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HomeBasedEducationWorks

Page history last edited by sarahtheorme@... 15 years, 3 months ago

 


 

Add Your Story:

 

Add your comments or personal account to this collection. So, does home based education work? Or not? See also What are they doing now?

 

You can add your story:

a.) directly to this page yourself (click edit button)

b.) send it to ahed@ahed.org.uk for inclusion

c.) send in a link to a web or blog page of your story so that it can be linked from this page.

 

 

Success!

 

Success can mean anything at all, and it is up to the individual to decide whether or not they are succeeding. To me, if your child gets to adulthood happy, confident and able to make choices about their own life and then carry them out, then they are successful.

Cal.

 

Late reading Experience.

aka "I read it in a book!"

 

When people think of successful early education, they sometimes think of a child prodigy, an early learner or early reader. But it kind of follows that if you really let a child follow their own heart, there may be a youngster somewhere whose heart does not lead him to the nearest bookshelf! That is what we have found. And when our groaning bookshelves were visitedby our children, it was to bring us the joy of letting us do all the reading to them, mostly cuddled up on the sofa in the evening or on a cold winters day. Hmm.

 

Yes, instead of learning to read early, our children spent their time up a tree or telling us absorbing facts such as 'growing up tickles,' and 'sticks don't rust.'

 

But I guess a time was bound to come when they decided to do it for themselves. We heard that children who are allowed to read when they are ready and interested learn much faster than those being coached with make work and work sheets and reading schemes and labours of all shapes and colours when they could be getting a dose of vitamin D and healthy exercise instead, or cuddling up for story time! We wondered at that. But that wonder was nothing to the wonder of watching two of our children go from beginning readers asking a few questions to fluent readers who can hardly take their heads out of a book in a matter of weeks with no lessons, both around the age of nearly ten! Perhaps you have to experience it to truly know what it is to believe it.

 

But this does bring it's own problems I have to admit. The still burning bedside lights and sounds of silence interrupted only by the rustle of pages into the small hours of the morning. Another face of 'late reading!' And then there is the joy of the upper hand gained by your child with all kinds of winning comments.

"How did you learn that?!" you exclaim. To which your self educated children reply, of course, "I read it in a book!"

 

Stark Family.

 

 

Just one in passing

 

So my son looked up from my copy of New Scientist to ask "Can I do the cooking this week?"

 

He's 8, he did the cooking all that week, and I can't help thinking he wouldn't be quite as stunningly brilliant without HE.

 

Pete Darby

 

Dyslexic children

 

Do dsylexic children need to be in school for specialist help and special teaching material?

 

I have three dyslexic children. We deregistered from schools 6 years ago because schools could not give the level of help needed. All three have different degrees of dyslexia, our youngest was diagnosed as having very severe difficulties. We are totally autonomous and have followed a child led path with great success.

 

Our eldest was 13 when he left school. The SENCO said, just before he left, that he might get grade Ds at GCSE if he worked very, very hard. He has spent the time doing activities entirely of his own choosing. In his case this has included lots of Warhammer, Magic Cards, 'Fantasy Roleplay Games', Watching TV and playing computer games. He now writes his own Fantasy games and reads loads of books and the 'White Dwarf' magazine with enthusiasm.

 

We have done lots and lots of talking and very very little formal work. We have gone to lots of home ed camps and gatherings and he has made friends locally and nationally, travelling all over the country and staying with friends, by train, by himself.

 

He finally decided to take some qualifications, he decided to attend a FE college and is doing A levels. He got 2 Bs and a C grade at AS level last summer.

 

Our daughters have other interests and are following their own paths but both with equal success!

 

Home education was definately the very best thing we ever did for our dyslexic children.

Julie.

 

 

Studing for the Exam!

 

My eldest and I did a Human Physiology and Health GCSE from September 2006 - June 2007. The exam took place towards the end of June.
 
My way of studying is to start about a month before the exam to read loads of texts, read and re-read the course notes and look on websites for more and more information. G's way of studying is to play games on the PS2 and spend fifteen minutes with me going over the notes for the course every day. She seems to be blase about everything, and then panics at the last minute (says that she 'doesn't know it'). I panic all the time.
 
I certainly fell into a mini-panic in the exam. One of the questions (with about six parts) was based on hormones. The teacher hadn't covered hormones in class, but had given us a hand-out on them which I had glanced at, but hadn't memorised. I know my girl had not read that hand-out.
 
After the exam, I asked G.: 'How did you answer question 6? We didn't touch hormones in class.. I was a bit worried about you when I saw the question.'
 
"Oh, I managed. You and I discussed hormones over lunch about two weeks ago."
 
Me: "I don't remember that."
 
G.: "No, that question wasn't too bad. I did all right on that."
 
Me: (a bit surprised) "Oh, good."
 
Silence.
 
Me: "I thought it was awful when I looked at those two other questions about the kidneys. It was typical that we missed the class when B. covered kidneys."
 
G.: (with a shrug) "No problem. We missed the class but we've talked loads about kidneys, and what the various tubules reabsorb and absorb...and how what they do affect the tissues..."
 
Me: "Oh." Shaking my head, I start to think that this home education stuff is the bomb (U.S.A. slang for terrific, as I understand it).
 
In that course, G. received a B for her efforts. Her tutor said she was a few marks off getting an A. I got an A (so I should, considering I've been alive and interested in these matters for some years!)
 
Don't ever underestimate the power of informal learning and (seemingly) off-the-cuff chats. It's convinced me, if I needed convincing, that HOME EDUCATION WORKS!!!
 
Diane

 

A Different Pace

 

My nine year old special needs daughter came out of school due to a combination of circumstances.  When at school, she hated maths and kept coming home, very upset, and telling me that she didn't understand anything she was doing in maths.  However, she could never explain what they had been doing, so I found it very difficult to help, despite my best efforts to communicate with the teacher.  My daughter used to scream and call herself "stupid" and the whole situation felt hopeless.

 

I was really worried about teaching her maths at home, but my worries have been unfounded.  What I learnt is that she needs one-on-one teaching in a visual style and  more time than most children in order to assimilate a new idea.  At school they had usually moved onto the next topic before she "clicked", so she learnt very little.  Now that she knows we will go at her pace, and not move on until she fully understands, she is relaxed and able to focus.  She is managing to do two years of maths work per year as we catch up with what she's missed.  She is a confident and happy child!

 

Don't underestimate what you and your child can achieve together!

 

Sarah

 

More Home Education Stories:

 

For more home education stories see the Home Ed Stories blog ... read, add your own comments etc.

 

    homeedstoriesuk.blogspot.com

       
       
       
       

       

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