Our Home Education Routine Winter 2020

The new year has begun

And with it our new home education routine

This year I am trying to stick to a more structured timetable

I am using The National Curriculum as a guide

Along with lots of other resources

I like to dip in and out of different things

To create topics and plans for work that fit our family

As well as what I believe the children need to learn

Their next steps

Our days often follow a similar pattern

Where we work in the morning

Then head out in the afternoon

Either for an adventure or to the children’s classes

Our standard week is planned like this

Monday

7.30am Breakfast
8.00am Handwriting / Spelling / Copywork
9.00am Maths
10.00am Snack and Break
11.00am Science
12.00pm Head out for the afternoon
3.30pm Piano and Singing for Esther / Library time for Bea and William
6.00pm Reading and Comprehension

Tuesday

7.30am Breakfast
8.00am Handwriting / Spelling / Copywork
9.00am Times Tables
10.00am Spanish Lesson
11.00am Maths
12.00pm Head out for an adventure
5.30pm Tea
6.00pm Reading and Comprehension

Wednesday

7.30am Breakfast
8.00am Handwriting / Spelling / Copywork
9.00am Maths
10.00am Snack and Break
11.30am Spanish / French Lessons
1.00pm Lunch
2.00pm History
3.15pm Audio Story time in the car
4.00pm Tap / Modern / Musical Theatre for Bea and Esther, and 11+ work for William
6.00pm Tea

Thursday

7.30am Breakfast
8.00am Handwriting / Spelling / Copywork
9.00am Maths
10.00am Snack and Break
11.00am Writing
12.30pm Lunch
1.15pm Science / History / Geography / RE
3.00pm Music Appreciation in the car
3.45pm Dancing for all (Ballet/Acro/Jazz/Musical Theatre)
7.00pm Blue Peter

Friday
7.30am Breakfast
8.00am Handwriting / Spelling / Copywork
9.00am Maths
10.00am Writing
11.00am Early lunch
12.00pm Out for an adventure or Topic Work / Art / Play

Saturday
Family Day

Sunday
7.30am Breakfast
8.00am Handwriting / Spelling / Copywork
9.30am Stage School
1.00pm Lunch
2.00pm Art / DT / Science

On an ordinary week

This is how our days are planned

However the beauty of home education

Is that we can be as flexible as we want or need to be

We often head out on educational visits

Theatre trips

Workshops

And then our routine changes

But I plan for the weeks to follow the timetable above

Then I like to try and make sure we have completed all the work I planned

By the end of the week

From now until Easter our topics are …

History – Castles and Knights, Stone Age, Romans

Science – Earth and Space, Rocks and Soil, Plants and Seasons

RE – Judaism

I tend to theme our art and DT work to link to

History, Science or RE

Or to a special calendar date

Next week, for example, we will be learning about Chinese New Year

For handwriting and spelling I use a mixture of workbooks

And resources from Twinkl

All the children are working at different levels

So it takes a lot of planning and resourcing

Our main reading and writing work until Easter

Is based on Harry Potter

(for Esther and William)

We are rereading books 1 to 5

Completing book studies and writing tasks

Linked to the books

It is working really really well so far

With Edie we are following our own version of

Letter of the Week

She is loving having work planned for her

Activities set up just for her

And she is learning so much

Bea is working through books from various reading schemes

And we do lots of phonics work

Using a range of workbooks and online resources

I spend a lot of time planning work

Finding resources and researching different ways to approach topics

I always loved planning as a teacher

And it is really special planning what my own children are going to learn

Because of the way we work

We can cover a topic in about three weeks

If the children are really into something then we extend the time

And if it is something they are not enjoying

Then we just make sure we have covered the basics

Home education allows true personalised learning

In a way that is just not possible in school

It is one of the many reasons why home education works for us

Because I can truly tailor what we learn to the children’s abilities and interests

We can take a learning detour to cover anything that comes up in the news

In our family life

We can plan visits and experiences for every topic that we do

We can deep dive or skim the surface of a subject

The children are at the centre of everything that we do

And I can indulge my passion for planning

Without excessive record keeping

Unnecessary assessments

It gives us all time

And freedom

Some days are amazingly hard

Some days are just run of the mill

But some days are truly magical

And every day

I am so incredibly proud of my children

And what super little human beings they are

My plan this year is to share more of our home education journey

Here on my blog

And on Instagram

I am going to be sharing some Day In The Life style posts

Sharing the resources that we use

Ideas for learning through play

And sharing our days out

Our #edspireedventures

I would love for you to come along with us for the ride

And if you are a home educator too

Please do let me know

As I would love to follow you x

Rereading Harry Potter
Writing Tasks inspired by Harry Potter

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