english

Starting Out with Home Education

| Homemadeeducation

Starting home educating comes with many worries and questions! And there are so many resources out there, it’s hard to know where to start. So here is a bit of help (and please know that it will get easier, you will get your head around it all, and the opportunities are endless to really tailor your young person’s education to their needs):

-educationalfreedom.org.uk is a fantastic resource when starting out, so too is educationotherwise.org (most of your getting started questions are answered!) 🙂  (educationalfreedom.org.uk has a fantastic report-writing guide (along with other fab resources))

-one of the many benefits of home ed is that you can tailor the education to the young person … to their strengths, goals, interests, etc. (that being said, many parents (and often your local authority) want to ensure that a young person keeps up with Maths, English and Science appropriate to their level and aptitude

-whilst a ‘full time’ education is often defined by schools as 32.5 hours (and some LAs try to enforce/promote this idea too), the key thing to remember is that a school education is very inefficient, and many of those hours are not spent learning

-many home educators, in my experience, do something in the range of 15-30 hours of learning a week, but this does not need to be weekdays, does not need to be between the hours of 9 and 3, and does not need to ‘mimic’ school (activities such as doing chores, shopping, cooking, building a project in the garage, going to hunt fossils at the beach, etc can all count as ‘education’)

– the English National Curriculum, if you wish to follow it (you don’t have to), can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum

In terms of IGCSEs/GCSEs:

1) this podcast goes into a wealth of detail about your options, things to consider, and subject choices:  https://home-education-matters.captivate.fm/episode/35

2) this is a useful (home educators only) FB group to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/HomeEducationGCSEsIGCSEsExamsandAlternatives

3) there is a really useful starting out with exams guide you can download here (scroll down a bit): https://homemadeeducation.com/faqs/

(You will also come across the terms ‘home educating’ and ‘homeschooling’ being used interchangeably – they don’t mean the same thing but don’t worry if you accidently use the wrong word!)

Learning with nature

| Homemadeeducation

Over the many years of our home ed journey, one thing has been constant – nature. We not only enjoy nature’s sounds and colours and smells and textures purely for what they are (and the boost to mental / physical health that they bring), but we also enjoy the huge variety of learning opportunities that come from nature – writing, art, science, geography, and even maths!

If you haven’t put them in your diary already, these two have been staples for us every single year, and we hope they are for you too!

1. BBC Winterwatch (and Springwatch and Autumnwatch!): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p012msk2/episodes/guide

2. The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch: https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/big-garden-birdwatch?mac=bwmith0230&utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=bgbw-2026&utm_content=ppc&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23350271479&gbraid=0AAAAADLmW3iBI83O0zkrObw20UoeUxjpS&gclid=Cj0KCQiAprLLBhCMARIsAEDhdPc8ku5XEy2A4-P78gJGHbLNiIQel5buNSFyHdN9YQK1fptXQlgkgucaAkDIEALw_wcB

The NEW HomeMadeEducation prospectus for the coming ’23/’24 “academic year” is now available!

| Homemadeeducation

The NEW HomeMadeEducation prospectus for the coming ’23/’24 “academic year” is now available! You can download all of the course details here https://homemadeeducation.com/faqs/ .
From Architecture to English to Psychology to Zoology, from 9yrs -18yrs (primary, secondary, GCSEs/IGCSEs, A-Levels), we have a unique and engaging course (or two) that will delight your young person!
“I think you must be a bit magic. Thankyou. Its quite an emotional thing for me to see J approaching learning with such gusto. I can’t tell you how much your classes are helping him learn how to learn. It’s not just that he finds you personally so engaging, which is rare in itself, but he is learning how to research and present his ideas. This is something he has never done before.”
www.homemadeeducation.com has been offering highly recommended and highly reviewed courses and workshops for over a decade!

Families come back to HomeMadeEducation courses year after year, knowing that we offer superb value and unsurpassed support. I hope you find something that suits your young person to a ‘T’ (and if you have any suggestions for future courses, do let me know too!)

Very best regards, Kate

NYC Calls

| Homemadeeducation

Our very own Caitlin Kendall (tutor extraordinaire, top examiner, published author, literary judge) is off to New York CITY tomorrow with @bentkeypublishing (the publishers of her new book) as part of the New York City Poetry Festival on Saturday! Our learners are so lucky to have Caitlin guide them through their English and History studies!