Home schooling

pipkin71

Thanks Terry

I'm sorry to hear your grandson is being bullied reeree.

I would second this post from Infamy:

InfamyInfamy wrote: »

We home tutor our 10 year old daughter...took her out of school in Sept last year! It is absolutely fantastic! A good way to start is to see if there is a home ed group in your area as they are good for advice & also for the kids to socialise with. In my area there are about 80 - 90 families home edding so a good large crowd for advice & support. Feel free to PM me for more info and most of all good luck & have fun!!
:A

My DDs have been out of the school system for a while now and it is one of the best decisions we ever made. They have progressed so much, their confidence has grown, they have made so many friends and they once again have a love of learning that was slowly being eroded by the school. Although I'm biased, HE works very well for us.

My advice would be to have a look at the education otherwise website to begin with. They will have a lsit of contacts and hopefully be able to put you in touch with someone within your area who can offer advice, put you in touch with other home ed families or give you information of what is going on within your area, opportunities to meet up, socialise ect.

Your first step, once you have decided that HE is the path to follow would be to de-register your grandson from school. This page has details:

http://www.education-otherwise.org/deregistration.htm

and here is a sample letter taken from the page:

Your address
The Date
Head teacher's Name
Dear Mr Taylor

Re: Catherine Jones (date of birth)

After careful consideration I/we have decided to withdraw my/our daughter from school in order to take personal responsibility for her education. Please delete her name from the register in accordance with Education (Pupil Registration) Regulation 8(1)(d) 2006, as she is now receiving education otherwise than at school.

Please will you confirm receipt of this letter and inform us of the date that our daughter’s name was removed from the register.

Yours sincerely etc.

Have you spoken to your grandson? How does he feel about coming out of school? HE isn't necessarily the easier option if you have an unwilling child who would rather be in school, but my honest opinion would be that it is worth giving HE a go. Do remember though that just as school doesn't suit everyone, neither does HE. However, it's also worth remembering that if it doesn't work out, there is nothing stopping you from registering your grandson at another school. The main consideration is bringing an end to the bullying. When I removed my DDs I kept in mind I could register at another school if it didn't work, but this honestly was the best thing we did.

Good luck. As others have said, if you have any questions don't hesitate to fire away. HE is one of my favourite topics

pipkin71

terryw wrote: »

Seriously, the resident expert has not appeared tonight, but Pipkin will appear shortly (I have no doubt). Other posters' links are a start.

bw

terryw

I wouldn't call me an expert but I do enjoy talking about the subject

How are you terry?

pipkin71

di3004 wrote: »

I am also asking advice in regards of home education funding wise, as my son has been home educated since DEC 2008, we are lucky at this present time due to having an uncle who is a tutor who helps out free of charge, not everyday though, but soon he will no longer be able to do this.

I try to help out in between but looking now into funding if any, my hubby lost his job due to masses of job losses and I am a full time carer for my son.

Unfortunately di, there often isn't any funding available through the LEA, particularly on an individual level, although I have heard of a group recently securing funding. You could approach charities within your area - especially those for the under 25's.

How old is your son?

Some colleges have been known to accept children on their adult evening courses from the age of 14 - although an adult has to remain on the building too.

Looking at what is going on within your area is an advantage here because groups can get huge discounts on the normal price. For example I've just arranged a 4 week group session involving horseriding, horse care and grooming. A normal session costs £19 per child, but along with the owner of the stables, we have managed to secure a session for just £4.50 per child :T wich is a fantastic saving, and many families who organise such activities are able to get a good discount.

HE can be expensive, but it doesn't have to be. With regards gcse's / exams, children who are home educated do not formally have to sit them. There are families who choose to wait until the child is 16 and able to attend college free of charge. Others may look at private tutoring or working through the coursework themselves with their child/ren.

Many families take an autonomous aproach to HE, where the learning is led by the child's interests and this can work very well. Personally, we are semi structure, so follow a structured approach with regard to reading, writing and arithmetic but an autonomous approach to everything else and this suits our family very well. Obviously as time goes on, that may change but for now it's fantastic. Japan is a major focus for my DDs right now, and there are so many possibilities with just that one interest.

Anyway, I'm waffling and your question was on funding [I did say I could talk this subject to death ] Do have a look at charities in your area but also be prepared for lots of letter writing / form filling / sending and rejection. Perhaps approach your local college if your son is old enough or even look at getting together with other parents and setting up a regular session which can be as formal or informal as you like. If you do have a regular group running, then there is the possibility of asking the LEA for funding and you may be successful as a group, but that would also mean sharing info with the LEA, something not all families may want.

BW Pipkin xxxx

mrs_mix

I took my DD(9) out of the school system in February not a easy choice to make but she's dyslexic and was being bullied and the school were no help at all
there is lot's of help and advice on Education Otherwise and may have link's to groups in your local area
All I can say about this is my DD has flourished she can now do more than she ever could she is happy and for that alone is enough for me

reeree

pipkin71 wrote: »

Thanks Terry

I'm sorry to hear your grandson is being bullied reeree.

I would second this post from Infamy:



My DDs have been out of the school system for a while now and it is one of the best decisions we ever made. They have progressed so much, their confidence has grown, they have made so many friends and they once again have a love of learning that was slowly being eroded by the school. Although I'm biased, HE works very well for us.

My advice would be to have a look at the education otherwise website to begin with. They will have a lsit of contacts and hopefully be able to put you in touch with someone within your area who can offer advice, put you in touch with other home ed families or give you information of what is going on within your area, opportunities to meet up, socialise ect.

Your first step, once you have decided that HE is the path to follow would be to de-register your grandson from school. This page has details:

http://www.education-otherwise.org/deregistration.htm

and here is a sample letter taken from the page:

Your address
The Date
Head teacher's Name
Dear Mr Taylor

Re: Catherine Jones (date of birth)

After careful consideration I/we have decided to withdraw my/our daughter from school in order to take personal responsibility for her education. Please delete her name from the register in accordance with Education (Pupil Registration) Regulation 8(1)(d) 2006, as she is now receiving education otherwise than at school.

Please will you confirm receipt of this letter and inform us of the date that our daughter’s name was removed from the register.

Yours sincerely etc.

Have you spoken to your grandson? How does he feel about coming out of school? HE isn't necessarily the easier option if you have an unwilling child who would rather be in school, but my honest opinion would be that it is worth giving HE a go. Do remember though that just as school doesn't suit everyone, neither does HE. However, it's also worth remembering that if it doesn't work out, there is nothing stopping you from registering your grandson at another school. The main consideration is bringing an end to the bullying. When I removed my DDs I kept in mind I could register at another school if it didn't work, but this honestly was the best thing we did.

Good luck. As others have said, if you have any questions don't hesitate to fire away. HE is one of my favourite topics

thankyou for your comments,my grandson would love it if he were home educated, the worry that i have about is more about me ie would i be up to the job, how hard is it to home educate a child and do you get any help with it from anywhere, i dont want to let him down as i know how important a good education is

pipkin71

reeree wrote: »

thankyou for your comments,my grandson would love it if he were home educated, the worry that i have about is more about me ie would i be up to the job, how hard is it to home educate a child and do you get any help with it from anywhere, i dont want to let him down as i know how important a good education is

Hi reeree.

I personally felt my biggest worry when home educating was that I would be holding my girls back and leaving them at a disadvantage once they were adults. So far that hasn't been the case. There are so many resources on the internet, so many events being held within home ed communities as well as options for joining in out of school hours clubs.

This week, my girls went to a mosque where they learned more about Islam, was able to ask many questions and discover more about the religion than what they would read on the news.

Yesterday, they had a session on art history at the local museum, and looked at Georgian paintings, what the paintings portrayed, how people dressed in the Georgian period ect.

These two events were organised for the local group and all of the children got a lot out of the sessions.

Today, we have been in the house and have been looking at renewable / non renewable energy sources [which led on from a question about what caused the wind]. We then looked at how much electricity we used in the house, why some people didn't like wind turbines, where we would find them, what coal was made of, why it could run out ect. Key words into google led us to British Gas' Generation green schools programme which has lesson plans available. We also went outside to determine wind speed based on the Beaufort scale, which led to at what ages children were when they started work in the 19th century.

This afternoon we're going to have a look at bunraku [to do with Japan] and hopefully they will start on making their own puppets.

We really enjoyed our session this morning, particularly the comments about wind being caused by too many baked beans!!!!!!!!! Not so funny when DD2 figures I create the most wind in our house :D]

You don't have to be a teacher to facilitate a child's learning, and I would say get in touch with others, talk to other families. Before we came out of school, we went to a home ed event - an archery session had been planned that day, and that swung the girls I think Talking to other families made me realise I had to try for the girls and we honestly haven't looked back.

The internet, books, librarys, newspapers, free resources, the knowledge of others can all be accessed to broaden a child's education and for your grandson, knowing he wont have to face his bullies anymore can also have a huge impact on how open he is to learning and it may well be the best thing you have done too

pipkin71

There are quite a few resources here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=561004&highlight=education+resources

I use www.tes.co.uk quite a lot for lesson plan ideas ect.

Google does throw up some quite interesting links when you do a search and you may come across some gems

Charity shops and Amazon are great for cheap educational books and you can often pick up key stage workbooks for a fraction of the cost.

di3004

pipkin71 wrote: »

Unfortunately di, there often isn't any funding available through the LEA, particularly on an individual level, although I have heard of a group recently securing funding. You could approach charities within your area - especially those for the under 25's.

How old is your son?

Some colleges have been known to accept children on their adult evening courses from the age of 14 - although an adult has to remain on the building too.

Looking at what is going on within your area is an advantage here because groups can get huge discounts on the normal price. For example I've just arranged a 4 week group session involving horseriding, horse care and grooming. A normal session costs £19 per child, but along with the owner of the stables, we have managed to secure a session for just £4.50 per child :T wich is a fantastic saving, and many families who organise such activities are able to get a good discount.

HE can be expensive, but it doesn't have to be. With regards gcse's / exams, children who are home educated do not formally have to sit them. There are families who choose to wait until the child is 16 and able to attend college free of charge. Others may look at private tutoring or working through the coursework themselves with their child/ren.

Many families take an autonomous aproach to HE, where the learning is led by the child's interests and this can work very well. Personally, we are semi structure, so follow a structured approach with regard to reading, writing and arithmetic but an autonomous approach to everything else and this suits our family very well. Obviously as time goes on, that may change but for now it's fantastic. Japan is a major focus for my DDs right now, and there are so many possibilities with just that one interest.

Anyway, I'm waffling and your question was on funding [I did say I could talk this subject to death ] Do have a look at charities in your area but also be prepared for lots of letter writing / form filling / sending and rejection. Perhaps approach your local college if your son is old enough or even look at getting together with other parents and setting up a regular session which can be as formal or informal as you like. If you do have a regular group running, then there is the possibility of asking the LEA for funding and you may be successful as a group, but that would also mean sharing info with the LEA, something not all families may want.

BW Pipkin xxxx

Hi there Pipkin

Thanks so much for all your info, this is much appreciated.
Daniel is 14 years old.

Wow your doing good then that is wonderful, well done.

My sister in law has a farm, Daniel helps out there on weekends mainly, he has 2 of his own horses, and is one big animal lover, think this would be one of his options in time jobwise, anything to do with animals.

Although he is also good on the computer and have asked him many times of what he would like to do when that time comes to when he should be working, so anything between computers and animals.

I will check out the colleges and see what is what in his case, thanks for the suggestions, this is wonderful.

We are also trying to get him to go to self defence classes, we attempted now 3 times and as soon as we got to the door he would run and panic about the amount of people.
My hubby (his dad) used to train in martial arts and will have a little go with him at home, but it will be even better if we can get him mixing with others which has been a big issue for Daniel.

I do also have an older son who's almost 21 and with Daniel just being used to adult company this is the problem, but we will keep trying, yet he has many cousins his age group, they come to visit and he is okay, but its getting Daniel out to them.

I will let you know and keep you posted of the situation.......

Its me going on now lol...............:p
Thank you anyway, I am so grateful.

Di
X

pipkin71

di3004 wrote: »

My sister in law has a farm, Daniel helps out there on weekends mainly, he has 2 of his own horses, and is one big animal lover, think this would be one of his options in time jobwise, anything to do with animals.

Ask your sister to host a home edders camping weekend di - it will be a sure fire way of having lots of he'ers socialising, and educational to boot We get the first invite though

Actually, have you heard about the home ed camps that run each year. They are very popular and although I haven't been there is quite a big one held each year.

We went on a smaller camp trip last year, and it was amazing. There's a lot to be said for cooking round a camp fire

All the best to you and your son. Do have a look at the colleges. I have heard of another lad who has similar needs and he has just been accepted at their local college. He also works voluntarily with horses and has a natural way with them.

BW Pipkin xxxx

di3004

pipkin71 wrote: »

Ask your sister to host a home edders camping weekend di - it will be a sure fire way of having lots of he'ers socialising, and educational to boot We get the first invite though

Actually, have you heard about the home ed camps that run each year. They are very popular and although I haven't been there is quite a big one held each year.

We went on a smaller camp trip last year, and it was amazing. There's a lot to be said for cooking round a camp fire

All the best to you and your son. Do have a look at the colleges. I have heard of another lad who has similar needs and he has just been accepted at their local college. He also works voluntarily with horses and has a natural way with them.

BW Pipkin xxxx

Cool, good thinking Pipkin.......:T:T

Okay will mention you to get the first invites lol .

What a fab idea though and this is one way for Daniel to be involved with others also at the same time as doing what he loves most........wonder why I never thought of that one before - silly me lol.

Your camping trip sounded like a lot of fun :T, another great thought there, thank you.

Will also see what is what with colleges as well, thanks so much, I will keep you posted, I feel better already cheers so much.:beer:
di
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