Since doing them I have had a lot of positive feedback but a
few follow up questions have come up:
This is such a great question but there is no real answer as
it comes down to personal choice and circumstances.
For us, or at least from my point of view, the answer for
this comes from why we decided to Home School in the first place. You can find
out why here* but to sum it up:
William was ill-suited to Reception; large classes and the
majority of the children there being Boys meant he was playing aggressively
most days. This resulted in him coming
home with occasional cuts and bruises; although he would happily enjoy the odd ‘rough
and tumble’ like most boys his age.
Fighting continued, either from rough and tumble or bullying
(some children were teasing him about the fact that I was disabled) until
finally William fought back; with a few bruises, black eye and a cut forehead;
he finally snapped. I don't believe that violence is an answer, but in regards
to the school not supporting and understanding as well as a continued amount of
bullying, I did believe that you should
stand up for yourself, even if I didn't agree with William retaliating.
Subsequently; William soon showed, a very unnatural side of his character, a
violent and aggressive streak that was being shown in the playground as well as
at home.
This was aided by inconsistent teaching with staff absences
and pressures of expected working levels.
By his last half term there wasn't a day where he didn't
become hysterical, crying, screaming and panicking every morning about going to
school; at 5 years old a child shouldn't hate school to this degree.
It was truly heart-breaking witnessing his anxiety and upset
for something that we were forcing him to do.
The truth was he was not emotionally ready for school.
It was this realisation that made me see that for some
children the European countries that don’t send children to school until 7 had
the right idea; the main concept is that by the age of 7 most children are
physically, mentally and emotionally ready.
So when we started Home Schooling the question was exactly
the same as Natalie’s; how long would we do it for?
I read for what seemed hundreds of posts on that very
question and what stood out for me was that we will continue to Home School
until William is ready to go back.
Here is our plan:
1. We home school William until Year 3; he will be 7 and
turning 8 within the year. The hope would be that by then he will be ready to
start school. This will also coincides with James starting in Year 1 so will be
good to integrate them both at the same time.
2. If, for whatever reason, William still doesn’t seem ready
we will Home School him up to the age of 11 and allow him to integrate into
Secondary school. As for James, well it is far too early to tell if we will
integrate him back into primary at the same time or continue again to 11.
In discussions with his Mum what does seem apparent is that
neither of us feels that we would continue to Home School into Secondary Education.
So, for us, the longevity will be dependent on Williams’s
readiness but it wouldn’t be longer than 5 years.
4 comments:
Great post, thank you for answering my question. Really interesting to get your views on that. I also love the fact that despite your differences with their mum, you stand united on the decision on schooling, making sure that you both do what is right for them.
Thank you and no problem. Yes definitely. We don't always agree on bits but when it comes to this we had to have a sit, listen, think and get to a good mutual understanding; something we do try and do on important things.
As a teacher, I totally agree that we shouldn't start schooling until 7 years of age. In fact, this is why I sent one of my daughter's to a Steiner school as they don't teach reading or writing until 7 and don't test - something that I am totally against at such a young age.
Thanks for commenting Janette! It's a strange one for me. As a teacher for years I was happy teaching young children. My year groups were year 1 and 2. I happily taught, tested and promoted everything. I even worked in a field of Ofsted that worked towards that.
But.....The moment I saw first hand what it was doing to my son in read, read some more and completely changed my mind on it now. And actually completely against it. We do mild reading and writing but it is in no way formulated into a daily routine. It is child led and that's it. It has truly changed my boys emotional well being; something that was being affected by not being ready.
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