Home schooling

barrett1965

Hello,

I was just wondering does anyone here on the forums homeschool their children and if so, how do you find it?

Thanks in advance.

ArthurDent

Here in Ireland there really isn't a big homeschool movement, you can certainly find loads of US-based sites - the type you want will depend on your reasoning for homeschooling, many in US do it for religious reasons, don't know if that's why you are interested.
If you want to homeschool ou need to inform dept of education - the will assess whether the consider you able to provide home education for our child (over age of 6) .
You might want to post same question on rollercoaster.ie or magicmum.com - they are Irish sites focussed on parenting.

barrett1965

Thank you for the info AD, but I wasn't really looking for advice. I was just wondering about other peoples experiences. When my own kids were younger I seriously considered HSing them. If I ever have kids again, I think I will teach them at home instead.

Nevyn

http://www.henireland.org/aboutus.html

This site is for those who are homeschooling thier children in Ireland maybe they will be able to aid you.

http://www.henireland.org/blog/index.php

WindSock

I was knew a girl that was home schooled in New Zealand. She was very naive and didn't have good knowledge of interaction with people on a daily basis. She was friendly and nice and probably had a bit of book knowledge, but that means nothing when you have finished the schooling and are stuck with a controlling arse of a Man. She was depressed and suffered from anxiety because she was too scared to face the public. Her Parents sheltered her from the real world and she was ''rescued'' by this guy. I found it a bit creepy and would not recommend it. Let your kids have a normal social life and help them with their homework.

Nevyn

Who says that children that are home school don't have a socail life ?
They interact with children while out playing and homeschool parents often make that extra effort to have them in sports, youth and arts clubs.
Many parents through the network also set up trips to art galleries and musems
so it is wrong to assume that these children are over protected.

WindSock

True, I guess I am just basing it on my experience of meeting only one person. But if you expose your child to only the greater parts of life like a better education and the arts, are you not sheltering them in a way from realities? How are they going to learn to cope by themselves with a bully for instance, if they haven't encountered one?

Nevyn

That assumes that bullies are only to be found in schools.

WindSock

Thaedydal wrote:

That assumes that bullies are only to be found in schools.

Is a child that is home schooled going to have everyday contact with a bully? (families excluded ) I know you can get bullies everywhere, but most that cause problems are to be found in schools and workplaces where there is no escaping and the only option is to learn how to deal with being in close contact everyday. Besides, I was just using a bully as an example. I think it is important for a child to interact with other children from other socio-economic backgrounds. To get a good education is one thing, but to learn how to be streetwise is another.

Jotter

Home schooling is something I know nothing about.

If its to work well then I would imagine the parent/teacher would have to be a very balanced person, very well educated, keep themselves up to date with courses and kids hobbies and make a very special effort to separate home and school and to ensure the child does mix well and make friends.

i also think its important as parents to make sure the home schooling is only for the childs benefit and not bec its what the parent wants.

im sure if its done properly it can work very well.

EcoGirl

I home-school, and while I have no doubt that there is the occasional home-schooling family that's a bit weird (just as there's the occasional every other type of family that's a bit weird), I can assure you that the home-schooling families I know (and that's quite a few as there is a vibrant community) are very well balanced, and the children have a terrific social life and terrific social skills.

The parents don't have to be particularly well educated - what they have to be is motivated and committed. Most of what my children learn I don't know myself - what we do is to learn it together. All the home-schooling parents would say they have learned so much facts and general 'stuff' through home-schooling (because either we didn't learn this stuff during our own schooling, or we did and we forgot because it wasn't relevant).

We would say that home-schooling was the best thing ever we did for our family - that we're all thriving on it, and it has brought so many gifts too. It brings challenges too, for sure, but the benefits far outweigh the downsides.

iguana

EcoGirl, would you homeschool your children? And how did your family prepare for third level?

EcoGirl

Sorry, only saw this reply now.

I do home-school my children. And we're not concerned about 3rd level yet as they're not at that stage. But here are our options when we do get to that stage:

1. Go to school at transition year or fifth year,
2. Study for Leaving Cert independently, getting grinds as necessary,
3. Do LC correspondence course,
4. Do A levels correspondence course,
5. Do PLC courses (PLCs will take people without LCs, based on CV and interview). Do FETAC exams with PLCs. Then get into unis with the FETAC exams (they hold a number of places on each course for FETAC students).
6. Set up their own business.
7. Apply for jobs without LC, but with interesting and relevant CV. Not every employer would consider this, but the creative open-minded ones would, and they're the ones you'd want to be working for anyway. Registrar of college told me that owner of engineering firm told him that he (owner) wanted employees who were self-motivated, problem-solvers, articulate etc, and didn't care if they knew anything, as he would teach them what they needed to know,
8. Wait till 23 and go as a mature student.

So, there's tons of options. The interesting thing is that the govt has two parallel things going on: one is the making access to 3rd level difficult, i.e. the LC and points race; and the other is making access to 3rd level easy for drop outs etc - and home-schooled students can access that route even though they're not drop outs.

Hope this answers your question! Any more questions let me know.

iguana

Thanks for replying EcoGirl. I'm quite interested in the idea of homeschooling, but wouldn't want to deny my children from having certain specialised careers if that's what they wanted. Though I don't actually have children yet - so I've plenty of time to figure it all out.