Home education

[loodledoo]

My DH is really keen for me to home educate our DD, she’s currently only 18 months so we’re a way off but I’d be really interested in others experiences of home educating their children in the UK. I’d love to know what a typical day looks like and what resources are available to you in your local area to help with home educating, such as groups with other home educated children, and what made you decide home educate your children/ what you think the benefits are, please. I’m looking into this now because if we do decide to home educate I’d like to do some sort of home preschool prior to her being primary school age. Thank you so much in advance.

Do you WANT to do it? Why is he not doing it?

Home educating for preschool is just life with a preschooler with involved parents I would have thought.

I think home ed is a wonderful thing but at 18 months you have no idea if it would best suit their personality or if you'd want to do it - 4 year olds are a lot more stubborn, and social, than cute 18 month olds who just want mum.

I think there is a home ed board here would probably be really helpful with the logistics.

I’m very happy to do it if it is the right thing for our daughter, which is why I’m looking to get more information which I’ll be able to consider and build on over the next few years to make a decision when she is nearer to school age. It would fall to me because my husband runs a business which pays for me to be home with our daughter. I will take a look into the board you’ve mentioned, thank you.

Home educating in the UK can look really different for each family, but for little ones it’s mostly play-based. At 18 months, “home preschool” is really just reading together, exploring outdoors, messy play, music, and following their interests — no formal lessons needed yet.
Most areas have home-ed meetups, park groups, forest school sessions, and library activities during school hours, so you won’t be alone once you join local HE groups.
We chose home ed for the flexibility and the calmer pace. You can really tailor things to your child. And when you eventually want a bit more structure, simple worksheets and activity sheets (like this one: https://worksheetzone.org/worksheets) can help add gentle learning without pressure.
Happy to share more if you need it!