Home School Resources

[Lemur3]

I've been searching for KS1 & KS2 national curriculum info and it's a blooming minefield with so many options!

Can any of you wise and lovely people point me in the right direction of some good online and/or paper copy teacher resources available to me as a home-schooling parent (ie where you don't have to be a qualified teacher to access the info), or one of those subscription Companies - the only one I've seen that might be good is the @school one.

This is a genuine enquiry: I am already homeschooling DS2 (KS1,but with specific SN) and it is working really well but I'm seriously contemplating the same route for DS1 (KS2). We hadn't envisaged teaching them both at home but are becoming very disillusioned with the state education system. Short of a miraculous lottery win, private school is not an option... though I do know several parents who have gone down that route and some of them are not that sure it's actually worth the investment.

Many thanks in advance for any info you are able to share

Educational freedom is a new web-sight amid at those new to home ed.
Have you looked at whsmiths, key stage books for all the subjects?
If you are new to this I would suggest buying as little as possible, I have seen family's spend a fortune on resorted only to become auto impose within 12mounths.
Library may have some stuff, charity shops.Good luck.

BBC bite size has lot as well.

Thank you for the great suggestions.

I've had a good wander around the sites and picked up some fab new ideas. It's strange but even though we have been teaching DS2 at home for just over a year now, he has specific SEN and therefore teaching him has been very 'free-range' and reactive to his learning pace. A combination of off-the-shelf books, iPad educational apps and the SEN Teacher website have been very helpful and he has made great progress (miles more than at school). The prospect of home-schooling DS1 is a bit more daunting as we'd have to base it much more around the national curriculum - with a lot of homegrown fun ideas thrown in of course

I know what you mean about the temptation of buying a pile of homeschool stuff! Apart from work sheets and Oxford workbooks, our best investments have been a mini whiteboard, dry-wipe pens and those magnetic letters, numbers and packs of key words... my fridge door looks a bit busy and colourful these days to say the least!

If only we could find a perfect hybrid of independent prep school and state school, with the priceless benefits of one to one flexibility that home-ed gives then I'd be a very happy mum teaching them both at home!

Thanks again for all the ideas. I think I will do lots more research, see how things go at school this term for DS1 and then make a decision for after Christmas.

Hello Op

I can't add much to the wonderful suggestions you have been given, but know that several of the indies I have come across use Galore Park and follow an independent curriculum. This seems great as it isn't as restrictive as the nc and History for e.g is far more interesting.
The books can be quite expensive though if you need a few. Just thought it may be a good idea for your ds1 as you say you'd ideally like a bit of indie prep type of work.
Good luck

Hello OP, just to check you do know you don't have to base anything on the national curriculum unless you really want to? The national curriculum is not evidence based or containing any particular magic - and you don't have to start it at 5 to do GCSEs later. We home ed with no curriculum at all.

Thanks for additional info

I've looked at Galore Park a while ago and put it onto my 'if we do this' list. Seems quite comprehensive and would certainly help us keep on track.

We have a slightly rebellious but healthy disrespect for the national curriculum in our house as it appears to covers a little bit of everything and not enough of anything. Even at KS2, we are always having to elaborate and expand on subject content that DS1 is currently being taught at school; apart from the time commitment, homeschooling him wouldn't be that arduous in terms of lesson content.

For PSHE I thoroughly recommend Wonder Kids Cards (recommended for aged 5 +) Check out www.wonderkidscards.com

I hold my hand up - I am probably wildly biased as the author is a good friend of mine, but I think they are a very neat way of starting discussions about 'big' stuff like kindness, love, gratitude, forgiveness etc, but in a non-religious context. Hope that's useful.