My daughter is going to 'Unschool' her DD

www.topmarks.co.uk

My grandson is autistic, so his career choices are limited anyway. Because he is autistic, the world to him is a very scary place. We try and make it less so.

www. topmarks.co.uk is an excellent website which brings together many teaching aids.

I can see what Mishap means by the term 'sausage factory' but don't agree that this would necessarily be the outcome. My DC have not turned out as sausages - they all seem to have minds of their own, particularly DD2 who has never been a conformist.

I do think homeschooling or unschooling would limit a child's choice of what career they could choose - unless the parent and/or grandparent is very careful, skilled and has had a good education themselves (and one or two on here would seem to fall into that category).
The danger is that a child could get a rather unbalanced and narrow view of the world and, in this little one's case, imbued with an understanding that it is a very scary place full of other people waiting to bully her. If she wishes to choose an 'alternative' lifestyle for herself when she is older at least, if she goes to school, she will have had the opportunity to see for herself exactly what she is rejecting.

I do, however, think that 4 is very young to start full-time school for most children.

It would send all the wrong messages if the welfare system paid for mothers to stay at home until children are all over 16- because someone decided to home-school- or in this case, un-school!

It doesn't really matter what I think. The benefit system has been over hauled and even the Education Otherwise advice will be out of date. The state is simply not going to hand out money for a lifestyle choice. She really needs to go to CAB and get up to date advice on her position before she makes plans.

rubylady- my comment was on unschooling, as per this thread and OP, not homeschooling.

As said, here it is illegal to homeschool- and the reasons given is that children all need socialisation with others and have a legal right to the same education as other children. I didn't make that decision, and am not sure how I feel about it. Mixed feelings perhaps. In some K/Cantons in my country, it is allowed, but only if the people who will homeschool are qualified teachers, be they parents, grand-parents or tutors. At secondary stage that means they would have to have qualifications across the range of subjects- or employ those who do.

She has stayed at home for the formative years- I have nothing against that as a tax payer.

Of course they can stay at home if they can afford it.

Hmm - let's have all mums out at work and all children in child care or school. Perhaps not.

I'm all for stay at home mums/dads where it is right for that family, and if we have to help support that then so be it. Home education is no cop-out - it is blooming hard work; and if the result is a well-adjusted happy adult then that has to be a bonus.

I might have liked to have sent mine to private schools-I couldn't so they didn't. I didn't expect the tax payer to fund it because I thought it would be best for them!!

You don't appear to have much faith in children if you think they are all turned out the same! I have far more faith in mine and they are all totally different. What was good was getting them to meet all sorts from all backgrounds with all different opinions and not the narrow band I could provide them with.

The main thing is that you cut your coat according to your cloth and the world doesn't owe you a living. I can think of a huge list of things that I would like, but can't afford and so I don't have them.
This parent simply can't afford it unless we all pay for it and I certainly don't want to when I think her child would benefit from the structure of school.
Perfectly OK as long as she finances it-however as I keep saying the state is going to expect her to work and send her on job interviews etc and she can hardly find something wrong with all of them for 11 years! Personally I would rather find her a job starting at 9.30 and finishing at 3pm with time to deliver and pick up her child than pay her to stay at home. Plenty of mothers get jobs like that so I can't see why she should be the exception.

But that sends all children down the same route as if they are all the same.
The education system can be like a sausage factory and I for one never had any sausages!

Some of what goes on in schools is brilliant - and some is bollocks and unnecessary and pointless. And some teachers are just plain hopeless - and some are brilliant.

You have to respond to the child in front of you and the schools on offer and make a decision that fits the child.

I see no great advantage in principle in a child spending its formative years in a large institution learning stuff over which his parents have little control from people over which they also have no control.

Some of the teachers my girls were subjected to were not the sort of people whom I felt could set them a good example.

It also takes money! It is an extra option like private education and sadly not open to all. As a tax payer I don't want to fund it! I want the child in school and the mother in work-unless there are circumstances such as special needs that are not being met.

Home schooling well done is a brilliant option. Many parents who are home schooling get together with others doing the same and in that way the children get to share their learning for some subjects.

These children do not live in a vacuum - they go to gym, ballet, cubs etc.

Proper home schooling is a big challenge and needs a lot of thought behind it - and lots of effort and commitment. But it works very well if those are present - as indeed do well-run schools. It is a matter of horses for courses. Some children do better out of school.

Of course you mix with all ages at school- you do not stick to your year group! You meet all sorts and you are only there for 6 hours a day.
There is nothing wrong with home education, if it is in the interests of the child rather than the parent- and the parent can afford it. The tax payer should not be funding what is, in this case, a life style choice.
Perhaps FishandChips can report back once the child is 5yrs- I think the benefit system will insist she seeks work. ( and she can't refuse it all for the next 11yrs- they have tightened up)

Can those who object to home schooling please hang out only with people of exactly the same age as yourselves for the next eleven years? That is what you are expecting of a child going to school. Home school enables children to mix with all ages, from babies to elderly people and many, many in between, not just people their own age giving the child the understanding of everyone and care of others, not just their peers.

granjura Thank you for your comment on home schooling being abuse and neglect. That means that I abused and neglected my own son for four years while I home schooled him! How dare you pass judgement on others when you have no idea why someone does what they do?

I think this young mum will do a fantastic job with her young daughter and it is true that some countries do not teach their children to read until they are seven, in fact, they do not go to school until they are seven.

The authorities in our case used to come and check on us once a year, tick all the appropriate boxes and then say he was doing well and leave. Me and my son used to have monthly meetings, go over what my son had learned and what he wanted to learn for the coming month, what subjects he needed to learn more about and what areas would lead him to be in more contact with others. He learned to associate with people of different ages, not just his own age. He still is in contact with an elderly gent of age 78 who had a triple bi-pass recently and my son will be going to visit him soon as he is a very important person to him. My son had lessons from a gentleman who was in his 70's regarding gardening and growing food, he had lessons about d-i-y from a man age in his 60's. Home schooling does give the child a more varied and empathetic way of looking at life. He was a lovely lad while he was home schooled and has only had behaviour problems since going back into the "system" and attending college.

I too do not like the system of education. I think it is very narrow these days and does not teach our children about what is happening in our world today. They are still teaching Shakespeare and Henry VIII for goodness sake. Has there been no other playwrights or royals since these? My son knows all about modern playwrights and modern royals, the royal family history. Do children know that if Edward VIII hadn't met Wallis Simpson and abdicated then our royal family as we know it would not have existed? There are no politics taught. How are children supposed to stay on until they are 18 years old, leave school and vote when they have no teaching of the political system? Ludicrous. My son knows about politics because I have taught him and he has listened and learnt also from various outlets.

Home schooling was a wonderful experience and I wouldn't have changed it for the world. I would have home schooled my son from day one if I had known how his early school days did work out as he was assaulted five times, school not doing a thing to sort it out so I took him out. I wish I had done it at age four. His self worth wouldn't have ended up on the floor then. But that is the "system" for you. Just a number in my experience. My son is no number, he is a very important person and should have been treated as such, but he wasn't.

Good luck to this young mum, I am waving my flag for her!!!

I really don't expect she can turn down jobs for the next 11-13 yrs on the grounds they don't suit her!!
They slip through the net, Rosequartz- especially easy if they never enter the system. It will continue to happen until home educators are properly regulated.

Or, Leticia, she could just keep on turning down any jobs offered on the grounds that they didn't suit her - as implied on the 'educationotherwise' website.

I read that report too, rosequartz. Yet another example of things going on under our very noses...

*GilT57 - or even 'unschooled'!

They can insist if there are causes for concern. Leticia
They didn't seem to make much headway in the case of the family I mentioned in my post above, sadly.

I suppose that if she is really set in it she could employ babysitters and get an evening job but I expect it would be too expensive and wouldn't suit her lifestyle either. The other alternative is to set up a business and work from home.

I am sure that the authorities would be on to truanting teenagers who suddenly had parents claiming they were home schooled!
They can insist if there are causes for concern.

She could not however turn down work between school hours and all schools now have wrap around care with breakfast clubs and after school clubs, which is a cheaper way of getting childcare. She also had a career that she gave up and so must have skills. It is what all other single mothers have to do- I don't see why she should be an exception just because she has decided she wants a lifestyle she can't afford and so the tax payer can provide it! (As a tax payer I certainly don't want to provide it when I think her child would fare much better in school- I am sure the government are of the same opinion).

Why are parents whose children refuse to go to school and are habitually truanting taken to court and fined? Couldn't any feckless parent avoid court action by simply claiming their teenager was being home schooled?

unschooling.com/
It seems quite popular in the States (of course!)

The worry is that although most children being 'home-schooled' are probably schooled well and conscientiously by parents and/or grandparents and ideally with inspections by the LA, there will always be a few who slip through the net.
I was reading the other day about the inquest on a child of 8 whose parents seem to have avoided the authorities altogether, 'home-schooled' him and resisted any attempts by health visitors etc to call. The boy died of scurvy.