Home Schoolers- anyone else?

silvercar

WantToBeSE wrote: »

If you want to start your own thread about home schooling, and the politics etc of it, please feel free.
But i want this thread to stay on track with my request, which is asking OTHER HOME SCHOOLERS for feedback.

I am not interested in hearing from people who dont agree with HE.

Fair enough. Though I don't disagree with it in all circumstances.

The best advantage to a child's education is to have parent's who are interested and respect the value of a decent education, however it is delivered.

Anyway, best of luck with it.

WantToBeSE

silvercar wrote: »

Fair enough. Though I don't disagree with it in all circumstances.

The best advantage to a child's education is to have parent's who are interested and respect the value of a decent education, however it is delivered.

Anyway, best of luck with it.

Thank you for listening to me. I very much value education, my younger son will be continuing in mainstream school, and i am university educated myself.

If you start a new thread i will read it with curiosity. .

WantToBeSE

I have just been researching a lot about where my son could do GCSEs.
He can actually do his English, Maths and Spanish (if he wishes) at the local Adult Ed.

He has to be 16 to do that, which is fine, that means next September.
If he wants to do other things, he can do IGCSEs.

meritaten

my apologies - I put her name down wrongly, it isn't ReeRee its 'reeree'. she is still a member.
I do know her grandson took GCSEs so she may be able to help you with advice there.

Savvy_Sue

Two old threads from reeree, now closed because they are quite old, but you would probably still find them useful.

Here and here.

WantToBeSE

Thanks Sue, i will have a read through those

He wants quite a structured approach, which surprises me, i thought he would want a more autonomous education. But he has asked me to write a weekly timetable for him.

I think i will teach him the basics of English, Maths and Spanish. The deal was that he learned 1 language if i HE him, and Spanish is the only one that he can do at GCSE level once he gets to 16 via the adult ed center.

tyllwyd

WantToBeSE wrote: »

I am a bit confused about IGCSEs, and whether they are accepted in place of 'normal' GCSEs when doing A levels/FE. Does anyone know?

My understanding is that iGCSEs are equivalent to GCSEs (and may even be a higher standard than the GCSE) but they are more based around a final exam rather than coursework, so they may be more suitable for home educators. My DD took an iGCSE in French with the help of a private tutor, and had to sit one written exam and take an oral exam. (She did the exam through 3A tutors in Bristol, which wasn't cheap but they were very efficient with all the paperwork etc.) Oh, and she ended up with a B, which we were very happy with, and she's got her certificate and UCAS points so that's all good.

kafkathecat

My son wants to do GCSEs, so will concentrate on English, Maths and Science to start with.

I am a bit confused about IGCSEs, and whether they are accepted in place of 'normal' GCSEs when doing A levels/FE. Does anyone know?[/QUOTE]

My ds did mostly IGCSEs as, without coursework, they were easier to find an exam centre for. They used to be considered harder than GCSEs but recently there have been questions about English IGCSE. They are accepted as equivalent though.

Ds followed a correspondence course by Catherine Mooney for English and we were going to use a correspondence course by Sam Martell for the sciences but were lucky enough to find a local group of home educators for him to study with.

Good luck and best wishes to you and your son.

mimmy1977

silvercar wrote: »

If you expected the government to give you the money to educate your child in the way you chose, there would be a lot of parents with children at private schools with the same demand. It isn't going to happen.

I am not expecting anyone to pay for my son and his education .When we decided to homes school we knew what we were getting into.However WantToBeSE was saying that her son suffers severe social anxiety.In situations like that,I do think some form of funding should be available yes.He may not have been able to stay in mainstream school so why should he not have an education?
Just my opinion of course

WantToBeSE

tyllwyd wrote: »

My understanding is that iGCSEs are equivalent to GCSEs (and may even be a higher standard than the GCSE) but they are more based around a final exam rather than coursework, so they may be more suitable for home educators. My DD took an iGCSE in French with the help of a private tutor, and had to sit one written exam and take an oral exam. (She did the exam through 3A tutors in Bristol, which wasn't cheap but they were very efficient with all the paperwork etc.) Oh, and she ended up with a B, which we were very happy with, and she's got her certificate and UCAS points so that's all good.

kafkathecat wrote: »

My ds did mostly IGCSEs as, without coursework, they were easier to find an exam centre for. They used to be considered harder than GCSEs but recently there have been questions about English IGCSE. They are accepted as equivalent though.

Ds followed a correspondence course by Catherine Mooney for English and we were going to use a correspondence course by Sam Martell for the sciences but were lucky enough to find a local group of home educators for him to study with.

Good luck and best wishes to you and your son.

Thanks for the feedback Are the IGCSEs done online or at a center? By what kafkat says, you still have to find an exam center to take the final exam?

I am torn between leaving it until he is 16 to get his GCSEs, or working towards them now.

I want him to get his love of reading, writing, drawing etc back, before we embark on any kind of formal learning. He used to love reading, writing short stories and doing art work before it became associated with stress at school and having to sit with other people.

So i might just get him to pick some books from a shop, and do some writing about them, or ask him to show me how he would illustrate a particular extract.

Trying to keep is as MSE as possible, will scour the local charity shops for any school material (old GCSE revision books, study guides, book to read).