Do you home school your child and what circumstances/decisions made you do it?

Question

We have just moved abroad and find that all the children in both my childrens classes are much behind to what my children learnt in the country we were in. The school will not move them up a year as they say that my children will not be able to mix with the older kids but they are bored in the class they are in and they do not give advanced work to my children.

There are lots of after school activities in our area that we would take the children to so they can meet other children.

Answer 1

I am an ex-secondary school teacher and I am not presently homeschooling, but I did homeschool my son and I left the profession, not just to homeschool, but because what I saw in the decline of standards and total rigidity of a system, that educated by the physical year of the child and not on the mental age of the child. When I attended school as a child, I too personally had the same problem, where my ability in subjects were years ahead of my same age counterparts in my class, I was allowed to move up one year in my Primary School, but even though in Junior and Grammar schools, they would not move me up, for exactly the same reason, as you state for your child and that is one of the reasons that I started to homeschool my son. May I make a suggestion, that you read my blog http://lec23.blogspot.com on the reasons that I started homeschooling, I think you will find a lot of similarities of my personal experiences and the experiences that your child is going through now. I believe it will be of extreme interest and value to you and will help you in whatever course of action you decide to take.
Good luck.

Answer 2

Hi rachyt, I am very interested in finding out more about your experiences. My 5 yr old is bright academically, but lacking in social skills, and has a statement based on medical need. She is in Yr 1 and I have lost count of the number of hours wasted stressing over HOW to get the school to address issues. No sooner is one issue addressed, than another surfaces. Last year I was pretty happy with school, probably mostly because of the Teaching Assistant in the classroom. This year, I am very unhappy. I cannot afford a private school, where they might be more willing to follow the IEP, so am seriously considering homeschooling. I have so many questions, esp HOW do you stay calm with a child who just doesn't 'get' social things and drives you nuts with their questions? That is the one thing I am worried about: that I am not the best person to homeschool my child. We rub each other the wrong way. But I think that given the right info and support, homeschooling might actually be a tool to improve how we work together. It would certainly make it a lot easier from a medical appointments point of view! We regularly need to go to Great Ormond Street, as well as local hospitals, GP, etc. It would be great to be able to use the train journey as school time, instead of a endless attention-seeking.

Answer 3

Hi

I grew up in India where the teaching system was very rigid. We were required to memorise and write facts. This may not have been the best way of teaching. however, it worked well for me. I moved to the USA 15 years ago...and I realise now that the long hours spent in math and science really paid off.

Naturally, the US education system was not as promising as I thought it would be. My son was not at all challenged in areas he could have excelled. His K-4 teacher told me that he does best when challenged and recommended that he be among kids performing at a higher level. Unfortunately he did not get that in public school.

So I decided to homeschool, taking the best of the Indian and American teaching system. He is doing really well, he is challenged in every subject. He is happy. He does participate in after-school programs - like book club, robotics etc.

Going to school and social skill has not shown to be related at all. How many children coming out of public school know how to relate to people? have great people skills? or public speaking abilities?

In US, children sadly don't even know about other cultures that exist in the world.

whereas my children (we are a Hindu/Muslim) know of so many other religion, nationalities, races, the practices...they read constantly on various topics.

I am very happy about homeschooling.

There was a question on Indian mothers homeschooling...I am Indian, I am a neonatologist with a job, a business woman, a great wife and a mother. I take care of my home too.

So go ahead and homeschool or challenge them.

By the way my 10 year and 7 year old can relate to a 1 year old child to a 90-year elderly man....absolutely no problem.

Answer 4

I home school my son of 8 years of age at home in the UK.
I was left with no alternatives as he had a speech problem,specific learning difficulties,dyspraxia and dyslexia.My LEA would not provide the help he needed.I have been to countless meetings and tribunals which have all been a joke.
They say it is not to do with money, this is a joke ,everything is always about money.

My sons speech has improved and he is really very bright , he was frustrated and bored in school.He can hold his own on most subjects ,but cannot record them very well.

Since teaching him at home he has blosomed,no more tummy problems every day before going to school and the nightmares have gone which he had everynight while in school.

One to one work has helped so much and we cover so much more as he picks up concepts so quickly.He still has his learning difficulties, but his confidence has grown and is eager to learn about things that gone on every day.

As there is no set curiculum that you have to folllow when home eduacting in the UK ,our subjects include politics, how buildings are put up, what makes popcorn pop .

He is interested in all these things so never stops asking the questions.

I know I made the right decision and wish I had done so much earlier.
Many people still do not know they have the right to home educate ,which is a shame.

Rememember socialisation does not have to be just from peers of there own age , as mixing with various age groups helps them to get on in the big wide world.

Good luck with whatever descision you make,as your children deserve the best they possibly can get.

JUST ADDED ON FOR:
Hi bigblueca
Home educating is by no way the easy way out, especially when you have special needs to address.
We too have a statement, but was just a useless bit of paper as far as I was concerned.What the school said they where doing and what they where actually doing was a completely different things.What amazes me is that they have learning support assistants who have done maybe an inset day on special needs ,thats if they are lucky.

It takes doctors and specialists to know these conditions and they have had to go through rigorous training to qualify as these, but they expect that a learning support can totally help your child.I know many excellent support staff ,but thy are the first to admit that they are not trained sufficiently in special needs.
But how could they be expected to do so when the full training is not provided and look how many various special needs they would have to train for?
I have now come across many more people who are home educating for the simple reason their child with special needs are not getting the help and support they need.
I think you first point of call would be is www.educationotherwise.org which have given me great support.There is a smlll joining fee I think around £30.00 for the year, but then you have full acces to all their forums on home education.You will get all or many of your answers addressed and you get a lot of written stuff from them all the legal stuff, support areas etc.

I would love to be able to email you directly, but am not too sure how to go about this here as there is so much that I could talk to you about.
Take Care

Answer 5

Funny how the American stereotypes are pretty much the exact opposite of the stereotypes here. Here it seems to be widely believed that those of us who are homeschooled must come from privileged backgrounds and have parents with heaps of money. That's the only stereotype I've come across in real life during a lifetime of home education. It's a bit like the old joke*: Years ago the rich sent their kids away to school and the poor had to make do with educating their kids the best they could at home whereas nowadays (supposedly) the professional elite educate their kids at home while poorer parents have little choice but to send their kids to school! (*'Years ago it was the rich who travelled by air and the impoverished masses who went by sea. Now the rich go by sea and the impoverished masses go by air')

Answer 6

hi I taught my daughter at home, this was because she was so unhappy at school, i joined education otherwise which give me great support, she made lots of new friends through the education otherwise news letters. Now i have a happy and outgoing teenage daughter who has never been in trouble with the police, like many children her age in our area and she is more sensible than them too. She did not do any exams because we could not afford to pay for them but now attends college and is really enjoying a course she chose and wanted to do, i feel she learnt more at home that she ever would have done at school. contact education otherwise.org as you will probably find others in your area that teach at home.

Answer 7

I have just started homeschooling my children they are in the 2nd and 4th grades. and the reason i took them out of school was due to health problems. My son has a enlarged colon and must use the restroom when he has to go because if he holds it he will have problems going at a later time if he can go at a later time without a enama, and the teachers would not let him go to the restroom even though the doctor told them that he needed to be allowed to go, and my daughter has problems with her sugar getting too high (she is a diabetic) so i decided to take them out for the rest of the school year to try to get their health back the way it should be.

Answer 8

Yes, I homeschool my children. I taught elementary school and did not like the social scene there. It's very limiting, as is the educational program which tries to force every child to a certain pace and level according to age, as you've noticed. I'd rather my children have an education they are capable of rather than an education that most others are capable of.

Answer 9

thanks to RACHYT +BIGBLUECA, i fit very much in the middle of you both. Like rachyt my 7 year old is dyspraxic +dyslexic yet the lea aren't providing enough support . they say that he has an average I.Q so doesn't need additional help from band B funding school action plus. In fairness his school are frustrated with this decision +told me the support was inadequate for his needs they are providing over and above this out of their own budgets for as long as they can, but agree he still isn't making any progress. Like bigblueca i'm thinking about home schooling, i feel it's our only option but unsure of my suitability to it, how do i cope, 2 other pre-school age children and 101 other questions i could list.So thanx to you both for your advice it's good to read other people have the same problems and cope , in a situation that makes me feel very alone and desperate..

Answer 10

My family started homeschooling because in homeschool our family grew closer together as a family and the environment in the public schools is very bad. I started homeschool in the third grade, and now I have graduated high school (a year early.)

After we started we could see that our academic skills grew at our pace, which was faster than public school in some areas.

I would suggest you do homeschool your children, as long as it is OK with your kids, otherwise it might not workout. In homeschool, you can customize what is studied, how its taught and how fast or advanced the pace goes.