home school in Finland

[vrs]

We are a family in Kirkkonummi with 4 chidren. We are considering home schooling our youngest boy starting in the Autumn. We would like to know if there are any support groups for home schooling, and how you get started. I homeschool our oldest daughter when we lived in the USA, so I have some experience with that part of it, but am not sure about the laws in Finland. I know that it's also important for him to be with other kids his age so it would be very helpful if there is an English group that meets for support. He goes now to a Swedish school and speaks fluent Swedish. We struggle along with Finnish. We have lived in Finland 9 years. All info about homeschooling would be welcome!

[EP]

I suppose this is still true:

"There are basically two kinds of home education in Finland. If you need more detailed information, then you should probably contact someone in your municipality.

In Finland, education at home is an officially recognized form of education for pupils of compulsory age. In 2002 there were 347 children of compulsory school age (of a total of 595, 700 pupils) studying at home or in private instruction.

Education is compulsory but there’s no compulsory school attendance. However, the Basic Education Act (628/1998 :45 §) does stipulate that if a guardian neglects his/her duty to supervise that his/her child completes compulsory education, he/she may be fined.

There are basically two different types of home education. First of all, parents may arrange instruction for their children at home, if they so wish. Parents do not need to apply for a permit but a written notice to the municipality is required. The only task of the municipality of residence is to supervise that the compulsory education syllabi are completed.
In that case, in principle, the guardians are allowed to choose the teaching methods and the curriculum freely, and the guardians are solely responsible for the education provided at home. Education at home is inspected, for example, the city of Helsinki, has an employee, or a teacher, who visits the students at home, or the students come to school for examinations or complete the required syllabus otherwise under the supervision of the teacher.

Secondly, according to Basic the Education Act (628/1998:18§) it is possible to organize education partly or entirely at home, if the student is not able to attend school, for medical reasons, for instance. The municipality is responsible of providing means for this kind of education.
The curriculum must follow the requirements in the national core curriculum. Education at home must include the same aims, subject matter, subjects and guidance as the education provided at school. However, there may be variations to the distribution of lesson hours, or the subject matter may be organised in cross-curricular themes, for those pupils who are seriously handicapped or ill.

At the end of each school year, students have to receive a certificate (Basic Education Decree (852/1998) 10 §). Evaluation is based on the general requirements in the national core curriculum, or in case the pupil has an IEP, i.e., an individual education plan, then the evaluation is based on individual goals. In home education, evaluation must be done by taking the student’s abilities and needs into consideration, and providing alternative ways to take part in examinations.

A school appoints one teacher to supervise home education and to evaluate the student’s progress. The school also determines how many hours per week/month the teacher works with the student. Teachers may give home instruction 2-4 hours a week."


viewtopic.php?f=19&t=4860

[vrs]

Hi! Thanks for your reply. I had seen the earlier post, but since it was more than 6 years old, I didn't know if the law had changed. They are telling me at school when I have asked what you have to do, that only a liscened teacher can homeschool. I couldn't find anything online from later than 1998. Is anyone out there homeschooling?

[Rip]

Hi! Thanks for your reply. I had seen the earlier post, but since it was more than 6 years old, I didn't know if the law had changed. They are telling me at school when I have asked what you have to do, that only a liscened teacher can homeschool.

The national board of education website does not seem mention any such requirement. (all in Finnish)

[CH]

Very few home school, so very few schools have any experience about it. Anyway, there seems to be support and information meetings for home schooling in Vantaa once a month: http://www.feeniks-koulu.fi/. They have also a forum, where I assume you could find someone who home schools: http://www.feeniks-koulu.fi/phpBB2/index.php

[Tiwaz]

Could you tell why you would find homeschooling to be good option for your son?
If kid has problems at school, as in being picked on or similar, you might consider switching schools instead of just going all the way to homeschooling.

For kids of that age, social circle of friends from school are very important. I am sorry to say but I doubt your ability to provide your child same variety through trying to find some specific groups of kids. Specially if your aim is to try to surround the child with English speakers only.

One thing, assuming you plan to remain in Finland permanently, is that your child based on what I read does not speak Finnish well. I personally would say that this is going to bite him in the ass hard if he cannot obtain that skill during early years when learning languages is easy (which would not be supported in my view by either homeschooling or trying to find English speaking group for your son to socialize in).

Kirkkonummi is 77% Finnish speaking after all...
While this is rather low in terms of whole nation, it is still predominately Finnish speaking.

[kkk]

Hi,

I'm a mother, too, who considered home schooling. With a bit of struggle I found out the name of the principal in Espoo keskus responsible for the testing of the children, but then we got into a school we really liked and chose to stay.

There is nothing wrong with home schooling, and IMHO your kids have a lot even to gain.Social circle doesn't reduce to school. Being in an English school "our" friends are from the kindergarten, neighborhood and hobbies, anyway, as schoolmates live too far away to socialize.
Not to mention that if you feel isolated you can still choose the local afternoon care (iltapaivakerho) as your child is entitled to it, even of he/she is not in regular school, and can make lots of friend there.


The pace and topics can be tailored to the kid in homeschooling, and the results can be significantly better.
If you have any information or opinion please share it with us, I would love to hear about options here, in the capital area.

[Tiwaz]

There is nothing wrong with home schooling, and IMHO your kids have a lot even to gain.Social circle doesn't reduce to school. Being in an English school "our" friends are from the kindergarten, neighborhood and hobbies, anyway, as schoolmates live too far away to socialize.

So basically kid is in "special" school.
Problem with kindergarted friends is that they might have friends from school whom they want to hang with. Same with neighborhood.

School is where most friends will be made, because kids are essentially forced to interact with one another. And obtain much things to talk about as they have shared experiences from schooldays. Like math teacher tripping on his own legs or something.

Importance of school as social factor cannot be underestimated.

[saunasisua]

i have homeschooled my son for 3 years , then when we came to finland found zero support groups and it just is not fun for the kids here without all the normal groups we had in usa.. anyhow, it is so frowned on here it would not be a great idea.

we chose to put our son to 1st grade here without any finnish except for a few words we use a home and teach him the language. then after a terrible year at a new georgeous school but the kids were awful...teachers ok but too many kids per class.

then we put him now to an international school and they want to put him back to 1st grade except for his finnish skills when he scored higher than other finnish kids in the finnish school in all subjects!!!

SOMETHING WRONG WITH THAT PICTURE

[onkko]

when he scored higher than other finnish kids in the finnish school in all subjects!!!

How do you know that?

[Rosamunda]

As far as I remember 1st and 2nd graders aren't "scored" as such. And yes, I agree with onkko, the scores are not published for everyone to see anyway.

Putting a child back a grade is not necessarily for academic reasons. It can be simply because the child is not mature enough socially ("the kids were awful" suggests to me that your child was having problems socializing with his peers).

I'm not sure I understand how you can "home-school" a child for three years BEFORE he starts first grade. To me that is called parenting... Which language were you using as the language of instruction? English???

Sorry, but it irritates me when parents (with no formal teacher training) who home-school their children automatically assume their kids are brighter, more mature and more erudite than children who go through the state education system. It's kind of illogical that a child would learn more from one person than from a crowd of people (teachers, other children etc). I have degrees, diplomas, teacher training, and several languages up my sleeve but it would never occur to me that I could do a better job at giving my kids an academic education than the school system does. Which doesn't stop me doing my bit when I feel the need.

[onkko]

As far as I remember 1st and 2nd graders aren't "scored" as such. And yes, I agree with onkko, the scores are not published for every one to see anyway.

I checked my dusty "Peruskoulun ala-asteen arvostelukirja" and first "score" is end of 2nd year. First 3 "halfs" are under "annettu sanallinen arvostelu". That was -84-86 tho.

[StrongTiger]

As far as I remember 1st and 2nd graders aren't "scored" as such. And yes, I agree with onkko, the scores are not published for everyone to see anyway.

Putting a child back a grade is not necessarily for academic reasons. It can be simply because the child is not mature enough socially ("the kids were awful" suggests to me that your child was having problems socializing with his peers).

I'm not sure I understand how you can "home-school" a child for three years BEFORE he starts first grade. To me that is called parenting... Which language were you using as the language of instruction? English???

Sorry, but it irritates me when parents (with no formal teacher training) who home-school their children automatically assume their kids are brighter, more mature and more erudite than children who go through the state education system. It's kind of illogical that a child would learn more from one person than from a crowd of people (teachers, other children etc). I have degrees, diplomas, teacher training, and several languages up my sleeve but it would never occur to me that I could do a better job at giving my kids an academic education than the school system does. Which doesn't stop me doing my bit when I feel the need.

The suggestion that parenting and home-schooling are necessarily exclusive activities is misguided. You need to state the reason why parenting and homeschooling do not merge.

On the matter of your presupposition that formal schooling was superior to all forms of education, your point has not been made on the basis that, your qualifications has not equip you to provide the best education for your child, therefore no one can accomplish that task by themselves. Your lack of ability in this consideration does not mean same will apply to everybody. It is not clear what logical structure you are ascribing to, as it does not follow that the collective efforts of society or groups in society is superior to that of an individual. There are several examples but I'll use only one strand. To take this to a slightly extreme degree, you are inherently asserting that a class that has new professors each day in each subject to teach, (hence imparting knowledge from presumed highest skills and abilities) and also enjoying regular trips to different playgroups, disneyworld etc. (to facilitate the most comprehensive interaction) will produce better schooling than a class that has only one professor a day/week etc and more resticted play activities. The children will resultantly have hundreds of professorial knowledge and other play experiences to draw from. This however will be unfruitful and you can see that your sentiment is absurd. It is perhaps is trying to give unnecessary credence to you education, which has been brought into the equation. A balance is usually struct somewhere but whatever is applied by any educational authority for educational purposes is a matter of convenience and arbitrariness. There is no reason, why a degree should be necessary to teach children properly. My view is that a bright child for example can readily teach his class on subjects he/she has learnt from any source. My further assertion is that many bright high school students can effectively teach primary school education even if those with first degrees, masters, PHDs or professorships think they can do a better job. The question will arise here as to whether the highest qualified people (professors) are the best to teach throughout the education system including nurseries and why we should not raise the prerequisite qualification. The idea however of denigrating homeschooling on the basis of lack of qualification etc. is churlish. In my household, the older children easily and readily teach the younger ones to understand subject-matter the masters-educated teachers are failing to achieve.

[cors187]

Putting a child back a grade is not necessarily for academic reasons. It can be simply because the child is not mature enough socially ("the kids were awful" suggests to me that your child was having problems socializing with his peers).

In all my years at home and abroad , i must say that , the system and language causes social strangeness on average compared with the rest of the world .
Holding back a child for social retardness in itself a contributor.Retards leading retards, sorry if i upset someone but go and live in a "normal social spectrum" and then come back and tell me i am a harsh judge!

[cors187]

The suggestion

This is the whole point to the Finnish system of schooling going upto dimploma.
In that it is accepted that you know what your doing if you have credentials, real world suggests the pupil can become greater than the master, real world also suggest that a person can be driven enough to perfection to create the perfect environment without having "formal" training.
But here i think its generally accepted that the pupil becomes the master(Standard)
So the person who said that home teaching here is frowned upon is correct.
Finland>if your not a master , how can the pupil become a master?
Real world>Your only as good as your last Job/work/lesson.