Does anyone here home educate?

Regardless of any of the above, I just couldn't do it because it would drive me bonkers, I take my hat off to you all.

I agree wholeheartedly

There is a very well known HE family (not on here) where the husband is an accountant (all self taught with no formal qualifications at all).

In my experience, generally someone would struggle to do accountancy without a professional qualification. I definately cannot do my job without being ACA and having JIEB but it is a highly regulated industry.

One of my biggest reservations was how I would cope at home, on my own, with 4 children full time. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they actually get along much better from being together so much and our house is a much calmer and less stressed place. Dh and I discussed this a lot before we took the boys out of school as I am someone who needs my own space and time alone. Dh doesn't see the boys at all during the week so he takes the boys out for a full day one day at the weekend, leaving me alone (although I can join them if I want, obviously), to get on with my own things and have my own space. Dh and the boys then get a full day of quality time together, doing things that they want to do.

Why is he banned? just because he doesn't agree with the majority of HE-ers? that's a bit alarming really......

Because he is a nasty trouble making troll.

Because he took information from private forums and published them in a book without the permission of the families concerned.

Because he almost destroyed the right to HE in England and it was only because of the very hard work undertaken by other HE'ers that the HE proposals in England were abandoned in the wash up.

Why not sign up to an HE forum and ask people how his actions have wrecked people's lives?

I can't see that HE kids (at least the kids of HE-ers on here from what I know about your activities etc) would have any trouble making friends. But I think that learning to get on with ppl who you have nothing in common with is a useful lesson in life, and not one you'll learn from going to small special interest groups, where by definition you are all interested in the same thing. Even HE groups I would imagine there is a similar political slant. Going to mainstream school teaches you to deal with all sorts. Having said that, of course that's not reason in itself to send kids to school if all the other markers point you towards HE.

HE children learn how to get on with all sorts of people because they live and learn in the community. This is what prepares them for the real world.

And it's nonsense to suggest that HE'ers have similar ideas or beliefs. Would you say the same about school educating families? Of course not.

i've tried to read thru this the best i can before answering, my own personal opinion is yes, maybe home schooling can be a great and positive thing, and whilst learning about things they are interested in is also a plus, i could never take my children out of school as they get to experience alot more i believe, than if they were at home with me all day. for instance if adam was out of school all day i fear he would do very little, after surgically removing him from his xbox he would want to sleep all day, this happened throughout the holidays, he actually wanted to be back at school because he hoped a new school and new term would be an exciting yet scary thing to experience.

my 9 yr old for instance, has been on the gifted and talented register for about 3 years, she is very clever, very eager to learn and she is taught at her own pace, working now at a yr 8/9 level. i struggle to find her things to keep her occupied and learning, when i am also looking after the little ones and trying to run a house with 7 people in it, so some of her learning is handed over to the school where she is thriving, and learning new stuff every day she has a real passion for learning which is a joy to see but she gets a range of subjects to learn more on that maybe she wouldn't at home.

i wish i had it in me to home educate my children, but in honesty i don't think i do. certain basic things like reading for example, i was already fluent in by the age of 3, so learning to read for example is not something i remember doing, i just could. but then i put it down to my pushy mother who took it as her project to try and he me, and this turned out badly for me, as although a 'bright' child i generally worked at a level higher than my peers and found i was constantly bored, always getting into trouble because i was bored and eventually expelled aged 14, where i then went on to college. i still love to learn these days, but reading this back i look more like a he'd kid gone wrong! there is no way i would have been homeschooled past the removal of me from my mother, i don't think social services do home educating......

i wish i had it in me to home educate my children, but in honesty i don't think i do. certain basic things like reading for example, i was already fluent in by the age of 3, so learning to read for example is not something i remember doing, i just could. but then i put it down to my pushy mother who took it as her project to try and he me, and this turned out badly for me, as although a 'bright' child i generally worked at a level higher than my peers and found i was constantly bored, always getting into trouble because i was bored and eventually expelled aged 14, where i then went on to college. i still love to learn these days, but reading this back i look more like a he'd kid gone wrong! there is no way i would have been homeschooled past the removal of me from my mother, i don't think social services do home educating......

You know this actually reads more like school was the wrong thing for you.

prob was hun, but i had little choice, i was removed from my mothers care when i was 7. so education was always up to social services.

the library was always my fav haunt. my theory goes if u can read the world is your oyster. u have the tools then to learn whatever u want to know.

prob was hun, but i had little choice, i was removed from my mothers care when i was 7. so education was always up to social services.

the library was always my fav haunt. my theory goes if u can read the world is your oyster. u have the tools then to learn whatever u want to know.

Yes, absolutely. You worked out HE for yourself when school didn't challenge you.

true, never really thought of it like that hun.x