Anyone using WES (World-wide Education Schooling)?

[N1ck]

Hi there

First time writing on here. Hoping there can be some good advice.

I am looking at homeschooling my 4 year old son. I am currently living in China and sending him to school is not an option. There may be a time I will return to the UK so having a curriculum roughly in line with the UK would be better.

I need to know what others have though about WES? There is limited comments about them. The price for a year course is around 2000GBP, so I want to know if this is worthwhile or a waste of time and money (especially as my child is starting to have an education).

If WES has not been suitable for you, can you recommend alternatives, please?

Thanks

Don't know anything about WES, but 2000 GBP does sound quite expensive, so you'll want to make sure this is really worth it.

At 4, my inclination would be to purchase the necessary services/materials on an a-la-carte basis (for a) literacy b) maths and c) general knowledge/learning about the world (encompassing history, geography and science) to start off, with the option of moving to something like WES later on if we wanted to.

I would save any tutoring for maths/literacy for a young child; general knowledge, at this very young age, can be taught by parents at home as long as you love poring over books together and doing activities; no need for formal science etc. lessons with a tutor at this stage.

Thanks MaryTheCanary

I have been pondering over it today. The cost is quite a lot and they don't tutor the child but me!

I have been able to find quite a lot of KS1 English and Maths resources but not so much on Science, Geography and History.

Does anyone know or can recommend some coursebooks for a Year 1 KS1 child to work through as part of homeschooling.

Thanks

Hiya N1ck.

Basically, looking at the three things I mentioned (literacy, numeracy and "knowledge about stuff"):

1. I would recommend getting a good synthetic phonics-based program; this is the best way to teach literacy and is also now what UK schools are supposed to be doing. Spelfabet is Australian but works perfectly for UK people too and has lots of British options: try browsing through this page for programs, including options for online tutoring: www.spelfabet.com.au/phonics-resources/home-programs/

and this one for their own materials.
www.spelfabet.com.au/materials/

Everything recommended on Spelfabet is properly based on evidence-based methods. There are also some (quality) free/reasonably-priced options.

2. Maths. I and many homeschoolers like Singapore Math and Saxon Math; not British (they are actually US options which are closely based on the Singaporean maths curriculum) but will give a child an excellent solid start in maths regardless of what school system they enter long-term. Try the Preschool/Kindergarten textbooks and workbooks to start (preschool/kindergarten is for 4-6yos in the US). If you do want a specifically British maths option, I don't have any suggestions, but perhaps other posters will have some.

3. For knowledge in general (history, geography, science, comparative religion), I do not really know of any actual textbook options for 4-7yos. My recommendation is to get lots of colorful and exciting children's reference/non-fiction books plus maps, a globe and a history timeline, and just start looking at things together and talking about them. Usborne has tons of great books--take a look on Amazon and your local bookshops.

If you want a rough idea for how to divide your time up, you could consider as a rough guide: maths/literacy in the morning, then lunch, and then one of your knowledge topics (hist, geog or science) in the afternoon.

There is SO much crossover at this age, though! Like, say that today is "science" and you decide to look at some stuff on the insect life cycle (eggs, cocoons, larvae, all that kind of thing). So you might look over some books and talk about the pictures, and watch a little video on YouTube or something to see some footage about this. But then some of the insects you talk about live in the tropical rainforest, so you end up talking about that too and looking at the maps/globe together... bit of geog in there too. So there are no clear dividing lines at this age. The above suggestion about curriculum is more about giving you a bit of structure, so that you don't end up thinking "Oh GOD, what on earth are we going to do today.....?" all the time.

If you are planning on doing this long term, the Galore Park books are for children aged about 8 and above and cover history, science and English. They are British books which are used mainly by private primary schools and homeschoolers/supplementary schoolers, so they are UK-oriented but have a rather higher level of rigor and challenge than the typical UK primary school. They are well-written and easy to teach.

Take a look at the Well Trained Mind forums for more ideas, although these are somewhat American in their orientation.

The program you mention sounds expensive to me if it does not include any online tutoring! I would be inclined to put my own program together based roughly on the above, and save my money for some quality online tutoring in literacy and maths once my child is six or so. Or, you may have some decent face-to-face tutoring options where you live in China, in which case you could start a little tutoring earlier.

Good luck and have fun!

Forgot to mention, but the UK version of the Core Knowledge series (What Your Year 1 Child Needs To Know, What Your Year 2 Child Needs To Know) are also good as a rough guideline for literature, science, geography, comparative religion, art, music, history. The history sections are overambitious and try to pack too much in, however. Take a look and see if you would find them helpful.

Hi N1ck,
Your initial question is what I am on the internet searching for!
We have a 3.5yo and are also living in China (Chengdu) and have been looking at WES.

Just wondering did you decide to go with it or what did you do in the end?

I know its expensive, but we lie the idea that you get all the materials and a timetable of what to do. thats the bit we are a bit lost/ overwhelmed with