Does anyone here home educate?

i suppose my fear would always be that as they get older, not only would the subject matter become harder to teach but you also have to deal with 'teenagers!' it was so difficult to get my 15 year old brother to do anything, never mind actively want to learn. He did eventually get some gcse's and could have gone on to do alright, but this was mostly because he was made to go to school. This must be very difficult to deal with as a home educator, of course for any parent, if you find you have a child who decides all they want to do is play computer games! Do you then force them to learn or leave them to their own devices? I would agree that young children have a thirst for knowledge and a desire to learn but i imagine this diminishes as they get older. Hey i love my job and have a desire to do well but i have days when i really can't be bothered, and if i didn't have to go to work, some days i think i wouldn't

I haven't had that problem with my teenagers. I've never had to force them to do anything. It's their life, they make their own choices and they have never disappointed me.

The advantage of HE is that children are self-motivated and self-disciplined and direct their own learning which prepares them for college, university or a job in the real world far better than being forced to go to school when they have no desire to do so.

I don't think the thirst does diminish if it's not squashed. If you're TOLD to learn something, regardless of interest then you're not going to enjoy learning. If you can learn what you want at your own speed, in your own time then it's interesting and you want to continue learning and you enjoy it. As children get older this can grow and the idea that older children can be trickier (I can see your point and have no experience), well, the theory with HE is that they do it themselves!!! They WANT to learn, they WANT the knowledge, they have the interests and they want to develop them.

They WANT to learn, they WANT the knowledge, they have the interests and they want to develop them.

Oh yes i love the theory and i would say i was as you describe even though i went to school and my brother most definately was not. I just think it must get harder with some children as they get older, there must be some who give up. And part of my desire to learn hasn't always just been about the enjoyment of learning stuff, some of it has been about doing well in exams and beating friends, or most recently colleagues! I wonder if i would have done so well without the competitive element of exams - and i know you can still take exams but again this must make the teaching of older children difficult - i did maths a level but i doubt i can remember half of it now and would have no idea about science, i detested it - how do you go about teaching something like that if that is what they want to learn and do well at?

They WANT to learn, they WANT the knowledge, they have the interests and they want to develop them.

Oh yes i love the theory and i would say i was as you describe even though i went to school and my brother most definately was not. I just think it must get harder with some children as they get older, there must be some who give up. And part of my desire to learn hasn't always just been about the enjoyment of learning stuff, some of it has been about doing well in exams and beating friends, or most recently colleagues! I wonder if i would have done so well without the competitive element of exams - and i know you can still take exams but again this must make the teaching of older children difficult - i did maths a level but i doubt i can remember half of it now and would have no idea about science, i detested it - how do you go about teaching something like that if that is what they want to learn and do well at?

Parents are not teachers and why would an HE child have to learn something they didn't want to?

I'm very interested in HE - the area we live in isn't a particularly nice area - only today I heard a mother counting backward from 5 for her son (who is 6yrs old) to "get in NooooooooWWW" - only for him to response with "F**k off u stupid fat ugly B***h" - all the mother did was laugh and walk back inside. I DO NOT want my children being in that sort of environment and thinking that that kind of disrespectful behaviour is acceptable. I do not want them thinking that everyone speaks and acts like this.

Can any HEing mums please post some links so I can do some reading and see where I would begin.
I think I've instinctively been HE as DD vocab is amazing, she can name lots of different fruit & veggies we either get in our veg box or are growing, and she has such a thirst for looking at new things and gets excited when she can recognise the new things she's seen.

TIA

There's a great HE forum here

http://otherwiseinclined.prophpbb.com/

that you can ask any questions on. It's for past, present and future HE families and everyone is welcome.

i suppose my fear would always be that as they get older, not only would the subject matter become harder to teach but you also have to deal with 'teenagers!' it was so difficult to get my 15 year old brother to do anything, never mind actively want to learn. He did eventually get some gcse's and could have gone on to do alright, but this was mostly because he was made to go to school. This must be very difficult to deal with as a home educator, of course for any parent, if you find you have a child who decides all they want to do is play computer games! Do you then force them to learn or leave them to their own devices? I would agree that young children have a thirst for knowledge and a desire to learn but i imagine this diminishes as they get older. Hey i love my job and have a desire to do well but i have days when i really can't be bothered, and if i didn't have to go to work, some days i think i wouldn't

I see what your saying, but I don't think it's a good enough reason to be put off HEing a primary age child. Non of us know how our LO's will be when they reach that age and from what I can see of many HE families they actually take there almost teenage children out of school to give them a better shot at learning what they want, or in a more suitable environment, among other reasons of course

For me the mixture of reasons I want to HE is great, from wanting to avoid the peer-pressure side of school to wanting to give my children the greatest chance, I feel, at discovering what they are interested in without being forced into some kind of mould. From my experiece, with my nephews, they are very well rounded, confident, focused young men. The youngest, never having been to school at all as probably the most so, and is now at college and a very popular boy And my sister was not one to take them to HE groups or even do very much outside the home with them, due to other circumstances withing their family. Something TBH I thought would effect them as adults, but clearly it hasn't

There's a great HE forum here

http://otherwiseinclined.prophpbb.com/

that you can ask any questions on. It's for past, present and future HE families and everyone is welcome.

Thankyou, will give it a good read over the weekend when I can give it my full attention.

Can I ask those who HE and forgive me for sounding, well thick I guess but do you have to follow an outline curriculum like the school educated kids do, do your children sit exams to gain gcse's and do you have a set routine to you day?