Questionnaire: Ask Your Child About Home Education

For your child, when you, he or she or your partner first brings up the idea of home education, there is likely to be a strong reaction – either negatively or positively. If a child has been bullied at school, he or she may be especially keen to leave behind the place which is probably entrenched with scary memories. But it’s important to help your child to understand the implications of home education, and that they will not just be the opportunity to “not go to school” – your whole family life will be disrupted and altered, so contemplating making the move to becoming a home schooled child is a huge prospect.

Your child might start to feel overwhelmed by the decision, but you can help him or her to really think through the options by asking the following questions, which should provide a useful framework for a thorough discussion with your son and daughter about the possibility of home schooling. Obviously this is far more relevant for older kids, but it can be adapted and simplified if you want to speak to your younger children about a home education.

Help your child to talk through his or her answers and provide truthful responses, and this will help you and your child to realise what the best next step might be for their education.

Once you have gauged your child’s responses, it’s a good idea to answer the other questionnaire on this site to help yourself to get to the heart of your true feelings about becoming a home educator – is it the best option for you and your family?

Questions to Ask your Child

• Are you happy at school?
• What’s the best thing about school?
• And the worst?
• Do you want to leave school?
• What would you most miss about leaving school?
• How would you tell your friends, what would they think?

The Rest of the Family

How would you feel if your brother or sister stayed at school and you were home educated alone with your parent/s? If applicable, how would you feel about having fewer luxuries like presents, holidays etc if your mum or dad stopped work to home school?

Socialisation

• Would you miss extra-curricular activities like your sports/art/chess/etc team at school?
• Would you miss the daily routine of seeing your friends?
• Would you be excited about joining new sports, arts, drama groups and meeting other home-schooled children in your area?

Your Teachers

• Would you miss particular teachers?
• Would you miss learning in a classroom environment?
• Would you work hard at home, even though there was no competition?
• Would you be self-motivated?
• Do you want to study for exams – if so, would you be happy doing so without the framework of revision, coursework etc taking place in the school environment?
• Would you mind working from a curriculum through a correspondence course, if necessary?

Overall

• Do you in general think that home schooling would have a negative or positive impact on your life?
• Do you in general think that home schooling would have a negative or positive impact on your family’s life?
• Do you in general think that home schooling would have a negative or positive impact on your education?

This questionnaire is a really good starting point for you and your child to consider your options about home schooling. Once you have been through the questions together, sit down and discuss the results as well as any concerns that have arisen. Hopefully you, your child and the whole family will now be able to make an informed decision about how you want to continue your child's educational development.