Nursery school and Home Ed

[Esther.R]

Beth is going to nursery for 2 sessions a week once she is 3 (next Dec) and then onto primary school. Have no problems at all with people doing home ed but far too much hard labour for me! My husband is a primary school teacher and the thought of managing to get through the curriculum (or enough of it to pass exams and set them up to work as adults) is just far too much like hard work Mind you our local primary school only has 22 children in the whole school - one of the incentives to move up here was to give Beth a freer childhood and nicer education in these small schools and communities. My husband's school only has 6 kids in it, although he gets 2 extra home schooled kids for a day a fortnight to give them chance to mix as they live on a tiny island with 25 people so harder to socialise than in a bigger community.

annpann - you put me to shame, there is a mother and toddler 2 miles away which we don't go too as I reckoned it was too far to walk with her if the weather was bad.

[red]

Have no problems at all with people doing home ed but far too much hard labour for me! My husband is a primary school teacher and the thought of managing to get through the curriculum (or enough of it to pass exams and set them up to work as adults) is just far too much like hard work .

it's worth remembering that you do not have to choose home ed for the whole of the child's educational years.

I know many families who opt for home ed during the primary years, then the children go to school for the seconday years. At age 5 you are not worrying about the child passing exams or working as adults, you are thinking about them having a good experience whilst learning the basics.. some social interaction etc. This can be achieved at home.

What you decide for them at pre-school age, does not have to apply all the way through - you are allowed to change your mind! (However, in Scotland the rules about dregistering are stricter than in England and Wales, so I would probably try HE first.)

Home educated children regularly go on to take exams, pass them well and move on to uni or employment in the normal way. HE can allow kids who are advanced to take these exams earlier than would be allowed in school, and some children who go to school fail all the exams and are not set up well for adult life. You do not need to follow the national curriculum if you HE.

[Helsbells]

Hi everyone,

I am really interested in home educating, and would consider it for my children, however, as a trainee teacher of art, I am just coming to realise the real expertise of secondary school teachers, they really are exprets in their subject, and I know for a fact that I could not teach my child GCSE maths, and I do think it is really important for kids to get things like GCSE maths and English, because without them so many opportunities in life are closed to them, and I know I want my children to have as many opportunities in life as possible.
Hope I dont sound like some kind of advert for state schooling, I know as well as anyone that it is not perfect. Just wanted to say its not all bad.

[baldowrie]

If exams are important to you there is always the option of the child (young adult) attending college where they will probably receive better tuition any way. I also believe there is an option to purchase the examine papers and pay for it to be marked officially.

But to HE you need to think entirely out side the systems neat box!

Yes Red in Scotland you need to gain permission to dereg but that permission can not be with held unreasonably and they can not take too long to give an answer (guideline 6 weeks, after which it is deemed unreasonable). You also need to put forward an education proposal which needs to be approved..........now to blow my own trumpet my home ed lot said my proposal was the best they had seen!

But if you do dereg...KEEP ALL THE CORRESPONDENCE as you may need it later, especially if you have 'called the Authorities out' on something.

[red]

Hope I dont sound like some kind of advert for state schooling, I know as well as anyone that it is not perfect. Just wanted to say its not all bad.

you are quite right.. its not all bad, it works out well for lots of kids and thank goodness for that or the swimming pool would be full when we go!

Im teaching my son, who is 14, but it is different for me as he has learning difficulties - and in fact it was all the exams that made us pull out when we did.. sitting SATS was not helping my son at all.

but the teenagers I know of that are home educated, either they and their parents take the attitude that exams are not as important as all that, or are sitting the exams earlier than average.. and their parents are not teaching them, by this age the kids are doing it by themselves, the parents are providing the materials (computer, books and in some cases distance learning course material).
As I said though, you dont have decide when your child is a toddler if you are capable of coping with gcse maths. there might not even be gcse maths by then!, you just have to decide if you can cope with the next few years, and take it from there.

[mrsflibble]

well by that argument I can totally cope. I can read, I can count, I can cook, sew and grow things. I cna also process digital photographs to both cmyk press industry standard and rgb photolab standard, take a really good photograph using various "standard" systems, create GIF animations, write basic HTML, speak conversational french, ask when the next train will arrive in Japanese (but not understand the answer!!!), order sushi in japanese, replace breakpads, top up oil, replace distributor cap and/or HT leads and check water levels on a 1993 rover 827, 1993 mazda mx3 and a 1995 rover 817 coupé, oh and I can use google ;)

[mrsflibble]

and I'm learning Klingon. you know, just in case.

[Esther.R]

I can see home schooling for primary age, its when it gets later that it worries me (in the context of doing it myself)- I appreciate you don't need to follow the curriculum but it is very helpful if they are to sit exams and personally I think my kids deserve every help they can get in the job market and hence need their exams (and I appreciate many home schooled kids pass them with flying colours)..however in a situation like red's where exams are not going to help and will add a lot more stress and probably decrease his chances that way I totally agree.

[circlecross]

Ds1 has been at nursery for almost 2 years - he is getting on for 4 now and he enjoys it immensely. If he didn't enjoy it, and if I wasn't happy he would have been out of there a long time ago. He started for 2 morning sessions, the gradually it went up to 3, now 4. I keep Weds as our day off. He used to have one morning at a childminder, but it was not good for him, and he hated it so I stopped it. He has friends, he does things he enjoys, and as he and I are rather strong willed, he gets time off from me ordering him about! I get him back and can do fun things with him in the afternoon. I have started ds2 for two mornings, (but being a sickly wheezy boy he missed one session today) and he seems to enjoy it too - to the extent that he tottered in without a backward glance the first morning and fought to be out of my arms when it was time to go!
If the boys didn't enjoy it I would not keep them there - I have to work for financial reasons (which is beginning to annoy me - however much I work there is never any money!) and at times I like to do some work (art and drama workshops, puppetry etc) for my own spiritual top-up (I am a person too!), and although I don't like it when parents "park" their children, I honestly believe my two thrive from some social interaction with their buds.
I have them in the afternoons, and we get out and about - museums, library, train station , shops, cooking, gardening etc. I work at a mother and toddler group where half of the children are "minded" by us, while their mothers do a course in cookery (DON'T get me started on these free courses...) and the other half have their mothers in the room. And their arses never leave the seat while their children are climbing, throwing, fighting, escaping...
My dh is a reception teacher, and he was a bit unkeen for ds1 to go to school! I think he will thrive at school, especially in maths and science but again if he is not happy I won't ignore it (I am a really tough gig).

[red]

sounds like it is working out great for your circlecross, that's great - its all about what is right for each individual child.

[red]

and I'm learning Klingon. you know, just in case.

well yes.. you never know when it might come in handy!

[circlecross]

on the other side of childcare...

My one-to-one decided to totally wig-out today and tantrum all over the spot. Having had VERY little sleep all week (all month now I come to think about it) but especially the last two nights I was less than understanding about what amounts to brattishness due to sloppy parenting.

She screamed and kicked out and stamped her feet and raged and screamed some more. After calmly explaining the folly of her actions and the reason that she wasn't getting her own way (far too tedious and trivial to reiterate) she screamed more and the girls she was sitting with although meant well by trying to speak reasonably to her, aggravated the situation and the maenad screamed some more.

I removed her from the table and sat her by herself, saying she needed to calm down. No. I took her to a room to calm down, then the boss came in and I always feel slightly undermined by this - if I am meant to be dealing with the situation, why do I always need back up? Anyway, I was bad cop today, and eventually someone with more patience (and no children of their own) sat with her and talked nicely to her until she decided to come round.

Every other child in the room was staring at her, and asking "why?"

I believe when she does this at home, her mother lets her do it until she exhausts herself - rather than dealing with it. I give my ds1 a time out in his room when he freaks out but I deal with it aswell. It is not good enough for a child to react so strongly and negatively when they don't get their own way especially over something so trivial.

At least it makes me really enjoy my own children when I have had to spend the day looking after everyone else's horrors!