I have mentioned a few times that my oldest started studying for her A levels this year. We are doing her A levels at home using a distance learning provider. It has been a bit of a learning curve for us because I feel like the distance learning provider has not delivered what I was expecting (I think they quality is not as good as I expected) so I have become more involved then I had initially planned. I am still figuring what I want to say about the distance learning provider that we choose and I will write about that at some stage but for now I wanted to say a few quick things.

We choose to go with a distance learning provider because I thought I would not be able to guide her and help her enough. But actually after a few months I can honestly say that if you have been home educating your kids and if you are dedicated to their education then don’t underestimate yourself. Honestly the subject that I was most nervous about (A Level Maths) is the one that I am very involved with and we are managing to figure it out together. It is time consuming, there is no denying that and at times it can be a bit frustrating but we are getting through the work and she is getting good marks. So if you and your kiddo are determined then please don’t underestimate yourself like I did.

With home education there is never one “right” way to achieve your goals. But for us what we have found is we do need to be more structured to get through the work. We have found that having a “rough” routine for the week is a must just because there is a lot of content to cover. We have also found that you need to do extra reading or in the case of Maths extra questions. What our distance provider gave us is not sufficient. For all of her subjects we are using multiple resources (ie multiple books and multiple websites). You have a lot of content to get through but you also need to know/understand that content in detail.

And the flip side of that is although there is more content to get through you do need to still ensure your kiddo is having breaks and good breaks at that. Make sure they get out the house and stretch their legs. A change of environment can works wonders if you are struggling to understand a tricky concept.

A Levels still feels very new to us and I still feel like I have more to learn but I do think as home educators we can underestimate ourselves and honestly if you got your kiddo through GCSE (or IGCSE) and you and your kiddo are determined then trust yourself.