Home schooling

reeree

ive read all your suggestions and theyve all been very helpful but another thing that worries me is maths as im not very good at it, what do you do when you stumble on something you dont understand yourself, this is such a big decison and im desperate not to get it wrong, ive spoken to my daughter and she says as long as i think i can do it shes happy for me to go ahead, did any of you have the same fears as me before you embarked on HE

pipkin71

reeree wrote: »

ive read all your suggestions and theyve all been very helpful but another thing that worries me is maths as im not very good at it, what do you do when you stumble on something you dont understand yourself, this is such a big decison and im desperate not to get it wrong, ive spoken to my daughter and she says as long as i think i can do it shes happy for me to go ahead, did any of you have the same fears as me before you embarked on HE

Absolutely reeree.

Maths isn't one of my stronger areas either, but one of the positives about HE is that you also learn along with the children.

For example, I hated history at school and when the girls came out they wanted to really study the subject - particularly the Tudors. personally I was :eek::eek::eek::eek: Now, I have as much love for the subject as the girls and really enjoy our sessions on this.

There are so many resources, worksheets, free material from the DfES site, step by step how to's on the web that you can familiarise yourself with maths. It may be that you decide to use a tutor for a particular subject if you feel you struggle in that area coming up to GCSE level, or you may find that every day maths is more important at this stage than algebra and x + y = z. Children who are home educated do not have to follow the national curriculum so it isn't necessary to know everything. As a family you will decide the best route, and what suits your grandson.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it already, and this may be useful to di, but the open university run courses and they are happy to allow home educated children to do these. They consider the child's income when determining whether they can get financial aid, and as the children aren't in work, the courses are free - which is excellent :T

It is a big decision, and one I spent many months thinking about before I bought the girls out of school, but we have never looked back

reeree

pipkin71 wrote: »

Absolutely reeree.

Maths isn't one of my stronger areas either, but one of the positives about HE is that you also learn along with the children.

For example, I hated history at school and when the girls came out they wanted to really study the subject - particularly the Tudors. personally I was :eek::eek::eek::eek: Now, I have as much love for the subject as the girls and really enjoy our sessions on this.

There are so many resources, worksheets, free material from the DfES site, step by step how to's on the web that you can familiarise yourself with maths. It may be that you decide to use a tutor for a particular subject if you feel you struggle in that area coming up to GCSE level, or you may find that every day maths is more important at this stage than algebra and x + y = z. Children who are home educated do not have to follow the national curriculum so it isn't necessary to know everything. As a family you will decide the best route, and what suits your grandson.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it already, and this may be useful to di, but the open university run courses and they are happy to allow home educated children to do these. They consider the child's income when determining whether they can get financial aid, and as the children aren't in work, the courses are free - which is excellent :T

It is a big decision, and one I spent many months thinking about before I bought the girls out of school, but we have never looked back

thankyou pipkin that helps alot, im naturally a worrier so with something this important, you can imagine whats going through my head, what was it that made you and the others decide to home educate in the first place and how much of a difference do you think its made to your children, my grandson is 14 in May by the way.

Lunar_Eclipse

reeree wrote: »

thankyou pipkin that helps alot, im naturally a worrier so with something this important, you can imagine whats going through my head, what was it that made you and the others decide to home educate in the first place and how much of a difference do you think its made to your children, my grandson is 14 in May by the way.

Yes I'm wondering that too. To be totally truthful, if I was more patient (on the inside at least) and happy to be with the kids 24/7, I'd do it with my two girls too, but I just don't think I can give up all my time. How do you cope Pipkin?

mrs_mix

For me it was a number of things first and foremost was that DD at the age of 9 could not add up and take away,spelling is not existant and writing was terrible. Ok she's dyslexic but was supposedly getting extra help but it wasn't working .
The second was the bullying and the fact the school did nothing even sitting the boy next to her in class so he could hurt her more .
In the end I couldn't take the hour of crying before school and that I would spend all day worrying about her,she also used to come home in a really bad mood ,and used to fight with her brothers be really nasty and spiteful, but it was only what she had been putting up with all day at school she took it out on us so enough was enough and the change has been amazing I have a happy little girl now.

Also it can be good fun we don't really have to follow any set rules or curriculum so at the moment we are concentrating on english maths and some science but she does do other stuff as well cooking and art I have found that I am learning as well .
Some day's can be hard when she get's on my nerves a bit but I just tell her (weather permitting) to run 10 times around the garden ,or some stuff like that or a counting game outside which gives us both 5 mins to cool off ,then we carry on.

reeree

mrs_mix wrote: »

For me it was a number of things first and foremost was that DD at the age of 9 could not add up and take away,spelling is not existant and writing was terrible. Ok she's dyslexic but was supposedly getting extra help but it wasn't working .
The second was the bullying and the fact the school did nothing even sitting the boy next to her in class so he could hurt her more .
In the end I couldn't take the hour of crying before school and that I would spend all day worrying about her,she also used to come home in a really bad mood ,and used to fight with her brothers be really nasty and spiteful, but it was only what she had been putting up with all day at school she took it out on us so enough was enough and the change has been amazing I have a happy little girl now.

Also it can be good fun we don't really have to follow any set rules or curriculum so at the moment we are concentrating on english maths and some science but she does do other stuff as well cooking and art I have found that I am learning as well .
Some day's can be hard when she get's on my nerves a bit but I just tell her (weather permitting) to run 10 times around the garden ,or some stuff like that or a counting game outside which gives us both 5 mins to cool off ,then we carry on.

i know exactly what you mean about the bullying and the worrying all day until they get home, sometimes they would go out of there way to follow him calling him names all the way home, and a class that they held every week for the children who were being bullied included one of the bullies!!! and my grandson and his friend where told they wouldnt be allowed in it anymore, ive watched my grandson gain confidence,when he first started school he was a child who would talk to anyone now he only feels comfortable with his own family, he hardly says two words to my own mother and she visits every week so its not like shes a stranger, the schools dont do enough to punish them and meanwhile thousands of children dont think there worth anything because of constant harrassment from kids who think its their mission in life to make other childrens life a complete nightmare

pipkin71

mrs_mix wrote: »

Also it can be good fun we don't really have to follow any set rules or curriculum so at the moment we are concentrating on english maths and some science but she does do other stuff as well cooking and art I have found that I am learning as well .
Some day's can be hard when she get's on my nerves a bit but I just tell her (weather permitting) to run 10 times around the garden ,or some stuff like that or a counting game outside which gives us both 5 mins to cool off ,then we carry on.

Sounds just like us mrs_mix

We have days where we can all get on each others nerves, but we do other stuff then get back to what we were doing.

I love having the girls at home. When they were at school I really missed them and looked forward to the holidays so we could spend some fun quality time together.

I think, even when the girls were at school, we had our moments so it hasn't really changed and as DD2 starts to grow up, we've had some strops but I think I would have had those if she was at school too

The girls have progressed so much since they came out. My reasons for bringing them out of school was because that particular school was failing them. The education standards were poor to say the least and that was leaving the girls at a disadvantage. I could have sent them to another school, but a better school would have meant travelling and I wanted to try home ed. For us it really has worked, but I kept my options open and felt that if it wasn't I would have sent them to another school. The main thing was that they were out of that school!

I'm glad your DD is much happier mrs_mix. How awful that she had to go through the bullying though. Many parents bring their children out because of bullying and the change is often remarkable.

I can make HE sound very rosy and it isn't always - especially when you have a child who just doesn't want to do anything, but you get through it and the end result is worth all the worry you do on their behalf

Many home edders talk about a deschooling process when you first come out and there are some links available on deschooling.

When DDs first left school, I tried to recreate the school environment at home. Sticking to a timetable, school break and lunchtime hours, finishing the same time as school, but it didn't work and we scrapped that idea after a few days

We don't really have a routine now. There aren't any set times when we do maths, english ect. This morning we looked at how coal mining resulted in being able to turn the light on. This afternoon we're going to watch a DVD on elephants then discuss the pro's and cons of zoos. In between, the girls will carry on with their interests and this works well for us.

Carry on with your questions reeree. I asked so many when I contemplated bringing the girls out that I wondered if everyone was fed up of me but I found real support from others and they really helped me make up my mind. I'm happy to try and answer your queries

Edited to add: This is the link I found yesterday regarding energy sources / coal ect:

http://www.generationgreen.co.uk/

pipkin71

reeree wrote: »

i know exactly what you mean about the bullying and the worrying all day until they get home, sometimes they would go out of there way to follow him calling him names all the way home, and a class that they held every week for the children who were being bullied included one of the bullies!!! and my grandson and his friend where told they wouldnt be allowed in it anymore, ive watched my grandson gain confidence,when he first started school he was a child who would talk to anyone now he only feels comfortable with his own family, he hardly says two words to my own mother and she visits every week so its not like shes a stranger, the schools dont do enough to punish them and meanwhile thousands of children dont think there worth anything because of constant harrassment from kids who think its their mission in life to make other childrens life a complete nightmare

That is so sad reeree

If it's any help, many children come out of school with a loss of confidence and seeing it return and flourish is amazing. Your poor grandson must be going through so much.

Do you mind me asking your area? PM if you wish. If we are in the same area I'm happy to link you to our group / events ect

pipkin71

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

Yes I'm wondering that too. To be totally truthful, if I was more patient (on the inside at least) and happy to be with the kids 24/7, I'd do it with my two girls too, but I just don't think I can give up all my time. How do you cope Pipkin?

That took getting used to Lunar, but it's a way of life for us. My DDs do go out with friends ect so I still have time to myself.

We go to home ed events, which at first I looked on as socialising for the girls but I've met so many people and have some wonderful friends that it has also become my socialising as well.

It is finding a balance and making sure I fit in my time too but it can work

InfamyInfamy

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

This is how I felt initially but came to realise some important things: Firstly you love him and so do the people around him so it is 100% more supportive than being at school. Secondly as Pipkin says you can either do structured or non structured (autonomous learning) and you are not bound by time or necessarily cirriculum so you can do what you like. My daughter has found the Letts subject books (Waterstones or WH Smiths have loads) really fun and they are quite cheap. The internet has loads of educational websites. You can buy the cirriculum if you want for the year but it depends what you want to do with him. We live on a farm so my daughter has a very practical learning base which is reitterated with her going to Scouts! The main thing is not to worry, go with the flow and watch your grandson flourish in confidence. It is important to have a good education but it can be achieved via other routes eg I got my ba Hons via the open University. Good luck!