Home Education Part 1
Welcome to home education, I along with my husband have successfully home educated our four children for years at a time throughout their lives. Three are now adults with careers, our youngest is still in education. Like most of you, his school closed on Friday and he’s at home now.
There are many different home education styles, most people begin with a structure, a timetable with set times for each subject, making lesson plans and having a goal which may be to get your children ready for a test to a particular standard. I would refer to this method as homeschooling (i.e. recreating school at home).
There are other more relaxed methods including child-led learning where parents and carers provide learning opportunities and material and allow the children to decide their path, this method is usually crossed with a little homeschooling, eg mornings are for formal lessons and work plans and afternoons are more relaxed or creative.
There is also the option to use an autonomous method, some parents take this to the level of never telling their child what to do or not to do. This has led to some interesting discussions between children when they meet up, homeschooled children chatting with autonomous children makes for fruity eavesdropping …
”what do you mean you don’t have to wash if you don’t want to?”
We have used a little of all three methods over the years.
If you simply want to get through the next three months and for your child to not fall behind academically, I would recommend a mix of homeschooling and child lead learning.
This means getting together a nice amount of resources. No, you don’t have to know all the subjects and nor do you have to be a teacher, your child will look to you at first to direct their learning as they do their teacher at school. However, the aim should be to get the child to find the ways that they learn best and the times they work well. This is vital for older children especially. Study skills are an important life skill. How long did it take you to find out that your best work is done at 4am or that you need to plan in advance to make the most of your time as you can’t work properly under stress? The sooner your child learns their limits and strengths the better.
Right now I would strongly recommend talking to your children, playing together, cooking, cleaning and making things, we are all incredibly stressed and afraid we need love around us. Have a movie night, bake cookies or a cake, have a dance-off, build a Minecraft world together.
The lessons can begin next week.
Jameella Leadbitter Suljam.com