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

[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.