Resources for home education

[giveyourselfabreak]

Hi, I’m looking for suggestions for good resources to use with my 12-year-old son. We’ve recently started home educating, and while I know there’s no requirement to strictly follow a curriculum or routine, I’m finding it difficult to put some structure in place, especially as I work part-time.

Ideally, I’d like to have some workbooks or online resources he can work through independently. However, I’m finding the huge range of options available, both free and paid, a bit overwhelming to choose from.

I don’t mind paying for a subscription, ideally around £15–£20 per month, but I’d appreciate recommendations for good, easy to use resources from people who are in a similar position. Has anyone found a system or resources that work really well for their child/family?

The good and the beautiful are good for maths and English. They are Christian but I was happy to work with the material as an atheist teaching my Muslim children. You can test first then download the right grade level.

For history I loved the story of the world. With a 12 year old Id either work quickly through vol 1. Or go deep in the extra reading. You do need the book and the activity book.

We used online lessons - live and recorded - that worked well as they could access them without me. Check out these resources- Southwest Science School; The £2 Tuition Hub; Absolute Maths; Learntec (computer science); Humanatees (geography, history, RE); Dreaming Spires; The Art and Design Room; Pastel & Smudge; English Elephant.

MEP Maths
Galore Park
Killgallon
Art of Problem Solving (very challenging maths books from the US. Use the placement tests, but if you were to use this now he would probably start with prealgebra)

Twinkl has parent and tutor memberships .you can get resources for all Subjects with year of teaching in UK on there up to GCSE . Also alot of free resources .

I’m a secondary maths teacher, so I can only really speak to the maths side, but there are some excellent free options that would leave your budget free for other subjects:

• Oak National Academy has full KS3 maths lessons with short videos, quizzes and worksheets in a sensible order. It’s really useful for giving him structure he can follow on his own.
• Dr Frost Maths is a free practice platform with explanations and questions that adapt to him, and you can see what he’s completed.
• Corbettmaths has free videos and worksheets, and the “5-a-day” daily questions are great for keeping older topics fresh.
• CGP KS3 Maths workbooks are cheap and clear if he prefers working on paper, and they have answers in the back.

For structure while you’re working, a simple routine works well. For example, 20–30 minutes of maths every day: a few quick questions on older topics first, then one new lesson from Oak, then practice. Little and often beats long sessions at this age, and the daily mixed questions stop things being forgotten.

Good luck, the first few months are always the hardest to settle into!

Hi. Others have given lots of excellent recommendations for home ed resources already, so I hope you won't mind if I change tack slightly. It might be useful to work out with your son what's currently happening that makes you feel you and he need more structure.
If this request is coming from your son, then fair enough. He might have the sort of personality that thrives with structure, and enjoys having booklets to write in, or showing that he's moved up levels with online learning. My home ed son was that sort of kid. He would probably have done well in school if the school had just been him and the teachers 😁
But I often met new-to-home-ed parents who were worried that their child wasn't producing written work straight after deregistering from school and worried they wouldn't be able to prove what had been learned. Their kids then often reacted to the school-like structure at home in the same way they reacted at school, and if that was why they hadn't coped well at school, they had the same problems at home.
Depending on the reasons for deregistering, your son might need a break from a structured, writing-heavy pattern of working. That wouldn't need to be a break from learning, however, and you and he could evidence what he has learned without him doing much of the writing.
Learning by doing could be evidenced by taking photos as he cooks or helps on an allotment or does DIY with a grandparent, for instance. Topics might arise as he learns by doing, or visiting places, that he wants to find out more about, and he could then be motivated to read more about it, and make notes for himself to help him remember. Writing would at that point be something useful to him, instead of something that is imposed as something he must do to show others. That process could then lead to him getting back into the more structured approach with workbooks and online learning courses.

My son did the arts award from age seven till now (18) and has completed gold now. We did it with Pastel and Smudge, fantastic, the tutor is fabulous and understood my son’s style of learning perfectly incorporating his interests into his projects. The awards are equivalent to gcses and gold is an A level equivalent. They do other classes too. He did a year at college at 14 till 15 on the elective home education course to do some GCSEs. Good luck and enjoy. It doesn’t have to be packed with subjects like school. My son worked towards having 5 GCSE’s or equivalents as that’s what he needed to get into his college course he’s now on and we are looking at universities now for next year.,