Welcome to Homeschool Group Hug. We are on a mission to explain and encourage learning from life, without school. I want to encourage and support you on your home schooling or any other alternative education mission. Homeschoolers, unschoolers, worldschoolers or home educators, it largely depends on what country you're in and local word preferences. We've home educated in the UK, Australia, US and all over the world. I really don't care what … read more
RECENT BLOG POSTS
There is An Alternative to School – Don’t Tell the Kids !
We hear it so, so often. If we get chatting to parents of school system kids they'll either tell us that they couldn't homeschool or they'll say " Don't tell my child or she'll want to leave." We hear how children hate school and would far rather be doing something else. But they have to stick it out, they have to stay with the system until the system is done with them. It's great to hear from parents that they acknowledge that their children hate school, I love that, it's a step in the right direction. So many don't. But just as the … [Read More...]
Why We Didn’t Opt Out of School ( Reasons to Homeschool)
Hi, good morning from a rainy Romania. Occasional wet days are a great excuse to stay in and write blog posts so I want to explain today why we opted out of school and why we opted out of normal, or rather why we didn't. It's something that's been on my mind since Jessica wrote this fabulous posts about grandparents and their support, or negativity towards, alternative lifestyles. It's mostly about travel, but translates well into homeschooling, unschooling or worldschooling families. There are assumptions about reasons to homeschool, … [Read More...]
Teaching Kids About Islam
Teaching children about all world religions is the key to understanding the world, its history and the way things are today. These days the media presents us with a very warped image of Islam and there are far too many misunderstandings and prejudices stemming from ignorance. If we all took the time to learn a little more about each other, I think the world would be a much nicer place so I asked a friend, an American convert to Islam, what she could tell s about teaching kids Islam. Amanda of Maroc Mama very kindly helped me out with this … [Read More...]
Kitchen Science. Fun Science at Home !
Most of us have a kitchen of some sort, right? Well, you can use your kitchen to teach your kids science every day. I don't mean lecturing them, making notes and doing experiments that have to be written up. Just talk to them, constantly, about what is going on right in front of them, all the time. Sometimes maybe buy them a few props and science kits, you can find some great home science resources in this post, but much learning comes from every-day chatter. I've found that it is the quickest and best way to get all sorts of useful knowledge … [Read More...]
Learning About Voodoo in New Orleans
Well why not? Learning about Voodoo is fun and, like all religions, it's a pretty important part of understanding how and why the world is the way it is. I'm not going to start teaching the kids how to perform rituals, but Voodoo is a fascinating subject that for us, was part of what we were learning about slavery. I believe that kids should have some understanding of all religions, they're key to understanding countries, wars, cultural differences and similarities and more important yet, if the kids learn the facts, they're much less … [Read More...]
Homeschooling London. Our Day
A long time ago I wrote a post called What Does a Homeschool Day Look Like. It's over on our other blog, World Travel Family, and is enormously popular. The homeschooling posts are always popular, so thank YOU for reading, liking and sharing. I thought it would be nice to share a homeschooling day, or lifestyle, in London to go with that. Homeschooling in London is fabulous and UK homeschool regulations are a dream. We look at homeschooling in London, places to go, groups to join and resources for you to use along with telling you what our … [Read More...]
My 7 Year Old Can’t Read
Hi, glad you're here, my 7-year-old can't read either. In fact, go back a couple of years and my first 7-year-old couldn't read. It seems to be an epidemic, this non-reading 7-year-old thing, and it seems to worry mums of 6 year olds and 8 year olds too. I'm here to make you feel better and maybe help you help your child to learn to read. Why Can't These Children Read? Child 1 was in school and couldn't read in year 2. So bad was his literacy that he wasn't doing any maths through total inability to read the questions. Child 2 has … [Read More...]
Fun Homeschool Science Resources
All of the fun homeschool science resources on this page have been tried and tested by real homeschoolers, they have been given the thumbs up from me and the kids. I'm not talking about curriculums, work sheets and learning programmes, that's not what I want to talk about here. The best homeschool science resources, I think, are the fun ones, the games, toys, books, kits and sets. To be perfect they must come with great instructions and ideas for projects, they help out a lot if Mum ( or Dad) maybe wasn't a big science fan in … [Read More...]
Positives of Homeschooling
A listicle, on the positives of homeschooling - that we have found through our own experiences. This isn't one of those posts that trots off the standard positives of homeschooling - tailored learning, physical freedom, better socialisation etc. This is us, this is what we've found. Homeschooling is misunderstood because we homeschoolers just don't fit with other people's perceptions of how the word is. So can I just shake up your worldview for a moment? Only a few reasons, it won't take you long to read. I'm not going to annoy you, be … [Read More...]
Homeschool Kindergarten
If you're Googling for that term " Homeschool Kindergarten" you're new to our world. Hi, welcome, we're glad you'd like to homeschool. We need to start at the beginning and explain homeschooling to you so that you can best homeschool ( home educate, home school, world school, unschool ) your kindergarten aged little one. There are a whole bunch of terms and methods in homeschooling that you probably don't know about yet, so we'll explain those and point you towards books, toys and tools to use with your pre-school child. But first I want you to … [Read More...]
Homeschool Workbooks
Homeschool workbooks have been our favourite way to educate the children, right from kindergarten to high school. That's my favourite way and the kids' favourite way. Workbooks allow mom to be a little bit hands-off sometimes, the heavy work is done already and we moms may just be able to cook lunch while the kids get stuck in. Workbooks can cover just about any topic, they're cheap, light, easy to travel with and can do multiple duty in kicking educational goals. While your child is filling in his science workbook he's practicing writing, … [Read More...]
How Do Homeschooled Kids Sit Exams?
Firstly I'd like to say that exams are not compulsory or necessary, there are many ways to do life and the regular school system is just one of them. Should the child ( or parent) feel they need paper qualifications similar to regular school leavers, there are ways. So how do homeschooled kids sit exams? Here are a few different ways, some global, some country specific. As you can see from the information below, just about anyone can sit exams, any time they like. I don't see any need to push my homeschooled children to sit exams, but if … [Read More...]
TRAVEL IS EDUCATION
Travel is Education
The idea that travel is education probably appeals to a great many people. I firmly believe that travel is the best way to learn, for our kids and for us. No amount of book learning can ever beat … read blog