Family of five, the Binedells, are spending a year travelling around Europe in their caravan, volunteering on various projects and homeschooling their three children as they travel. Here, mum Karen, discusses her thoughts on how to start homeschooling and how it is working out for her family.
“As I mentioned in our previous post, before enrolling our children in Wolsey Hall, my husband and I spent countless hours researching various ways to home educate them. Given our circumstances and the amount of time we would spend travelling and volunteering we felt it best that we find a programme that would encourage the children to become independent learners but also be able to offer support as and when they needed it.”
Sebastian, Aiden and Ella homeschooled with Wolsey Hall Oxford for eighteen months while they travelled around Europe in a caravan.
“Before starting on our homeschooling journey we had a number of concerns:
-Would the standard of education be equivalent to what they would receive in school?
-Would we struggle to motivate them to learn?
-Would they struggle to make the transition from mainstream school to homeschool?
-Would we have enough time to cover the required work?”
“All three of our children are quite academic so the response to the news that they would be homeschooled through Wolsey Hall was a very positive one.
“They loved the fact that they would not be falling behind in terms of their studies and felt reassured knowing they had Tutors they could call on if they needed help or further explanation.”
“Currently we are in the second week of homeschooling on the road.
“It’s early days and we are still experimenting in terms of balancing our volunteer work with the children’s study timetable.
“At times it has been tricky to motivate them (especially when they’ve spent a number of hours working and the pool is calling their names) but at present they are up to date with their work and assessments have been submitted on time.”
“In all honesty Sebastian (15) and Aiden (14) have had no issues as such. Ella (12), on the other hand, needed a little assistance and encouragement initially. At first she found it difficult not having a teacher to guide her and would say, ‘I don’t know what to do’. All it meant was me taking a few moments to read through the course work, offer her some guidance and perhaps give her a few examples of what was required to help build her confidence. She has come on in leaps and bounds since she first started and has also taken it upon herself to email her Tutors when she is unsure of what to do.”
If you’re thinking of enrolling your child at Wolsey Hall Oxford and you’d like to know more about what we do or how to enrol, please get in touch. We’re ready to enrol new students throughout the academic year.
