Considering Home Education *help*

cheerfulness4

But D&DD ....... what about it cutting into your cooking time. :eek: Us girls rely on you for our recipes over on the 'feeding 5 thread.'

haylibo

sara-501 if you haven't come across it already try the muddlepuddle site for loads of ideas and links. Will keep you going for weeks.
BW

sara_501

haylibo wrote: »

If there are special needs involved try [EMAIL="HE-SPECIAL-UK@NETPALS.LSOFT.COM"]HE-SPECIAL-UK@NETPALS.LSOFT.COM[/EMAIL] for excellent advice and support. Congrats on the move!!!

Thanks for the tip Haylibo doesn't really apply to my situation, but I'm sure that it will be helpful to other people who visit the thread

sara_501

Wow, sounds like you had a really good experience with your local education authority nice to hear something different from the usual bureaucratic horror stories ....

So far we haven't been contacted by anyone regarding this, although from day one I altered the education welfare officer and her former school.

I will check out that website, so far the only thing we've really used online has been the bbc site, which I've found quite useful for getting her some basic IT skills, clicking and pointing with the mouse etc.

With regards to my own education, I was home-schooled from 12+ and it was totally child led education, I was pretty much left to my own devices, which believe it or not worked great However (footnote for any teen reading this;)).....it's NOT for everyone and does take a great amount of self-discipline as well as a hunger for learning.

Have your sons taken their GCSE's yet? I'm intrigued to hear regarding anyones results when they returned for exams etc. post home-schooling.

cheerfulness4 wrote: »

sara - there are some wonderful sites that I used for my 2 sons over the years that really made learning interesting for them. Also, if you do use online resources sometimes it helps when you're not feeling so well yourself to keep her working.
The boys used to love this school website and we did a few of their projects. She may be a little young to see some. http://home.freeuk.com/elloughton13/index.htm

Lots of school websites have projects that you can print out that are great to help add interest to their studies.

My LEA officer has just retired after 10 years of coming to us and she always said "if we are having a bad day then shut the books, get your shoes on and go and enjoy a day out. There's plenty more days for learning." I was shocked that she was so understanding and we often took that advice. But then I'm sure you know the ropes with your mum teaching you.

sara_501

I'll keep you informed with how it's going I know from my own experience that it was a very difficult decision to make, but thankfully so far I feel it's been the right one.

D&DD wrote: »

Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to this interesting thread..this may be a path we wish to take in the future and its good to know of your experiences.Thanks for starting the thread Sara

D&DD

Thanks Sara would love to know how things go for you Best of luck!
(and cheerful of course baking would form a huge part of our curriculum:rotfl:

cheerfulness4

D&DD wrote: »

(and cheerful of course baking would form a huge part of our curriculum:rotfl:

Glad to hear it! Actually I taught through practical methods as much as poss and cooking was great for that. Maths, science and english came into cookery and the LEA applauded it, too. Just think - weights and measures, following instructions as well as writing up methods and experiments ( :rolleyes: ), and chemical reactions.

Used gardening a fair bit, too. They were my chief seed sowers and recorded from germination onwards, then had to cook the produce and learn about nutrition. Oh the good old days. Now we're knee deep in algebra and shakespeare.

Sara - DS1 works now and never went back to school. We took his GCSE's together, his dad and I taking turns to go into adult ed classes and the exam room with him. I was always worried about that stage but it was the biggest blast I've had in years. Going back to 'school' again with my son was so much fun. We laughed our way through all his exams. He pulled mainly B's with a C in English (he hated that subject). He also took bookkeeping, Social sciences and Computer Studies with me. We did one course that was equiv to an A level in Health studies but we didn't have time for others as he started work at the college he works at then. He's just finished an NVQ2 in Business studies before deciding he hates office work. :rolleyes:

Main thing is to just relax, enjoy and try not to be intimidated by the LEA. I was as friendly as I could be while making it clear that I was in charge. I only banned one officer from the house in 10 years and I received a letter months later to say she had been placed in a more suitable position. Felt guilty for as long as it took me to make a cuppa. :rolleyes: I never let them have my phone number as I like to think what I say first but developed an email relationship with them. I'd give them 6 dates that they could visit to choose from in a year and it worked fine. One visit per year and no questioning my children and making them feel uncomfortable.
I know others have horror stories but I worked out a good relationship with mine quite quickly. I made sure I knew my rights and I never pretended that our method was the best. It was just best for my family.

sara_501

Well it's 02:24am and I'm semi-wide awake, had a very productive day with my daughter yesterday, making a maths activity book cover reading and writing as well as basic mathematics.

Quite easy when you sit together and read the subject With rather than To her. Really can't see how her old school could justify reading just once a week and handwriting practice once a day....

So that's all good, however I did receive a letter from her school in reply to my deregistration letter which basically questioned every allegation I made, had some things included which to my knowledge never happened (unless I'm having episodes of amnesia :eek: ) but basically they've either no clue what was happening to my daughter or they're doing a really good job of trying to cover it up for Ofsted :lipsrseal

I also received a load of paraphernalia from the local attendance and inclusion unit of the LEA which was ever so slightly daunting, including a letter which asks me to comply with providing a curriculum brief within 20 working days.... so that an inclusion offer can visit....

I thought the whole point of removing her from education was to make sure she wasn't just being pushed through school as a statistic and a method for her school to look better in league tables....

now it feels like I'm under scrutiny and in danger of becoming some kind of education authority statistic....

hmmm "big brother"...

cheerfulness4

sara - I had to do something very similar years ago when I withdrew my son. I chose to send them an extremely brief outline of what I was going to cover over the coming year. Basically just that we would be covering Maths, Eng, Science using workbooks, tv programmes etc. I listed the subjects I intended to cover. Now I would say software and online resources, too. The fact that a couple of subject were dropped didn't bother them. They later confided that they have a tiny space to write about the childs progress and the only subs they have to report on are the cores Eng, maths, and science. In fact, I think science was missing last time. They actually showed me their sheets they have to fill in. About 3 lines for each subject.

We had a break of 3 years recently where the officers just didn't have time to visit everyone (lots of home eds now) and so I decided to send off my own back a friendly 'just keeping in touch' email outlining this sort of info. I never named books or programmes, just simply stated they were being used. For that reason they chose to leave me as one of the 'unvisited' families. They said they could see we were organised and left us to it.

I would go along with others advice and say join Education Otherwise if you can afford it.(I was a member for the first 2 years) It's not too expensive and it really does help to know your rights. I casually dropped into the conversation on my first LEA visit that 'naturally I'm a member of E O as it was important to me to keep up to date with the legalities of Home Ed.' They looked a bit uncertain (mainly because they didn't know my rights at that stage)
Then I added, 'I am concerned that many members have developed a 'them and us' attitude and I hope we can avoid this, as it would obviously benefit my son if we all worked together for his good.' They agreed and true to our word we got on like a house on fire and I enjoyed the visits as they told me all the gossip about the education dept.

autismmum

welcome to home educating, my daughter passed gcses at 14
and i am an awful teacher, but each child finds their own way to blosom.

hope it goes well
education otherwise is great and the nec.ac.uk