Home Education

[invent 10 things b4 breakfast]

I've been reading about several people on this site who say their child is home educated.

 

This might sound a bit thick, not doing it myself i don't know, but how do you do it?

 

I have this image of sitting down all day with the child with books not really knowing what I am suppose to be teaching them. Do they train you what to do and give you material?

 

Do you have to put in as many hours and how do they take exams?

 

I would appreciate any light you could shed on this for me.

 

Thanks.

[oracle]

Hi Becky,

 

Life is an education is it not? By that I mean that we are learning from the moment we are born until we die. I Home Educate both of my sons and I can not remember the last time we sat round a table with books open and heads down But that does not mean that my kids learn nothing. Sometimes my youngest will sit for hours crossed legged on the floor writing away in a book on a topic that interests him. I let him do this because I know that this enables his learning. Sitting at a table/desk does not. It reminds him of school and that disables his learning.

 

My eldest now has what I consider to be most of the skills he will need to live independantly. Well I hope that is the case? He can cook, much better than I can now and will attempt any dish that he fancies. He can clean his room, change his bed, baths daily and can just about handle a weekly shop. Budgeting is still a problem for him but hopefully this will come in time. He can also pretty much crack the theory of relativitly but he's taught himself that one as it's way out of my capabilities. This may give you an idea of how diverse HE can be.

 

With our youngest I pour my energies into what I call connective education and emotional literacy. That means as well as learning to read and write we teach Matthew about himself and how he ticks. This means that he can now sometimes spot an explosive situation and remove himself from it. Anything that Matthew learns has to mean something to him. So if we do maths then it has to mean something to him. So we do money 'real' money and we practice how to add it up and then spend it He likes that part. But I want him to understand that a penny can not ever buy him as much as a pound even though they are both a coin and both money. I hope that makes sense? We have taught many subjects to Matthew just by using his favourite things. His love for his Guniea Pigs have given us so many different subject areas that you would not believe possible. But because I can show Matthew where his pets came from originally I can teach him geography, climates, weather patterns. The possibilities really are endless.

 

We do loads of hands on learning and Matthew also loves cooking and can make a mean casserole and an edible sandwich. These are the things that I want my sons to be able to do without thinking. Most of us home ed to suit our kids and it can be very rewarding both for the child and the teacher n I love being the one who teaches either of my two something new and have the satisfaction of knowing that they can not only do something new but that they fully understand why they have done it and how.

 

Carole

[Brook]

Hi Becky,

 

I am relatively new to home educating, and love to read Caroles posts about it

 

I actually do spend some of our learning time with work books, the reason for this is, that my son would not steer himself into interests and needs alot of encouragment.

But although I loosely base the learning books on the NC, I modify it to suit 'him', I always use visual material, and always ensure that the actual understanding is there of what has been learnt before we move on, (this can take quite some time, but we do get there). He also has difficulty generalising what he has learnt, this is something that we will be working on in the next term.

 

To be honest, without all the distractions that he would get at school, the actual NC work that we do, is done in less than half the time it would take at school.

We then have time to focus on 'life skills', getting dressed independantly, having a wash, etc.. also even going to the supermarket, we spent 15 minutes watching the bakers baking their bread, my son was fascinated, and mentions it everytime we go there.

 

I think the one thing that people seem to worry about is the 'social side', which I admit I did at first, but when I think that my boy initially went into school quite sociable and by the time I took him out he had withdrawn from all the kids, I dont think that by being around the 30+kids everyday had any positive social advantages at all, certainly not the case with my son.

I am looking into clubs he can attend, he loves trampolining so that is a definite

I also intend to build his confidence back up in the social side of things.

 

He is nearly seven, so who knows what the future will bring, but I know that at this moment in time, home ed is working for us.

 

Brook

[mom on a mission]

hi ive been doing a lot of research on home educating as i feel it is the avenue we are going to take with our five year old it will be january when we start though as i want to finish decorating my house and get christmas out of the way, i doesnt seem to matter which way you educate your children from what i have read just being out of school makes them happier and gets them wanting to learn we are oppting for formal work but only for an hour or 2 the rest of the day we will learn freely iam preparing a room to use like a class room with a TEEACH system in place and will be purchasing national curriculum material from "WITSEND" its very reasonably priced , this is not the way most people home educate but i feel that my son will be best suited to this situation and well if iam wrong i can always change the way we do things, i have just brought two books on home educating children with ASD iam just reading them but they seem very informative and inspiring if any one would like to read them when i have finished pm me and i will be happy to post them to any one who wishes to borrow them.

[Brook]

Hi Mom on a mission,

 

We too have a little room for the 'book work', it is only used for what we call our 'book learning', I have symbol timetables, change cards, expressions, Mistake's card, etc...

 

We only go in for about 2 hours a day, the rest of the day is spent either with BBC schools on the computer, painting, playdough, lego, turntaking games also visits to the library, it is amazing just what they can do with a 'quiet no distractions, calm, one to one environment'.

 

I have just been planning our work for the next term, I too use NC books, but I have to change alot of the strategies to enable my son to understand them, he is nearly three years behind with his receptive language, this is also an area in which I am focusing on.

 

I think this suits my son, but it really does depend on the individual child as to how the learning is approached. As their mums, we do get a very good idea of what works best for our individual kids.

 

Brook

[oracle]

The BEST thing about home education is that you can teach your children in which ever way that suits the child and your family best. We decided to be as unstructured as we possibily could because if we begin a routine with Matthew then it is written in stone. This approach has worked well for us because Matthew is now much more flexible. David has always worked best with structure so we work with him to a more rigid routine.

 

So we have two very different styles of HE for two very different kids. But they have both learned a great deal.

 

Carole

[Suze]

Wow this is interesting , can,t believe what I,m learning from you guys.A few questions....are you watched over by anyone to check the kids are reaching certain goals?.....What about exams?....do you have anyone who helps/guides/or gives advice.Do the lea support you in any way?.....keep all these posts coming I,m getting enthused about this...it could be an option for my son at the end of primary.

[oracle]

We have an annual review by our LEA. You have to prove that you are teaching your kids but not that they are learning basically The way things stand at the moment they have no rights at all to either see your kids or their work I try and meet them half way but only because I want to.

 

Even if your child has a statement you can pretty much teach what you want to teach. But the LEA can monitor you to make sure you are providng your child with whatever is written in their statement This really is funny as many LEA's have never kept to the provision written into a statement. That's half of the problem.

 

We have chosen NOT to go the exam route but that was because after David had his breakdown we knew he would never handle the pressure of exams. But David may well decided to go to College one day? He talks about this as something he will eventually do and I believe he will, when he is ready.

 

With Matthew well you never know Matthew may be up to exams we will take it as it comes. You are under no obligation to follow the NC at all although some LEA's try to convince you that you are

 

I would however say that I personally feel, and it is only me, that with all of the new legislation making it's way through parliament, ie Every Child Matters, and the appointment of Directors of Children's Services in all Authorities, the government will try and make it as difficult as possible to home ed in the future. I think that the net will close in on us and we will become much more accountable. But these are only my private thoughts.

 

As for input from LEA's and funding

 

Carole

[Canopus]

Do you know of any particularly good books for home education? I suppose there are the standard school textbooks, but are there any others you recommend that may be of better quality material than the standard issue stuff? Also, what about good books for things that are not on the National Curriculum but are still useful to know in general?

 

I am trying to compile a list of books and educational material for parents who want to home educate their children. The target audience at the moment isn't children with SEN but socially conservative patriotic parents and children who are sick and tired of all the left-wing Marxist multicultural tosh thrusted upon them by the state education system. I could expand on this for children with SEN who are being let down at school.

[mom on a mission]

its so nice to hear how home educating works for people iam definatly going to give it ago its got to be less stressfull than having to deal with the after school melt downs and the constant battle with the school (they want him in mainstream i dont) .iam sick and tiried of the constant battle to get the school to understand my son i know i can do better than they are doing at the moment , i may not be a qulified teacher but i know my son and he has every trust in me so together iam confident we can make it work. any advice on de registering a child who is statmented from a special school will be much apreciated THAT BIT TERRIFIES ME its because ive been accused of all sorts in the past and with the stories you hear of children being wrongly removed from ther families its a very scary process, when i mentioned home schooling to the school they said it would be no good for my son and then wrote to the lea to make them aware of the situation they implied that we were abusing him of course we are not ,its ther way of intimidating us my husband is a police officer and went to theshcool to remind them of the conseqenses of false aqusations neadless to say weve had enough we wont be frightened into sending our son into an unapropriate envirnment and we will take his education into our hands where it will be safe, and my son will be happy its what he deserves bless him.

[Canopus]

You just have to tell the school and the LEA if you want to deregister a child at a special needs school. The school may kick up a stink and claim it is in your child's interest to continue their education there, but the reality is that once your child leaves, the funding from the LEA stops which is what the school doesn't want to happen.

 

I came within a whisker of leaving a special needs residential school because I was unhappy there but my mother flatly refused to sign a form even though my father signed it. Two signatures were needed back then but things could have changed.

[oracle]

Mom on a Mission there are several HE lists. One especially for parents who have children with SEN where there are HE experts, always ready to give good advice. The thing that angers me the most is the veiled threats that we parents live with As your hubby is a Policeman I would try not to worry too much because he will also have a good source of advice behind him.

 

If you ever decide to jump into the water then let me know and I will point you in the direction of the lists that will be most useful to you.

 

<'> Carole

[Canopus]

The nation's education system is packed solid with lies and misinformation. My mother still thinks that there was no choice when it came to me attending an unsuitable residential school. She also thought that I would have to repeat a year if I were to return to a state school simply because the parents of another student told her whilst waiting at a train station.

[mom on a mission]

carole , i will be home educating my son and any lists or advice you could give me would be fantastic i will start to home school in january as i need to get a few things sorted out first , but it is definatly the route iam going to take ,my son is five and diagnosed with ASD he is also selectivly mute(only at school though) and suffers severe social anxiety ,he is also dyspraxic and i feel he is dyslexic but the school wont assess him,the problem we are having is that because my son withdraws in himself and isnt disrubtive the special school he attends are saying that he is capable of entering mainstream, however they sent him to a mainstream school one afternoon a week and he hated it he aventually made it very clear to school staff that he couldnt cope , but they still want to send him full time(over my dead body mind) we are to meet again to review the situation in december/january it is then that i plan to inform them that he is to leave , i have my plan in place for them to see if they like , can i take my son out of the school as soon as i have written to the lea or do i have to wait for there reply to my request. iam worried that if he is in school whilst i wait for permition then staff may make life very difficult. any way any advice you can give will be absolutly brilliant thanks mel

[Brook]

Hi Mom on a mission,

 

If you click on 'home educating', in the important topics above, there is a post by 'bid' and it has a link to 'education otherwise', (sorry cant do links ).

 

It gives the legal information for 'de-registering from school', it also gives a sample letter to the LEA, about de-registering from a special school.

 

HTH

 

Brook

[oracle]

Here is a link to the SEN-HE list http://www.he-special.org.uk/content/joinhere.php

 

On this list there are parents who wrote the book Hone Educating our Autistic Spectrum Children - One of these parents who has a hubby who is a legal beagle

 

Hope this helps

 

Carole

[barefoot wend]

Becky

 

I would recommend the book Carole mentioned - it really opened our eyes!

 

We are starting to home ed our son who is 13 and I'm really looking forward to it - so is he. I'm especially pleased that it will, at last, give me the opportunity to teach him some life skills which he'll never get from school.

 

He's done loads of stuff during the so-called holidays - visited the D-Day landing beaches, read countless books on biology, maths, philosophy, etc. He learns far more at home than at school.

 

I've found it's far harder to re-condition our own views and others expectations of how education should be than it is to get him to learn.

 

Regards

 

Barefoot

[mom on a mission]

hi all . thanks so much i have joined the list and education otherwise i have also purchased that book a few days ago and iam half way through reading it , its very good. there was a peice in my local paper today about home educating it was saying that there has been a huge rise in families taking children out of school and in the area that i live the lea are aware of 52 children who are home educated and the main reason was due to bulling , well atleast we are going to develop a very busy social life if there is that many children in one small area ! it does show the mass problems with bulliying and the lea have been telling me that they have bulling under controll and children would accept my son even without him communicating sorry had to laugh dont they realise just how cruel children are i watched my brother suffer terrible emotional , verbal and severe physical abuse in a mainstream school ,how he survived i dont know he did become very ill and is very much a loner now, he still lives with our parents he has never been diagnosed but obvious asd, i will not let my son experieance even a fraction of what my brother did so deep breath eyes closed JUMP home schooling here we go!

[Canopus]

Do LEAs recommend home educating if a child has difficulty at school such as bullying, or do they insist that all children attend school in a similar way that double glazing salesmen always tell you that you will benefit from double glazing?

[oracle]

If you find and LEA that actually recommends Home Education I would to know which one it is

 

Seriously, I am a firm believer that anyone from within the establishment has been throughly brainwashed by the establishment, therefore making the words 'home education' on the same level as some other words that most of us would find offensive

 

Carole

[Canopus]

So there must be truth to my double glazing salesman theory after all.

 

It might not be brainwashing. Recommending home education may be dereliction of duty. Every employed person has a contract stating what they must and musn't do.