Introduction
I’m Tracey. Mother to 2 boys, step mum to 1 girl and wife to Dan.
How long have you home educated for and what made you decide to do it?
2 years. Deregistered Feb 2015. My eldest is autistic and has ADHD. School was not supportive at all and nearly broke me mentally with the constant fighting for help. My son lost a significant amount of weight and wasn’t sleeping. Verbal and physical bullying was being ignored by the school. I wish I had took him out earlier.
Briefly describe your home ed style. Do you have a ‘typical’ week and what does it include if so?
Unstructured except for the regular groups J attends. Weekly forest/coastal school, weekly media & history, weekly swimming and weekly Spanish. Everything else is based on whatever J is interested in at the time or going out on bike rides/beach walks/playing with his friends.
What was your highlight of home ed last week?
J teaching himself to solder by YouTube videos and making a little circuit to power a fan.
What is your favourite thing about home edding your child/ren?
Seeing him light up when finding something that inspires them. Seeing him become independent, happy and finally making real friends. Having his community paed lower his medication due to his anxiety lowering and his concentration improving.
What do you find most difficult and why?
Having to defend my decision to HE and prove we are not weird hippy hermits.
What advice would you give to other home educators?
Relax. Have faith in the deschooling process when they are glued to screens and video games and never forget that children are ALWAYS learning.