Thread: Home schooling advice please!

Hello,
I would really like to Home educate my daughter Mia, (who is 13mnths old now) and the only thing I'm really worried about (apart from how will we teach her maths, when I am the world's worst...!) is that she'll be isolated and not have enough contact with other kids as we don't have many family/friends living nearby.

What sort of things do you do with your kids so that they get to interact regularly? I'm thinking maybe swimming groups, libarary storytime things like that? Also how have you dealt with teaching subjects that aren't your strong point, like the dreaded maths?

In fact, I'd be grateful for any advice, tips, experiences etc.
Thanks ever so much
Gina*

well... for a start *reducing* contact with other children was one of my reasons for home-edding, LOL. The kind of socialisation that happens in school can be so negative, I wasn't going to take the risk. There's the obvious physical and verbal bullying, and there's the less obvious, more insidious 'fitting in' stuff... There are so many groups and activities for children, and there might well be other home-edders in your area, have you looked at EO or www.home-education.org.uk for contacts?

As for teaching, I don't teach. Life doesn't exist as separate subjects, so we just live. My children learn lots from conversations with us, or we/they look stuff up online or at the library or ask someone who knows. Other people use packaged curriculae or create 'unit studies' and there are resources like Kumon Maths (which I wouldn't touch with a bargepole, LOL, but it works for some ) and online courses. But really there are as many ways to home-ed as there are home-edders. kwim?

This site is good....

www.education-otherwise.org

They are a home-ed charity....

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Originally Posted by auntylady

How will you prepare your children for the world at large if they've not been exposed to 'normal' life from a young age?

Maybe Trog wants to eliminate the risk of these things happening to her kids....thats what her post states, doesn't it?
I know thats EXACTLY how it was when I was at school
And I also think its quite sad that these things are deemed, by you, to be 'normal'...
Love
Sarah xXx

Originally Posted by auntylady

Dont you think thats a little negative to start with, assuming it's awful before you've even started?

as I said, it's a question of risk. And it's a question of group dynamics and coercion. School is intrinsically coercive because it's based on a top-down reward-based hierarchy, so even with the best will in the world the adults are 'bosses' and the children are not, and some will seek to assert their power through bullying of various types. Even if bullying is acted upon promptly in schools and there is a generally supportive atmosphere, the dynamics of the average 30 children of around the same age with one or two adult 'supervisors' are lopsided to say the least.

How will you prepare your children for the world at large if they've not been exposed to 'normal' life from a young age?

I'm overwhelmingly glad that school is not my normal life.

Thanks for advice Trogette (and maybe sorry for starting a bit of a debate here!)

Clairey; Oneof the reasons I want to home educate Mia is because the school environment is such an artificial one. I can't think of another instance within scoiety in which we're all grouped together according to age day in day out for years on end? I also don't really understand what you mean by;

''How will you prepare your children for the world at large if they've not been exposed to 'normal' life from a young age?

I think most parents who He do so because they want to offer their children so much more than a traditional school environment can, allow them to see the bigger picture, so that they are much more prepared for anything that may come their way during their lives. Well, that's what I hope anyway!

Gina*

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Clairey you said; 'I would consider 'normal life' to be what my boys have now, which is a varied school curriculum, social life and a happy home. I dont think home educating can offer that. Sorry but thats my view. '

Oh, My goodness that's so rude!

Clairey if you're so down on home-ed why post on the home-ed forum?