Home Ed… what does your day look like?

[CPHB2021]

I’m very seriously considering home education for my two school age children, they are currently in heat 1&4. I don’t work and have younger children in the home and I’m wondering what people’s days/routine is like. I would absolutely need some social aspect- home ed groups etc. but is it likely that I would be able to go to something everyday, without having to pay for every activity?

Id love to hear how it looks for people actually home educating!

Thank you in advance x

My child is 14.

Drop his siblings off at breakfast club (they go to school).

When I get back, ge makes breakfast for us and a coffee and we sit and watch a film or couple of episode of tv series and chat while we watch it. Last week and this week we have been watching The Good Doctor & talked about autism, medical things etc. This week we watched the tourettes movie.

Once thats done, about 10.30ish, he goes and works on whatever it is we are doing about at the time. At the moment, its about civic duty, so hes learned about rights v responsibilities, written articles aimed at teenagers, persuasive letters to local businesses and council. Does that until about 12, when we have a very quick break for lunch and walk the dog. He then does an hour and a half or so of maths, using oak academy, cgp, edplace etc. He has igcses next year so working through the specs for that. I sit next to him and work while he does it so I can chip in if he needs help (I work freelance).

I get the other kids at 3 so that's when his formal day ends but quite often he carries on. He goes to the gym one night a week, youth Council and youth club once a week.

You'd have to see what's on in your local area. To find local home ed families, go on Facebook and type into its search bar "home education" followed by your county or city or nearest big city. In some areas there is more happening than others.

As a rule of thumb I would say no, you are unlikely to find a group to go to every day of the week which is free of charge. There are some free things such as park meet-ups, and people might agree to meet at a free museum etc, but usually a home ed group would be meeting somewhere where they have to hire a venue and therefore need to charge people. Or they might go to a soft play or skating rink, which also wouldn't be free. In my county you could probably find something free to go to every day, but only if you're willing to travel the length of the county to do it, and then your travel costs would outweigh any savings on the activities.

BUT social time doesn't have to involve only groups. You might need groups just at first in order to make friends, but then if your kids hit it off with others, you could do playdates with or without parents coming along. My firstborn was super sociable and had a constant round of playdates, usually lasting at least four hours. I might collect a child or two or three and then take the whole gang to the park or nature reserve, or their parents would drop them round to my house for the day. Other days I would send my child off with another family for the day.

A useful feature of home educated kids is that they tend to be much more available to play than schoolchildren are. Because their education is more efficient, they have plenty of time on their hands. Even if they do some formal learning, parents are often willing to rearrange their schedules rather than insisting, as a school would, that the child must be practicing reading at 1pm. Playing is important! Other parents are often eager to promote social time for their kids, and/or the parents want some time to themselves with their kids off their hands! 😁(Yes, that was also on my agenda.)

You might have to invest some time initially in going out to home ed events so you can find the families whose kids like to play with yours, where it's convenient and the other parents are also keen. The more often they see each other, the faster the friendships can form.

Your day will look different depending on your child their ability and how they learn.

I’m much more structured than a lot of home Ed parents with my dd. We follow the NC with a but extra on top. My dd is 10. She gets up and has her breakfast then watches a maths video and does the associated workbook page (white rose). She has about 4-6 workbooks (CGP) in her pile for the day and will do a page of each whenever she feels like doing them I let her decide. I tend to set these based on documentary’s she’s been watching or topics i e taught her in the preceding days and she does them independently I only get involved if she’s not understanding. He has zoom lessons most days (£2tuituon hub and learn laugh play) for English, more maths, times tables, digital skills, and topics she’s chosen like history or psychology. I will also give her a dedicated hour most days actively teaching her in science history or geography. Twinkl is a great resource. And she has a face to face tutor two hours a week mainly for English but also just to monitor her maths is expected standard. She gets her social from cubs, football, art class and monthly ish soft play/park meet ups. We also do a lot of trips away for a night or two travelling to museums particularly historical learning trips.

i have a high need 9yo SEN son who while I don’t choose to home educate the LA cannot find him a school place so I have to do what I can. But I do not have the skills. He used apps like reading eggs and teach your monster to read. There are excellent apps out there! My dd used to use them too but is a fluent reader now. My son does forest school and lots of soft play meet ups as we have a membership. He needs much more skilled play based learning.

definitely join your local fb home Ed group to see what’s happening. We do a swimming class with other home edders. There is also a local meet up where they hire a hall weekly and play board games, or people make connections for their kids to game together online. Often lots of park/soft play meet ups and forest schools. There is a national group that organise learning trips or just social holidays. I’m in a group for discount code and offers on resources and membership- our white rose log in and a couple others are group membership via that group- it’s invite only though so you need to chat to other home edders and see what they can invite you to.

just keep in mind your child’s future. I know of some families who were very chill about learning and now have adult children without any qualifications and who cannot get even basic jobs as almost all require maths and English functional skills. I try not to judge as lots of home edders kids are home Ed due to unsupported SEN in school etc but I do feel they failed their children not seeing this situation coming. I feel similar about unschooling, there is certainly a place for it, lots of kids need to de school and recover from negative school experiences and done correctly unschooling can be very educational but it’s often a phrase used to justify very little or no education longer term in my experience locally.

When we lived in inner London we did gymnastics (cheap) one day, a HE “school” type class (kinda expensive)for a couple hours and then at least one meet up (free/cheap) but in good weather up to three. Sometimes we’d go swimming (cheap) or to a museum or an activity I’d found going on (free to moderate)

now we live in an area of outer London with less home ed stuff… people are back to meeting up now weather is better so once or twice a week in a park and then my kids go to a forest school twice a week (expensive)

in between is mostly free play as they’re pretty young with bits of literacy and numeracy sprinkled in and some occasional adult lead stuff but we lean on the unschooling/self directed side of things