Home schooling

[Tacey]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask about this, but I've been thinking about education lately. I'm an ex-primary teacher, and thoroughly disillusioned with the school system. Although obviously, with my LO only being 8 months old, it isn't a decision I'm going to have to make too soon, I'm thinking about home schooling her and any siblings who might come along. Does anyone else do this? How did you start out on your journey and are there any books or resources you'd recommend I look at. I'm most interested in 'unschooling', so not following any syllabus.

 

[bubbles123]

Hey, I work in a school so I'm right with you on the disillusionment! My brother was home schooled after being severely bullied. My mum withdrew him from school and submitted a curriculum to the LEA showing how he would be educated. They accepted this and he was taught the majority of the curriculum by my mum and had a maths tutor. She followed the GSCE curriculum's which she got directly from the boards. The LEA came to visit and were quite satisfied. He took his exams at the local college, got 5 A-C's and went onto college then uni

This was 10 years ago though, I think now OFSTED get involved and it's much harder. Unschooling sounds great! Does that involve children selecting what they want to learn?Got to be better than the awful national curriculum! Sorry I can't be much help but just want to say go for it, it's a great thing to do and I'm sure you can give your child a brilliant education X

 

[Tacey]

Yes, as I understand it unschooling follows your child's interests rather than a syllabus. Obviously it's up to the parent to make sure there are rich opportunities for learning. It sounds to me like the way schools SAY that they will teach, but realistically can't in classes of 30 kids with the government breathing down their necks. The more I research it, the better it sounds!

 

[kelly342000]

ooh, that sounds interesting! have you come across any useful websites etc regarding home schooling?

 

[Tacey]

Education Otherwise seems to be quite good for legal matters. I've not found many UK resources on unschooling, although I know some people who do it in my town. I think I'm going to order some books about it.

 

[kelly342000]

thanks will check it out. is something i am very interested in, as we both work in education and are concerned about the way youngsters are educated in schools,

 

[marley2580]

home-education.biz/
homeeduk.ning.com/

Both have loads of home educating parents on them. I home educate and was home educated myself and I think it's one of the best gifts I can give my kids.

 

[Tacey]

Marley, how do you go about it? Do you follow any schemes, or just follow their interests? Do you have to report back to the Local Authority? Thanks for the links, I'll have a look now.

 

[marley2580]

I just go with the flow. Because my kids are younger I don't 'officially' HE, but when I do I won't need to report to the LA, but if they ask I'll need to provide a statement of my education philosophy and a brief lesson plan. But that's it.

 

[missamoo]

I was home educated and it is not a choice I'd make for my kids. Although you do get a better education at home I found that I struggled socially once in the work place. You often get some form of bullying in the workplace and I was totally unprepared to deal with it. Obviously it depends on your child, how many children you've got, what sort of social life they'll have etc but personally I found home schooling didn't teach me alot of the life skills you need.

If you do decide to go down that route you can get books from WHSmiths and others that follow the syllabus and key skills. Once I got to senior school age I did correspondence courses with the local college to do my GCSEs and took my first GCSEs at 14. That was a lot easier because I spread my GCSEs over 3 years instead of having to take them all at once. I also took an ALevel using this method at 16. Like I say, the education was much better.

You just have to weigh up the pros and cons.

 

[redpoppy]

I used to think people who home educated their kids were nuts due to the social aspect of it all until I was on a documentary (worked in Telly and it was about something totally different to home schooling) and the three home educated kids were so smart, social and stable that I changed my mind.

I think home schooled parents have meet ups quite regularly so their kids get to hang out and I'm sure theere are other ways of maybe finding social intgeraction?

I don't think I'm capable enough to do it to my kids but am very impressed by those three kids to thid day so...

 

[Lisa1302]

I would like to think it could be good for Izzy, but the social side if it, or lack of social side, worries me a lot.

What I intend to do is focus on educating her more at home with the things she likes, on top of home work - I honestly don't see it as a chore as I loved working on things I enjoyed like geography projects and reading etc - but my parents weren't AT ALL education motivated and never pushed us or really set us extra to do, they are very successful and now well off but never expected us to do anything more than average (although I did get good grades I don't know how!)

She will also spend aa fair amount of holiday time learning too - as i think too many weeks of every year are wasted like that when the parents could be helping their kids out loads!

 

[marley2580]

How will my child socialise if she’s not at school?
Well, most home educators would turn this question around and ask: how can a child learn social skills when most of her day is spent in a large group of people who are all the same age? Home educated children tend to socialise much more widely, counting adults, younger and older children, and members of the opposite sex amongst their friends. A ‘peer group’ is more likely to consist of those who share the same interests, rather than the same birth year!

There are plenty of other home educators around, and in many areas regular group activities and meetings are organised – these give you the chance to get support and ideas too.

Look around your local area. Does your library or sports centre have details of clubs your child might like to join? Are there activities during the school holidays? Contact the leisure services department of your local council: what do they have to offer? Pick up leaflets from museums and arts centres – perhaps they have interesting workshops or courses.

Taken from https://www.schoolhouse.org.uk/about-home-education