If you had told me three years ago I would be planning a year 7 curriculum at home and that we would be opting to home educate our son for the first part of secondary school, I would have laughed at you and told you you were crazy.
Yet here we are and on my Instagram, I have shared some of what I am using as resources as we start the year.
In 2018 we pulled our son from school to homeschool him for a period of time. We felt that school was not the best place for him and we wanted to give him a break and reset things for him. Our plan was to do a couple of years at home then send him to secondary school. Things were going well and we managed year 5 and year 6 at home.
Then Covid19 arrived and life changed and our plans changed. I don’t think we are the only ones.
We faced a choice.
Was he ready for secondary school or did he need more time at home? Would he go to a full-time dance school now or wait a year or two.
We applied to secondary school just in case that was our choice. We looked at how homeschool would work for secondary school. We looked at dance school options.
We asked him what he wanted to do.
He thought about his options. We visited the school he would attend if we opted for that. We looked at what full-time dance school would involve. We talked to his dance teachers, the SEN coordinator at his prospective school, and families who are homeschooling into secondary school.
And he asked to stay home for a bit longer.
And we felt that in reality, that was the best choice for him. He just isn’t ready.
He loves to dance and he wants to dance more professionally. He’s now dancing with two dance schools as well as classes in London. This takes up a lot of his week and time and homeschooling is the best way to facilitate that.
The option is there for him to attend secondary school if he wants and we have always said that we will be led by him. He needs to be involved in his educational choices and we want him to be secure and happy.
The plan is that at some point he will go dance school full time. That may be at 13, or 16. We are taking things one day at a time. I have learned that actually, that is the best way to approach this and most of my other parenting paths.
So, here I am, planning to home educate for what should be year 7. I have a pile of books, I have a lot of resources. I have some very good support from some friends who also homeschool.
I have a calm and happy child.
Not what I thought I would ever be doing, but it’s what works.
So here we go.