literally making him hate writing and the alphabet. Since I've pulled him out he has excelled and we hardly do any work at all. I don't know if I have what it takes to home-school my son but I dread sending him to a public school.

[Hillbilly]

There are also Montessori schools but they are an expensive choice.

Be really, REALLY careful with Montessori - the idea is wonderful but rarely is it practiced as Maria would have wanted it or indeed intended it.

I taught at a Montessori nursery/primary school for a year and left because it was a complete and utter nightmare. The other teachers did their best to convey a Montessorian 'atmosphere' whenever parents or the head came round but as soon as they were left alone - it all went to pot and any teachings were soon forgotten! It needs ABSOLUTE dedication and years and years of training and you cannot go around 'adapting' the priciples to suit 'your' school. Whilst I admit there are probably excellent schools based on her principles - I have found the same story coming from many others.

[Magpie]

I think this could be said of all types of schooling, the Steiner school near us has huge problems with internal politics, and bullying among the children... just the nature of the beast, perhaps?

Steiner, Montessori, all of the school ideas sound great in theory, such a shame they rarely work as intended.

[albert onglebod]

When the object of schooling becomes a money making enterprise, it loses all credence.
Whilst the only thing the government can do is pour in more money, it wont solve anything. Many teachers seem to think they can command huge sums as wages wether they can actually teach a class of kids or not. Until teachers are chosen for their abilities ,kids are just being sent to child minding facilities. However childminders would soon have no custom if they ignored their charges in the way schools appear to.
We are a nation of mercenaries ,producing a nation of mercenaries.

[Olive]

My son went to a montessori nursery from age 18mths until he was 4 1/2. It was a brilliant Montessori school and it was so wonderful seeing little spoilt 'brats' come into teh school and within a few weeks they were caring, loving individuals, still very strong characters but in the most positive sense. The workers there were wonderful and really embraced 'Montessori'.

My son is in main stream school now year 3 and although he got level 3 in his SATS last year, he is in almost the lowest groupings for his maths and literacy! Which i find fairly hard to believe. He hates doing homework, even though he is sooooooooooo capable! He is a dreamer, a thinker, an inventor! He doesnt like writing 10 sentences using his weekly spelling words and he doesnt like doing maths sheets which really are quite basic, even though he can fill them in within a few minutes. He hates reading school books (has brought home 2 since xmas) he sits there squirming and losing his place and looking all over the page... mind you so would I - those Oxford reading tree or Ginn books are SOOOOOOOOOOO boring!

So I think i will follow this thread with interest!

[Shirley]

http://www.jamboree.freedom-in-education.co.uk/ looks like a fab FREE resource site for home educators.

*************************************************************

Jamboree is a website for children, young people, and parents written and illustrated by Samuel (who is writing now), aged 18, Wendy, (20) and Bethan, (23). The three of us work with our parents Gareth and Lin, in writing, illustrating, and publishing books on education, as well as a monthly magazine. We also have two websites; Freedom-in-Education, which is run by my Dad, and Jamboree. Our aim is for the Jamboree to be like an oasis in the middle of the desert; whilst everyone and everything is pushing parents, but especially those growing up, to do what they want them to do, we would like to remind people that this is their life, and they have the right to make their own decisions without being pushed into it by anyone else. When a baby, we have such a clear idea of what we need and what we must have, and no-one can gainsay us, yet as we grow up, slowly we become sucked into things that we don't want to be doing; at first we still remember what it is that we really want, but after many years of grinding down we insensibly forget, until we find ourselves 18, out of school and totally un-prepared for life; our freedom is lost and we have forgotten our sense of direction which we knew so clearly all those years ago... maybe if we had been allowed to make our own decisions from the beginning, all this would not have happened, and a happy, well-balanced, person would be able to walk, with dignity, along the path of life. I must acknowledge, with great gratitude to my parents, that I have never been forced to do anything I do not want to do, and it is to this that I can attribute - in part at least - my present good fortune and happiness.
So, this is what the website is about, to tell people, from our own personal experience, that when given the space a child has all the direction within them to steer to a safe harbour, and that, when self-motivated, the task of reaping all the knowledge the world has to offer, from mathematics to crafts and cooking to history is just too much fun!
- Samuel
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[Magpie]

Thanks for that, Shirlz, I also found this on another list today - http://www.spinninglobe.net/9assumptions.htm Makes you think....

[Tensing]

Hi All, I've just joined this forum.

I am home educating my youngest child Henry (6), and have been since February this year.

My older three (14, 12 and 9 ) are all in school, and on the whole are happy there.

[multiveg]

I had thought when I was younger that I would home educate my children. However, now I have a son and am living in a Welsh-speaking area (and I am only a learner of that language) where subjects can be taken through the medium of Welsh, I have had to give up the idea. I know someone in the area who is home educating but not doing Welsh (as far as I know).