Why did we choose to Home Ed?
This is the question that I get asked a lot. Every person that Home Eds does so for very different reasons, I think it is probable that no two families would have exactly the same reasons for Home Eding, but I thought it might be useful to see some of the reasons that we have choosen to take the Home Ed path.
It probably all started with the choice of birth for my son! Because I wanted a homebirth, and live in an area where I wouldnt have been “allowed” one (well not without a fight, and I dont like conflict so the last thing I wanted to do while pregnant was fight for my right to have a homebirth). This resulted in us using a fantastic Independent midwife, one of the results of having an independent midwife is that you have your eyes opened to all the available options for birthing / parenting / living life, and you start to question the “normal” route of societies inhabitants.
After the birth of my son we choose to attachment parent, including co-sleeping and long term breastfeeding. We started to read about Home Ed and did some research into it, I started to go to a Home Ed group with my son from a very early age and met other people that were Home Eding. The more that we read the more that we felt this was right for our son and our family. I was already very aware that I disagreed with the constant testing in schools and the high pressure enviromnent that works for a few children, but fails for so many others.
My son went to a local nursery for a couple of years (part time) and really didnt like it, in hindsight I wish that we had taken him out a lot earlier. We then started to HE for real, then our son announces that he wants to go to the local school with his best friend. Because we have always listened to what he had to say we discussed it with him and agreed that we would try and get him a place. We were succesful in getting the place at the school (probably coz we put our 2nd choice of school as Home Education - they couldnt not give him a place!) My husband and I were not happy about him going, but felt that he needed to make the decision, and we could always take him out if it didnt work out.
The school holds two pre school days when all the children go along and meet the teachers and the other children. We went to the first one and it was a nightmare - imagine 60 children, with parents and siblings all milling round two small classrooms, Thankfully my son walked out stating “I am never going back there” we persuaded him to go back for the 2nd day, just because we felt that he should give it a fair try, it was as bad (if not worse) than the first day. We all agreed that he didnt ever have to go there - hurray - I wrote a letter to the school asking them to remove him from the register and that was it, we started our Home Eding journey for real.
We havent regretted our decision at all, occasionally we (well me mainly) have the odd wobble, but there are so many fantastic HE families around that help and can give advice that the wobbles happen less and less.
So if you are thinking about HE, my recommendation would be to do some research, talk to other HE families (there are loads of us around) and talk to your children. You need to make the decision that is right for all the family, for us it was to HE and we have never looked back.
Good luck