Structured HEers - how do you decide what you want them to learn?

[Bodenbabe]

If you don't educate fully-autonomously, how do you decided what your DCs need to learn? Do any of you follow the NC? (is that even possible if you're not a teacher? I have no idea what's in the NC!) Sometimes I read about what some people teach their DCs and I think "oh gosh, it wouldn't have occurred to me to teach that!" and I worry that I would fail DD by not teaching her important things.

If they would not occur to you, then why do they qualify as important?

How old is your DD? If very young, don't worry about it - as they grow up, so do you and you do what they need at the time.

If you are interested in NC, it is available online so you can see what they'd do at different stages in school. Or go into WHSmith,m the Works, etv. - they have plenty of NC-related workbooks.

We are structured and first cover the basics. Then we discuss with the children what else they would like to do and add that in as well. We also discuss what resources to use. Just because we aren't autonomous doesn't mean that we don't consult our children as to what they would be interested in. I sometimes suggest things and if they look horrified, we don't do it.

We don't really do NC though although we did use lots of Schofield and Sims workbooks when they were small.

"If they would not occur to you, then why do they qualify as important?"

I take your point but I would never presume that only the things that occur to me are important! Besides, it's not a case of not considering something important - it's a case of genuinely forgetting to teach something which is important!

Tinuviel, it's the basics I'm worried about :) I am fine with letting DD (8, by the way) follow her own interests but I'm worried about missing out on the basics. I suppose using the NC as a rough guide and altering it to your own needs is a good idea for that, would you say?

As I say, we started that way and gradually have added other resources in. We use a lot of American resources because I'm quite into classical education. So Well Trained Mind for history/grammar; Writing Strands for writing; History Odyssey (from Pandia Press) for history as they get onto the logic stage; Evan Moor for history projects (for DD this year); and we used Trail Guide to World Geography as well.

We also use Galore Park textbooks, as with 3 children, it's probably cheaper than buying workbooks and they push them a little more than NC. They are also easy to sell on when we've finished with them! We use those for English, Maths, French, Spanish, Latin (can you tell I'm a linguist?!) and KS3 Geography and Science.

For an absolute basic covering of NC, I like Bond No Nonsense English and Maths books. But you don't get enough repetition in them (even with the free extra downloadable sheets from their website).

every now and then, when I have a bit of a flap on, I personally find it helps to check the NC here

once you plough through the work-ese (and stop hyperventilating ) I find you can work out where any holes are- and think of constructive/interesting ways to fill 'em

I thought I had a pretty broad education- but I now find that I have gaps where maths and science ought to be- and a decided arts/humanities bias. This might not be the case with my dcs- I'm finding that their strengths at the moment are in precisely the areas that frightened/bored me at the same age. The NC points me in the right direction. I'm actually learning as well!

Thanks, that link to the NC is handy! I've been meaning to Google that for a while now!

I'd second Bond No Nonsense at primary level. I used it to great success with DD2. We also like the WHsmith Revise Maths series which both DDs have enjoyed. It keeps on going through key stage 3, which I like as so many things stop dead at 11. Not a worry for you yet but it creeps up on you quicker than you think!

I also use Galore Park for English. They have the Junior English books for Years 3-5 and then So You Want to Learn English for Years 6-8. They are very thorough - quite stretching in my opinion, compared to the NC - more like what I did at school! DD2 hasn't minded doing it and it's been very good for her English. She's found a bit of the content a bit too grown up, so I've pre-edited it carefully - but she's emotionally young for her age (11 but really more like a 9 year old in outlook).

Science I used WHSmith Challenge Science for Years 4 -6, also used it as a basis for experiements. We did a page a week, that's all, and by Y6 she had covered the NC for science very nicely and has gone straight into GCSE.

Every other subject, we just study what we feel like, really. DD2 chooses topics so it is very much led by her. But when she came out of school I did want the security of knowing we had the basics covered.