CLASSROOM 1
The Rudiments of Home Education
Welcome to the class.
Educating your child at home can be one of your life’s most wonderful experiences. It can also, however, be a chapter of great stress, especially if you have entered into it from necessity rather than by choice.
What follows are 20 simple guidelines to help ensure your home educating efforts are successful and as stress free as possible.
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1. You do not have to be highly educated in any subject you are helping your child to learn and you certainly do NOT need to be a qualified teacher.
Providing that you have some very basic understanding of any subject, home education is about learning together. This is part of the delightful joy of sharing learning adventures with your child.
Don’t waste a second feeling under qualified; you can do it!
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2. Your attitude as a home teacher is the greatest influence on your child’s attitude as a home pupil.
If you want your child to be enthusiastic, cooperative, hard working and dedicated then you need to demonstrate these identical qualities when in your teaching role.
Simple selective use of terminology can make a world of difference.
Compare the heavy sigh of the teacher as she dictates ‘ its time to do school’ with the big smile of the teacher who invites the child to go on a ‘learning adventure’ with her.
Similarly, consider the parent who, when asked a question he does not know the answer to, replies with a bland ‘I don’t know’ and the parent whose enthusiastic response is ‘let’s find out together’.
3. If you have more than one child to educate and are new to your role as teacher, do not attempt to teach them at the same time.
Create learning time with one child at a time only while providing other children with a safe and entertaining pastime.
If both parents are available then siblings can learn in tandem but separately.
Depending on the ages and abilities of siblings, tandem or group sessions can be undertaken once your experience and confidence has increased.
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4. Begin with short but focused sessions until you begin to feel more confident and your child develops confidence in your ability to teach.
Once you get into the swing of things, you can then gradually extend the learning times to suit to the age and attention capacity of your child.
5. Remember that attention spans in children below the age of 7 are typically very short.
During middle childhood, ages 7-14, your child’s attention span will increase until by the time they reach older childhood, ages 15 – 21, you may find it difficult to stay as attentive as they are!
Plan the length of your sessions accordingly.
Also consider that any child will have a better attention span when learning subjects that interest them. If your child has a particular dislike for any important subject, then the little and regular approach will prove far more productive.
6. Most children learn best when alternating theoretical learning with practical experience and/or movement.
This is a big key to success. Alternating subjects such as mathematics and physical education or English and art keep children fresh and interested.
7. One destination – many maps.
Ultimately, if you want your young child to eventually attain A levels and go on to University, you have a distinct goal in mind. However, up until the age of 14 (assuming they will be taking their GCSE’s at 16) you can afford to be creative, diverse and lateral in your thinking and teaching in order to prepare them for GCSE courses later on.
No potential employee asks what your approach was to learning at ages of 10, 11 or 12!
Providing a solid grounding in basic Mathematics, English Language and General Science is achieved, it does not matter how you arrived at that point. With a little planning, your child will have the necessary knowledge and skills to undertake GCSE studies, even if you your route to KS4 competency was different from that of the standard approach.
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8. If your child is already on a GCSE course, it behooves you to familiarize yourself with the topics of the syllabus.
Subject matter is usually clearly found as distinct chapters in the relevant GCSE course book. This will allow you to draw up a month by month study and preparation plan.
9. Create a specific space in your home where learning adventures take place.
This will help you to keep organised and your child will know, when in that space, that they are in their 'learning zone.
Your learning space does not need to be elaborate but it will provide practical structure and is especially helpful to children who have unexpectedly been abruptly taken out of school.
10. Decide at what times of day home education starts and what time it finishes.
Remember to allow for breaks.
Due to the difference between one or two children to one teacher and 33 children to one teacher, you do not need to do as many hours as the typical school day in order to achieve the same amount of progress.
If you are new to home education and facilitating the learning of more than one child, provide an engaging activity for one while teaching the other and then alternate. Under such circumstances, it is very important that you make it abundantly clear to the non-learning child that they are also ‘in school’ during the time their sibling is learning. Explain that this means they avoid interrupting you, except in an emergency, and that they practice ‘respectful self occupation’.
11. You may find that having project goals rather than time goals works better for your family.
Rather than planning 45 minutes of English for Monday, it may be better to plan on compiling a poem that day with no pre-decided timetabling.
12. Try to ascertain your child’s learning style.
Is your child a visual, auditory or experiential learner or does a mixture of learning styles suit them best?
Providing opportunities for your child to learn according to their learning style is key to successful learning outcomes.
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13. If you have suddenly found yourself in the role of home educator don’t try and teach everything at once.
The three most important subjects that need to be covered in order to stay with the school curriculum are mathematics, English and general science. It is a good idea to get going with these to begin with and then expand on additional subjects as your confidence grows and your skills of organization develop.
14. ACE - Applaud, Congratulate and Encourage!
ALL children thrive on approval. If you focus on their lack of application or shoddy work, you will get more of the same. Focus instead on all that was achieved, however small, and your child will respond in a positive way.
If resistance to learning is strong and/or lack of effort or care is shown, sit down quietly with your child (having gone somewhere first to compose yourself) and then invite them to get chatting with you about what they want to do for a job when they grow up.
The child who wants to be a fire fighter, for example, can soon learn with you – perhaps via an Internet search – that basic scholastic qualifications are needed as stepping-stones to future employment goals.
You could even encourage the child to draw a picture of themselves when they grow up doing the job they would like to do and then draw education stepping stones leading to the scene. This works very well with children below teenage age.
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15. Ensure both you and your family get sufficient sleep.
Tired humans – adults and children – are grumpy and easily stressed.
16. Don’t rush – keep it slow.
Children get easily agitated if they sense you are rushing through the day trying to fit everything in. It is better to go slow and steady, even if you are behind schedule as you will achieve better quality results.
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17. Use devises selectively.
Screens are not good for developing eyes!
Although the internet provides a plethora of educational resources, the danger of over reliance on screens can lead to a variety of problems including impaired visual development, excessive sitting, poor posture, muscular tension, dulled cognitive function and – above all – addiction.
18. Workbooks can be useful.
A wide range of workbooks is available over the Internet, from KS1 through to KS4 (GCSE) and A level.
Unless you are well educated in the subject, ensure the answers are in the back of the book before purchase!
19. Relate as much as possible to real life situations.
Most children, especially children in the middle childhood group (7 – 14), are baffled as to why they have to learn specific things. The more you can relate topics to everyday life the better.
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20. Relax and enjoy!
The one thing you don’t want as part of home education is tension. If you can remain calm and relaxed, your child is far more likely to do so too.
HAPPY HOME EDUCATING!