Home School Hangout at The Honeycomb Hub

Small activities you do at home could be
the beginning of homeschooling!

Teaching your children from home has a variety of names - home schooling, un-schooling, free range learning. It can also be done in different ways -whether by you, by a tutor, following a scheme or creating your own curriculum. The one thing they all have in common is teaching children outside a formal school setting. There are a growing number of parents choosing this route. I have been a teacher for over 12 years and have so much admiration for parents who do home school – give me a classroom of 30 and I’m fine, however just my own 2 boys and I’m not sure I would be so effective!

Over the years I have got to teach topics I was confident in (poetry, Tudors, times tables to name a few favourites) but there are always those topics where I was not so experienced and confident in teaching. Then you have to re-teach yourself how to do it before you are able to teach the students. The most memorable of these was in my first year teaching. I was at a school in East London teaching year 6 and the topic was fractions, percentages and ratio. As you may know from previous posts I love maths, numbers and patterns however fractions were my Achilles heel. The fear was palpable! I discussed it with my fellow teaching partner, I practiced the exercises, I knew the lesson plans inside out and I had interactive flipcharts on the interactive whiteboard that were things of sheer beauty! And guess what? I got fractions. As good teachers know, if you want to see if a child understands something, ask them to explain and teach it to someone else.

Potion making developing early
science as well as imagination
and creativity.

In a school we are lucky as there is the staff room. Staff rooms are magical places. They have mysterious brews created from leaves and ground beans that keep teachers going throughout the day. (There is an unspoken rule that teachers, like new mothers, will never get the chance to drink the whole cup at just below boiling point. In fact, one of the tests to be a teacher is whether you are able to drink boiling tea!) They can be a sanctuary for a few moments on a challenging day as well as a great place to catch up on the gossip!

However staff rooms are also magical because it is where you see your fellow colleagues. Disappointed with how a lesson went? Discuss it with another teacher. Needing some advice on managing behaviour in the classroom? Ask another teacher.  Forgotten the difference between igneous and metamorphic rocks? Ask another teacher. The camaraderie, friendship and support found in a staff room is incredible and I have spent many, many hours over the years benefitting from snatched moments within its walls.

Home School Hangout every Friday afternoon from 2pm

We love the diversity of our community at the Honeycomb Hub and we have discovered we have a big community of home schooling parents! After speaking to them, we have decided to make our own equivalent of the staffroom but for home schooling parents. A chance for these independent teachers to share experiences, exchange thoughts and relax from a hard morning teaching or to gather advice on teaching next week’s tricky topics. Please remember if you do need any explanations on how to teach something, I can always be on hand to run through a topic – even fractions!

While the teachers chat, the students can play together in our free play area, read books from the shelves or play in Tiny Town meeting friends and making new ones.

If you are a home schooling family, or even just interested in it and considering making a change, we would love to see you. The Home School Hang Out will be every Friday afternoon from 2pm.  

If you would like a personal insight into what homeschooling can be like, read Helena's blog giving a diary of  a week homeschooling. https://familygems.co.bw/2018/06/22/helenas-home-school-diary/