Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Home ed

Find advice from other parents on our Homeschool forum. You may also find our round up of the best online learning resources useful.

Home education

6 replies

TLEmR · 02/05/2020 15:25

Hi, I have a question for all of you that normally homeschool and not only during the quarantine. Surprisingly we’ve been enjoying a lot working from home, and I can’t help to think that it would be amazing if we can keep doing it this way after things go back to normal. My husband is English but I’m not from here and all my family leave in Mexico, my husband travels a lot for work and the reason why we can’t go with him it’s because of my kids school. They’re 9 and 5 and when my husband is away it’s only the 3 of us here as we have no help from his family at all, in fact we don’ have a good relationship with them. If my kids were studying from home we could travel with my husband , not always but at least when he needs to be away for more than 2 or 3 weeks ( which it’s at least 5 in a year) I’m very organised and now during the lockdown I make sure we are all ready by 9 to start school work , this it’s work sent by the teachers and others bit I use from books I ordered online. My kids aren’t too bothered about going back to school but they miss their friends. Now for all of you experts in the subject is it home education similar to what where doing right now, do you get some sort of support for the lessons? And would you recommend it? Many thanks in advance x

OP posts:
TLEmR · 03/05/2020 10:26

Nobody? Hmm

OP posts:
Abbccc · 03/05/2020 10:29

Sounds like a good option for your family. No you don't get any help or money from the government/LA. You're on your own! But there are lots of home ed groups organised by parents. For general - and legal information have a look at Education Otherwise's website.

Abbccc · 03/05/2020 10:32

You can teach any way you like as long as it's according to "age, ability and aptitude" (Education Act). You can do structured lessons like you are doing now, or let the children learn autonomously, or somewhere in between.

TLEmR · 04/05/2020 00:19

Hi, by support I meant help with the lessons not moneySmile I’m going to have a look, thanks for you help and encouragement xx

OP posts:
Saracen · 04/05/2020 13:02

Hi, I'm glad you've been enjoying educating your kids at home!

If you withdraw your children from school, you won't get any help provided by the government, but likewise there's nobody telling you what you have to do and when and how. So it's more effort to figure out what your children need and provide it to them, but at the same time you are completely free to choose what suits them best.

If you like the simplicity of having it all laid out for you as it is now, you could buy a ready-made curriculum from a private provider. Some companies do sell a complete package like you are now getting from the school, but that is not so popular in the UK anyway. Many parents who use a curriculum prefer the "pick-and-mix" approach for the different subjects where, for example, you might buy a maths curriculum from one provider, science from another, and put together history yourself.

Many parents are inclined to buy in a lot of support when they start home educating, either because they assume education has to be done that way or because they feel it would be too difficult to put something together themselves. Over time, there tends to be a drift toward more informal learning as families see that a ready-made curriculum might be too rigid for their kids. Some parents do follow a curriculum with set lessons in the long run because they prefer to have all the planning done for them.

There are many, many different ways to home educate. My two (now aged 13 and 20) do "autonomous education" where they choose for themselves what, when and how to learn. Usually this is totally informal and doesn't involve textbooks, but there have been times when they requested more formal "lessons". For example my eldest had a tutor for a musical instrument, attended German lessons, and used a maths book to prepare for GCSEs. But before that she just picked up maths by handling money, reading graphs in the newspaper, doing calculations for DIY projects and so on. It may surprise you to discover how much kids can learn informally. When she tried school for a short while aged ten she wasn't behind, and she had no trouble getting through the GCSE curriculum in one year when she knuckled down to that.

Most home educators recommend that you don't commit too much money at the beginning but instead take time to figure out what you want to use and keep flexible because you will want to make changes as you go. Another common recommendation is to take a complete break from all adult-directed learning for at least a few months while your kids relax and find out what really interests them. During this time let them play, read and do hobbies - whatever they want. You'll be able to see better what they need and can experiment with gradually introducing things. There's no hurry because when you get stuck in with materials which suit them, and they have one-to-one attention from you, they cover so much ground so fast. Especially at this age, you'll probably find that you need no more than an hour or two a day at most.

Saracen · 04/05/2020 13:03

You asked whether what you're doing now is like normal home education. There are two main ways it's different. First, now you are being told that you must teach your children certain things, but if you home educate you can decide. For example, if you felt your 5yo wasn't ready to read yet, you could delay that. Or if you think your kids learn better through discussion than writing, you can just talk to them instead of making them do worksheets and write essays. Or if they want to throw themselves into learning all about Antarctica you can let them follow that interest instead of studying the Tudors.

The other big difference is that many home ed families are normally quite social, going out to see friends and relatives and visit different places. Mine are both missing their friends desperately and wish they could go out! It may be called "home education" but some families are rarely at home. When your children are allowed to mix with others, they might like to keep up friendships with their current school friends and also meet new friends at home education groups - that has the advantage that home ed kids are more available to play in the daytime. You can find your local home ed group by doing a search on Facebook.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page