Hi everyone!
I'm thinking of taking my son out of school and home educating him as I don't think the school up the road caters for his needs. Unfortunately there is no other choice round here, unless we were to move close to a Steiner school or a Montessori, but even then we wouldn't be able to afford the fees as they are very expensive. I feel I need to take more responsibility over my son's education, and be with him more rather than him have to stick to a regimental routine and push himself to do things that he doesn't really want to do at six years old. Is anyone out there doing this?
Evy

Hi evy,

I homeschooled my son for a year and a half (half way through 7th, and 8th grades), and found it to be a very good experience for him. There are tons of resources on the net, and if I had any more children, I would probably do it again in primary school.

Hi Kel,
it's nice to hear that!

Hey evy

Love your new pic!

My son is six too, and its interesting that you're thinking about alternative schooling, because its really been on my mind as well. This is his third year in public school (two years of half-day kindergarten and then this past September he began Grade One). I really wanted to home school him at first and then talked myself out of it because I'm not a very discplined or structured person and I didn't think I'd really do him justice. I also have the patience of a gnat and I didn't think I'd have a good temperment for home schooling. But these past couple months I've been re-thinking my decision. My son loves school, but for him its a social thing. He isn't getting very good grades and I think the expectations for his age-group are a bit whacky. I don't agree with young children being evaluated so critically at this formative stage in their learning expereince. No six-year old needs to be worrying that he's reading at a 'C' level. There's other stuff I don't like about public school, like lack of physical education and exposure to values etc., that I don't embrace.

I'd definately love to go Montessori - in fact I was just looking into the school here last week. It costs $8000 a year though and as much as I would dearly love to have that money I just don't. I can't think of many who do either - $800 a month is absolutely out of the question.

I guess at this point I'm going to keep him where he is - but I think I'll get more involved with the school. COmmunicating with the teachers is important. And one thing I really like - at our last interview the teachers spent alot of time praising Thomas for being compassionate and caring towards his classmates and for being a good friend and a good helper and for being able to articulate his feelings and needs. I liked that they valued that. They spent more time praising him then they did badgering him for being scatterbrained (which he is ) or for not doing his homework etc. I think most teachers are really good people who want to help the kids, its not their fault the system sucks!

Good luck!

Love,
Terri

Hi Evy and Kel,

I worked as a teacher for 15 years, and when I lost my job at the Montessori School, I opened a Tutorial Center for kids with problems at school.
As I didn't have any kids on mornings, because everyone was at school, a lady who had been homeschooling her kids, asked me to teach her twins for a while because she had a new born and an eleven month old baby, and she was going crazy with all that work. So I taught this twins for about a year. It was a great experience, but their mother and I did found one problem:
The twins had a noble heart and were very enthusiast, curiuos and had a wonderful spontaneous personality, but on real life, on the park or parties, other kids always abused them and they didn't know to defend themselves or how to deal with strong character kids. Unfortunately that is life outside on the streets.
She began to worry about how the twins were going to deal with the world outside, so finally she moved to a smaller town where she found a smaller school for them, where they would learn to deal with other kids.
Fortunately they haven't changed much and they still have a noble heart, and have learned to deal with agressive kids without contaminating themselves.

So, Evy, I would advise you that if you decide to do homeschooling, take your kids on other activities like sports or art, where they can have the experience of "mingling" with other kids. You can look for an activity where there is likely to find families with similar values as yours.

Tish

Hi Evy and all,

Our little school system embarked a few years ago on a new model designed to create more interaction and interconnectedness with the community. For some reason I'm blanking on what the materials are called, but I think it has created a far better attitude on the part of the teachers and administrators towards parents. I don't know for sure how far up in the grades this attitude has permeated, because my child is only in Pre-K. But the Pre-K teachers are always inviting me to stay and be involved in whatever way I want. It's not just because, like, they need someone to read to the kids or do some other task. They just seem very encouraging of parents hanging out and taking part in whatever way they want in the activities.

There's also a teacher at the elementary (the same one who this whole program came through) who has been working to make sure that the programs that are like the domestic Peace Corps in the U.S. are funding positions here in our area, and she finds various recent grads and at-home moms and such and encourages them to apply for those positions so they can earn some money while helping out not only at school but in other programs for kids.

So the connections that support kids and families in different ways are getting made. Information on what's available to interest kids with different interests and to help out in different family situations is being shared now in a much more personal, immediate, "here, let me find someone who can help" kind of way on a local level. Which is great, because on the higher governmental levels, things have gotten much more ridiculously full of red tape and obstacles during Bushdom.

But this program, ah, I remember now, it's called "Community of Caring," offers techniques and principles for practical efforts on the local level to really be a village, caring for one another. And that's a very cool thing for around here, because there actually used to be a fair number of parents deciding to homeschool their kids -- not because they really had a real enthusiasm for doing so but mostly because they didn't have much enthusiasm for how things were with the school.

The Community of Caring model is something that takes some effort to put in place though, and we're lucky we had that very persuasive teacher who got all the community organizations to take part. The program really has been actively building a sense of community here and teaching kids (and families) a "One for all and all for one" spirit.

But of course it's not something you could just put in place yourself, overnight, to handle your particular child's situation. One of my sisters, who doesn't live anywhere near here, has been homeschooling both her kids all their student lives. She does have Montessori teacher training herself (like Tish does), so she has those resources behind her, and she follows the kids' interests and I understand that she largely follows the kids' leads, finding resources to teach them in a way that relates to the topics they're interested in at any particular time. She does spend a lot of time working at it. They are smart and nice kids, but yes, I think they have less in the way of social interaction with others their own age than most kids do. I don't know whether they perceive that as a lack or not.

Good luck. It's certainly an option if the school situation just isn't working out at all. There also might be some way to get more involved at school, even if just one afternoon a week or something, so that the teachers develop more familiarity and understanding of you and what you want for your child, and they might respond well, given the chance.

Maria

I just found the organization's website.

http://www.communityofcaring.org

Hi Maria, Kel, Terri, Tish
Thanks for your replies and thanks for your link Maria. I don't think we have any organization like that here in England.
The school my son goes to is supposed to be one of the best in this area. Most of the teachers are very nice, and Elijah (my son) has done well there, he is ahead of all the other children in his class with his reading, and ahead of most of the children in the year above. On sports day he won all the races except for one and has his hand up in maths all the time with an answer.He has always been a gentle child but, since he has started at the school, his behaviour at home has become a bit thuggish like most of the other boys, and when he associates with the boys at school he starts to behave in a "dumb" way, maybe to be more like them. He is quite different from most of the kids in his class, I think this is because we don't watch telly at home, eat mostly organic food without additives and most of the kids in his class eat lots of sweets and food containing aspartame, msg and additives as the parents are ignorant about the effects of these substances on children. I feel the school puts too much pressure on the children, and this starts to cause stress and in some cases children get ill because of the stress. I feel sorry for the kids cooped up in a classroom when the sun shines outside. And they have to wear uniforms, the same colour uniform everyday. Maybe if it was 2 days a week, then it would be ok, but 5 days a week is a bit much.
I think he won't go back in september and I'm going to try and get together with other families that home educate and start lots of new different activities, and encourage his creative talents most of all.