Home educating in France - a real alternative to school

[Aminto]

Hi,

I noticed a posting in the forum from a parent concerned about how to make her 14 year old child happy who was having problems at school.  The post was 2 years old so I thought I'd post here instead!

A lot of people I've met think that school in any country is the only option for their kids, we've put together a website with information and links on home education in France at http://www.indigoextra.com.

Home education is perfectly legal in France, the UK, USA, etc. and is fairly straight forward, we practice something called autonomous learning, or child-led learning, where our boys to a large extent choose the projects and interests they wish to pursue and we present as many opportunities as possible to pursue them, for example we spent 2 weeks reading all about space, going to the space museum in Toulouse, talking about the stars, looking through telescopes, etc. and then other times we concentrate on other subjects.

They do have formal French lessons twice a week, which include reading and writing and there are lots of different ways of home-educating, some other families we know follow a much more structured approach closer to the national curriculum.

Hope this is useful!

Aminto

[Pangur]

While I can see many of the advantages of home-schooling, I am genuinely interested in how parents with no pedagogical background feel confident they can educate their kids properly the whole way through primary school (and beyond?). 

How do you deal with basic skills such as writing, grammar and maths?  While child-centred learning is wonderful for some subjects, I'm not sure I'd be able to properly explain trigonometry (for example) to an 11 year old and have a suspicion that I might gloss over the subjects I wasn't too keen on in school myself[:D]  There are skills and strategies used by teachers to get children to understand how to solve problems etc - do home-schoolers generally attend formal training courses aimed at this?

 

[Debra]

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[Debra]

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[Viv]

This is a useful site as it has details of legislation and it used to have a pro-forma letter to adapt, which you can send to the authorities in France to inform them of any intention to home educate.

http://www.lesenfantsdabord.org/

 

[Debra]

Toooo scary for me, Aviv!  Other, nore brave souls, might find it useful!

[zeb]

I really agree with Debra on this subject, although I have no children! I really can't see the point of bringing children over to make a new life in France and then denying them, and their parents, the great chance they have to integrate fully into their community.

The British born children I know of here in rural 16, ranging in age from 4 - 14, who came out here with no French (or very little) all seem to be fairly fluent and are happy, well adjusted kids. They are all doing very well, some participate for their schools/colleges in inter departmental sports events, a couple have carefully mapped out their chosen careers with the help of their teachers, and, having chatted to several of them, after the initial scarey settling in period, they have no regrets and have lots of friends.

Indeed, my OH and I used to say that if we could have our time again in France, we'd bring children! It's far easier as a parent to learn the language, have proper friendships with French parents and be a real part of village life, than as a boring old 50yr old living in rural isolation!

[Debra]

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[Tourangelle]

[quote user="Debra"]

I know your site says that in your experience only French and Math's are checked properly

[/quote]

ho hmm, I see Pangur's point

[Debra]

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[Dick Smith]

I replied to this, but it disappeared, so apologies if it turns up twice.

Debra, you are wrong. The word 'Maths' has no convention of an apostrophe, and no dictionary I have (I looked in 4) or on-line dictionary, including the OED allow it. I would be interested if you could give us a citation for the dictionary you have found it in.

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/maths?view=uk

I am concerned about home schooling for this very reason. In order to teach I went through a fairly rigorous selection procedure (O and A levels) and four years of training to degree level. You can home school with none of that, and no subject knowledge at all. Remember that at secondary level (in the UK at least, and similar in France) your child will be taught by 11-13 subject specialists, each with a degree in their subject and knowledge of the specialist pedagogy which applies. You wouldn't let an unqualified electrician rewire your house, so why let an unqualified person teach your kids, which is much more important?

Edit - and I'm not allowed to make errors because I am tired or hormonal!

[Debra]

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[Debra]

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[Dick Smith]

Debra - I'm sorry to point this out, but as you have insisted on patronising me as though I am some sort of idiot, I don't feel too guilty.

The dictionary links you have quoted do not give [math's] as a word. You put [math's] into the search, and they came up with 'maths' - the nearest match. That's a pretty basic error in dictionary use. You don't seem to be able to see the difference.

I asked you for the citation from the dictionary you say gives this usage. I assumed you meant a printed dictionary. Instead you dug a bigger hole. That isn't promising, and I wonder what you would say about a teacher who made a basic error and tried to justify it like that. These things are not 'debateable' because you disagree!

And - as I don't propose to go any further with this fruitless argument - I only replied because I was asked to. By you.

[Rosebud]

Homeschooling is quite obviously a solution for many parents, and I can see the benefits, particularly if the parents are not planning on staying here long term and don't wish their childrens education to be disrupted.

However, I would worry about the childs social developement.  Surely keeping the child at home during these formative years will have a negative impact on that?  Does anybody have any information/statistics, regarding this? 

[Debra]

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[Janey]

There are a number of reasons why people home ed in the UK. There is no doubt that many instances are caused because a child is having problems that aren't being addressed or because of bullying or other negative type reasons.However, for as many, if not more parents it is a positive choice.

Parents who do home ed are required yearly to prove that they are providing suitable education for their children. Most home educated children that I know have a fulfilling social life - lack of contact with other children does not seem to be a problem at all. Infact, because home education allows for the child to spend more time learning than the school day allows, there is also more time for social activities and educational trips.

A great many home educated children take and pass their exams earlier than school educated children. I don't have statistics I'm afraid but I receive a bulletin from a Home Educators association and achievements (both educational and otherwise)  are celebrated frequently.

It would also appear that many children who did have a bad experience at school with their peers, develop through home education into mature and confident people and have a broader knowledge base as one doesn't have to stick rigidly to the National Curriculum, but most parents do tend to follow a GSCE syllabus when their child is ready.

My own child is home educated in France. The main reason being that she has a SEN and felt she would struggle in a French school at 13 years of age. Some people may think we were wrong to move to France in that case, but we feel the advantages of living in rural France out weigh any disadvantages, in fact we can't actually think of any disadvantages!

My child is presently studying for her first GCSE and will be sitting it later this year. She would have been in year 10 had we remained in the UK and our expectation of what she would have achieved, had we still been there, was low. We had come to this conclusion based on what she had acheived in 8 years of schooling in the UK. That is not necessarily a criticism of teachers, but that that type of education was not working for our daughter.

Home Education may seem very strange to those of you who don't do it. But we are not weirdos. It takes a great deal of commitment to home ed but it can be done, it can be fun and most importantly it can really be of benefit to the child, whether in France or the UK.

There is an association in the UK that offers advice and information for Home Educators and they also produce a bulletin and a internet forum.

[Debra]

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[Debra]

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[tetley]

debra, you are obviously very passionate about your children's education.  I am not sure how you will find it here in France...rural france!  It is VERY different to England, my children are just coming to the end of their first school year here, and it has been very tough on them.  Their English has taken a backseat, as it is so very important for them to be able to learn french before they can begin to learn anything from their curriculum.  They are not getting additional help with their french (they were, but it ended after a couple of months), I have a daughter in CE2, and a son in CM1, both are re-taking the year.  They are socialising and have friends round...but again, we have found that very different here.  Discipline is very strong, and I promise I am not assuming anything about you or your methods, but it could be tough for them.  I look at it as character building!  I have found parents are not involved with the school and not invited to be involved with the school in anyway.  We have little in the way of organised events, and they aren't encouraged to show their creative side (much to my daughter's dismay).  This is my experience of french school life, I have never homeschooled.  I used to work as an LSA in England, and have alot of respect for the staff there.  I started working as an LSA with aspiration to become a teacher, but the level of commitment was too much for me.

Sorry, i have waffled on...but what prompted me to respond to your post, was your comment on teaching english on wednesday mornings.  I wish you well with it, but advise you to wait a bit...they have a whole new phonetic language to learn, and it gets very confusing.  Luckily, my two children enjoy reading, and I feel that reading in bed (english books) before sleep is enough for them for now.  My oldest (just turned 10) wrote to his friend back in england and spelt go 'gow'.....my heart skipped a beat there for a moment, but then I thought about how his head must be spinning so let him off!..when i pointed it out, he realised straight away...but just goes to show how much they have to take in.  My daughter is at the level where she is learning verbs along with her classmates, but my son is at a much higher level ,and also they have a whole different history here (which i am currently studying through horrible histories)  

 

[Debra]

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[Wendy]

Hi back Aminto, as a mother of five I'd just like to know what ops will your children have to make friends if they are kept at home? and dont you want them out from under your feet during the week?. I couldnt think of anything worse than home schooling !.

[timc17]

Our four have just finished their first year in French schools and we are very pleased with how things have gone. All four will move up to the next class in September and have received good end of term reports. Had this not been the case though we would have probably  gone down the home-schooling route as my wife taught in the UK .

My own personal view is that going to a local school is the best way for children to integrate , learn the language and make new friends. It also helps if the school is willing to provide assistance with regards learning French. We were fortunate in that the school where three of ours go gave extra french lessons to the youngest three ( the eldest did'nt require extra lessons ) from day one and this has been a great help.

Why not give the local schools a try first before trying to teach the children at home.

 

 

Tim.