More and more people are choosing to deregister their children from school to home ed, are you one of them?

More and more people are choosing to deregister their children from school to home ed, are you one of them?

We are! 

Michael and myself made the decision in May of this year to deregister Alfie from school after years of relentless bullying that had minimal action taken to prevent or help him. It started with name calling and eventually turned physical, with no repercussion at all for the bullies in question. That, alongside Alfie's struggle with the generalised school system and the way it works, was enough for us to say "no more" and choose to home ed. 

Has it been easy? Absolutely not! 

Has it been worth it? Oh yes, yes, yes. Absolutely yes. And it's the decision we would make 100 times over for him. 

Alfie still has a routine when it comes to schooling as we want to make sure this is something that sticks, especially now he's getting older and likely to become a lazy teen not wanting to leave the comfort of his room! So he still gets up in a morning, and he still does the traditional school work in a morning - his maths, English, reading etc. The difference is that those traditional learning hours are followed by activities, exploration, fun and non-traditional learning that he simply wouldn't have been able to do in a school setting. 

Despite only having been home educated for more weeks, Alfie has already been to the Olympic Park, the Velo Park, to Italy travelling on an explorative educational trip learning so so much about Italy, its history and monuments. He's had day time physical education on bike rides along the coast, beach trips, done swimming, and so much more! 

All of this has already led to such a difference in Alfie and the way he approaches learning and life. He's more keen to join in, more eager to learn. He's happier, calmer, sleeps better. 

There have been trials and tribulations along the way and there are things we are still trying to figure out and that's okay! One of the things I've struggled with is finding a balance between learning and fun, and also adding in more hecticness to an already hectic schedule. As if running your own businesses isn't enough, with a husband who also works full time. We are very lucky to have support with Alfie from his grandparents and we don't take that for granted. 

The process of deregistering Alfie from school was a very simple one, all we had to do was let his school know that it was our intention. There is no legal obligation for a child to attend school providing they're receiving a sufficient education at home, and Alfie definitely gets that. We made sure we were armed with plenty of workbooks and activities for him to do to stay on the same course as his peers, as well as hiring a tutor for him to give him the type of learning that we as parents, but not teachers, just couldn't... and have introduced world learning in addition.

One of the things we were worried about with home education was the social aspect of things, as Alfie loves spending time with other children and in the right setting with the right people he's a little social butterfly and that was important to nurture. We've managed to make sure he sees friends and will keep this as a regular thing, but also know there are home ed social groups where we and he can find this community if it's ever needed or wanted. 

Overall this has been a very positive experience for Alfie, Michael and I and we can't wait to see where this progresses and the memories we are able to make along the way. One extra park of all of this has been the time I craved so badly with him, and the reason for setting up my own business, has come back to me in spades and we now get all the time in the world together.