Resources for UK home school

Back to my recent post, 'Should there be a Home School Curriculum?'  Well definitely not a fixed one as I have said before.  After all the discussion that has proceeded since I wrote that blog, it is obvious that a lot of these workbooks available to us out there follow the national curriculum and in doing so see to come with so many gaps.

I, like other of my fellow home educators, think that this is so restricting and frustrating.  For example I like to teach history in a chronological order, as other people I know who home educate do.  I also think that the workbooks for maths and English as so restrictive and the people writing them would be shocked to see what is actually possible if you give a child room to learn at their own pace.  The old saying children are sponges is very true, well certainly in my household.

I am putting as many of the resources as I can on my blog site.  I think to have as many free resources available to UK home educators is so important, there seems to be many out there for Australian and American home educators but not the UK.  Also there are other places that I have discovered providing resources or places to look.  One place is 'A little bit of structure...'  a forum for home educators who teach in a structured way or for autonomous families who enjoy a workbook. I have only just joined myself and I think it's another wonderful HE resource.

Jax has recently had a resources carnival which is now a brilliant home ed resource in itself.  Another thing worth having a look at.

I have recently discovered Galore Park.  It is expensive but I ordered a history book and french book this week and haven't been disappointed.  I did order from amazon though, as I always like to find the cheapest I can!  C loves the french book and is enjoying french more than ever!

I do still think that it would be good to have a home school workbook/guide written by a home educator if only to make the prices more competitive and give more options to the UK home educator.  During discussions someone said how most home educators in the UK choose to be autonomous.  I was thinking how it would be great to have a book of educational ideas to inspire.  I think that all, if not most, home educators would enjoy a book that teaches in an 'out of the box' style without having to systematically work through it.  Maybe more of a reference book?  These are just some of the ideas that are buzzing round my head at the moment.

So at the moment I suppose I will just post links, add any resources I come across and make up and maybe one day when there is enough of it I may put an ebook out there.  Meanwhile if you find any good links or know of any resources maybe you could tweet me @lisascrabblew or message me here and I could add them to my list.

There is talks of a new HE resources forum.  If this comes into being, and the person who runs it permits me to, I will post about it here.