Moving into Full time Home Education-Wish us Luck! · Wednesday October 29, 2008 by Christine
Well after one and a half years of flexi schooling we’ve finally taken the plunge and plan to start full time home education at the beginning of the next half term.Flexi schooling has provided us with the time to build up support networks and gain experience in Home education but it’s now time for us to cut our ties with the Education system and go it alone.
Like many parents with an ASD child we have found the whole experience of mainstream education draining and stressful. We have fought for (and won) a statement with 15 hours support for Christopher in school. We have turned our lives upside down in our efforts to work alongside school and despite all this we have found that during holiday periods when the routine of school is taken away then the quality of our lives has improved and Christopher continues to flourish and learn in a way which would not be possible in a school enviroment.
So yippee! No more meetings, phone calls and emails – we can get on with the business of Educating which is after all what school is supposed to be about isn’t it?Despite Government targets for more P.E in school and initiatives to introduce Music back into Primary schools, children like Christopher who excel in these subjects are losing out. Maths and literacy are seen as paramount, there’s very little time for anything else and subjects like music are fitted in at the end of a busy day as after school activities together with homework.
Home education will allow Christopher to take his Drum lessons during the day (he’s already been to the Music Shop to look at Drum kits) ,participate in the local Football team,try out new sports and build on what he’s good at.
Writing is less important at home as he can discuss what he’s learned when we listen to BBC Schools radio or an audio book in the car .We have all the time in the world to look for fossils on the beach and watch the tide rush in or make boats from plastic bottles, weighted down with plasticine balast because the project intriuged Christopher when he read about it in a book at bedtime.
We don’t feel angry with school, they’ve done everything they can and we are grateful for that, but we are saddened that our little boy has been totally let down by a system which is supposed to be for everyone. The current system isn’t working, parents haven’t got choices, which is evidenced by the growing number of parents opting out of the Education system to Home educate and until the Government begin to listen, any child who doesn’t fit into their system will have a Special educational need!
It’s a pretty good job they didn’t tell Thomas Eddison and Albert Einstein!
