Selfsufficientish.com

I have heard of Education Otherwise through an article I read years before I had the children,will have a look at their site and have a serious think about it,many thanks.

Good luck with that... Toni says if Harry doesn't settle at preschool she's going to do home ed for him, but small chance of that with Mr Sociable!

MM! everyone says that about the social aspect but it really isn't a problem as there are local groups of homeschoolers all over the country.Many people join when the kids are still babies.
Mine went to so many clubs too...
Swimming,Badgers,Brownies,Cubs,scouts,sea cadets and drama
The other thing about home schoolers is,they will talk naturally to anyone.
I can remember the class seating arrangements being changed to reduce talking and being told you were not in school to socialise.
However,for some people,school is better,home ed is not for everyone.

Sorry for highjacking the thread
Wasn't intentional

Albert, - you didn't hijack. The reason schools were made compulsory and free in the 19th century was to provide an obedient and compliant work-force for industry, so there's definitely a loink between the work ethos and the going-to-school ethos.
My 3 attend primary school but I can quite understand why people choose to home-educate. As the prospect of secondary school looms closer, I can understand that even more.
As to the work-life balance I went part-time when my children were born, and would hate to go full-time now. One of the reasons I got my allotment was to do something productive with my time. Being at home caring for my young children was one thing, but once they were all at school I realised that the prospect of being at home on my own, polishing my nets or whatever my MIL would have one believe is the life of a proper housewife, was not for me! With the allotment I am providing good food, a healthy life-style, and showing the children that T***o is not the only provider of food in the world.

Wombat - I see a certain irony in someone who advises on occupational illness and injury working a 55 hour week! Hope you get to reduce your hours soon for your sake.

Hello! This is an interesting topic.

I work 26 hours a week over three and a half days, and am also getting out of debt at the same time. I can do this partly because I am earning a decent wage - about 11,000pa before tax which is plenty to live on now I've reduced my debt to manageable levels.

The other thing that's a massive help is living in a housing co-op, which means my rent is only about £160 a month compared with over £400 average in this city.

What a pity that despite so many people aspiring to do this sort of thing, the government put no emphasis at all on raising wage levels (the lowest wages especially have been supressed by new E.U. migration) or on reducing rents (prefering to look after people buying houses).

Load of complete w**kers, aren't they?
Alice

Trouble is if you raise wage levels you increase inflation, which erodes savings and makes it cheaper to borrow which boosts house prices etc etc etc...

Pah. I hate economics. Co-ops are a good thing though, well done.