As a former homeschooling parent (we educated both our children from Year 1 until they started their tertiary studies, and yes, they are now both degree holders), I can confirm that it's hard work, it's totally your responsibility, and it's definitely not a way to make money. However, it does have a lot of rewards, and for people whose children have health problems (ours didn't, but it's a common cause for homeschooling) it can be immensely helpful. I also confess to being puzzled by the Ministry's negativity and delays in granting exemptions. From our own experience, other than vetting our application, the Ministry thereafter was relieved of almost all responsibility for our children's education, both physically and financially. Our only contact beyond that point was when I asked (to the amazement of the authorities) for an ERO review, four years into the process, to make sure we weren't missing anything out. Indeed, if the roughly 10,000 children currently being homeschooled were required to enter the public system, the cost in terms of infrastructure and teaching staff would be colossal. And the staff may well be unobtainable given the existing shortages. It might be to the Ministry's advantage to actively encourage homeschooling by those who wish to do so and can demonstrate their intention to act sensibly, in order to take the pressure off a system that is already struggling.
I was gonna reply on fb but yknow...Facebook comments 😅 I really didn't mean to be so "negative" in my comments to Emily, because I do really love homeschooling and feel so lucky to have this option. But it *is* really hard, and those two things can be true at once.
The way homeschooling is structured through MOE basically leaves families with no support. I homeschool two disabled kids. I exhaust myself advocating for them to get access to resources they need, without having school expertise to refer to. Sure dropping $200 on an assistive technology product might not be much for some families, but the time it took me to save up for that meant my kid went without it for months. If they were at school they would've had access to the school subscription.
We self fund the vast majority of specialist tutoring and therapies to the tune of 10k+ a year, and we're totally broke. Having a disabled kid often affects a parents ability to work. This was the case for me and homeschooling has further severely curbed my ability to earn. To reiterate, homeschool might be great with money but fuck me, it's brutal when you're skint and your kid needs speech language therapy.
I *love* spending the days with my tamariki. I love playing games or going for hikes after lunch. I love the closeness. And I love not having to put on clothes for school runs. But it is hard. Maybe my situation is unique, but honestly most of the homeschool parent friends I have are also finding it hard. I think downplaying how hard it is does a massive disservice to our disabled kids who have additional needs, because it promotes the idea that we're doing fine and don't need any extra support, when in actual fact we really really do.
I’m baffled. How on earth can anyone be confident of ‘every child’s’ safety? This isn’t guaranteed, or possible to guarantee, even for kids without specifically medical challenges. At some point they need to park the averaging, generalising, bureaucratic lines of reasoning, and recognise that any particular child has just one body, one mind, one chance at thriving. And where exceptions to any mandated requirements are concerned, we need humane people with good judgement making the decisions - not robots ticking rubrics.
WOW, this seems to have gotten way harder then when we switched, two years ago. In a confidential phone call we cited our disappointment at the local college's failure to provide the education our second child wanted, and dithering around a whole term. By the time lockdown was announced we had enrolled at TeKura and haven't looked back. The teachers are humans and there are good ones, mediocre and great ones. The one disadvantage is, if a kid's not physically at school a teacher can't 'massage' their work to fit the requirements, which our daughter found out the hard way: twice her photography portfolio failed the external exam. She's got LV3 now but not UE, which has created a whole new set of problems. She's now expected to physically attend three classes on campus that are compulsory for starting uni education. Again, we have mentioned our diabetic older child and our need to be vigilant and they are trying to find a way for her to attend uni. Supposedly under Code Red VUW offers all classes in what's called dual mode (on site and remote), but some lecturers seems to have found an argument around that. Highly frustrating, on top of her being ever so lightly on the spectrum, so a small dose of uni life to get her used to the new culture would be better. Home schooling in general is not for everyone, and I can say it takes a HUGE amount of work, I have not been able to make any money in those years, the drain on your mental health is unbelievable. But, there's nothing I won't do to protect my children and family. <3
I'm in the UK and homeschooled my kid for all of last year, but basically unofficially? Schools were shut March-June 2020 because of covid, and reopened in August with hardly any restrictions. Classes didn't mix, but masks weren't required for under 12s, and so obviously there was a positive covid case in my kid's class in the first month. I kept him home with the thought that I would send him back in a few weeks when cases improved but they just...never did. Things kept getting worse, so he stayed home indefinitely. The school never called to check up on us, which in some ways was good (we didn't get fined for keeping him out of school) but also bad (no work was provided for us to do at home, so I had to figure everything out myself). The biggest failing here in the UK re: schools and covid is that there are provisions for immune compromised children (to some extent) but nothing for children whose parents are immune compromised (like myself). I think the assumption is that if you're disabled there's no way you could be a parent. Disabled people are old or housebound and definitely don't have rambunctious seven year olds who mix with twenty-five other germ riddled children every day.
We managed okay, mostly because I don't work and my partner has a well-paid job that meant that I could research and purchase different homeschool curriculums. I felt capable of homeschooling my kid (at least at this age) and found a few likeminded parents on Instagram to connect with, but our local homeschool community was kind of useless. I met one parent with a kid the same age who was happy to have outdoor, masked playdates, but she warned me that the woman who organised a lot of the homeschool events in our city was an anti-vaxxer who believed covid was a hoax. Most of the outdoor meet ups were at places we needed to drive to, and I don't have a car. So we basically saw no one for an entire year. It was very isolating and not a sustainable solution. As someone who was raised in a fundamentalist Christian family, it felt far too close to the isolation I experienced as a kid. It was absolutely not what I wanted for my kid.
I finally got my first vaccine in May 2021, right after the head teacher of the local school called me to say that if I wanted to continue homeschooling I needed to submit formal paperwork and remove my kid from the school register. He didn't seem to realise that I was only homeschooling because I was immune compromised and that this wasn't a long-term plan. I ended up having to write to the head of education at our local council and have her liaise on our behalf to ensure my kid could keep his place and that we wouldn't be pressured into sending him back to school until I was fully vaccinated. She arranged for him to go in for some outdoor play sessions to see his classmates, which is something that would have been helpful to have all along. It shouldn't have taken contacting the head of education to make this happen.
I optimistically sent my kid back in August 2021, since myself and my partner were fully vaccinated and cases were looking better. Also, I was exhausted and couldn't imagine homeschooling for any longer. Classes are still separate, there's lots of outdoor learning, but children still don't wear masks. The UK is *still* not vaccinating children despite approving the vaccine for under 12s in December 2021. And this month, I pulled my kid out of school again because there were positive covid cases in literally every class. Parents are being told that if one of their kids tests positive, they don't have to isolate their siblings unless they test positive too, so people are sending the rest of their kids into school, only for them to test positive the next day. Cases are spreading from class to class because of this ridiculous rule. We were exposed three days before the school alerted us (and they only sent an alert out because I heard about the positive case from playground gossip and called to complain), and miraculously didn't catch covid probably only because I am literally paying my kid 50p a day to wear an n95 to school (he needs incentive because he's the only one masked in his class). Everyone I speak to is so chilled about the whole thing: there's this attitude in the UK that kids don't get that sick from covid, therefore it doesn't matter if they catch it. No thoughts spared for immune compromised kids or parents. Apparently we don't exist. Cases are dropping in every age group *except* 5-12 year olds, in pretty much every area in the UK. Schools are a mess.
This time around, my kid is not enjoying staying home. He misses his friends. He got to do fun things at school like PE, drama, music, etc that I can't teach nearly as well at home. We're feeling isolated again, and I'm really hoping that this dies down in a few weeks and I can send him back because I don't want this to be a long-term situation. I want schools to be safe, I want children to be vaccinated, I want mask-wearing to be normalised (it's not required for under 12s in the UK so basically no one does it), and I want immune compromised families to be acknowledged.
I'm sorry, this is basically an essay. It has been a looooong two years as an immune compromised parent. I'm happy to chat to anyone who is just starting out on the "homeschooling out of desperation" route, especially if you're like "wtf how do I find non religious curriculum". (I'm @pixieauthoress on Twitter and Instagram, feel free to hunt me down). It is really shitty to be thrown into this position because you don't feel that you or your kid are safe at school. Schools should be safe for everyone <3 Thank you so much for writing about this, Emily!
Absolutely all of this! I am so sorry you're dealing with this. Honestly the way that disabled and chronically ill folk have been disregarded during this pandemic is horrendous. I think in Aotearoa there is still a culture of denial about what the realities of covid look like....but we're about to get a sharp wakeup call :(
Hi Emily! What a difficult time for those with immunocompromised children. I just want to say that I taught uni level biology classes for 6 years as a PhD student so if you do decide to homeschool and need some help with STEM, I’m happy to help however I can! During my studies I also did a lot of science outreach with younger kids so I have some relevant experience with that age group too. You can pass on my info to others you know who also might want STEM help :) My little is too young for the vaccine yet and so far not immunocompromised but I too have felt the pressure to decide to keep her home or not to keep her safe. It’s so hard.
As a former homeschooling parent (we educated both our children from Year 1 until they started their tertiary studies, and yes, they are now both degree holders), I can confirm that it's hard work, it's totally your responsibility, and it's definitely not a way to make money. However, it does have a lot of rewards, and for people whose children have health problems (ours didn't, but it's a common cause for homeschooling) it can be immensely helpful. I also confess to being puzzled by the Ministry's negativity and delays in granting exemptions. From our own experience, other than vetting our application, the Ministry thereafter was relieved of almost all responsibility for our children's education, both physically and financially. Our only contact beyond that point was when I asked (to the amazement of the authorities) for an ERO review, four years into the process, to make sure we weren't missing anything out. Indeed, if the roughly 10,000 children currently being homeschooled were required to enter the public system, the cost in terms of infrastructure and teaching staff would be colossal. And the staff may well be unobtainable given the existing shortages. It might be to the Ministry's advantage to actively encourage homeschooling by those who wish to do so and can demonstrate their intention to act sensibly, in order to take the pressure off a system that is already struggling.
Thank you so much Judy. That’s such an insightful comment. Arohanui.
I was gonna reply on fb but yknow...Facebook comments 😅 I really didn't mean to be so "negative" in my comments to Emily, because I do really love homeschooling and feel so lucky to have this option. But it *is* really hard, and those two things can be true at once.
The way homeschooling is structured through MOE basically leaves families with no support. I homeschool two disabled kids. I exhaust myself advocating for them to get access to resources they need, without having school expertise to refer to. Sure dropping $200 on an assistive technology product might not be much for some families, but the time it took me to save up for that meant my kid went without it for months. If they were at school they would've had access to the school subscription.
We self fund the vast majority of specialist tutoring and therapies to the tune of 10k+ a year, and we're totally broke. Having a disabled kid often affects a parents ability to work. This was the case for me and homeschooling has further severely curbed my ability to earn. To reiterate, homeschool might be great with money but fuck me, it's brutal when you're skint and your kid needs speech language therapy.
I *love* spending the days with my tamariki. I love playing games or going for hikes after lunch. I love the closeness. And I love not having to put on clothes for school runs. But it is hard. Maybe my situation is unique, but honestly most of the homeschool parent friends I have are also finding it hard. I think downplaying how hard it is does a massive disservice to our disabled kids who have additional needs, because it promotes the idea that we're doing fine and don't need any extra support, when in actual fact we really really do.
I’m baffled. How on earth can anyone be confident of ‘every child’s’ safety? This isn’t guaranteed, or possible to guarantee, even for kids without specifically medical challenges. At some point they need to park the averaging, generalising, bureaucratic lines of reasoning, and recognise that any particular child has just one body, one mind, one chance at thriving. And where exceptions to any mandated requirements are concerned, we need humane people with good judgement making the decisions - not robots ticking rubrics.
WOW, this seems to have gotten way harder then when we switched, two years ago. In a confidential phone call we cited our disappointment at the local college's failure to provide the education our second child wanted, and dithering around a whole term. By the time lockdown was announced we had enrolled at TeKura and haven't looked back. The teachers are humans and there are good ones, mediocre and great ones. The one disadvantage is, if a kid's not physically at school a teacher can't 'massage' their work to fit the requirements, which our daughter found out the hard way: twice her photography portfolio failed the external exam. She's got LV3 now but not UE, which has created a whole new set of problems. She's now expected to physically attend three classes on campus that are compulsory for starting uni education. Again, we have mentioned our diabetic older child and our need to be vigilant and they are trying to find a way for her to attend uni. Supposedly under Code Red VUW offers all classes in what's called dual mode (on site and remote), but some lecturers seems to have found an argument around that. Highly frustrating, on top of her being ever so lightly on the spectrum, so a small dose of uni life to get her used to the new culture would be better. Home schooling in general is not for everyone, and I can say it takes a HUGE amount of work, I have not been able to make any money in those years, the drain on your mental health is unbelievable. But, there's nothing I won't do to protect my children and family. <3
Thank you for sharing your experience Petra. Sending you lots of aroha for the challenges ahead.
I'm in the UK and homeschooled my kid for all of last year, but basically unofficially? Schools were shut March-June 2020 because of covid, and reopened in August with hardly any restrictions. Classes didn't mix, but masks weren't required for under 12s, and so obviously there was a positive covid case in my kid's class in the first month. I kept him home with the thought that I would send him back in a few weeks when cases improved but they just...never did. Things kept getting worse, so he stayed home indefinitely. The school never called to check up on us, which in some ways was good (we didn't get fined for keeping him out of school) but also bad (no work was provided for us to do at home, so I had to figure everything out myself). The biggest failing here in the UK re: schools and covid is that there are provisions for immune compromised children (to some extent) but nothing for children whose parents are immune compromised (like myself). I think the assumption is that if you're disabled there's no way you could be a parent. Disabled people are old or housebound and definitely don't have rambunctious seven year olds who mix with twenty-five other germ riddled children every day.
We managed okay, mostly because I don't work and my partner has a well-paid job that meant that I could research and purchase different homeschool curriculums. I felt capable of homeschooling my kid (at least at this age) and found a few likeminded parents on Instagram to connect with, but our local homeschool community was kind of useless. I met one parent with a kid the same age who was happy to have outdoor, masked playdates, but she warned me that the woman who organised a lot of the homeschool events in our city was an anti-vaxxer who believed covid was a hoax. Most of the outdoor meet ups were at places we needed to drive to, and I don't have a car. So we basically saw no one for an entire year. It was very isolating and not a sustainable solution. As someone who was raised in a fundamentalist Christian family, it felt far too close to the isolation I experienced as a kid. It was absolutely not what I wanted for my kid.
I finally got my first vaccine in May 2021, right after the head teacher of the local school called me to say that if I wanted to continue homeschooling I needed to submit formal paperwork and remove my kid from the school register. He didn't seem to realise that I was only homeschooling because I was immune compromised and that this wasn't a long-term plan. I ended up having to write to the head of education at our local council and have her liaise on our behalf to ensure my kid could keep his place and that we wouldn't be pressured into sending him back to school until I was fully vaccinated. She arranged for him to go in for some outdoor play sessions to see his classmates, which is something that would have been helpful to have all along. It shouldn't have taken contacting the head of education to make this happen.
I optimistically sent my kid back in August 2021, since myself and my partner were fully vaccinated and cases were looking better. Also, I was exhausted and couldn't imagine homeschooling for any longer. Classes are still separate, there's lots of outdoor learning, but children still don't wear masks. The UK is *still* not vaccinating children despite approving the vaccine for under 12s in December 2021. And this month, I pulled my kid out of school again because there were positive covid cases in literally every class. Parents are being told that if one of their kids tests positive, they don't have to isolate their siblings unless they test positive too, so people are sending the rest of their kids into school, only for them to test positive the next day. Cases are spreading from class to class because of this ridiculous rule. We were exposed three days before the school alerted us (and they only sent an alert out because I heard about the positive case from playground gossip and called to complain), and miraculously didn't catch covid probably only because I am literally paying my kid 50p a day to wear an n95 to school (he needs incentive because he's the only one masked in his class). Everyone I speak to is so chilled about the whole thing: there's this attitude in the UK that kids don't get that sick from covid, therefore it doesn't matter if they catch it. No thoughts spared for immune compromised kids or parents. Apparently we don't exist. Cases are dropping in every age group *except* 5-12 year olds, in pretty much every area in the UK. Schools are a mess.
This time around, my kid is not enjoying staying home. He misses his friends. He got to do fun things at school like PE, drama, music, etc that I can't teach nearly as well at home. We're feeling isolated again, and I'm really hoping that this dies down in a few weeks and I can send him back because I don't want this to be a long-term situation. I want schools to be safe, I want children to be vaccinated, I want mask-wearing to be normalised (it's not required for under 12s in the UK so basically no one does it), and I want immune compromised families to be acknowledged.
I'm sorry, this is basically an essay. It has been a looooong two years as an immune compromised parent. I'm happy to chat to anyone who is just starting out on the "homeschooling out of desperation" route, especially if you're like "wtf how do I find non religious curriculum". (I'm @pixieauthoress on Twitter and Instagram, feel free to hunt me down). It is really shitty to be thrown into this position because you don't feel that you or your kid are safe at school. Schools should be safe for everyone <3 Thank you so much for writing about this, Emily!
Absolutely all of this! I am so sorry you're dealing with this. Honestly the way that disabled and chronically ill folk have been disregarded during this pandemic is horrendous. I think in Aotearoa there is still a culture of denial about what the realities of covid look like....but we're about to get a sharp wakeup call :(
Hi Emily! What a difficult time for those with immunocompromised children. I just want to say that I taught uni level biology classes for 6 years as a PhD student so if you do decide to homeschool and need some help with STEM, I’m happy to help however I can! During my studies I also did a lot of science outreach with younger kids so I have some relevant experience with that age group too. You can pass on my info to others you know who also might want STEM help :) My little is too young for the vaccine yet and so far not immunocompromised but I too have felt the pressure to decide to keep her home or not to keep her safe. It’s so hard.