Back to the old Home Ed routine….

September, and we are ready to be back to our ‘usual’ home ed routines after the summer!

It’s 17 years since I made the decision to home educate – and back then I probably wouldn’t think I would still be here 17 years later – with 3 more kiddos than I had then!

Life is looking very different these days. My three girls are almost all grown up. Lola goes back to Uni in another week, Kiki has completed a 1 year post 16 course, and is just about to start another 2 year Travel and Tourism course, and Baya starts college today for the first time!!

Their days of home ed may be behind them, but I still have two small boys at home full-time.

I have to admit, I spent some time pondering over the summer, as to whether home ed was still the right route for us. Not for any big reason, but because I think that, like anything, you should continuously check in with your decisions to make sure they are still working.

Ultimately, we decided that for us, right now, home ed is still the way forward.

With things changing here, we’ve been looking at how we strucure our weeks, and I have differenct considerations now. I’m only really having to worry bout whether groups etc suit the boys nad not such a big span of ages which will make life easier.

We’ve plans to try out a couple of new to us home ed groups this year, I feel like we need to find our tribe again. The home ed friends I had while the girls were growing up, while still friends are not all home edding anymore and are at different points. We’re looking for a community centered around the boys and their needs.

Beastie is 8, coming up 9 and would be in Year 9. This past year we really cracked reading, and now he is flying. It’s so good to see {and also important that they are supported to do it in their own time. I’ve had kids learn to read from age 4 up to 9 and everywhere in between}.

I still don’t have him sat down doing lots of formal work, though we do bring little bits in. He reads every day to me, and I read everyday to him. He is using Maths Factor right now for Maths, adding in some topic work too – we’re working our way through a couple of maths topics each half term to introduce new ideas as he loves all things maths. We’ll watch some video lessons on new ideas, find some games to play that back them up, do a worksheet or two and lots of mental maths. He really loves the Maths Mysteries on Twinkl too.

He’s using Reading Eggspress for some English work, as well BBC Bitesize for some games. He is signed up to a Pokemon club on the £2 tuition hub – fun, but covers lots of things from geography to baking!

We have a subscription to Mystery Science and use it as a base for science topics – letting them choose what interests them and then adding to it. Add to that some projects over the year – currently we’re finishing up the castles project we started over the summer, and then we’ll see what we fancy next!

All that is only a tiny part of life though. He goes to Cubs and attends a sports group. We bake, we craft, we go on days out, we watch documentaries, we play lego, visit friends, attend groups, talk, go the the musuem, the zoo, a castle or historic house….

This is where learning really happens.

Oren at 4 would be starting reception this year. Which is crazy to me! I can’t imagine sending him off all day!! He is still far too little for formal learning. Though he loves to do Reading Eggs {His work on his laptop!} and he will join in with projects that I am doing with Beastie. We read a mountain of books each day, he loves crafting and doing experiments and asks hundreds of questions about everything! Play for him is the most important thing still right now.

I am 100% child led. While I make suggestions, I’ll always ask for their input and follow their interests and needs.