.."Bump"

thank you, my children are very young still.

i share a similar wave length to u in the respect i dont want them doing 10 + GCSEs that they will probably never need/use, however i would like them to achieve the core subjects as lots of jobs/careers do ask for these.

i have researched but it seems very expensive and i have 4 children so worry that i may not be able afford the cost. my concern with them just attending school for the final 2 years is that, it will be a huge change to their routine and they will not do as well as they potentially should. or the school may force them to take a large amount of subjects.

How old are your children? In other words, is this question relevant now or for the future?

Some sit them privately but I think that costs a lot of money, some do IGSCE's over the internet. Some go back to school for the two years, some wait until they are seventeen and go to college to do one year GCSEs. Some home educated teenagers know what they want to do and instead of wasting time doing ten subjects they go straight into studying their area of interest by doing A'levels, college courses, university, work experience OU courses etc.

My children are still very young, at this stage we're not putting a lot of importance on GCSE's but if when they get older they want to do some or need certain ones for something we'll find a way.

hi its only me, for those who remember im still not home ed boo hoo. but could do with a bit of advice?

what/ where are the possibilities for them to sit GCSEs if i decided to home ed?

No, we're pulling your leg. Lots of big families home educate.

??? So the number of children I have means I can't home educate?? Seriously???

Lol. You'll have to register as a school!

Be careful there, mummy of 8 (?!), the way you're going your going to have too big a class size to home educate!

Hi mummy. There are so many different ways of home educating. We're autonomous which means our children aren't coerced into doing any 'work', they just learn all the time. But many home educators use work books or online resources. Our Tescos sell a selection in the book aisle from £1.50 and book shops like WHSmiths will sell them. There's also loads of free work sheets online that you can print off.

The best place to ask would be on a home ed specific forum. I belong to a couple of Yahoo groups and they are an invaluable source of help. For example if you posted this question here http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EarlyYearsHE/ you'd get loads of answers from people already doing it. Also, if you put whereabouts you are from then you'll probably find other people near you willing to meet up or let you know of local discounts etc. (We get home ed rates on all sorts of places, Legoland is one of our favourites!).

Hi, have decided it's definately something we are going to do. Going to give the kids a longer summer holiday and then after the baby is born (Due beginning of september) and things have settled down will start schooling them.

Any suggestions on where I can get workbooks from etc? Not entirely sure how to go about teaching them. I'd like to do something like 1 hour of book work in the morning, 1 hour in the afternoon and more play-based learning the rest of the time. Is this going to be enough, or does it need to be longer than that?

Any tips would be great!

Hi mummy of 8!

I have 3 children and 1 on the way, and home school my eldest who is 6.  DS2 will be starting some work after the summer-he is 3.  I think you will be surprised at the amount of people who home educate-the numbers are growing rapidly.

Anyway-just to say, we live in scotland, where the laws regarding removing children from school are different, but I am sure in England you just need to inform the authority, and that is it.  My boys have never been in shcool, so don't actually have to tell anybody anything, although we will tell the local authority when I get a minute!

Any questions I am happy to help-I should also say that me and my 3 sisters were home educated, so have personal experience of it too-helpful at times lol!

Terri

Thank you! I think its definately something we are going to do. I can't wait! The children have had a party this morning for my youngest son's 3rd Birthday & I just sat and watched them playing with all their cousins and realised they don't need to be at school to socialise. I don't want them cooped up in classrooms all day long anymore.

I read some of your blog, thank you for posting it!

The estimate number of home educated children in the UK is 50,000. I guess that is quite a small number when you think how many children are in school. Whereabouts are you?

You don't have to follow a curriculum although you do have to be able to prove that you are providing an efficient full time education. Some people follow a curriculum and some are autonomous and many are inbetween. We're autonomous which means we don't do lessons, they learn through life. There's a few blog rings of home educators which are interesting to look through as they can give you an idea of how it works for different people. If I give you my blog then you'll see the yellow EarlyYears badge and you can click next to get to the next one. http://living2008.blogsome.com/

Thank you! I know there aren't many home educators in the UK.

I will obviously have to sit down and ask the children what they would like to do. If they would rather stay at school then fine. I will have to think long and hard about this and hopefully come to a decision before school starts in September! We recently moved house and the children will be starting a new school in September so really now is the perfect timing for us to home educate.

Do you have to follow a curriculum?

Hi Mummmyof8.

We home educate but only have two children and neither have ever been in the system.

The children who are currently registered in school need to be de-registered. The ones who have never been registered don't need anything doing.

GCSE's are a long way off yet but I'll tell you what I know. Some don't bother with them at all, if there is something specific that they want to study they tend to concentrate on that rather than studying ten different subjects. There are plenty of examples of teenagers who have got onto A'level courses or into university without GCSE's. Some home educated children decide to take them privately, but that can be costly and some decide to go to school at 14 to do the two years or GCSE's or there are actually quite a few college courses that home educated children can get onto at fourteen because they don't have to wait til they finish school. It kind of depends on what they want to do and what they're interested in.

Here are some great sites that will give you all the info you are looking for, they are all British ones.

www.home-education.org.uk

www.education-otherwise.org

www.freedomforchildrentogrow.org

There's also a forum on Parents Centre for home education.

Another thing which most people find invaluable is making contact with other home educators in their area and joining in with groups etc.

Good luck with it and let me know if I can help in any way.

I have eight children (or will have in September) and am considering home educating. It scares me what goes on in schools now a days and I don't want my children brought up in that. They range in age from 9 down to 15 months plus new baby on the way. In September I will have 5 in school.

Does anybdoy home educate? I can only seem to find American websites and I presume the law is different in the UK! Do I have to register them as being home eudcated or do I just take them out of school and teach them? I know it's compulsary for children 5+ to go to school so surely somebody needs to know that I am teaching them. What about exams? How do I have my children sit their GCSE's?