Hey everyone,
I am fairly convinced of the philosophical argument for HE but I have some quite serious questions about the practicality of it for our particular family. Some of my concerns are:
- I work 3 days a week and I need (and want) to continue to do so, although I might be able to reduce my days to 2 days. Once my children can't go to local activities that are for 0-5s with their childminder then I don't think that they will be able to continue with her. How will I get childcare for those 2 days? I don't know of any HE-ing childminders. I really do not want to get a nanny, my experience with that route has not been good so far. Plus I would like them to mix other with children.
- I do not have many friends locally as it is, and neither do my children. I am concerned that if I always have to choose to join in with groups or activities and travel to these also, I might be further isolated from my physical and local community.
- My DH is a teacher and I work part-time and many of the activities and groups that I know about are around £5 per child per session. If we did 2/3 sessions a week of something or other then that would be roughly £1000-£1500 per year. That excludes costs for travelling etc. I am concerned that that is quite a bit extra.
- I am worried that I will not be able to facilitate their learning well enough. I am worried that they will be exposed to more choices at school.
- I know that for sports and music etc they can join after school things but will they always be left out or on their own? If the kids that go to these clubs are also doing sport/drama/music at school won't they will much better than my DCs?
Sorry for the long post - I am just feeling quite overwhelmed and concerned that this is quite a massive thing to be doing and I want to be really sure that I know what I'm doing! Any thoughts/idea much appreciated! :)