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The current situation has made many of us question if how life was before is how we want life to continue to be. And one of the biggest things I notice in and amongst the chatter of social media, is that more and more people are seeing that home education can be a viable alternative to mainstream schooling.
But, as I touched on here, home education is very very different from the distance learning that has been taking place over the last few months. It isn’t the same, and people ask me how we manage, what do we need and how expensive is home education in reality.
Like many things in life, these can be quite subjective and the approach that we take is different from what other families take. However, I thought it was worth touching on some of the things that I couldn’t manage without in our home education set up.
Patience and Perseverance
This is the single biggest thing I always say people need if they wish to be an effective home educator. There are times when your children just don’t grasp something. They really can’t get to grips with a particular thing, and no matter how many times you explain it, it doesn’t seem to sink in. This is where patience is so needed. Often taking a break, a step away and changing tack altogether can have a big impact.
You also need to persevere. There’s some stuff that children just need to know. Maths and reading and such. I find teaching children to get going with reading really tedious at times, and I’ve learned over the years that perseverance is key to building that confidence in them.
Stationery and Equipment
You don’t really need a huge amount of ‘stuff’ to home educate but a good and constant supply of pens, paper, colouring equipment and a decent laser printer really does help.
We seem to go through felt tip pens and drawing pencils at a rate of knots, and there’s always drawing and writing happening, so a steady stream of paper and card is a must for us. We changed our space around a few years back to make drawers of art and crafts materials accessible to the children and it’s really helped their creativity.
Having a printer is really key for us too. Most days I am printing something off for the children to use and as we make a lot of lapbooks, printing the inserts for these is key. I have learnt to keep a decent supply of printer ink (after we ran out of one colour and we couldn’t finish a project off).
Access to a library
If you follow this blog or my Instagram regularly then you will know that books are a huge part of our home education, and I don’t know many home educators who don’t make full and regular use of their local library! We cover so many different projects that utilising books from the library is really important for us.
Make use of friends too – with trusted friends you can arrange to share book resources. I know I’ve often lent books out to friends when they need something for a new project.
Create a nurturing atmosphere
The difference between homeschooling and public or private school is that your children have to physically go to the school to learn, and when they come home they can instantly relax. Like any adult working from home, your children will need a particular space in your home to treat it as their “classroom”. Creating a nurturing atmosphere in your home classroom will help them establish the difference between concentrating on school work and becoming distracted by their lovely belongings. There’s a lovely guide on literallydarling.com on how to add warmth to your home, and you could use these tips to create a warm yet nurturing atmosphere for your children to learn in.
A network of friends (both on and offline)
And finally, having a good network of friends who you can talk to. Someone who understands the path you’re on and can offer advice and support. I know I’ve often chatted with friends about ideas I have or things that are a struggle in our home education and it’s so important to have those connections. Having an online network too can help you to uncover local events that might be of interest. Many areas have thriving Facebook communities where they share things, so it’s well worth spending some time finding those and getting to know people there.
