Home education/schooling

[motherofboys]

Hi I'm Kayleigh and I'm thinking of taking my children out of school to home school. They are 6 (a year 1 in school) 4 (attends preschool, due to start school this September) and 2 years old. Nothing is set in stone yet but I'm gathering info and ideas and we are going to have a bit of a trial run and see how we get on over the summer.
Marley just told me this thread was here.
I will sit and read right through later when they are all in bed LOL

 

[Tanikit]

Hi Kayleigh - good luck with the schooling. Was there a particular reason why you decided to take your eldest out of school? Let us know how it goes.

 

[motherofboys]

I had originally wanted to home school, but lacked confidence in my own ability. I also worried about socializing.
I have grown much more confident, no longer worry about the socializing aspect as the older children have clubs they go to, the youngest I take to Mum and Tots, and I have found the local home ed group. Also have plenty of their friends mums on facebook and/or their phone numbers.
With my middle son I worry how he will cope in a class room environment, especially all day. His already beginning to read and able to do basic adding and subtracting. My concern is that he will get bored in school and when his bored his disruptive.
My eldest is getting on well at school. The school is a good one and if they do stay in school I am sure he will continue to do well. But I also feel that we could do as well, or even better at home. His had the odd bullying problem. And he gets upset about not being with us that much. He loves his clubs (Thursday night Beavers, Saturday morning Judo and Sunday morning football. All things he asked to join and looks forward too) but I do feel we hardly see him, and he feels his left out even though I make the effort for him to have some special time with us. When we have the rush to get ready every morning and then a hectic evening, then a small bit of time together and bedtime, he thinks we are trying to get rid of him to school and don't love him anymore. I think a lot of his attitude, anger and tears would be resolved, or at least improved. I always see a change in him during the holidays. His much more friendly and happy. Which seems to contradict itself because he does like school and seeing his friends.
There are a few other minor things which are all pointing us towards home ed and I know these probably don't sound like big reasons like if the school was awful and he was fighting to go everyday and his education was suffering or anything. But its just something that feels right for us.
We are going to have a practice run during the summer, with no school for 6 weeks for 1 and 8 weeks for the other, it wont matter if they decide they don't like it and want to stay in school. They know we are going to do this and are quite excited about it, and know the decision is ultimately theirs because the most important thing to us is their happiness.

 

[motherofboys]

I'm needing some encouraging words ladies. The closer Kaya gets to school age the more I start doubting whether or not I'm doing the right thing by choosing home ed. I know my main reasons for wanting to do it, but I still find myself wondering if I'm cut out for doing it. Will my children ever learn to read? Will they really learn all that they need to know? Will I be able to handle being with them all day every day without killing them?

I have to admit I do worry a bit, going from having one of them at school 8:50am til 3:30pm 5 days a week and another 9am til 12pm. To suddenly having all 3, all the time!
Learning to read etc I have found my 2 big boys asked to learn, before school age (the middle one is due to start in September but already reading simple books with short sentences on each page)
But I thought the same things that you are thinking and as you know put them into school and pre-school. Now I'm regretting it.

 

[mamaofthree]

Hi motherofboys! It sounds as though you have a plan of action in place. Many mothers I have spoken to worry about the social aspect of home Ed, however like you said you can still meet up with friends during hols/after school, and new friends can be gained through home ed groups. Plus it means spending more quality time with your Lo's as it doesnt take a six hour classroom environment to learn at home. (We do about 3 hours then park/play) but mine also attend a Steiner kindy a couple of mornings also for a play and socialise. I too worried about my son (eldest) fitting in to school, and after almost two years of forcing hime to attend, and him being disruptive, and withdrawn we de-registered him (along with his four year old sister from nursery), and so far the LEA have left us be. My eldest has asd tendancies we think so home home Ed is the best albeit still difficult option. I'm hoping the others will just slot into place! I'm trying to take it as it comes, but find myself fretting over Gcses etc frequently...bah! the perks of being a mummmy. Trialing home Ed through the summer sounds a great idea! Let us know how you get on! xxx

 

[motherofboys]

Thanks, they have now both decided they would like to do it. So it looks like they wont be going back in September anyway, but I'm still going to test the water through the summer.
I have found out in the last couple of days that my son IS being bullied again. Which I think explains some of his attitude at home. We sat and made a pros and cons list together as he wasnt sure. His cons list had 1 thing on "miss friends". But after looking at his list and me explaining again about how he will still be able to keep in touch with them but that the list doesnt matter if he feels inside that he wants to carry on at school and he decided he wants to be at home.
I'm actually a bit relieved. Today I heard the teacher ( I was 1st in the play ground and their class door was open) telling the children off. She is quite abrupt anyway and used to teaching older children but I think she was a bit harsh. Telling a class of 6 year olds that if they didnt do enough work they would loose their play time tomorrow! Then told my son off for bringing some of his work to the carpet with him. I really didnt like her tone, and had to stop myself marching in and taking him straight out. I didn't want to jump the gun though so stayed put but asked him about it afterwards and he said they usually have to take the work to the carpet so he did. Think he tone was a bit uncalled for. The found out that on tuesday she let a girl go to the toilet alone, the girl never came back and she didnt even notice. It was only the girls mother stood in the playground going "where is my child?" as she was trying to close the door that alerted her to the fact she was missing. The poor child had been sat in the toilet for ages waiting for some one to come in so she could call out and ask for some toilet paper.

 

[Gemie]

Thanks, they have now both decided they would like to do it. So it looks like they wont be going back in September anyway, but I'm still going to test the water through the summer.
I have found out in the last couple of days that my son IS being bullied again. Which I think explains some of his attitude at home. We sat and made a pros and cons list together as he wasnt sure. His cons list had 1 thing on "miss friends". But after looking at his list and me explaining again about how he will still be able to keep in touch with them but that the list doesnt matter if he feels inside that he wants to carry on at school and he decided he wants to be at home.
I'm actually a bit relieved. Today I heard the teacher ( I was 1st in the play ground and their class door was open) telling the children off. She is quite abrupt anyway and used to teaching older children but I think she was a bit harsh. Telling a class of 6 year olds that if they didnt do enough work they would loose their play time tomorrow! Then told my son off for bringing some of his work to the carpet with him. I really didnt like her tone, and had to stop myself marching in and taking him straight out. I didn't want to jump the gun though so stayed put but asked him about it afterwards and he said they usually have to take the work to the carpet so he did. Think he tone was a bit uncalled for. The found out that on tuesday she let a girl go to the toilet alone, the girl never came back and she didnt even notice. It was only the girls mother stood in the playground going "where is my child?" as she was trying to close the door that alerted her to the fact she was missing. The poor child had been sat in the toilet for ages waiting for some one to come in so she could call out and ask for some toilet paper.

The more I hear about schools and teachers the more I know we're making the right decision!

It's also funny how since being in touch with home ed groups and chatting with friends on the subject the amount of teachers and even heads educate their own children at home.

 

[canadabear]

Gemie - I REALLY like this quote on your posts - ...the truth is mothers - and fathers - exert far more influence over their children's intellectual development than is commonly realised. In fact, more than three decades of research shows that families have greater influence over a child's academic performance than any other factor - including schools.
-
Where did you get it from? I would love to read more.. Thnx.

 

[Gemie]

It's from this xx

 

[Tanikit]

We declined the position for my daughter for grade R next year at a private school here in South Africa, so now we are heading for formal homeschooling starting next year January. I have been homeschooling her for the past year and a half since I went on maternity leave with my youngest, but this feels more official and I am looking forward to planning things for the next year and seeing how it goes.

 

[motherofboys]

Its funny, my sons school are taking THE WHOLE SCHOOL to the Paralymics in September, no one could understand why I didnt want my son to go (some people actually suggested it was because of I didnt want to answer awkward questions about the people competing being 'different'!!!) I just didnt feel it was safe, and then I heard about the teacher loosing a child in their own school and I knew I had made the right decision, that school or no school he wouldn't be going. Thankfully now that wont be an issue as he wont be going back there in September anyway!

 

[omfgski]

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[motherofboys]

That is something that has concerned me in the past, and although we are not actually home schooling yet I do think we will be ok. I know my biggest weaknesses are math and spelling. I struggle with numbers. My math teacher once said that I was "a lovely girl, but will NEVER ever 'get' math" I tried, but it just would not stay in my brain. I worked hard, I even retook my math GCSE and got the EXACT same grade as I had 1st time round. The only thing I was ever any good at was algebra and that was because it had letters! My husband however, is very good at math and so that would be his department. Spelling, I can't say for sure, I guess I would try to improve my own along with theirs. Double checking spellings I was unsure of in the dictionary. Using games for children and the English work books for their level. Even allowing them to write on the computer with spell check on. There are plenty of resources out there to help with anything you feel you're not that strong on, and can even further your own education along with your childs.
Sometimes on forums though, I think people tend to ignore spelling and grammar to a certain degree. I know I do.

 

[freckleonear]

It's a good question. Personally I'm fairly confident in most subject areas, but my memory isn't great so I often find myself learning alongside the children. I think it's a very positive role model for them to see me researching and looking up things I'm not sure about. My husband has dyspraxia so his spelling is quite bad, but mine is good so I hope that we will complement each other in most areas. We also plan to get friends and family involved more as the children grow older, so they can cover subject specialities. For example, I'm not fluent in any languages but my mum has a degree in French so she will give them French lessons.

With regards to maths in particular, the UK has a terrible record for teaching maths so there are lots of adults who don't understand it well. It might be worth researching Montessori and other methods that focus on manipulatives. There's lots of information on the internet about why maths learning in the UK is failing and what methods other countries use to get their higher standards.

 

[sophxx]

I have dyslexia no time in school made it better or made me able to spell yet I got double a* for my English exams I'm pretty confident that as a family we will be able to teach love better than he would be taught in a class of 50plus. Once he gets older he will have a tutor once a week to. I don't think you can make a judgements of people's ability to teach off typically get on the computer I for one am a rubbish typed I have no patience or time to go back and add grammar ect but even though I have dyslexia I'm perfectly capablebof teaching position as much as he needs to know at primary school age.

 

[omfgski]

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[mamaofthree]

I have 6 gcses (i walked out of the rest as was a rebel lol) and still don't have maths! I HATED it with a passion, but went on to get 5 Alevels, a degree in language&linguistics and am half way through a HND in counselling. A lack of maths Gcse has never held me back, and although I struggled in school I feel I can learn /relearn alongside my children. I am careful not to show my lack of confidence with the subject, and thankfully the children are progressing well. We do intend to purchase a set programme, such as an Igcse in the future as definately need guidance in this area. Workbooks with teacher manuals are also a blessing! The wonderfull thing (I feel) about Home Ed is having the opportunity to focus on areas you, and your children ARE good at. For example I play instruments, and my eldest although he dislikes reading/writing will happily sit for hours playing his recorder. We all have different learning styles, and skill sets. This is a positive thing. Most importantly, we WANT to educate our children and have their best interests at heart, thus we will impart a love of learning which many teachers cannot (especially if they enter into teaching for the wrong reasons, or become disillusioned) Finally I agree with previous posters regarding parents being their childs teacher since or even prior to birth, so why not continue, and be a part of the entire journey. I have learned loads already! x

 

[Tanikit]

I agree that most parents will learn along with their children and also that homeschooling is usually taken year by year so that if you reach a sticking point you can hire a tutor or send the child back to school or get someone else who can teach them better than you can. Many of the curricula that are used though do help the parent to be able to teach so it is usually fine and having one-on-one teaching should also help some.

 

[motherofboys]

Gah, my husband has decided he doesn't think its such a great idea after all! Why could he not tell me this before I spoke to my children and made the decision! I hope his just got cold feet and will still go ahead.

 

[Tanikit]

It is frustrating when DHs find it hard to make the decision too - why did he change his mind? Each has its pros and cons.