Home educating 8 and 10 year old advice

[homeEdu]

We are considering deregistering and wondered if these plans for education sound ok? We think they could do pretty much the same work

-20 hours active learning (ie sit down type) per week so split up any way that suits us ie 4 hours mon-fri or more hours some days less or none others

Trips out (at weekends) and then basing each weeks work around a theme and the trip would be relevant to that

They already have extra curricular groups they would continue to attend for socialising

There are good very local home ed groups

I would modify some work (eg spellings) on ability but a lot they could do the same

Watch documentaries, cooking, playing outside etc

I need to show progress so I would just keep all their work. Is there anything else I need to do or does that sound ok

Also do I need to ‘de school’ first or can we just go into our new plans ?

Personally I think that is a lot of sit down learning at that age. We do that now but that is at 14 years old studying 6 GCSEs (2 with exams this summer) and couple of other subjects. At 8/10 it would not have been near half that and we are quite structured by a lot of home educators standards. I think you'll be surprised how much you can cover in short spells.

I never kept work unless it was something helpful to look back on or sentimental. We didn't create much anyway apart from maths and handwriting in terms of paper based stuff.

There are no hard and fast rules in terms of home ed. Deschooling is recommended as often children need time to heal and reconnect with their curiosity. Parents benefit from deschooling by getting a chance to move away from picture of how they think education looks and seeing disconnecting education and school. Tends to lead to less money wasted on resources that don't work for your child. You have to do what works for you though just be prepared to be open minded and flexible and prepared to adapt as you go.

Ok so I don’t need to do the same as school do ? I had worked out that 9-3 but minus lunch playtime’s and assembly they were doing about 4 hours a day- it’s ok to do less ? I don’t want to do anything wrong !!

No definitely don't have to do what schools do. There is a lot of faffing and wasted time in the classroom. Also they will not be sat at a desk for a lot of those hours. There's PE, art, music, hands on activities, class discussions, cooking, Science all going on in that time.

I will out myself here but as I only ever post on home ed threads I doubt it matters :D This is our blog - dates back to my 14yo being 4 lifeloveandliterature.home.blog
period 2011-2015ish would have seen me having similar age children to yours. Not suggesting at all you do what we were just an example of how different home ed looks to the image many have of school.

Thankyou so much I will have a look

I have been home schooling a 12 year old and an 8 year old since September, when they left State schools. We use an internet school for some lessons, but this isn't enough for my kids. We aim for 5 hours per day of education, which can be formal lessons online and offline, building projects, art, music, film and trips out. I think making a timetable helps you track things, and keeping a diary of progress makes it easier. There are loads of software options for Home education. I use matific and spelling shed with our youngest, for example. TES do fantastic lesson plans, many of which are free. I also found a blogger called Freddiesmummy to be amazing when I got started. Youtube have lots of resources, including home-school pop. Ebay offer study texts if you need curriculum guidance at little cost to you, and finally bargain shops like Poundland have study books which cover the basics in maths, languages etc. I was very worried about home schooling before I got started, but my kids love it, have made so much progress and they are not tired or emotional about schooling anymore. I still got to work on the social side, but there are usually home school networks and meetups that you can find on social media like facebook. Best of luck!

Just one bit of advice. I would suggest doing the trips during the week as it’s lovely and quiet everywhere and a lot of venues (museums, art galleries, theatres etc.) do discounts for home ed students - same as they would do for visiting schools.