Deciding whether or not to home educate
Our twin children start at school tomorrow. For a couple of years we have wondered whether educating them at home instead of sending them to school would be best for our family. The question first arose when we lived and worked in London and weren’t particularly happy with the idea of them attending the local school there.
In investigating the logistics and reality of home education we came across several wonderful blogs and websites written by families who were successfully keeping their children at home and enjoying watching them learn at their own pace things that interested them rather than being force to sit in the same classroom day in and day out following a National Curriculum. There seemed to be a common theme with all of them that being family orientated instead of work orientated led to a more satisfying way of life.
As a parent the way of life described in the websites we found seemed appealing to the extreme. A couple of them in particular had the effect of our re-evaluating our existence in London and within a few weeks we had quit our jobs, took the children out of private day nursery and downshifted to a life in the Worcestershire countryside where I became full time stay at home mother and Bealers set up a new internet software company similar to the one he had sold in London. The children were still only 3 years old last year when we made this move and the option of home education instead of mainstream school still very much appealed.
By September last year the children were eligible for five sessions per week at the local nursery which had just relocated its premises to a classroom within the local village primary school, adjacent to the reception class. At around the same time the business Bealers had set up took off tremendously well and it made sense for me to do some of the basic admin/office management tasks while he was busy doing fee earning client projects. The kids had a few settling in sessions which they loved as there were toys we didn’t have at home, messy play, painting etc. as well as children their own age. Having attended nursery from a very young age they were sociable creatures who loved making new friends.
The academic year ended in July for six weeks summer holiday by which time our minds were pretty much made up that both kids would move up to the reception class with seventeen of their little classmates from the pre-school room.
We are extremely fortunate that the village/town we have moved to has a wonderful, small primary school which plays a large role in the community here. It is in a picturesque setting with loads of green space. For the reception class there are two teachers yet only nineteen children. If one is going to send ones children to school after years of planning to home educate then this is a good one.
A huge factor in our decision to not keep the children at home is the free 30 hours of childcare primary school offers while I am able to go to the office, bill clients, pay staff, order stationery and the like. Our offices are a one minute walk away from the school so I am able to take them there and pick them up each day which I would not have been able to do if we were still living our ‘previous life’ in London as I worked full time.
My plan is to constantly monitor how happy both children are attending full time school. My gut feeling is that five days a week at this age is far too much so have an idea that within a year from now I will approach the head teacher to talk about the idea of flexi-schooling or part-time schooling where they are attending school for three or four days a week but doing things with me the remaining days of the week. He seems to be a very interesting non-conformist character and so I hope he will be open to this as a suggestion.
I know my daughter will thrive in school as there is nothing she likes more than sitting quietly doing drawing, writing, reading, making things, counting or playing nicely with other children. My son however is very much like I was at his age - super keen on the social side of school (and cannot wait to be reunited with his chums tomorrow) but not at all keen on the sitting down and doing ‘boring’ things. He will most probably have a reputation for being charming, funny, good at reading, talking, acting, singing and computing but will distract his other classmates when it is time for repetitive academic pursuits which require him to sit still and focus his attention.
I know that for our family, right now we have made the right decision but as with all other decisions I reserve the right to keep it constantly under review and perhaps do a massive U-turn in my thinking in the future. They are both thrilled that tomorrow is the first day of school and are really happy to be big enough to sport a school uniform. It does feel like a bit of a rite of passage for them to be leaving me tomorrow after six weeks at home in their too-big jumpers, neatly brushed hair and scuff-free Clarks shoes. I shall miss them I know I will.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Hi Cathie
Don’t they look sweet! Luko’s school has a non-uniform policy so the kids can come in dressed as Buzz lightyear if they wish, which is lovely in terms of them expressing their own identity etc, but I do think kids look sooo cute in school uniforms!
Hope Edie and Mo have settled in well. You’re very lucky with your child to teacher ratio, there will be 30 kids in Luko’s class and two teachers. Luko was a bit teary in Friday but today he got stuck into building a train track so he’s coping really well. There’s still only 15 kids per class for a couple of weeks then they get thrown together at the end of Sept.
Big kiss to the kids.
Sorrel x
September 12th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
To remember about home educating is why as a parent someone believes they are more qualified to not only teach but to also understand the teaching and importantly the learning of children, how they learn, why they learn etc… than someone who has spent at least fours years at university doing so. A monkey is able to remember a sequence of numbers, but do they understand why the sequence is like how it is and what might come next?
Teaching is an important job, not only learning and understanding learning, but also understanding development of children outside of typical educational topics. Not just social but physical too.
I have not flown an aeroplane but would be willing to try (hey, I play on MS Flight Sim and I know the functions) - would you be prepared to fly with me?
September 13th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Hey Jake, thanks very much for your comments. That has thrown the cat amongst the pigeons!
I don’t personally know many home educating families but the extensive research I conducted has lead me to believe that most HE families are doing a grand job of educating their kids - ok it might not be at the same pace or structure that the National Curriculum dictates to teachers but instead it is more likely to be very personal to the children within that family (eg. my daughter loves art and my son loves reading so we would probably do a lot more of both of these if they were at home full time) and also very much ‘holistic’ and ‘real life’ (eg. lets go and buy enough meat for the family’s meal tonight, choosing something to make, talking about which kind of shops to visit, selecting the right ingredients and in the right quanities, getting cash from our bank account from the bank machine, paying for the food with real money, talking to the butcher and an elderly lady about things, washing hands and making the meal).
I understand that there is a theory amongst HE supporters that the number of actual taught hours a primary school kid receives in a class of 20-30 is minimal. They may be present at school but much of the time is spent lining up, putting chairs under, playing in the playground.
The other thing that people who decide to Home Educate would perhaps point out is that the decision to take children out of school is very rarely taken lightly - many many families are prompted to do so after repeateded miserable episodes with their child being bullied or not thriving for whatever reason & within a matter of weeks of being at home the child that had become withdrawn and suffered nightly terrors had returned to their former robust self.
I can’t actually think of many of the things I was taught in primary school that I couldn’t teach my small kids especially with the huge range of materials, books and websites now on the market.
Ten years ago I went to university and spent four years being ‘trained to be a primary school teacher’. Hmmmm I don’t recall anyone ever saying ‘Right this is how you teach this and then you would progress to this’ we had annual teaching practices where we were a classroom assistant in an actual school, we wrote endless essays on multiculturalism, history of education and discipline theories but everything we were taught during the degree was regarding large sized classroom management rather than the individual learning. Also worth noting (although I may live to regret typing this) that an enormous percentage of my fellow students were simply teenagers who had failed to get the grades for their wished for undergraduate degree course & had fallen into becoming a qualified teacher as it accepted such low A-level grades.
Having ranted all of the above though… I have to say that 4 days into their schooling I’m super pleased with E&M’s progress at school. They are lucky enough to be in a weeny class with two very dedicated teachers, they have both come home with a new book to read/look at each night and some bespoke word cards so I’m convinced the teachers are acturately assessing each of the kids’ levels of ability rather than just dishing out the same to each child. They are eating things I wouldn’t bother cooking for them at home because they once told me they didn’t like it AND they are having fun with little playmates at lunchtime ‘playing rough’ in the field or making little houses in the school’s willlow den.
I really enjoy picking them up from school as I have missed them during the day but spent quality time contributing to the family business by taking charge of the office management and the house is as nice as we left it in the morning.
As I said in the original blog post I do reserve the right to do a u-turn at any point in the future.
Thanks again for your comment
September 14th, 2007 at 8:54 am
[Another comment emailed from Jake but posted by me...]
Whoops - just relised that I didn’t save a copy of what I just emailed you, so if you wish (and only if you do wish) then feel free to post it on your blog!
Jake.
===
Hi!
Thanks for the reply, I hope my comment didn’t come across as silly or nasty or anything like that, it’s certainly not what I was trying to do. Instead, it is always good to get real thoughts down in a constructive way and I thought that an opposite view always makes good reading if done ok. So I first apologise if I came across too negative about things!
I wasn’t aware that you were a trained primary school teacher, which
is a lot different from being a ‘normal’ person so to speak. Of
course, there are good and bad teachers, ones that are hopeless and just going through the motions in order to get their degree - but also ones that fully understand not only what to teach (which let’s face it is mainly dictated to us) but how to teach, and more importantly how to understand if the child is or is not learning.
As an example, a know of a child who’s parents have taught them to count from 1 to 100, which sounds amazing when I think my two boys
can only count from 1 to 10 and are the same age. However, counting
from 1 to 100 is fine but only id you understand how and why. So, at number 50, what comes next? Easy, you know it is 51 because you know
the sequence. But, ask the question why? Why is 51 above 50? What
is 50? So, the repeating of the sequence 1 to 100 is fine, but the
teacher will know how to put forward the knowledge behind that, so that when building on this you can move onto 50+1, 50+2 - and if the child understands what’s going on they can use that knowledge to
extend their own understanding. ie, they understand the rules and
do not simple know how to memorize. So, my friends are very happy
that their child can repeat the numbers 1 to 100, but unfortunatly
the child does not show any understanding of what they are doing.
All this, I am sure, is such stuff that you were maybe not taught how to teach, but instead “picked up” during the practical teaching practices.
I hope some of that makes sense, lol!! My wording is not always good as it is while in my head and some of it makes a little bit of sense about what I am trying to say.
The other side is a social look on things, and I don’t mean the old argument of “they won’t mix with other children” as I don’t see that as a big arguement for or against - but I do understand it is
normally people’s first arguement against! What I do mean instead
is the ability for the child to break away from their parent’s view
on the world. I would love my boys to have the same thoughts and
interests as me, but then they would not be individuals as much as
they may be. If I think one way about the world then I would want
to promote this to my children, but I would also like them to have the opportunity to understand why and the other views too. I would then, like them to have outside influence from my own ideals and
things. I would like them to have not only their parents as their
figure in life, but their teachers too, have a mixture of ideals coming to them and giving them a view from all sides.
Saying all this, our boys are on their 4th day at school too and while we are more than happy with one of the teachers we are not with the other and feel that our son may be lost in an un-organised class where he and his special needs (he has dyspraxia) will be lost and not enough individual attention given - whereas we have spent the
last 4 years really working with him to get him to where he is now.
But, saying all that, he loves his disorganised teacher and his class, and the other one loves his teacher and class, and they are having some good adventures on their own, away from each other (they are twins) and away from us. They have stuff to tell us etc…
Right, I think I’ve rambled on long enough!! lol Nothing is
ideal - maybe the nearest may be teaching of children in small local groups where parents are involved but not 100% or the time with their
children. Maybe something like a small home ed group for the
community, as long as that community is diverse.
Anyway, that’s enough from me. Keep blogging as I love hearing how
you are going on even though I don’t know you or your ‘past life’, I simply found your site on the internet and a lot of what you write is
really living out a lot of my dreams! I hope school, however it may
be, keeps going well
Jake.
September 17th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
I’m glad Morris and Eden have settled into school -they look so adorable in their school uniforms!
x
September 19th, 2007 at 11:50 am
Hi Cathy I’m cathing up here! Baby stuff will be sent next week. I’ve found some more stuff so wanted to send it alltogether.
They look very cute in their uniforms. Glad to hear all is well.
Maybe Jake should look at a few home educating blogs ;0)
September 12th, 2008 at 11:04 am
really interesting post, i’m a qualified primary school teacher and taught for 10 years before decidng to give it up, so i guess on paper i am qualified to home educate my kids but i don’t think it would be such a good idea. obviously every family is different. while i really enjoy doing activities with my 2 and helping them to learn lots of different things, i think it’s important for us to spend time away from each other. it allows them to become more independent, socialise and develop skills that i am not able to teach , plus gives me breathing space and time to grow and develop (in between working part time and doing the housework!)