Why do you homeschool?

[ghoti_mhic_uait]

Short answer, it works for us, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it! I always wanted to, but didn't have the confidence first time round. This time, we started by adding in extra stuff when it got to playgroup time, with the understanding that we'd see how we were going and whether we'd need to delegate education as we went along. Well, that worked so well that we added some more stuff in and now we're so busy that the idea of stopping all that and doing school is so limiting.

I remember being so tired the whole of infants school, as we went from a natural, owl schedule to a forced nightingale schedule. There was no time for extras and barely any time for play! All of our energy went into school. I know that all the things we do now, would have to stop if we did school, even the ones with other schooled children (football and ballet) we'd have to choose one if we even managed that.

I'm a nightmare parent, always on the backs of the teachers not because I don't trust them - I don't know a single teacher working today who is not dedicated, hardworking and passionate about passing on the love of knowledge - but because I can't delegate something so important.

There's the fact that I hated school, and often say it's the worst days of your life.

There's the fact that my children are quite social and school does not allow for easy continuation of teaching social skills, although it obviously teaches other skills.

There's the fact that I have time to answer questions about the molecular structure of dew or the etymology of naan, without having to pass the buck for later when they'll probably have forgotten, which just isn't something that can be done in a classroom environment.

There's the fact that while teachers are great, school management gets up my nose.


But mostly, it's because this is working for us as a family.

(Ask more questions here if you wish.)

Comments

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

This is really interesting, and lovely to read. Thank you for sharing it. :-)

I'm getting very passionate at the moment about practical skills, and increasingly angry at the way in which they were "taught" at my schools, especially at secondary level. It was absolutely dire, and incredibly discouraging.

My Dad had very little interest in teaching me things, and my Mum had none at all, so home schooling would not have been a solution in my case. But it has made me rather more aware of how many gaps in my education there would be if my school had had similar failings in other areas - or just if I'd found everything as hard as I found motor control. And thus just how useful homeschooling can be, when everything works well for it. :-)

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

*nod* I have to look out for that as well but I think it's easier for me to fill the gaps: for example, I buy in art (and Judith's doing an art seats at the Fitzwilliam after asking to do more sketching at the museum)

[nevboo.livejournal.com]

I did wonder if I would enjoy home schooling Alice with help from others, I have a friend who is a nursery school teach and another is a preschool TA. I really don't want Alice taught a religion as a fact, I am happy for her to learn about religions as an academic subject. I don't think that is possible in state schools and I am not sure where the non religious public schools are. Home schooling would avoid that problem I guess.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

You could always join a group and see how you like it without committing to anything long term. I think there's even a riding group.

[nevboo.livejournal.com]

Are those local groups or online ones? How do I find them?

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Both! Mostly organised on Yahoo unfortunately, but the big list for nearish Cambridge is Camridge Home Educating Families, http://www.cambridgehomeeducators.org.uk/ on which physical meetups are organised, there's a lot going on in Swavesey and Cambourne that I don't pay attention to because I'm too lazy to go that far, and a day full of activities in Cambridge (The Meadows on Arbury Road) on a Wednesday.

I tend to mostly go to groups organised by Karen Rodgers, which tends to attract Catholics and Muslims, and occasionally LDS, because I am violently allergic to creationists and they unfortunately pop up occasionally, but not generally around Catholics and the kind of Muslim we have nearby (it's against our religion) http://www.philrodgers.co.uk/karen/ec/CHEClist.htm

Actually, often Muslims do their own thing, because there's a specifically Muslim group too which I don't know the details of.

[woodpijn.livejournal.com]

Very interesting, thanks!

Outside of school hours, we do answer questions on things like molecular structure or etymology, and we incorporate bits of literacy and numeracy into everyday life. We also sometimes give Bethany explicitly academic activities like worksheets, because she enjoys them (and I don't think she does much of that yet in Reception).

But I'm finding it such a relief now Bethany's started school, and would find it very difficult to have her at home all day indefinitely. She's quite full-on and tiring, and now there are six hours a day when I don't have to entertain her, I have some time to dedicate to Zoe and to keep on top of basic chores. I salute you if you have the energy and patience to do it all.

As for social skills, Bethany's not the most sociable (you might have noticed at Jack's party) and I'm hoping school will help there but it could go either way.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Actually, I was impressed that she was really clear about her boundaries and prepared to stick to them and not be bowled over. I certainly would not have been able to do that until, um, my twenties? I left school with approximately no social skills.

There's always a lot of education that happens outside school, and I quite like the model of broad & basic education at school supplemented by more indepth exploration of their interests at home.

I do really hate the school run, and the fingerprinting (that's a secondary school thing), uniforms and packed lunches, I am so so glad to only have one more year.

[woodpijn.livejournal.com]

Really interesting - we seem to mean almost opposite things by social skills. You seem to mean sticking up for oneself, whereas I meant being considerate of others. Both are important to have, but I guess you and I have opposite experience of what comes naturally and what needs work?

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

I sort of mean both, and things like small talk and telling when someone's teasing, which I'm still really bad at. Eye contact took me a long time to learn to fake (look at their nose, a trick I learnt from Mrs Christadoulou, former teacher at St L's), which is a big thing people look for in social contract I'm told.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

That's really interesting, thank you for sharing. I have sometimes wondered about homeschooling, especially for El who has Asperger's and thus finds school often (perhaps always) highly stressful. On the other hand, his school have more experience than I currently do with strategies for helping ASD children, and he will ultimately need to learn to cope with stressful situations since life is like that after all. Also, honestly, I do find him very hard work at times, especially in conjunction with his brother, and my CFS/ME can be variable, so realistically I can give him better quality care after school if I have been able to rest during the school day. Like you I don't drive, so I'm not sure how easy it would be for me with limited physical energy to get to groups and activities etc, though I gather there are plenty of those in MK (I have a friend who used to homeschool, then unschooled for a year while travelling the world, and I'm not sure what her plans are now, but she used to mention lots of groups and things.) I am very impressed by your energy and patience in taking this road (though I can see advantages such as not having to do the school run!) Still, we are not ruling it out, we are seeing how school goes one year at a time so far.

There is also Fro to consider, who seems more neurotypical than the rest of us and generally appears to thrive at school. I don't think it would be possible or fair to only homeschool one child though. How does B feel about not being/having been homeschooled? Does he ever feel upset or resentful at all? Sorry for long comment, as you can see it's a subject that's been on my mind, and I have often thought of asking you about it.