Homeschooling

Ninalouise1972

I'm homeschooling my eldest son,he has Multiple special needs. It's a full time job,with two other boys.any ideas how to keep him interested in his study,and if there is any help available, x.hes a good kid with a heart of gold,

Alex

Hi @Ninalouise1972,

Welcome to the community. That's an interesting question. I've just had a quick look around the community and I'm afraid I've not been able to find anyone that mentions homeschooling - but I hope we can provide some help and ideas. How old is your son?

I've found a couple of interesting websites (sorry if you're already aware of them):
http://ehe-sen.org.uk/
http://www.he-special.org.uk/

Both have email support groups: 
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/homeeducationandspecialneeds/info
http://netpals.lsoft.com/SCRIPTS/WA-netpals.EXE?SUBED1=he-special-uk&A=1

[Deleted User]

Hey @Ninalouise1972

Most of the homeschooling parents I speak to say they find value in the various community-organised activities for other homeschoolers - are you in touch with any other homeschooling parents locally?  Sometimes the LA / a parent carer forum can be a good starting place if not.  

Also not to send you off our lovely community or anything, but netmums have a good discussion thread going!

-R

Sam_Alumni

Hi @Ninalouise1972 I know that @motherscuffer is a home educator to her 4 youngest sons, she might have some information for you?

motherscuffer

Ninalouise1972 said:

I'm homeschooling my eldest son,he has Multiple special needs. It's a full time job,with two other boys.any ideas how to keep him interested in his study,and if there is any help available, x.hes a good kid with a heart of gold,

Hi, 

getting help elm out of school isn't very easy, have you looked into home ed groups in your area? 

My my biggest recommendation is to study things he's interested in and do activities together. You'd be amazed how you can bring maths, English and science into nearly any topic and without them realising they're studying those subjects. 

Corinne x

motherscuffer

Please excuse the tree in the middle of the first bit, auto correct on my phone knows I love trees!

Sam_Alumni

Great thanks @motherscuffer

How old is your son @Ninalouise1972 ?

lyntj

Hi. I have disabilities and home ed a special needs son. 13 nearly 14. We haven't found any support at all but have only been out of school since Xmas.  Facebook has loads of home ed groups that have huge amounts of information on groups, trips and study ideas. I and currently.pestering local mps to give free exams as they atndmre stupidly expensive and very few venues sit them. (£150)  

Grace_Scope

Hi, 

We have a page on homeschooling. There are lost of useful links and resources hope this helps! https://www.scope.org.uk/advice-and-support/homeschooling-during-lockdown/

SherryH

Hi

I've just joined the community here, but we have home educated our girls for over 5 years now.

My first port of call would be to search for Home Education and your local area on Facebook to see if there is a local community.  I'm an admin on our local Norfolk group.  It's more widely known as Elective Home Education in the UK, so searching for homeschooling doesn't bring up as many results.

If you are new to it all, I'd suggest reading through the government guides on home education for Local Authorities and for parents https://www.gov.uk/home-education.  Our girls are 11 and almost 10 and we are quite child-led in our approach, however I insist on them doing some English and Maths everyday.  In my opinion, the beauty of home education is that you can adjust to suit the child and the family as a whole.

Our plan when the girls are a bit older is to work backwards from what they want to do and plan learning around that - taking into account their interests and what works best for them.  Our eldest has autism but has decided she wants to go to college, so are now taking steps to apply for an EHCP so we can get things into place ready if there is a course for 14-16 year olds available to her as it will save us paying for exam fees too.

Unfortunately, there isn't any general financial help available - a lot of places offer discounts for home educators.  Some are successful in securing a personal budget via their EHCP, but this varies a lot.

Another useful website is http://ehe-sen.org.uk/

I hope this helps!

EDDad8

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