teaching english at home, where do I start????

[ernest]

Ok, so we live in Switzerland. Have 3 boys, eldest 2 currently in Kindergarten (aged 5 & almost 7) Eldest will satrt school at age 7 later this year. Obviously they'll be taught to read & write at school, but in German. I am keenly aware that at primary and secondary school they do English probably almost every day . I am concerned that they'll be semi-literate in their mother tongue (know of several people in our situation where this is the case) so I'm gonna have to teach them myself. I feel more than able to do this, problem is I have no idea what to teach them, what the curriculum is, what resources I'll need, don't have access except by eg amazon.

Any tips/ideas plas from all you home schoolers?

PS, I admire your commitment. I subject is putting thefear of God into me. Very much admire your determination to teach it all, esp when I guess you're faced with quite a bit of oppostion.

Also, do I teach the 5 & 7 year old at same time, or give them sep. lessons?
ta

If you need any help email me [email protected]

I give you indepth advice if you need it.

Recently given up teaching (taught early years-primary previously) to stay at home.

this website might help \link{http://tlfe.org.uk/englishks1.htm\ lighthouse education}

scroll down to the bottom to go to the homepage too!

ernest, I'm in a very similar position. My daughter is 8 and reads very well. All I need to do with her is maintain and develop that and encourage her to write, however I have a son who is 4 and is now learning the Italian alphabet, whereas I don't want to confuse him and I do want him to be able to read and write his mother tongue.

On my last visit to the UK I bought some first reading books and will start doing that and word/letter games with him and leave it as that until he has got the hang of that.

There are various curriculums you can buy such as WES, or why not but book and vieo or book and audio sets, that way your children will have the book for the written english and either the audio tape or video to hear the english.

I was just wondering on how everyone is getting on with this. I will be taking DS(6 1/2) out of his bi-lingual school at Christmas and puting him in a local Brazilian school. Obviously he will continue to learn reading and writing in Portuguese but I'm going to have to home ed him in English reading and writing. He is well on the way with these skills but clearly needs to continue working on them. I don't even know where to start, how many hours per day, what books etc etc TBH I haven't a clue.

I'm not a home educator, but I have taught my son to read using jolly phonics. 20% of secondary kids have poor literacy skills and i didnt want to leave it to chance.

The Jolly phonics hand book has step by step instructions. For older children there are the jolly grammar hand books which I believe are good although I have never used them. It would also be good to get some decodable books like

www.jellyandbean.co.uk

We found the Jolly phonics DVD and jolly songs CD good for learning letter sounds. I believe that Jolly phonics also do some work books but I have never used them.

hi albert, you're in a similar position to me then. I'm no further forward to be honest. Ds1 & 2 can read a bit, I got this book and find it really great, they can do it easily. The biggest problem is ME disciplining myself to sit down and do it with them.

But teaching them to read is only a tiny part of the story, isn't it? I mean kids in the UK get loads of English lessons, teachiing them creative writing, how their language works, spelling rules, grammar rules, etc etc. It's not the learning to read, but 'everything else' I'm concerned about. I don't want them to grow up, literally semi-literate in their mother tongue.