Christian Emergency Home Schooling UK

Two Christian home educators, Christina and Joanne, who have about fifty years of home education experience between them, have put together a blog , Covid Emergency Home Schooling UK, aimed at parents who have been thrown into teaching their children at home. 

They make suggestions for a plan for each day which includes a Bible time, maths and English followed by a lesson plan for each day.The lesson plans have a clear Christian worldview.  Topics have included The First Round World Bicycle trip, the Trojan Horse, World Health Day, Samuel Morse and much more. The lesson plans include activities, extension work and things to think about. Christina and Joanne have tended to take something that happened on that day in history as the basis for that day's work. The work is geared for primary aged children. 

It seems that work provided by schools varies from a whole day online to very little. These lesson plans provide an ideal opportunity to have something ready prepared to teach children either when there is little provided by school or to profitably use extra time. 

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Home Educating during Lockdown

At first sight, it might seem that home educating during lockdown is the same as home educating at any other time, except for the knowledge that we are now in the majority. But, this isn't what home educating is usually like. Usually, we have either classes, a group or meetings with friends every day. My children are used to doing their work at home but not exclusively staying at home. 

Hearing people whose children usually go to school talk about the transition to school at home has made me reflect about the changes for us and think that these might impact even more on previously schooled children. 

• There is an overwhelming mass of free material. At first, I thought that we would take advantage of this but actually, we all felt that it was better to continue with what we were used to doing. We have only really taken advantage of one offer and that was for a programme which we had used before, Veritas self paced history.

• We have continued with the basics through the holiday. We don't usually work in school holidays as there are friends to see and groups stop but at present, we want to keep a bit of structure-something remotely resembling normal.

• Morning time has carried on. We have added a daily reading of Psalm 46, God is our refuge  and strength, A very present help in trouble, which seems appropriate, to our learning of Isaiah 53 verses 1-6. Our current read aloud is something completely different, King of the Cannibals: The Story of John G Paton by Jim Cromarty. This is an engaging read. We read it years ago when our older children were little and it lead to some games of cannibals! Having older children now has meant that it hasn't elicited this response. As usual, we sing a hymn, pray and also have a history read aloud. This has been Story of the Middle Ages by Christine Miller since September. We are currently on chapter 120 out of 148 so the end is in sight. Apart from its length, it has been a successful addition to our study of the Middle Ages covering events in mainland Europe better than any other book, I know, for this age group. 

• We have carried on with the Veritas self paced for our youngest. Our other home educated child has managed to finish a long running programme, as well as make head way with several subjects.

• Online meet ups have taken the place of actual meet ups in my diary. Our established home education group has just gone online along with some classes. Running a book club or biology class online has become the new normal. 

• Of course, cooking has continued along with some letter writing, knitting and loads of swingball.

Reminding the children that the Lord still reigns and trying to provide a stable structure to life is more important than doing every exciting new programme at this point in time.

 How have you found having children learning at home over the last few weeks?

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