Home education/schooling

[marley2580]

I thought that as there now so many of us home educating (or planning on), that it might be nice for us to have our own group.

I'm Marley, I was home educated until I went to college at 15. I've got 2 daughters that I am home educating. I tend to be led by the girls but we also do workbooks ect.

 

[Dopeyjopey]

Helloooo :wave:

I'm Jo. I have an 8 month old son who I plan to home educate. I know it's a long way off yet but i'm trying to get prepared in advance and start before normal school age.

Marley it's good to see you're choosing to HE after being taught that way yourself. I have encountered a lot of negativity when i tell people what my plans are!

 

[Tacey]

Hello!
I'm Layla and we're intending to home educate our 17 month old, Alice. I suppose you could argue we already are, as I plan to be totally child led, at least to start with. I'm an ex-primary school teacher, and have read so much on home education that I can't see myself ever going back to teaching in a school!

It's great to have a place to chat here, as I've found people seem quite surprised, or even horrified if I tell them our plans!

 

[marley2580]

I've been asked on quite a few occasions if it's even legal! I actually class myself as HE already as I'm always being asked about Kaya (who's 3) going to nursery!

 

[Tacey]

I've had the legal thing too. People have asked if I need to submit a curriculum and planning. It seems people can't understand how children could learn without the National Curriculum.

Out of interest Marley, is the same in Scotland (that's where Forfar is, right? Making a bit of an idiot of myself if not!) that you can inform the local authority about your plans or not if you don't want to? I don't know whether it would be good to stay 'under the radar' or to come out and make ourselves known when the time comes.

 

[Dopeyjopey]

I'm going to stay under the radar!

For those who are already HEing, how long on average are your children 'taught' each day? I am trying to work out logistics (i know it's a long way off) but is it possible for me to continue working part time?

 

[freckleonear]

Hello!

I'm Sarah, I was home educated for four years until I went to university. We're planning to home educate our children. Aaron is 3 and people are always asking if he goes to preschool, so I already class us as home educating. At the moment we do unit studies/lapbooking and use a workbox system.

 

[fluffpuffin]

Hi, I'm Debbie and my little girl is 8 months old now, so thinking quite far ahead when it comes to her education. Me & hubby are hoping to home educate her. I hope I can learn a bit more about it on here.

 

[freckleonear]

I'm going to stay under the radar!

For those who are already HEing, how long on average are your children 'taught' each day? I am trying to work out logistics (i know it's a long way off) but is it possible for me to continue working part time?

I know it's a bit different because I was 12 when my parents started to home educate me, but my dad worked full time and my mum worked part time. As I was older I just got on with most of it myself.

It depends on what educational style you use, but even people who follow quite a structured style often say that they only learn for 3-4 hours each day. 1-on-1 attention with no disruptive children in class means that you can accomplish a lot more in a shorter time than you could at school!

 

[Dopeyjopey]

Ah, brilliant. That would work out perfectly

 

[s4m4nth4]

Hi, I'm samantha, and I home ed my daughters( 8 and 6) and my boys (almost 4 and almost 2) It is going really well, and I love spending the time with my children watching them learn and grow! The best part is letting them play as much as they want, and the freedom to go where we want, when we want.

 

[lynnikins]

hi, im lynette , i was home educated from age 7 till i stoped my formal education at 17 my parents used a variety of teaching tools and methods over the years till we were pretty much only going to them to be assigned work in our teens then taking it back for checking lol not disimilar to what happens in most highschool classrooms these days

 

[lynnikins]

oh and even during my parents most structured phase we only had 3-4 hours of book learning a day the rest was our time to do as we wanted personally at one point i was on the piano upto 5 hours a day or had my head stuck in a book

 

[aurora]

Hi Marley, thanks for inviting me. :wave:

 

[fluffpuffin]

this is great - quite a few of us here

 

[summer rain]

Hi

I'm Soph and home-edding my two eldest and informally my second youngest (of school age in September). We do like to take an unstructured child-led approach as much as possible, we've tried highly regimented curriculum based approaches and my boys were bored and reluctant to do any work. We did plan to remain under the radar as I don't see any need for local authority involvement, and in our old borough the local authority would only come after you if you chased them up. We moved in late 2009 though and this local authority are not supportive of home-ed at all; we know a number of other parents who are home-educating or who were planning to; where the council threatened them with court, and one case where they even set social services on a lady I know because she questioned the legal status of the guidelines this particular LEA have drawn up and which they paint as being legally required. They didn't realise this lady was herself an ex-social worker though. In our case we were 'reported' to the council for home schooling our eldest; by a health visitor; when he was over 5 so none of her business anyway and I've since had it confirmed by my current health visitor that this would be considered a serious breach of confidentiality, but the health visitor in question has left her job now anyway so I can't bust her for it. I have also heard of others being reported by various other health professionals, GPs, HVs, Dentists, speech therapists etc. Its been a nightmare ever since, this LEA is the least supportive of home-ed in London; they insist on home visits every three months and while the lady who actually comes to visit is moderately supportive she believes only a regimented curriculum based approach will work so her reports are always somewhat negative. I also believe she has to write a negative report as her superiors in the education department make no secret of the fact they don't like home-ed and will do anything to put parents off it if at all possible so she has to do their bidding basically. We actually tried to move via a homeswap to a neighbouring borough that is really supportive of home-ed whether you're known to them or not but the other party messed us around and pulled out in the end. So while its nice to think you can always be under the radar; be aware it isnt always in our hands.

S xx

 

[freckleonear]

Hi

I'm Soph and home-edding my two eldest and informally my second youngest (of school age in September). We do like to take an unstructured child-led approach as much as possible, we've tried highly regimented curriculum based approaches and my boys were bored and reluctant to do any work. We did plan to remain under the radar as I don't see any need for local authority involvement, and in our old borough the local authority would only come after you if you chased them up. We moved in late 2009 though and this local authority are not supportive of home-ed at all; we know a number of other parents who are home-educating or who were planning to; where the council threatened them with court, and one case where they even set social services on a lady I know because she questioned the legal status of the guidelines this particular LEA have drawn up and which they paint as being legally required. They didn't realise this lady was herself an ex-social worker though. In our case we were 'reported' to the council for home schooling our eldest; by a health visitor; when he was over 5 so none of her business anyway and I've since had it confirmed by my current health visitor that this would be considered a serious breach of confidentiality, but the health visitor in question has left her job now anyway so I can't bust her for it. I have also heard of others being reported by various other health professionals, GPs, HVs, Dentists, speech therapists etc. Its been a nightmare ever since, this LEA is the least supportive of home-ed in London; they insist on home visits every three months and while the lady who actually comes to visit is moderately supportive she believes only a regimented curriculum based approach will work so her reports are always somewhat negative. I also believe she has to write a negative report as her superiors in the education department make no secret of the fact they don't like home-ed and will do anything to put parents off it if at all possible so she has to do their bidding basically. We actually tried to move via a homeswap to a neighbouring borough that is really supportive of home-ed whether you're known to them or not but the other party messed us around and pulled out in the end. So while its nice to think you can always be under the radar; be aware it isnt always in our hands.

S xx

Your LEA sound awful. Because my brother and I were taken out of school the LEA knew about us, but we only had visits once per year and the inspector was lovely and supportive. He even wrote a really nice reference for my university application.

 

[marley2580]

I've had the legal thing too. People have asked if I need to submit a curriculum and planning. It seems people can't understand how children could learn without the National Curriculum.

Out of interest Marley, is the same in Scotland (that's where Forfar is, right? Making a bit of an idiot of myself if not!) that you can inform the local authority about your plans or not if you don't want to? I don't know whether it would be good to stay 'under the radar' or to come out and make ourselves known when the time comes.

Yeah, I'm in Scotland. Scotland's slightly better than England, I think, as the govt actually created home ed guidelines that the LEAs have to follow. As long as the child has never been to school, you do not have to inform the LEA about your home edding. But if you want to take your child out of school you cannot until you have been given permission to (this is different to england), BUT they can't refuse you that permission without a really good reason.

On another note, those with toddlers should check out https://www.starfall.com/ It's all about phonics and, along with the paid section, keeps my Kaya occupied for ages. I'm able to just leave her to it.

 

[NaturalMomma]

Hello

I'm Jenn. I have 2 boys, almsot 4 years and almsot 1 year. My DH was a Catholic privated schooled boy, and I was a public schooled girl. We decided it was best for us to homeschool our children for so many reasons. We started in 2010 with ds1 and he loves learning. This summer I'm getting him 2 cirriculums for 4-7 year olds for his birthday and I really think he's going to love it. I do take his interests and then roll with them, but we also do do some formal education with work books.

 

[summer rain]

Hi

I'm Soph and home-edding my two eldest and informally my second youngest (of school age in September). We do like to take an unstructured child-led approach as much as possible, we've tried highly regimented curriculum based approaches and my boys were bored and reluctant to do any work. We did plan to remain under the radar as I don't see any need for local authority involvement, and in our old borough the local authority would only come after you if you chased them up. We moved in late 2009 though and this local authority are not supportive of home-ed at all; we know a number of other parents who are home-educating or who were planning to; where the council threatened them with court, and one case where they even set social services on a lady I know because she questioned the legal status of the guidelines this particular LEA have drawn up and which they paint as being legally required. They didn't realise this lady was herself an ex-social worker though. In our case we were 'reported' to the council for home schooling our eldest; by a health visitor; when he was over 5 so none of her business anyway and I've since had it confirmed by my current health visitor that this would be considered a serious breach of confidentiality, but the health visitor in question has left her job now anyway so I can't bust her for it. I have also heard of others being reported by various other health professionals, GPs, HVs, Dentists, speech therapists etc. Its been a nightmare ever since, this LEA is the least supportive of home-ed in London; they insist on home visits every three months and while the lady who actually comes to visit is moderately supportive she believes only a regimented curriculum based approach will work so her reports are always somewhat negative. I also believe she has to write a negative report as her superiors in the education department make no secret of the fact they don't like home-ed and will do anything to put parents off it if at all possible so she has to do their bidding basically. We actually tried to move via a homeswap to a neighbouring borough that is really supportive of home-ed whether you're known to them or not but the other party messed us around and pulled out in the end. So while its nice to think you can always be under the radar; be aware it isnt always in our hands.

S xx

Your LEA sound awful. Because my brother and I were taken out of school the LEA knew about us, but we only had visits once per year and the inspector was lovely and supportive. He even wrote a really nice reference for my university application.

They are one of the worst I have come across, in their very first letter they were talking about 'school attendence orders', and when I filled in the form regarding how my son is educated; and put so much detail I had to continue on another piece of paper, and sent it back to them they wrote back with a letter the subject of which was a file destination on the computer ending in 'lack of info from parents.doc'!?! they have laid off us a bit since I did happen to mention I'm a card carrying member of Education Otherwise and know the law regarding home-ed but they are still trying to put us off in various ways. I tried to postpone their termly visit this term as I have just had a new baby who was poorly in hospital with jaundice and had repeat appointments ever 72 hours up until a month ago, and for various other reasons as well such as the children having flu/chest infections for a total of about 8 weeks over the autumn and winter, we didn't get as much work done as usual (its not legally required to show them any work but this borough insists on it). The education department; I believe deliberately, did not pass our letter on to the lady who actually does the home visits, she then made an appointment for the 7th February and there is nowhere to contact her specifically to cancel it. Despite being very unprepared the lady wrote a far more glowing report than usual; but the last paragraph had to be negative to 'tick the boxes' of those in the office. The lady in the office seized on that one paragraph and said the home visiting officer clearly has concerns that the educational provision for our sons is inadequate and doesn't meet the requirements; which she did not write in the report; she said yes it does meet the requirements she can just imagine its difficult with 4 kids at home under the age of 7. I'm sad to say we are looking into putting the kids in school and a big part of it, is this LEA. We're feeling bullied into changing our approach and changing the type of work we do; just to make the LEA happy and that just isn't right.