The decision to homeschool or home educate your children can be a difficult one, We went back and forth on this for months.
However, once you get started on this journey, it is likely that you’ll never want to stop! Home education is nothing like what you think or expect, nor is it like the “homeschooling” that went on with the lockdowns.
This blog post will discuss some of the basics of starting out in home education so that you can get ready for what’s coming ahead.
Home educating your child is a big thing, but how do you start? What is the process? Is there help and support?
Below we will explain the process and how to get everything moving along for you.
1 – Remove your child from school.
If you have a child and they are in school, the first step on your home education journey is to take them out of school.
You need to inform the headteacher that you are deregistering your child from the school. I did this the old fashioned way (a letter) and I also emailed the school so I had a trail. (We have several templates available on the local authority page)
After you have sent this in, the head should acknowledge your letter and confirm your child has been removed from the register.
It is the school’s responsibility to inform the Local Authority (LA) that you are home educating. You are under no obligation to tell the local authority that you’re about to start on your home educating journey.
2 – Find a local group.
This is not compulsory, but it’s a good idea for people who are new to home-schooling and I highly recommend this.
Not only can you learn from other people who have been doing it for longer and ask them where to get resources, go for days out, best online learning sites etc.
But, It will also offer you support from people in the same boat as yourself. We have a complete list of all the home education FB groups in the UK.
When we first started home educating the Facebook groups where a lifeline, we found out about classes, social meets ups and lots more.
I can honestly say, without these groups we wouldn’t have known about 80% of the different stuff available, like design technology on a Tuesday, home ed sessions at different locations like Rockup, cooking classes, forest school and many more.
If I could give anyone a top tip for home education it would be to join your local FB group.
3- Take it slow.
Once we had made the decision to home educate, I spent several days looking into and buying lots of different workbooks, subscriptions, and pretty much anything that would resemble “school” at home.
Boy, was this a mistake and waste of money!
The whole reason to home educate was to remove the “school” element and here I was trying to recreate it with Maths, English, Science, Geography workbooks.
The first time we got these out my son instantly started getting anxious and upset, they haven’t been back out since.
Instead, I would advise you to start with your child’s learning style and interests.
4 – Understand how your child learns best.
Some children learn best through visuals, such as watching TV or movies.
Others enjoy reading textbooks and learning in their own time at their own pace, while others may prefer a hands-on approach with practical experiments and activities that reinforce what they’ve learned.
Think about your child’s personality and also ask them questions, you may be surprised by some of the answers but these will help you to understand the best way forward with your child’s education.
Understanding how your child learns best will help you to plan their education, but there is no ‘one-size-fits all’ solution.
Keeping a flexible attitude and finding out what works for your family are the keys when home educating.
5 – There is no right or wrong way.
In the beginning, I struggled with fully understanding the concept of home education because I was trying to mirror what was happening in school.
Please don’t make this mistake too.
Home education doesn’t have to take place in school hours/days/terms.
It is entirely up to you whether you want to follow the national curriculum or not. Learning doesn’t just happen at a desk, it happens all the time.
Example – Going to the beach.
Talk about geography, geology – what do you see, why is it there, how has the landscape changed, what changes it etc.
Planning the journey – Get a map and plan out the journey, figure out times to get there, how much fuel you might need.
Taking a lunch? – Let your child write the shopping list, shop with you for the ingredients and make the lunch. Included here are maths, reading, science and English.
6 – Resources.
Once you start doing research into resources and speaking with other home educators you will quickly discover there are hundreds if not thousands available, some paid and some free.
I have shared out favourites on the resources page for home educators.
Home education doesn’t have to cost a fortune.
You don’t need tutors and you don’t need expensive online programmes.
The one thing I would recommend to everyone is a good printer. And again this doesn’t have to be an expensive one.
I use and recommend the HP DeskJet 3760 All-in-One Printer,
It costs less than £50 and is one of the top-rated printers for the money. Plus it comes with a free 2 month trial for HP Instant Ink which means you will never run out of ink as when it’s getting low the new ink gets ordered by your printer and delivered to your door. (Next level Stuff!)
Other features include:
Wirelessly print, scan and copy what you need quickly and easily with this affordable all-in-one.
With HP Smart app, print and scan from virtually anywhere: Print documents, photos from the cloud, social media, scan with your smartphone camera
Check out the HP DeskJet 3760 All-in-One Printer,