Home Learning help

[quinne]

I live abroad in a country where children don't start school until age 7 but we are planning to return to the UK next year just as my oldest child comes up for school age here but three years after all his future classmates will have started school. I want him to fit in as easily as possible but I need help. I'm trying to teach him at home and so far he is doing ok I think but I'm really improvising. Does anyone know if the UK Government supports mothers who home teach? Or maybe just a website or forum where mothers who teach their children at home compare notes and support each other???

Any help would be much appreciated

Hi, I home educate but my DS is older so I can't tell you much about how to go about it with a younger one, but there are a number of other mums on the Home Education threads who could probably give you a lot of ideas - you could start a thread on there to get their attention.

There's no government support as such for home education, even if you were living in the UK, but you can find websites which explain what a child would be doing in the National Curriculum (or 5 to 14 Guidelines if you were in Scotland) which might give you an idea what the other children will have already covered when he joins the class later.

thanks for your help. the home education threads are on mumsnet? I am new here and don't really know my way around yet...

I wrote to the British Embassy asking for help too. They have a whole team set up to enable people to study in the UK, so i thought that is what I want to do, although i suspect that what they really want to do is to get foreign students to pay university fees. They didn't answer though, so i don't think its a subject which interests them much.

I suspect you're right about them really being interested in fee-paying foreign students, there's little support from government for home education even here.
The Home Ed topic is just down from Education on the topic list - there are a number of mums of younger children who post on there, I'm sure they'd be able to point you towards good websites or books.

This might help national primary literacy stragergy

I suggest you buy the Jolly Phonics Handbook as most schools in the UK use it in reception to teach reading.

jolly phonics hand book

You could buy some decodable books like www.jellyandbean to complement the jolly phonics manual, or Yellow or Green Jolly Readers.

There are also Jolly Grammar books you can get for year 1 and year 2 work.

Many schools use the Oxford Reading Tree, but their books are quite expensive.

I have no idea how my son learns Maths.

In many ways I think you are blessed not having to follow the national curriculum. It does expect a lot of children very early.

Thanks for the tips.
You are right about not having to put up with assessments being a major advantage to my families situation.

Since my children were born i've brought them up trying to use commonsense and to gently help them along with whatever they are doing. Education is just another one of those life skills (actually it is several of those life skills!). SATS tests for 6 year olds just feels wrong. Like it was a policy written by people who had never taken time out to care for children 9which is probably exactly what it is!).

Interesting thread. Will check out those links. Am in similar situation, quinne (and actually we are neighbours! I'm up in BiH!). DS is almost 5 and goes to the local nursery every day. He's learning to write there and loves the place but if we do decide to return to the UK, even if it is only for a few months, I do worry about whether he will be at the same level.