UK Homeschoolers

[Eternal]

There seems like a few of you about ... Where do you buy your materials or do you just make your own work books up etc? What sort of thing do you do when they are young?

I dont think I will home school, i really dont have the patience and am looking forward to my eldest going to school (I have a 26 month old and twin 3 month olds), but I would like to fully read into it and understand it better before i decide.

My son is very busy but very illentigent and I wonder how he will cope at school sometimes, i dont want him missing out as they don't have the time to spend with him, although, it may also be what he needs. But i want to weigh up the pros and cons of both.

Anyway, is there a home schooling shop? Or do you make your own materials? If you do what sort of things did you do when you started officially home schooling?

 

[marley2580]

Workbooks etc can be bought from bookshops like waterstones and wh smith. We don't use much in the way of workbooks unless the kids want to (and they do really enjoy them) A lot of what we do atm is just talking to them and discussing stuff, e.g. when on a walk pointing out the signs of spring can lead to a discussion about seasons and weather etc. And, of course, reading books with them etc as well.

 

[summer rain]

I buy my workbooks from a wide selection of places, the book people (sometimes they have packs of 8 for as little as £5), waterstones, supermarkets (sometimes they have 3 for 2 offers or cut price workbooks), CGP (they are a company in Cumbria who produce humorous workbooks and give a big discount plus free postage if you order over a certain amount) and just anywhere else I can find them for a good price. In the past I did used to print sheets off from websites but I found it impossible to cover everything I wanted to and there was too much repetition, plus sheets go awol far more easily. The only exception is the MEP maths, which I staple about 20 sheets together at a time. While I would love to take a more 'unschooling' approach my local authority are not keen on it and I would also worry the kids would not be learning enough-so our work is primarily workbook based at the moment. Other families I know mainly take a project based approach, they very rarely do workbooks and their work is based around art projects to do with the topic studied; they also may pick one topic and work all subjects around it-for example bonfire night you can work science, art, history, geography, english and maths around it (even cooking if you think toffee apples etc!) xx

 

[summer rain]

For workbooks and other resources this website is pretty good too, have ordered from them and delivery is quite prompt, prices good too. They are a shop that supply schools and home-edders. They have a real life shop in Watford-I really want to pay it a visit as it looks so cool