home ed dilemma, please help!

[sunnyaussiegirl]

Dear all,

First time poster here, but have always read with interest about HE. I have a question for the experts! My son is in reception, and very very happy at his school, but we find ourselves in a bit of a strange position. Because of DH's work, we will have to spend six months here in Oz and six months in England for the next two years.

We are happy about this, and think it will be great for the kids, but we just don't know what to do about school. Do we let DS1 do half the year here and half in the UK?

I fear this would be disruptive and very difficult, also because the school year is of course reversed here (we start in January). I think we would be better off letting him do half the year at his old school and HE for the rest of the time. DH accuses me of having finally found an excuse to HE! ;-)

Do you think this would work? what problems could we face? we don't know anybody where we will be in the UK, so I do worry about social isolation. Any thoughts gratefully received!

[Saracen]

TBH I think any solution could work perfectly well: complete HE, or two schools, or school in Oz plus HE in England, or HE in Oz plus school in England. Children are adaptable and may not find it confusing to move between two school systems, or between school and HE. People who work in the school system wouldn't agree, because they think school-based education is so very important and that their own particular methods must be followed scrupulously and continuously for long periods of time in order to be effective. My view is more simplistic: you just expose the child to lots of interesting things at school or at home. He absorbs some of it, and it all comes together within him to form an education. And so what if it's a bit haphazard and he somehow misses out the Romans entirely or doesn't get taught decimals: that can be remedied without too much difficulty at some later stage.

Unless your son's school in England is undersubscribed, you'll have hassles getting him back in each time you return, and you might get offered a different school each time. Now that would be a lot of upheaval, though some children would be OK with it. But you could cross that bridge when you come to it, and HE only if you don't get him back into his old school.

But hey, if you are looking for an excuse to home educate anyway, then go ahead and tell your dh that home ed is absolutely essential!

"we don't know anybody where we will be in the UK, so I do worry about social isolation" If you make it a priority, I'm sure you can address that.

[sunnyaussiegirl]

Hi there!

Thanks very much for your response, I was hoping to get this kind of reassurance! and you are right, the concerns come mostly from the school, who are worried about continuity, although I must say, we took him out of school for five weeks this year when we were in the Uk for DH's work, and the school were great and even said they thought the experience would teach him more than that time in school would (it is a very good school!).

Good point about keeping his place at school in the UK, it's not a problem here, so if we opt for half and half we might keep him in school here and home ed in the UK. And then I'll see how I go and might make the jump to full home ed!

[umbrellasinthesun]

Sounds like the perfect opportunity to try.... I'm envious! Would love to try but not quite brave or persuasive enough with DH yet!