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I saw a question on a home education page the other day about what did people think was essential if you wanted to home educate. It’s a question that I see come up often, and it always makes me smile.
I don’t think the ‘essentials’ for home education are that much different to the essentials for children taking the traditional schooled route. But, I thought it might be worth sharing the things that I’ve found to really ease the journey.
Stationery
Pens, pencils, paper, art supplies. glue and scissors. We tend to go through this sort of stuff pretty quick and we have it all pretty accessible for the children to access independently. We have loads of tape and glue, double-sided tape and paper clips. It’s a very regular occurrence for me to come into the room to the children in the midst of some sort of creation and I think having a box of craft items is really important in helping the children to explore their creativity.
Technology
We are relatively low tech here but, as the children get older it is increasingly important for them to be able to use the laptop. We have a Lenovo that we have had a couple of years now that I work from and the children have been very fortunate to have been given my mums old laptop after she upgraded hers after seeing a great deal for a new one in a touch screen laptop sale.
Since getting access to their own laptop, the older two have been busy writing stories and using the laptop to undertake research for projects. It’s interesting to see how their IT skills are developing and I am more relaxed at letting them play on the laptop, knowing that there’s I’ve still got my laptop to work on should they, somehow, do something that takes their laptop out of action for a day or two!
Facebook Account
I think many of us have a love/hate relationship with Facebook, BUT it is a great way to find out what is happening locally. There’s any number of groups set up on Facebook. Groups set up around subjects and age groups, groups that support subscription-based services and groups set up to bring people together from a specific area. It’s a great way to access events that are taking place and to make contact with people. I’ve been able to ask people for real-life opinions about things and to make connections with people through Facebook.
Patience
Finally, you need patience, patience and more patience! You need to have faith in the process of learning and stick with what you’re doing. There have been plenty of times when I’ve worried that we aren’t following the right path for us, then, from nowhere, it all clicks into place and you can see the learning that has taken place. It takes patience to research different ways of doing things and it takes patience in dealing with the endless questions that you can often find yourself subjected to.
