home educating os

JAMIEDODGER

hi all. i have just withdrawn my son from school and will be educating him at home (long story check out my thread on DFW)

it was mentioned that some of you OS'ers HE. is there any of you that can give me any advice to do it as OS/MSE/DFW as possible????

hope someone can help me,

many thanks

JD x

Pink.

Hi Jamiedodger,

There's a recent thread on the Families board that might help you:

Educating at Home

Pink

Miss_Behaving

Some useful sites for you...

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

http://www.parentscentre.gov.uk/discover/index.cfm

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Lake/3262/?200520

Hope these give you a starting point.

culpepper

I'm just coming to the end of home education with my kids. WE found joining education otherwise was a good move. They have a membership card which is recognised by some places and will get an educational discount on entrance fees.
We bought a lot of our text type books,craft sets and equipment from charity shops. Science was easy as a lot of the equipment needed was already at home.We had a few education CD' s and they did a lot of self lead learning.
Socialising was via clubs (cubs etc)and E.O.'s own groups and camps.We mostly kept educational trips within family holidays as it meant minimal use of the car and some years the education camps were the family holidays too.
We used the adult education centre for my son to do some G.C.S.E 's and he now goes to a sixth form college and is taking A levels there.My daughter is going there in September to do A's even though she hasn't any G.C.S.E 's .

loveandlight

Hi Jamiedodger,

I homeschool my son. I pulled him out of school nearly one and a half years ago ( how time flies ) because of lots of problems at his school. He was eight and a half at the time and became a shadow of his former self, very depressed and ended up having to see a Neurologist because of his school problems. He is nearly ten now. Best decision I ever made. I joined Education Otherwise support group and they were very supportive in the beginning when I needed some moral support and the courage to pull him out.

I had my annual visit about four months ago from my local authority school inspector and we passed with flying colours. My son has made tremendous progress since pulling him out of school and all his neurological problems have now disappeared. I now have my happy, funny, confident son back again. I can email you copies of my school withdrawal letter and letters to and from my local education authority if ever you want anything like that.

You will be amazed at the sheer number of people homeschooling nowadays. I know I was.

There is an abundance of resources all over the place for you to tap into. E.g internet, bookstores, library, BBC Children's learning, even your local authority should be able to send you a resource list. Mine did. You are more than welcome to have my resource list if yours don't.

By joining Education Otherwise they will also send you monthly emails and info packs regularly about opportunities to socialise, educational trips, books etc.

I used to be a member and point of contact volunteer for Education Otherwise but don't do it anymore as we will be moving back abroad again later this year.

If you join your local Freecycle group you could email them to see if anyone has any educational materials, books etc nobody wants. I didn't do that, but only because I didn't know about it then.

JAMIEDODGER

thanks guys, i am already a member of EO and i actually HE my son before when he was 5 thanks for all your replies, i will check out the thread on the other board.

foreveryoung_3

I have recently done a protest outside my Local LEA office accusing them of, EDUCATIONAL and EMOTIONAL SLAUGHTER of DYSLEXIC CHILDREN, my local paper The surrey Mirror covered the story, I am also being threatened with prison as I have removed my other 2 children from school, as my son has had terrible problems at school. I am doing a petition to get a public enquiry into the treatment of special needs kids and to find out why the Government are stopping the statment process, and why they are trying to mainstream kids that just cannot cope in a large school, also money meant for special needs are not being spent on the child, instead it is going into the school budget and being used in another areas. Also they are closing down Communication and Language centers leaving kids so vunerable its discusting. This all ads pressure to the teacher who is only trained to teach one way, its hard on the other children in the class as well as the child needing extra support. The Government know all this yet they are continuing to distroy our childrens future in education. They do not teach children to question anything, if you can learn in PARROT fashion then you have a chance to get good results if not then you re classed as an underachiever. I have studied all types of learning methods and styles and have spoke to many people who all agree that the education System is failing. If anyone hs any constructive help or advice it would be much appreciated. I am single parent home educating a 5, 6 and 10 year old on benifit so its a financial struggle as well. I have seen education fail my older 2 daughters who were bright and intelligent but there grades did not reflect this. Ever child matters the Government says yet they do not know how to matter bout these children, who if there education was tailored to there learning styles ie: visual spatial learning, they would have an equal chance to get good marks. It is done in Private Schools yet our mainstream schools cant do it, its bad teaching methods which makes children unmotivated and then give up, usually ending in truancy and then parents being fined, tagged or worse put into prison.

Katgoddess

Hillbilly Housewife has a page on Home Schooling with links to eBooks from Project Gutenberg etc. It's a bit religous and American but I'm sure you can pick out the bits you'll need.

http://ofed.50webs.com/

loveandlight

forever young

Why have you been threatened with prison if you are homeschooling your children?

I do understand your anger and frustration regarding the lack of special needs education. I faced similar problems until I started homeschooling my son 18 months ago. He has a very high IQ and was having so many problems at school that he ended up having to see a Neurologist. He was only 8 at the time.

I applaud your courage and determination to challenge the education system but I fear that the problem is too deep rooted within the system itself as well as the issue of lack of funds.

I tried complaining to the Director of education Services at my LEA but never even received as much as an acknowledgement.

My sons teacher was the Special Needs Co-ordinator for the school and she would often threaten at least every week that she would have my son statemented for having emotional and behavioural problems if he didn't behave the way she wanted. He actually had absolutely nothing wrong with him, other than he was having to cope with a lot of the teachers bullying him, as well as having no daily stimulation, as the work was always too easy for him. Because it was a very small, village primary school, the speed at which she would and could have had him statemented was frightening, and I had to live with her threats for a year until I pulled him out and started homeschooling him.

Every time I spoke to other mothers from other schools who genuinely felt that their child needed statementing, they were never able to get it done or they were having to put up a huge fight to get someone to take them seriously, which they were never able to do. Go figure that one.

My apologies to Jamiedodger for going OT.

culpepper

foreveryoung ,education otherwise would be able to help re the threats of prison and have a reduced membership fee for those on benefits.

The law states that you must provide your children with an education and be able to produce evidence of this. It does not have to be 'school education' or follow the national curriculum. The LEA usually request an inspection of the children which can be at home or elsewhere so that they can see for themselves that an education is being provided. Some people prefer to send evidence. We decided that the inspection was easier. Our inspector came once a year and looked at the resources we provided(PC,books,equipment) and discussed how we were managing and wether they did clubs,that sort of thing. The LEA have to send you a copy of his report which can be useful if you have criticism from neighbours (proof that you are educating at home) or if you are questioned by a truant officer when shopping.
Some neighbours will have very 'fixed' opinions about your radical actions so it is best to tell people what you are doing rather than have them 'guess'.
Some things which count as education are sport clubs or a family activity(cycling,walking) for PE ,a music lesson or just learning an instrument,having musical toys for music,tv programs which are educational,reading ,making books and comics for english,shopping and cooking for maths.
My DS was 9 when we deregistered him and he grew 2" withinin 3 months of leaving and had a reading age 4 years ahead by the next year.DD was 7 and had become unbearable(wingeing) and had developed a mental block about anything maths related and was terrified of getting anything wrong,she became a confident and much happier little girl within months.
You will learn so much while your kids are learning,my maths is about 100% better than it used to be

Chipps

Hi Jamiedodger,
Just found this thread.

We HEd our 2 boys (1 through secondary, the other after only 2 years at school - he is now 15.)
The great thing about HE is that it can make it easier to be OS. You aren't under pressure to conform to peers' expectations, you can serve HM food without your kids feeling embarrassed that they haven't got the latest GM multi coloured highly packaged "foodstuff" in their lunchboxes.
When we first thought about HE, we met up with some people who had always homeschooled, all the children had a great day together, and afterwards I asked DS1 what he thought about the idea. He was very excited - "Did you see their feet?!!!" he asked. To be honest, I hadn't noticed anything odd about their feet! He went on to explain that they had all been wearing £1.99 plimsolls - and they didn't mind! He had been under so much pressure from his peers at school to conform & wear the latest very expensive trainers, so to feel free to wear cheap plimsolls was freedom indeed! Incidentally, he is now working at a major electrical engineering company following college & an apprenticeship with the firm.

I se that you are a member of EO, have you found any local groups to meet up with? That is always helpful, especially for booking trips & things, cos it is obviously easier to book things for a larger number of people than just 1 family, although as a family you can go to English Heritage properties for free if you book through them either by phone or website in advance. Also National Trust do a home ed ticket which is cheaper than the regular membership.
There are loads of free resources online. Look up homeschooling and you will get masses of US sites.
Also, look at http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/ for a free UK maths curriculum which can be downloaded (it does all the key stages - we are currently using the GCSE one). You have to have a password to get at the answers, but if you email them and explain you home ed they will provide it.

There is loads of advice & other stuff about.
Also some LEAs can be quite helpful, ours is one of the good ones, but I know that not all are very encouraging. As you have de-regged your DS you are obviously known to them, if others in your area say they are helpful, why not use any resources they can provide.

HTH