Home education/schooling

[summer rain]

Sorry to create a diversion but I wanted to ask has anyone tried conquer maths (an online maths curriculum) and are you using it as your only maths curriculum/work? I know quite a few parents who do and the LEA lady; who is normally very pro traditional, recreating a school from home environment said several other families she sees officially are now using conquer maths alone and she recommended this for us. She said she feels buying workbooks and even printing out worksheets is too expensive-too right it cost about £80 to print out stuff last year- and doesn't achieve as good results as the conquer maths program. I was a bit surprised as I thought it may be a bit modern for her liking and she is very much for textbook and exercise book work normally. It would just feel a bit odd for me to not be doing any workbook stuff at all. We were doing the free hungarian maths curriculum based at university of Plymouth but my 8 year old was starting to find it boring and repetitive, plus doing all the work would mean doing a page every day or every other day including at weekends; it just wasn't possible. So any experiences I'd be really grateful xx

 

[marley2580]

No experience, sorry. Have you asked on the FB home ed groups? Can you not just set sums etc on your own?

 

[summer rain]

Thanks. Maths is not one of my strong points and my eldest is working more at a year 9 level in some areas, so I don't have a clue about some of the work he is doing and I have to get OH to help him but OH is almost always out working. My own personal maths skills are more like a year 6 level and that is after attending evening classes and so on and so forth to improve them. In school teachers used to say I seemed to be very slow at maths and they didn't get why but nowadays alongside many other characteristics I have; I probably would be diagnosed with dyspraxia if I was a schoolchild today. I can do sums in my head but working out on paper by carrying numbers and such I can never remember how to do it. I'm not really on facebook just have an account for signing up for freebies, and I don't personally know anyone in real life that uses conquer maths; just online friends. I know education otherwise recommend it though and quite a few members of EO do use it as their only curriculum, but I didn't bother rejoining EO as I no longer needed the possibility of using their legal services and they don't have any members or groups in this particular area. I think I'm going to go for it because it ticks the box of developing good IT skills as well which is something that is of course not legally required but is expected by most LEAs these days. xx

 

[Gemie]

Have you been on yahoo to find HE groups in your area? You can always ask questions on there.

 

[summer rain]

I am part of a home ed group in my area on yahoo and also one with their own forum (that ones international but most members are in East London or Essex) but I just don't know anyone IRL who has chosen conquer Maths as a full time Maths curriculum. I trust the ladies here so was looking for their experiences too. It's sometimes nice to get real life input. My friends who I know IRL who home educate either do the Hungarian curriculum we were doing, miscellaneous Maths books by Letts etc and not really following any curriculum or they do the Heinemann Curriculum that costs several hundred pounds a year for each child. Conquer Maths is £100 altogether for all 3 boys and that is for unlimited access xx

ETA: just looked at a blog reviewing Conquer Maths and there are worksheets that can be printed out as part of the curriculum which I think is better than it solely being online. Apparently many schools now use it as a big part of their Maths teaching as well.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Ok ladies I need some help?

My son is in year 4 currently. He is 8.

what are he first steps needed to home school? who do I contact?

Is it really expensive to start up?

Is there any groups I can join for advice?

Pros/cons?

How do I find local groups?

 

[marley2580]

what are he first steps needed to home school? who do I contact? - If you're In England, when you want to remove a child from the school roll in order to home educate you need to go through the deregistration process. This involves writing to the headteacher or proprietor of the school. see here for more


Is it really expensive to start up? - Nope, all you really need is a library card. You actually find that a lot of parents spend the first year 'deschooling' so they don't really do any 'work' for that time.

Is there any groups I can join for advice? - check out education otherwise for loads of info on home ed in England (and I think Wales)

Pros/cons? - I could give you a massive list but tbh you need to think about what's right for your child(ren) and your family and take it from there. I think the best thing about home ed is that it is so flexible you can work with your child in a way that works for them.

How do I find local groups? - again, look at the EO website and google

 

[freckleonear]

My son is in year 4 currently. He is 8.

what are he first steps needed to home school? who do I contact?
You need to send a deregistration letter to your son's headteacher so that his name can be removed from the register (some information here: https://www.educationotherwise.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=77&Itemid=69). You can take him out with immediate effect if you want.

Is it really expensive to start up?
There are lots of different styles of HE, so it totally depends on what works for your family. Many people recommend a period of "deschooling" to adjust and unwind, with a general rule of thumb being a month per year of schooling, so you wouldn't need to worry about supplies immediately. There are lots of free resources on the internet and in libraries, so you don't need anything to start with and can just add things that might be useful as you go along.

Is there any groups I can join for advice?
https://www.educationotherwise.net/...nt&view=category&layout=blog&id=145&Itemid=92
https://www.home-education.biz
https://www.naturalmamas.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=85
There are also lots of groups on Yahoo and a few on Facebook.

Pros/cons?
Pros - flexibility, tailored to child's individual needs, individual attention, less disruptions and distractions, can cultivate a love of learning, unique opportunities, can follow child's interests, less peer pressure, socialisation with all ages, learning opportunities are found everywhere, develop real-life skills

Cons - you are solely responsible for education so occasional doubts and worries are normal, having to fund exams at GCSE and A level, high level of parental involvement.

How do I find local groups?
There's a good list of groups here: https://www.educationotherwise.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=106&Itemid=86. The forums listed above also have lists of groups, and you can sometimes find them by searching on Yahoo.

 

[Dragonfly]

Is there a section for home schoolers here I thought there was? I think midnight fairy you are on my friends list?

 

[marley2580]

No section that I know of. Just this group

 

[Dragonfly]

Ok well myself and partner have decided to home school from next year We had to take William out of play school over an incident. So this has pushed us to home school more. We are both optimistic about it. I am on some home school groups, local ones on facebook. The first step I need to take is removing their names from a register I believe?

 

[Tacey]

Ok well myself and partner have decided to home school from next year We had to take William out of play school over an incident. So this has pushed us to home school more. We are both optimistic about it. I am on some home school groups, local ones on facebook. The first step I need to take is removing their names from a register I believe?

As far as I know, you only need to deregister if they are already in school. You can choose to make yourself known to the LA or stay unknown if they've never gone to school. Good luck! I'm so excited about home ed!

 

[freckleonear]

As Tacey says, you don't even need to deregister because he hasn't started school yet.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Thanks all. I will update properly later xxx

 

[Dragonfly]

He was in pre school though so thats registered is it not?he had to enrol there and get selected.

 

[freckleonear]

He was in pre school though so thats registered is it not?he had to enrol there and get selected.

No, pre-school is not full-time education. Obviously you should let them know if he's not going back, so they can give the place to another child, but legally you don't need to let them know that you'll be home educating.

 

[Dragonfly]

Will write them a letter and get his stuff but wasnt going to say what we where doing later on with him, nothing to do with them. Though I had some misconceptions about home schooling I heard that i wanted to clear up. Like I thought you had to tell someone they where home schooled or be brought to court and prove you where educating. So I have found out so much today from friends and groups about this. I always was interested in it . even since I was a child I may as well home schooled myself I learned more there with books. I am more confident now in looking more in to this.

 

[lynnikins]

we are going to move soon and im looking into home-educating again, very much in 2 minds at the moment

 

[Dragonfly]

Any one got any good pinterest boards on home ed ? only have pre school one at the min want to see more.

 

[marley2580]

You can add me on pintrest hun https://pinterest.com/marley2580/

I don't claim to have loads but might have a wee bit
There's a fair few home ed blogs that you might find interesting.
Mine lol https://www.thechaoticmum.com/
https://threedegreesoffreedom.blogspot.co.uk
https://liveotherwise.co.uk/