This post is about organising our home education journey. I would describe our family to be semi-structured.

We have a Purple folder that goes everywhere with us and Inside it is all of the children’s work and it is how I plan their work for the week. As we spend a lot of time out of the house so having it in a folder allows us to be able to take it where ever we go.

 On the first page is our Timetable which at the moment looks something like this:

 
AM
PM
Monday
Romulus and Remus sticking sentences, thinking Histories Romans and Wolves activity. Why Roman Wanted an Empire?
Alderbury – Social Group
Tuesday
Equipping the Roman Soldier! Making your own Roman Outfit (card board etc.
Home Educators at Tidworth: Jade’s Birthday Party.
Wednesday
The Tribes of Britain: Roman’s In Britain
Sixpenny Handley group continuation of buzzer game and dodgeball
Thursday
LEGOLAND GROUP TRIP!!
LEGOLAND GROUP TRIP!!
Friday
Timelines and understanding Duration
Swimming SandyBalls
Saturday
Cooking: Blueberry Muffins and Macaroni Cheese.
Building Hadrian’s Wall (lego)Making a Telescope (Thomas and Daddy)
Making a Princess hat (Jesse and Mummy)
Sunday
Day Off
Day Off

Examples of this weeks worksheets:

  • Roman’s and Wolves Activity sheets 1 & 2
  • The Legend of Romulus and Remus (Word Doc)
  • Why the Romans want an Empire, Paulinus Activity Sheet.
  • Equipping a Roman Soldier.
  • The Romans in Britain
  • Timelines and Understanding Duration
  • Making Sense of BC and AD
  • Making Sense of Hadrian’s Wall

Deciding on work:

We work around Projects both chosen by the children’s interests and what I can find that I think the children will like.

Within the Project, I plan and find ways to incorporate their main subjects of English, Maths and reading. After these, I add in other subjects depending on what the project is. For Instance Science, Geography, History, Art, cookery, IT and life skills.

Within the folder I have it divided into days of the week with worksheet selections for each day in it’s approipriate folder. We are Home educating on limited funds so we heavily rely on our laser printer and Education.com.

They always have lessons for 5 days of the week. Due to Duncan’s long work days, it isn’t always Monday to Friday. Although most of the time it is me teaching the children. It is important to keep Duncan involved in their Education.

To do this we have adapted to be able to allow him to teach the children as much as possible too.

Sometimes life has a way of sticking it’s nose in and causing chaos. When this happens we have learned to just leave it and not to worry.

I have learned over this past 18 months since the children left school to choose my battles carefully and that it is not worth stressing the children out. Illness or weeks where it feels life is against us we go down the Autonomous route I left the fixed worksheets and wing it!

These are the times a laptop and Dongle come in handy! It doesn’t matter where you are. They will do their online work instead.

To help me plan I use Education.com and a tutor once a week.

Organising within the house

We are lucky enough to have 2 reception rooms. Our Living room we call our family room which allows us to use our dining room as their education room. It has a handy understairs cupboard which helps with the organising.

The dining room is laid out with our Piano, Large dining Table, a Sideboard, a collapsible playpen (handy for my 18-month-old daughter) and the Table Top Fridge and a chest freezer and then in our lounge is a big bookcase with all our reference, reading and cookbooks.

Under Stairs Cupboard:

This holds all of the children’s craft items, swimming aides, Thomas’ Occupational Therapy aides and some outside toys like scrambling nets.

Side board:

This holds an amazing amount of the childrens Items:

  • Board Games.
  • Favourite books
  • Thomas’ Horrible history books
  • Educational PC discs
  • Dvd’s
  • Cd’s
  • All their workbooks
  • Also, some kitchen items that don’t fit in the kitchen cupboards

I think that is about it for that room.

I find a good strong routine Is important and very helpful because the children know what to expect next there are no surprises and they know where they stand (we aren’t strict with routine if the children are ill or we are going out for the day or anything else that might disrupt it then that’s ok and if a few days have pasted with a disturbed routine then we leave it till the weekend and start again this doesn’t mean they don’t do their work but just not in the normal way)

Organising our Daily Routine:

I find a strict daily routine really helps me and the children cope better.

Morning routines:

5 – 5.30 am Wake up prepare breakfast, sort things needed for the days work etc

6- 6.30 am Children wake.

6-6.30 am Breakfast

7 am Washes, shower, clean Teeth and get dressed

7.30 am(TRAIL PERIOD) walking the dog with the children

7.45 Dance time

8 am School Work

10 am Breaktime with a drink and a piece of fruit

10.15am Back to work

Afternoons Vary depending on the day.

Mondays and Wednesdays

Mondays are Alderbury which is a 45 minute drive away. Wednesdays is Sixpenny Handley which is an hours drive away.

Both groups start at 1pm so have the same afternoon routine.

11 am – 12am ( if I have made lunches up the night before) Shoes and socks on check nappy bag contents pack lunches and get out the door

11.45-12.45 pm Children’s lunch time

12 – 1 pm Driving to the group.

1 pm Group

5-6 pm Home from group

5.30-6.30pm Dinner

7pm Bath Time

7.30pm Bed Time

8 pm tidy up and prepare for Duncan arriving home.

Tuesdays and Thursdays

10 am pack children in the car with their drink and snack and head to Tidworth. Thursdays we prepare for our group.

4.30-5 pm home

5.30 pm bedtime routine.

Friday’s

10.15 Continue work

12 noon Lunch

1pm afternoon activities – cooking, science experiments, project work.

5pm dinner

5.30pm baths

5.45pm Emily to bed

6pm Jess to bed

6.15pm Thomas to bed

Organising our Car:

As we spend most afternoons out of the house our car is like our second home. As our children are all still young and we tend to be rather impromptu about activities. I have found keeping certain items in the car is really helpful. Rather than carrying around two change bags I keep the car fully stocked helps us.

  • Change of clothes
  • Towels
  • Swim suits
  • Wellies
  • Wet wipes
  • Nappies
  • Carrier bags (for wet clothes, dirty wellies etc)
  • Nappy sacks
  • Toys
  • Blanket
  • Parasol
  • Umbrellas
  • Water
  • Picnic set
  • Collapsible dog bowl
  • Spare lead
  • Charm’s car harness
  • Sun cream
  • Hairbands, clips, comb.
  • First aid kit
  • Crabbing nets and lines.

I am a bit bad at restocking the car so I do a check and change every couple of weeks at the weekends when hubby is home (clothes get changed as we use them but the rest gets topped up and checked every couple of weeks)

2021 edit: We have now been home educating 12 years nearly and The most important thing we have learned is to be flexible and organise yourself.

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Click here for more posts about how our home education organisation changes as our children get older.

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