home educating

[newbiemum05]

Hi everyone,
I just wanted a bit of advice really.
My son is 16 months and I am being pressured by everyone (and since he started his work placement, my husband) to get my sons name down at the local school so he will have a nursery place. I have mentioned not sending our son to school and he seemed ok with the idea as long as I thought I would manage ok.
I feel more inclined to home educate him the more I read and think about it. I have a few concerns - the obvious is I'm not very well educated myself. We also wish to have more children and am concerned at how we would get much learning done with a baby and then toddler running around without feling I wasn't giving enough time to all the children.
How have/do you manage/d with this is your experiences - I would love some honest advice about all this just to put my concerns into a realistic context.
Any other advice would be really helpful.

[Tensing]

Hi,

I home Educated my youngest child Henry aged 6 who has Aspergers Syndrome along with other problems and to be honest it is not hard. Henry is very keen to learn and absorbs information like a sponge. If you think about a school day then alot of it isn't actually educational time, but breaks, and time spent moving children around the buildings for assemblies etc.

Most days we spend a couple of hours actually "learning", but his real education is the time we spend doing real things together such as cooking, gardening, looking after the animals or even shopping. We talk all the time and Henry asks constant questions, if I don't know the answer, we find it together in a book or on the internet.

If you are not sure yet then I would put his name on the waiting list, you can always take it off again. as for more children, the more you have the easier it is. During the school holidays we often do educational stuff like science experiments as a family, this means that the youngers ones end up doing work that is really more suited to the older ones but they are still learning. Also remember that if you do have a new baby, the older childs education can be fitted in arouind babies sleeping and feeding, and the baby can actually provide a great science project, watching it grow and develop.

[titch7069]

We have been HEing since july, we do 2 hrs a day of curriculum stuff (maths etc) and the rest of the time they are just soaking stuff up. they've both learnt to swim,fish,look after chickens and their dogs, learnt how to conserve water and elec (nothing like a small solar system to make you aware of not having too much on at once).

we were really happy with maddies infant school in ramsgate and scarlet would have gone there if we'd stayed, but the next stage school was a concern, maddies final year teacher said that we were doing the best thing possible for her as that junior school seemed to specialize in breaking kids spirits and that it would be a shame to destroy such a loving and dreamy nature!

[red]

I have a few concerns - the obvious is I'm not very well educated myself. We also wish to have more children and am concerned at how we would get much learning done with a baby and then toddler running around without feling I wasn't giving enough time to all the children.
How have/do you manage/d with this is your experiences - I would love some honest advice about all this just to put my concerns into a realistic context.
Any other advice would be really helpful.

If you are worried about your abilities, you could always plan to just do the primary years at home - many home ed for those years then the kids go to secondary school after that. To be honest - you will be fine, he has learnt everything ok so far, right?

I have been educatiing my son for a year now and its great! I love having him home. We have a structured morning, with educational programs from BBC (you can get a timetable from them for free), and 'lessons' then we go out and about in the afternoons etc. As my son has special needs, we are focusing on lifeskills - a trip to the bank or butchers can be very educational. and now we have time to talk about everything and we do.

why don't you get in touch with your local home ed groups, go along and chat to other parents. I found that the most assuring 'school' visit I made!