Please go gentle on me as this is my first post - although I?ve been a long term reader of these boards. I am after some advice/thoughts really as I am just going round and round in circles in my head!
My son is only 2 but for over a year now it has been my intention to home educate him when the time comes. I have read an awful lot on the subject and it all resonates with me and I see massive benefits of home education over mainstream schooling - in particular the ability to start later, have one-on-one interaction and tailoring to fit my son?s personal development/ability.
I have even made contact with my local HE group and we have attended a couple of sessions to keep in touch with them and see what goes on.
However, there is one big thing that is worrying me about this choice and that?s mainly because I am a single mum, with no other children, and I am worried about the intense situation I will be creating with it being just the two of us day in day out (for the most part). I am by nature a pretty insular person and I am quite happy being in the house day after day and with my own company. I would of course make the effort for my son to get him out and about and interacting with society/socialising etc, but I fear that my options are fairly limited by the area we live in.
We are in a largish, but rural town and although there is this one HE group they only meet once a week and there is just not much else to do around here. No museums, not many parks, nature trails, etc, not many groups, sports clubs, etc. I just wish there was a bigger, more active HE community with more options really.
I am worried that my son will grow up without many opportunities for socialising with other children as my friends/family?s children will all be in school during the week. I am self employed and work from home for most days apart from Saturdays - so that also limits the amount of weekend days I?ll have free to socialise with my son and friends children too.
But my options for schools are terrible and moving is not a possibility. My catchment area school and the neighbouring ones are all pretty dire and the better schools are on the other side of town (putting me well out of the catchment area) and oversubscribed. So realistically there is no likelihood of getting a placement at one of them.
We live on the border of two counties and there are some nice village/small town primary schools just over the border which I could apply to, but again I am quite some distance away so not sure how likely we would be of a placement there either.
I am just not sure what to do for the best. I would be happy to start off home educating (especially as out of choice I?d rather he didn?t go to school until 7+ anyway) but then this would only make matters worse if I decided to try and find him a school later on. And I?d worry that he wouldn?t fit in if starting at a later date, having never been to school before.
I just wondered if anyone had been in a similar situation or felt they could offer some thoughts/advice for me?
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Home ed
Single parent home education quandary - help please!
21 replies
snappybadger · 26/01/2013 13:30
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