I couldn’t see a thread about it, so thought I’d create one for all home educating families in the UK, or anyone considering home education for their children and has any questions 
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We did home ed all of ours at one point or another. School is not for everyone.
Heyyy! Thanks for making this thread, I've been looking all over tattle for advice on HE for a while. We are leaning heavily towards it with our daughter but she's only 2 atm so lots of time to go yet!
Is there anybody who has done it or is doing it who could do a pros and cons? How many days a week do you do bookable activities for example, how do you find time for yourself, is the juggle/balance harder or easier than you thought?
Is there anybody who has done it or is doing it who could do a pros and cons? How many days a week do you do bookable activities for example, how do you find time for yourself, is the juggle/balance harder or easier than you thought?
I am home educating my 5yo and unofficially my 3yo.
pros:
Slow mornings, no stressed school runs or shouting mum getting them out the door and crap breakfast.
Healthy cooked breakfast and we enjoy our time together.
Spend so much quality time together and have great times
Visit museums, swimming, parks, soft play ETC when it is dead quiet as we only go during the day in term time.
Cheaper holidays as can go in term time without fines from school
We learn about whatever my daughter is interested in, sometimes it’s so random and a spur of the moment or sometimes I plan lessons and buy materials for it
cons:
You don’t get a break EVER if you need to go Drs or do anything for adults only you need to book childcare as your kid is always around
It’s draining doing all the cleaning, cooking, washing, plus educating, (if I was rich and had a maid/cleaner it would make life 1000x easier lol)
Constant judgement and explaining your reasons to people / strangers / family members
I work from home so it sometimes can be chaotic with planning what we are doing plus me working, but it all works out
Some home ed groups are expensive but there’s lots of free ones out there (library and park meet ups)
Food shop costs way more as kids are always home and constantly eat
we do booked activities atleast once a week. We have horses so go there everyday and we meet up with our home ed friends 2-3 times a week. Then usually do 1-2 home ed groups.
Thanks for the reply!I am home educating my 5yo and unofficially my 3yo.
pros:
Slow mornings, no stressed school runs or shouting mum getting them out the door and crap breakfast.
Healthy cooked breakfast and we enjoy our time together.
Spend so much quality time together and have great times
Visit museums, swimming, parks, soft play ETC when it is dead quiet as we only go during the day in term time.
Cheaper holidays as can go in term time without fines from school
We learn about whatever my daughter is interested in, sometimes it’s so random and a spur of the moment or sometimes I plan lessons and buy materials for it
cons:
You don’t get a break EVER if you need to go Drs or do anything for adults only you need to book childcare as your kid is always around
It’s draining doing all the cleaning, cooking, washing, plus educating, (if I was rich and had a maid/cleaner it would make life 1000x easier lol)
Constant judgement and explaining your reasons to people / strangers / family members
I work from home so it sometimes can be chaotic with planning what we are doing plus me working, but it all works out
Some home ed groups are expensive but there’s lots of free ones out there (library and park meet ups)
Food shop costs way more as kids are always home and constantly eat
we do booked activities atleast once a week. We have horses so go there everyday and we meet up with our home ed friends 2-3 times a week. Then usually do 1-2 home ed groups.
The main negatives I/family can see from possibly HE is me not having time for myself, If I have a lot on I can get overwhelmed and stressed so my partner especially is concerned on that front.
Thanks for your honesty on being the educator and house stuff aswel, I find that hard now and she's only 2! But then I also think does it get easier, a 2 year old is very demanding, can't communicate 100%, gets frustrated easily and can't be left on their own for more than 2 minutes....surely as she gets older that will get easier
Did you enrol your LO in school and pull them out or have you always home educated? It was suggested to me to try school when it's time but I feel right now like I don't want to go that way
Yeah the hardest thing I’d say honestly is the not having a break or alone time - unless you find some home ed drop off groups! We dip in and out of an awesome nature group that’s 9-3:30pm which is a break for me but £50 a session so expensive for that break!🫣Thanks for the reply!
The main negatives I/family can see from possibly HE is me not having time for myself, If I have a lot on I can get overwhelmed and stressed so my partner especially is concerned on that front.
Thanks for your honesty on being the educator and house stuff aswel, I find that hard now and she's only 2! But then I also think does it get easier, a 2 year old is very demanding, can't communicate 100%, gets frustrated easily and can't be left on their own for more than 2 minutes....surely as she gets older that will get easier
Did you enrol your LO in school and pull them out or have you always home educated? It was suggested to me to try school when it's time but I feel right now like I don't want to go that way
if you have grandparents involved I would suggest asking them if they’d like to have say every Tuesday morning with your child to teach them gardening/baking/just a day together. You get a break once a week on a set day, child and grandma get to build their bond and it’s nice for everyone involved 🫶
(and it’s free lol)And also the managing housework is hard. The actual home educating is the easy part
but I mean if you were to work a full time job, you’d still have to do all the same housework with less hours in the day, plus the stress of rushing in the morning getting kid to school on time and homework after school etc.I personally take slow mornings and relaxing lifestyle and a messy house that I can sort throughout the day over the stress of school life.
I never enrolled my daughter, I knew from around age2 this was the life for us! My husband is a freelancer too so he works away a lot but then is home with us when he’s not working, so it works great when he’s home as we get quality time as a family together
they are only young once!i also figure i can always enrol her when she’s older if she really wants to go but I genuinely think after a term of early morning starts, stressed mum, busy weekends trying to squeeze quality time into 2 days, after school meltdowns, friend drama and bitchiness/bullying, I think she would want to home ed again
I’ve also found that when she falls out with her friends, as girls do, because we don’t see them for another week as all home ed families are busy with their activities, they’ve forgotten about their silly argument whereas my friends daughters at school because they spend mon-Fri 9-3 with the same kids the arguments are really intense and lots of nasty things said and it drags on for a while and the kids get very upset over them.
Wow yes that is expensive for one day! Great tip for grandparents, we do that atm for an afternoon (we don't send LO to nursery) and it is great but at the same time the spare time goes far too quickly!Yeah the hardest thing I’d say honestly is the not having a break or alone time - unless you find some home ed drop off groups! We dip in and out of an awesome nature group that’s 9-3:30pm which is a break for me but £50 a session so expensive for that break!🫣
if you have grandparents involved I would suggest asking them if they’d like to have say every Tuesday morning with your child to teach them gardening/baking/just a day together. You get a break once a week on a set day, child and grandma get to build their bond and it’s nice for everyone involved 🫶
And also the managing housework is hard. The actual home educating is the easy part
I personally take slow mornings and relaxing lifestyle and a messy house that I can sort throughout the day over the stress of school life.
I never enrolled my daughter, I knew from around age2 this was the life for us! My husband is a freelancer too so he works away a lot but then is home with us when he’s not working, so it works great when he’s home as we get quality time as a family together
i also figure i can always enrol her when she’s older if she really wants to go but I genuinely think after a term of early morning starts, stressed mum, busy weekends trying to squeeze quality time into 2 days, after school meltdowns, friend drama and bitchiness/bullying, I think she would want to home ed again
I’ve also found that when she falls out with her friends, as girls do, because we don’t see them for another week as all home ed families are busy with their activities, they’ve forgotten about their silly argument whereas my friends daughters at school because they spend mon-Fri 9-3 with the same kids the arguments are really intense and lots of nasty things said and it drags on for a while and the kids get very upset over them.
Yeah this is exactly my thoughts about having a stressful life/chaotic work life then house on top of that, and my husband works from home so I have him here causing chaos too! It's just finding what would be a good balance for our family I guess.
I do think if I enrolled her in to school and she wasn't hating it I'd leave her there for the fact of upsetting her routine. But I am super keen to try home schooling so not enrolling at all seems the way forwards!
I didn't even think about the bitchyness of friends
I had an awful time at primary & secondary school with bullies! That is a good point to think about though.Thanks again for your replies