Homeschooling???

Question

Does anyone in the UK teach at home.
What age did you start teaching your child?
What reasons did you have for choosing this option??
Do you find it hard and do you think you made the right decision?? Do you get help??
I'm asking this because I am looking into homeschooling my 13 yr old son who is on the Autistic Scale.
He is bullied terribly at school (mainstream) and is so unhappy.
The school is useless when it comes to bullying, and I don't want my son to remember his schooling for all the wrong reasons.
I am just trying to find out as much as I can to make sure I am doing the right thing.
Thanks in advance.

Also, if any of you were homeschooled, could you tell me your thoughts too??

Answer 1

I have two autistic spectrum children, diagnosed with PDD-NOS, living in the US. My son attended pre-school from age 3 to age 5 and then Kindergarten and 1st grade. In Kindergarten, he started having problems with Reading and the teacher wanted to hold him back a year, but he was a head taller than the other kids already, so I started tutoring him and the teacher said she would let him go to 1st grade, but I should keep tutoring him and he would probably have a hard time (as he is dyslexic). In 1st grade, the teacher asked me to tutor him with math and handwriting. Then the IEP team asked me to preteach his language arts concepts. And and the same time we found out in the IEP report that my son had been crying and having stomach aches every day that year. So home schooling seemed liked a valid option. My son had been begging to hs for the past month or two also. So we started homeschooling 2nd grade we thought on a trial basis, but my son has insisted we do so until he goes to college, and it's now been 6 years, so I guess we will keep doing so until college. And my daughter we have been homeschooling from the beginning.

A lot of our family members, there is one principal and a former teacher, are not very supportive about our home schooling unfortunately, and that is probably my one negative that I have about home schooling, but my brother who was bullied in high school (thrown into lockers and all that) and hated school, is very supportive, and wishes he had been home schooled too! I am very grateful for his support.

I found it hard the first year of hsing because I put a lot of pressure on myself to be perfect and try to teach him everything in the first year or two. I was doing way too much. I scheduled him for about a dozen activities: piano, karate, tennis, soccer, football, Boy Scouts, etc. plus he had speech therapy and occupational therapy also. I had read so much hype about the social skills that I scheduled way too much and we were exhausted from running around. After the first year, I cut all the activities my son didn't like at all which cut down on the stress level.

I also cut way down on the academics after the first year and stopped trying to get my son into Harvard in 2 years! I tried to get more fun books & games and tried to get books & games that were centered on my children's interests: Greek mythology, war, dinosaurs, human body, animals, etc. I was in a panic a few months ago because I thought I might be doing a disservice to my 1st grade daughter not having a "real" science book so I ordered a 1st and 2nd grade science book to make sure I was covering what they would be covering in the schools, and I was surprised to discover that not only had we already covered all the subjects they had covered in both books, but quite a bit beyond. For example, they talked about "meat-eater" dinosaurs where my daughter talked about "carnivorous" dinosaurs.

I would not worry about social skills and homeschooling, that is a red herring. I believe your son has already developed the social skills that he will have by 13 for good or bad. Hanging around with bullies or whatever, is hardly going to improve them anyway. I also tend to believe that people are born with their personalities: my introverted son attended preschool/school/lots of activities & therapies all his life and is still introverted. My daughter is the most extraverted & gregarious child I have ever met and has been homeschooled from birth (plus autistic spectrum). I really don't give any of the credit for her great social skills to our homeschooling and two articulate parents, but the fact that she was probably born with her extroverted personality.

If you are worried about teaching all your son's classes in high school level, there now are homeschool co-ops where they teach classes, online classes at virtual schools (you can post another question online here later re: specific courses if you need to), or dual homeschool at a community college possibly (they have them where you can attend free for homeschoolers in America I am not sure if they have community colleges in the UK though!). Good luck with your decision!

Answer 2

I am in the US homeschooling my two children on the UK curriculum. We moved here and found that they were repeating what they had learnt. They both need to be challenged and were not getting that in the school they were in.

They are both happier at home and I am learning new things with them too. It was their choice to be homeschooled.

I have to say that I have lost a lot of my time but I know that my kids will benefit.

I don't get any tutors in at the moment because they are only six and seven but we send them for chess and piano classes. We are also looking into a couple of other classes for them.

For languages we use DVDs and Cd's but will send them soon to language classes.

We have bought some books and also use resources on the net too.

There is an organisation called www.education-otherwise.org you might want to look into.
I have joined them and find it very useful. It's an organisation for homeschooling and they can put you in touch with parents in the same situation as you.

Also don't worry about the rubbish people say like ''he needs to be with kids his own age''. My kids can mix with kids and adults of all ages. You just have to work on that.


Good luck.

Answer 3

I home schooled my daughter for six months as the lottery for schools in London didn't work, we were offered the 2 worst performing schools in the area both over 1hr away on the bus.
So I home educated, at the time it was the right decision, but it did have consequences, my daughter did suffer due to the isolation of being at home, she missed other children and the social activities that her peers were having. I accepted the first school that came up with a place (not really one of my choice) I can understand why you are considering it, due to the bullying, but I would explore other avenues ie changing schools before home ed, it is major hard work on both and does effect the relationship between mother and child, plus teaching children of that age is difficult, be prepared to be big bad mummy when you are teacher mode, I would consider doing it again, but only short term, as the effect on her wasn't good, the education she received was better than school, but emotionally and socially it was not beneficial to a 12 year old child.

Answer 4

I was home schooled from the age of 14 because I was badly bullied at school. I had a personal tutor come twice a week for two hours each session, it cost £20 for each lesson.
I was alot happier after I left school and I was able to understand lessons, I found work alot easier simple because I could relax.
I think you should ask your son what he thinks about the idea of homeschooling, if both of you are happy about the idea, go for it as it will hopefully make your son alot happier, like it did for me.
Good luck and I hope it's a success.

Answer 5

I wasn't homeschooled in the UK, but I was homeschooled for the last two years of high school in the US. I loved it. People claim that most homeschoolers are antisocial, and it simply isn't true. I would recommend finding a homeschooling co-op for your son, but other than that, he should be fine.
I became more social. My social life was so full that sometimes I had trouble fitting schoolwork in. I learned to overcome shyness and approach people. I can have intelligent conversations with adults. I had always gotten good grades, but they got even better.
I will recommend setting a realistic daily, weekly, and monthly schedule for your son. Make sure he can accomplish what you set in that day (not too little and not too much) and still have time for other things.

Answer 6

I don't homeschool in the UK, but I do homeschool two autistic kids in the US. Them having autism is one of the reasons we chose homeschooling, because the schools were not willing to meet them academically or emotionally. They were both in school for five years (our son from Kindie through fourth, and our daughter from sped preschool through first) We've been homeschooling for two years and wouldn't change it at all!

It is hard some days, but most days it is completely worth it because not only are they learning better, they are much happier and pleasant to be around. We get help from our psychologist, she sees us once a month to talk about how they are progressing, how they've learned what they've learned, and what the next step should be.

Answer 7

I'm in the US, I hope that's okay with you.
I have been homeschooled for 7 years.
You should ask him what he thinks of the idea, then listen to his opinion. If you do it correctly, there should be no problem with socializing. You should probably enroll him in some classes about things he is interested in. Such as: instrument lessons, dance lessons, math tutoring, cooking classes, sewing. Just something that allows him to have access to people on a regular basis.
Good luck, and I hope this helps.

Answer 8

I have AS and will be teaching my own children AS and not at home..

Not only does it reduce bullying, it also means I can concentrate more on social, communication and basic living skills.

I was bullied to the point of severe depression from a very young age.

There's loadsa people out there who are now choosing this method of education, your not alone.

Answer 9

I teach children with autism in the home and supervise them at school if it benefits them. With some children it's the best way to learn. If your child is unhappy at school he wont be reaching his best. If you can't teach certain subject eg languages then see if family or friends can fill that gap, but please ensure that your child still gets the social contact with other children, not family or friends but near strangers in like a judo class or chess club whatever his preference so he can cope when he's older and in the big bad world.

Answer 10

I found this site online, you may have come across it as well.

www.homeschool.co.uk

I home school my two daughters because I want them to get a great education without all the junk ps offer alongside. They are great kids that are wonderfully adjusted socially. I wish you the best of luck!