Of the shelf resources

[chrissynou]

We are now living abroad and ds is in a small school which finishes at 12noon everyday - he had completed Reception in UK and loved it. Here (Greece) they start the kids later and so he is back to painting faces on leaves and making paper hats! He has found the move difficult and I am finding occupying him in the afternoons tortuous. I want to teach him stuff at home but am struggling - I need help myself. doing a search of the net I found you buy packs that give you lesson plans, resources, etc all you need to support teaching the national curriculum at home. Are these a good solution? They are expensive and I am not sure if they are worth it? Any advice from you Home Edders?

Of course I mean - Off the Shelf! perhaps I need a little more education too!

Hi, my DS is a lot older so I don't have experience of the NC resources, but I know a lot of people like the MuddlePuddle website (sorry don't know the link but I'm sure Google can provide). There are also a lot of workbooks etc that you can get just one at a time, which you might find a better use of resources than paying into a scheme which you might not use all of. There are also online resources for things like Phonics and maths.

Thanks AMumInScotland. I am already using some Internet based stuff - although I will look again at the muddlepuddle site - at first sight I dismissed it because it looked too young for my boy. The big problem I have is ME! I don't know where to begin and I don't know what to expect of my 6 yr. The off the shelf looked appealing as it might give me a plan to follow and some sort of measure as to whether I am pitching stuff at the level he is capable of. It was easy in the UK before ds started school as I just made up letter and numbers games and tasks. Now I am struggling with what to do with him. I also can't buy workbooks etc easily as I am not in the UK too often.

You could maybe look at the NC website to find out what they would be covering with him? I know here in Scotland (we don't have NC but we have 5-14 Guidelines) we can see a website with a list of everything they would be covering at different stages, so you might at least get an idea of what he's already done and what the NC thinks he should cover next.

Will it be a problem later with the school if you've already covered stuff they don't do till later? Are you out there for a while, or expecting to come back to UK while he's still at school? What I'm thinking is, if you were coming back soonish then covering the NC would help him slot back in here, but if you'll be out there for longer, maybe you could do things with him that don't clash with what school will do - otherwise you may always be trying to find him stuff to keep him interested. Then you could just get books about science, or animals, or engines, or whatever he finds intersting, and learn about them together.

hello chrissynou

Have you come across Sue In Cyprus?
She is a mom who formerly home educated her children after they moved from Birmingham to Cyprus.
They were teens when they moved and they have now finished home educating, but Sue is still around and involved and interested in HE.
She has a very good HE website Home Education in the UK which has loads of resources.

I think Sue used to purchase resources and may know of other ex pats who do. Sue is lovely and very knowledgeable.
It might be worth contacting her via the site.

thank-you I will contact her. And thanks for the thoughts on NC. We are here for good now and the general theme in education here seems to be that school provides the basics (and very well) but parents have to work with children everyday on what is done at the school in order for them to keep up. Our friends who are working buy private lessons - something I would like to avoid. I will look again at the NC site and see if I can work out some activities for myself. I really appreciate the help!

Oh and another thought-what about;

One-to-one: A Practical Guide to Learning at Home Age 0-11
By Gareth Lewis, Lin Lewis

'One-to-One is a comprehensive guide to learning at home with young children. Its sections on reading, writing and arithmetic have been widely praised by educationalists and parents alike. Additional sections on art, cooking, gardening and crafts show how parents can use these activities to complement academic work and create an idyllic childhood for their children, free from stress and the pressures of modern life.'

and for later;
Unqualified Education: A Practical Guide to Learning at Home Age 11-18
By Gareth Lewis

'Unqualified Education is the UK's first comprehensive guide to secondary education in the home, and offers practical solutions to many of the difficulties experienced by young people between the ages of eleven and eighteen: it provides a means to make education rewarding and self-fulfilling; it offers a practical alternative to an education based on examinations and qualifications; and it demonstrates how the home offers the perfect environment for combining traditional educational values with the demands of modern life and modern technology.'

By a home educator for home educators.

I have not read them myself, but have heard good things about them

Thank-you! I was feeling quite depressed yesterday when I started this talk but am now quite inspired. Sue's site is a goldmine - and I am really enjoying exploring the MuddlePuddle site. Have already got a maths project to do today that I know ds will love. I am going to order the book you suggest too. Everyone happy here - particularly dh who wasn't convinced we had to pay out loads of money for resources. We have agreed we will subscribe to an Internet based resource and I will create my own schedule and plans. If its not working we will invest in something more structured at the start of the next school year. Many many thanks.