I have been thinking about this quite a bit lately and there are a few words I wish someone had told me when we were new to our journey. I really don’t mean this to sound preachy and I totally agree that everyone should do it differently (home education is all about what suits your kids and your family) but I think some people may need to read this.

With Maths please do not worry about taking it slow. And I really mean this. If your kiddo is struggling with a Maths concept which is suppose to be “taught” in the current year but they just can not get it. Don’t worry. Give them a break let them focus on some other Maths and come back to it in 6 months or 12 months. With Maths it is more important that they understand the Maths and it is NOT important in what order you do it or what year they do it. Rather take the Maths slow and let them really grasp the basics. In later years the fact that they understand the concepts will help them a great deal.

Read, read and then read some more. And I don’t mean stress about their reading level. What I mean is expose them to stories, you read to them, they sit with you and follow as you read, let them listen to audio stories. Just fill your home with stories. You can never go wrong by reading too many good books. And please don’t fall into that trap of thinking they are too old for you to read to them. Listening to a good book together is a joy, no matter what your kids ages are.

Don’t stress about handwriting when they are little. Some kids are just going to develop differently and for some kids handwriting comes much later, that is okay (in fact this applies to reading as well, so if your kids only read confidently later, it is okay). If they are struggling with handwriting rather spend some time doing fun fine motor activities and lots of art with them, their hands may just need a bit of extra time to develop and strengthen.

Creative Writing. When your kids are writing please don’t stress about what they are writing. If they want to make shopping lists for you, create animal fact pages, if they want to just copy out a story, whatever form of writing they are doing is good. Don’t fall into that trap of thinking they have to be writing about x or y or writing in a certain format. Just enjoy the act that they are writing and encourage them to write. My kids wrote all kinds of things (most of which I am sure would never have been accepted as part of the school curriculum) but I never worried about that I focused on the fact that they wanted to write and enjoyed writing and let them just go for it. Now I have a teen you spends ages creating her own stories and another one who also still gets out a book to create some wonderful world that blows my mind. Writing is good, it does not have to fit into some box that someone decided.

Don’t be scared of not following the set curriculum for the year you kids are in. One of the best things we did was letting our kids deep dive into a topic – we went Viking crazy for over 6 months – it took all kinds of forms and the kids learnt an incredible amount. We also did a lot more world history than what the schools would have done, but we loved it and my kids gained a better appreciation of other countries. We spent ages and I mean ages on dinosaurs and animals, but that extended into our English and Maths. If your kids find a topic interesting they will naturally pay more attention and you will be amazed at how much more they learn and how that learning extends into different areas.

Don’t forget about “life skills”. It is really easy to get caught up in ticking all the boxes that you think you need to cover (ie academics) and then forgetting about every day skills. But here is the thing your kids are at home with you so make the most of it. Teach them about basic home skills – they can make their beds, fold laundry, help with the cooking and don’t forget to bake. Baking together is such a fun activity, and it develops Maths skills (fractions, doubling, halving are all a part of baking), plus after you have baked something everyone gets to eat a tasty treat. They can be involved in menu planning, helping you do a shop and seeing if they can stick to your budget. Let them be involved in the home stuff, you will be amazed at how much they learn by just helping you.

And when everyone is feeling that they have had enough (and I mean the home education parent as well), take a break, go for a walk, go and do something fun, get out the house.

Everyone kid and every family is different, so what works for one family is not going to work for you but that is the beauty of home education, don’t be scared to just be you and do what works for you and your kid.