Recently, I've seriously been considering home education for my two sons, aged 3 (experiencing anxiety) and 9 ( diagnosed with ADHD). However, I'm hesitant because I don't want to mess things up for my children. My reasons for contemplating home education are as follows:
I'm a stay-at-home mum, and my husband works as a lorry driver, away from early Monday until late Saturday. This leaves me to manage all parenting duties, household chores, cooking, and shopping by myself. Additionally, we attend taekwondo three times a week for two hours due to their different age groups, and we're thinking about starting guitar lessons for the 8-year-old. There are also other activities they're interested in. Daily, I spend at least three hours driving them to and from their school, the nearest French immersion school, which unfortunately does not offer a bus service. My life feels like an endless rush. Between school runs, extracurricular activities, and managing dinner, finding time for homework is a challenge. Home education would cut down on the time we spend travelling. It would mean only 2-4 hours of structured learning a day, freeing up time for other activities and interests.
The cost of petrol from all the driving, especially back and forth to school, is considerable. Additionally, poor weather often means we stay home, causing the children to miss out on school activities and lessons.
Both boys dislike school. The 8-year-old for typical reasons like disliking maths, and the 5-year-old suffers from social and general anxiety, has not made any friends, and doesn't interact with other children. I too struggled with social anxiety and depression from a young age and don't want my youngest to dread every day because he has to go to school.
The 8-year-old is falling behind academically, which could be due to us not spending enough time on his studies at home or his ADHD. He's intelligent but seems to require more one-on-one attention than his teachers can provide.
My main concerns are:
How can I ensure my children develop proper social skills and don't end up feeling socially awkward as they grow older?
I have no prior experience with something like this and am clueless about where to begin. I'm worried I might not be capable enough to teach them
There are plenty of home ed social groups that you can attend , which might be local to yourself.
Don't stress about teaching , deschooling at first might be beneficial, then deciding what you want to do next