Tuition
How Do I Educate My Child At Home?
Here in the UK, there is a legal requirement that a child must be educated. That doesn’t mean that they have to go to school. You are able to ‘homeschool’ your child and you don’t have to follow the National Curriculum either. However, your child must receive a full time education from the age of 5.
How Do I Educate My Child At Home? The legal requirements?
Your local council can offer you guidance and you can click the link right here then insert your postcode details to find out the information your area has to offer.
https://www.gov.uk/home-schooling-information-council
How Do I Educate My Child At Home? What you can do together
The beauty of homeschooling is that you can to select how and what your child learns about. Instead of learning science from a book, you can show them how science works through a cookery lesson which combines education with fun.
This sort of approach is how we should all be guiding children through their education, not just homeschooled children, as there is education all around us.
Here are some of my suggestions: –
1. Travelling in the car
When you’re out and about there are words and numbers wherever we look. A great way of enhancing your child’s times table skills is to use car registration plates. Pick two numbers and ask your child to quickly multiply the numbers together. Similarly, use number plates in order to play Traveller’s Alphabet. For example, if someone sees the letter ‘A’, get your child to pick a country beginning with A and then they have to go on to produce a sentence with a verb, an adjective and a noun all beginning with the letter ‘A’. One possibility might be, ‘I ate awful apples in Australia’. Whilst this may sound a bit odd, it really will stretch your child and make them identify verbs, adjectives and nouns.
2. Travelling on the bus or train
When you’re travelling on trains or buses ask your child to find the correct information relating to the journey you wish to take. This may seem daunting at first but once they get used to looking at timetable information depicted in this manner, the easier it will become for them. This is a fantastic way of introducing mathematical / literacy / cross-referencing skills all in one go. Also, children love to help and if they think they’re helping you to plan a journey they are likely to take pride in what they do thus making them more cooperative!
3. Having an awareness of time and wearing a watch
It is surprising how many children are not able to tell the time properly by the time they reach the end of their primary education. This is an important skill and one that needs to be worked on regularly as it is a difficult skill to learn. Your child should get used to wearing a watch as a matter of habit. Again, this is about learning to take responsibility for what they are doing and when. It can be all too easy for a child to rely on their parents or someone else to tell them the time or where they need to be and when.
By the same token, I would recommend that a child is given an alarm clock and encouraged to get up and dressed by themselves rather than relying on mum or dad. Some children may even be encouraged to do a little bit of quiet reading before their homeschooling begins if they set their alarm clock half an hour earlier than normal.
4. Looking after a pet
If you have a pet, encourage your child to accept some responsibility for its welfare. A pet requires care and a routine so maybe you could make a spreadsheet that states it is your child’s responsibility to, for example, clean out the hamster’s cage on Sunday evenings and ensure they have fresh food and water every day.
Even if you don’t have a pet, you can always borrow one. I would highly recommend borrowing a dog as they are fantastic companions for homeschooled children and are a wonderful source of entertainment and inspiration.
In addition to this, interaction with a pet encourages imagination as they will see how the animal behaves and reacts in different environments. This can also contribute to their imagination from a creative writing point of view and it can also be used as a point of reference for science lessons. Perhaps you could ask your child to write a small story about how it might feel to be a hamster. Encourage them to think about how small hamsters are compared with humans and therefore, how it might feel to be handled by a human. Ask them to think about the inside of their cage and how they might enjoy spending their time.
5. Watch educational programmes together
Television can be a useful resource and certain programmes can positively enhance your child’s education. For example, Countdown on Channel 4 is excellent from a Mathematics and English point of view.
Other examples include wildlife, nature and news programmes which are obviously dependent on what you regard as suitable for your child. The information they learn from these programmes will help them understand the environment and world we all have to live in.
6. Do word searches/crosswords/junior Sudoku
The supermarkets are full of jumbo word searches, crosswords and Sudoku puzzles. However, many newspapers have daily puzzles which are suitable for younger children so if you buy a newspaper do take advantage of these. Perhaps cut them out and stick them in a scrap book. Again, you don’t have to spend a fortune and very often puzzle books can be found in charity shops or bargain basement book stores.
I have written previous blog articles covering the best kind of resources I would recommend. I have written from the point of view of an 11+ / SATs approach but ultimately if you’re homeschooling a child you will, of course, still want top notch materials.
How Do I Educate My Child At Home? Get my book for starters!
If you would like to read all of my advice and recommendations about my own tuition experiences, you can click on the link at the bottom of this blog.
I wanted to encourage every parent/guardian [not just the homeschoolers] ‘How to be their own tutor on a shoestring’. If you’re willing to put in the effort, there is a lot you can achieve with your child using free or relatively low cost approaches.
This is exactly what I want to encourage even though I am a tutor as it all goes hand in hand with bringing out the best in YOUR child.
How Do I Educate My Child At Home? The financial implications
If you’re going to be educating a child at home then, by definition, this means that you may well be limited as to what you can do to earn money. Inevitably, this can be a struggle for many people and so I have a couple of good suggestions as I am very fond of my own money making side hustles.
Private Tuition – If you are good at tutoring your own child, you’ll be good at tutoring someone else’s who isn’t quite as skilled. Private tuition is as popular as ever and you don’t need formal teaching qualifications. You need to have an excellent ability to communicate with a child as well as good subject knowledge. Perhaps you’ve found a brilliant way of homeschooling a subject to your child and you want to share that. Private tuition is an excellent way to both make money and work on your own terms. Also, remember that you can tutor lots of other topics as well. Just think about what you’re good at and get going!
Network Marketing – I’ve affiliated with a Swiss health and wellness business that is vegan, botanical and cruelty free. If you love safe and high-quality products for men, women and children then contact me about the business opportunity attached. You can also click on the information link below to find out more about how I’m earning an additional, residual income.
To you and your child’s success!
Rachel A Hill LLB [Hons]
Tel: 07407 643547
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Skype: Rachel.Hill321
I’ve written an 11+ book that’s available on Amazon – Click on the link to go straight to it!
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