I have had a few messages
Asking me to share our home education routine
At a time when schools are closing
And many families have been thrown into home learning for the first time
I hope that people will find this helpful
We have been home educating for four years now
My children are almost 3, 5 and 9 (twins!)
I think we are quite structured in our approach to home education
Though our rhythm will now be changing as all our classes have shut down
Here is a breakdown of our days
As we have started our social distancing
Our Home Education Day
7.00 Day Begins
Daddy gets up with the youngest two. They play, read stories, help Daddy with jobs, colour and watch a snippet of TV.
8.00 Family breakfast, all together at the table
8.45 Teeth, wash and get dressed for the day
9.15 Morning Work
Our morning work usually involves an English task and a Maths activity. I like to link our basic skills / key skills to any topics we are doing or special days.
For example, this week our theme has been St Patrick’s Day
Esther and William have completed a range of reading comprehensions printed from Twinkl about St Patrick and how his day is celebrated around the world. They have completed creative writing tasks linked to rainbows and pots of gold!
Bea has been completing rainbow themed phonics and maths games that I found here https://www.kindergartenworksheetsandgames.com/
Edie has been painting rainbows and even had a go at making up a simple poem with me. She likes to do what the big kids do.
10.30 Snacktime
On rainy days we often have snack and TV but the last few days the children have built a camp in the garden and they take their snack out there. I like them to get outside as much as they can. I try to encourage free play and give them time to get bored. When children are bored they do amazing things!
We do not have live TV in our house so they watch something educational online through a TV screen. I am going to write a separate blog post about the TV shows we watch.
11.30 Topic Work
After snack and play we do some topic work. Our topics change fairly rapidly and loosely follow The National Curriculum led by the children’s interests.
Our topic work includes science, history, geography and art. It also includes A LOT of reading!
1.00 Lunch
At lunch we either sit together at the table and eat and talk and often I will read poems and stories.
When the weather is fine the children go outside and have lunch in their den.
Afternoons
The afternoons are free for everyone at the moment.
We used to go out to clubs and classes but these have all stopped.
We plan to use this time for some creative projects, lots of directed play and free play and being outside as much as we can.
It is also time that I can work one to one with individual children.
I try to do more with Bea in the afternoon, we do science experiments all together, we go out on nature walks and again we do lots of reading.
5.00 Tea
6.00 Bath for little ones / Extra Work for Esther and William
This extra work might be watching a nature documentary, dyslexia support work for Esther and 11+ preparation work for William. It is a time to do what we cannot do with the little ones around.
Bea and Edie have stories with Daddy before bed.
Esther, William and I have our readaloud time together before they go up to bed for more reading time.
Our home education is very bookish!
The reason I wanted to share our routine
Is to show that we do not try to replicate school at home
That just does not work
Believe me I have tried
I am a primary school teacher
I left teaching four years ago when I took my children out of school
At first I tried to recreate school at home
But it did not work
It was awful for all of us
We then took some time to deschool
And I really really recommend this
Take a week or two to just get used to being home together
Make plans
Read books
Play together
Enjoy each other
And then slowly begin some learning at home
Lots of people are going to be sharing what they do
Lots of people will tell you what works for them
But only you will know what works for you
And what works for you one day
May not work another day
You may spend ages drawing up plans
Only to abandon them when your children want to learn about something else
You may start a routine that will work for a while
And then need to change it up
Try to follow your children’s lead as much as you can
Offering choices can help with children who are reluctant to work
I have a chart that the children tick off their activities once they are complete
There are usually three things they must do in the day
Then a few more they must do over the course of a week
And then lots of options for extra activities
Some days we do nothing
Some days we start the day with purpose
And then lose our thread or motivation
And on those days it is often best to just stop
Have a cuddle and some time and space to breathe
Then start again another day
Home education is wonderful
But it can also be incredibly hard
As a mother of four children I often feel torn
When all my children need me all at the same time
It can feel overwhelming
When things feel hard or get too much
We usually add music or water!!
Over the coming days, weeks and months
I am going to be sharing more on here
A few daily routines
Day in the Life style posts
I am going to share our favourite resources for Maths and English
I am going to share lots of ideas for toddler fun and preschool play
I am going to share our favourite children’s books
If there is anything you would like me to post on here
Please please do get in touch and I will do all I can to help you
We are all better together x
Please do follow me on Instagram and Facebook
Where I share lots of books, play and learning ideas every day
#bettertogether
Thanks for sharing this! Slightly off topic, but does your whole family eat dinner at 5pm, or is that kids’ tea, with you and David eating together later on? I love the idea of everyone eating together, but also can’t bring myself to eat dinner so early! So we do kids first except on weekends when we all eat together. I think when the kids are old enough that they could do a 630pm dinner I’ll try to shift to us all eating together!
Hello, the children often eat together at the table and I usually read to them. We like to have Poetry Tea. Some days they have a carpet picnic tea and TV, and some days we all eat together. It is nice to have dinner later with David though x