Home educate maths with Your Maths Tutor.
Hello there, home educator. Welcome to your new future favourite place for home educating maths. (Yes, I'm very ambitious with this page.)
If you're here for the first time, have a little read, otherwise, feel free to skip to the bits you need help with today.
We all need a bit of help here and there, home education is no different.
No matter what others might say, we're all more capable of teaching our children than we might often think. But, of course, more or less help might be needed - time to time. Whether you're new to the exciting world of home education or you're a seasoned home educator, you can find here everything you need to make your child's maths studies easier, less stressful, and even more fun.
Now, what can I help you with today?
First of all, if you're not a member of my Facebook group yet - Home Educate Maths - I'd certainly suggest joining as it is the happy place to go for anything maths-related you might come across while home educating. My aim for this group is to become the best place to ask questions and get answers. Free to join, free to enjoy - resources, advice, and support - that and more is (and will be coming soon) there for you.
What maths level is your child at?
Have you just started home educating? Are you worried you're not sure what level of maths you should be teaching your child right now (if you want to follow the curriculum - which you don't have to). If you're curious about how to assess your child's current maths knowledge (so you know where to pick up from), >> this article << might be just the right help for you.
What maths to teach your child when you're home educating?
This might be one of the most common questions that new (and not only new) home educators ask. In >> this article << I'm trying to answer "What maths to teach?" with a different perspective (otherwise, you can always just grab an age-appropriate maths textbook and go by that). In the above-mentioned article, I also explain what deschooling is and what it's good for.
What maths resources are good for home education?
Besides loads of resources that are out there, I'd like to point you to my >>free resource library << (not only for maths) - a collection of resources from myself and my colleague tutors. It's small for now, but growing.
CGP textbooks are the ones I always recommend. Usually, I recommend going for Key Stage books rather than books focused on each Year. Just for the simple reason that with a full Key Stage book, you'll get a better overview and bigger picture of what's expected from your child at the end of each stage.
A few more useful links (some free, some paid) for resources I often use for tutoring, that are just as great for home education (there are plenty more, but let's start with a few basic ones).
Maths Genie - based around exam preparation for GCSE, iGCSE and A level
Save My Exams - based around exam preparation for GCSE, iGCSE and A level
Mr Barton Maths - KS3 and KS4 resources
Corbett Maths - KS3 and KS4 resources
BBC Bitesize - a lot of resources for a variety of topics across the whole curriculum (both English and Scottish, I haven't searched there for Welsh and Irish resources yet)
White Rose Maths (now rebranding as White Rose Education) - a huge resource bank for all key stages, including post-16
National 5 Maths - a well-known go-to website for the Scottish National 5 maths exam
For more Scottish exams (Higher Maths, Advanced Higher Maths), have a look at this website.
Twinkl - my number one website for fun resources such as Mystery Maths worksheets. Can't go wrong with those (and there are plenty more).
Maths Starters - my go-to place for a quick fun maths game to break up the lesson. Their Bingo seems to be especially popular amongst my primary students.
The next stop: Maths Exams - what now?
BIG NEWS: Modular iGCSE exams are coming! The dream-come-true for every student (especially those with exam-induced anxieties and special education needs). Keep an eye on this place for more information. For now, I posted about it with relevant links on my Facebook page >> link here <<. I'll be also certainly talking about it more, when the time comes, in my Facebook group for home educators - Home Educate Maths. Feel free to join to not miss any other exciting news in the world of home educating maths.
Exams and exam boards - find out more in the extended article >> here <<
In the link above, you'll be able to find out about what different exams you might want to choose from, how to orient yourself amongst all the exam boards (lucky you if you're in Scotland - SQA got it pretty unified) and where to get more information in order to prepare for your maths exams as a home educator. If you choose to do them. They're not compulsory but with regards to maths, let's be honest, it's good to have that ticked off for further education and life.
A quick tip: While you might've opted out from in-school education during the compulsory school age, 14-16 colleges seem to be quite a sensible option to help your child get their GCSEs when the time comes. You might want to look around and see what's available in your area.
Finding an exam provider - find out more in the extended article >> here <<
It's quite an important task, to find a suitable exam provider when you home educate. In the link above, I'll walk you through a variety of options so you'll know where to find the providers, what to look for, and more useful tips to make your exam experience as smooth as possible.
In summary, I'd like you to know, that looking for exam providers doesn't include only independent exam centres, there are also schools that take external candidates. This is an option worth investigating as school fees for exams are usually less expensive (there are some disadvantages as well but more about it in the article itself - see above).
Getting ready for the exams - an article COMING SOON!
Just learning the maths topics is not the whole story when it comes to passing exams and getting the dream grades. (No matter whether your dream is a pass or the top grades.)
Come back soon for a wholesome guide to get ready for your maths exams.
Did you find today what you were looking for?
FAQs: Watch this space for common questions and answers about home educating maths, which I will be adding gradually. More also in my already mentioned Facebook group for home educators - Home Educate Maths.
Speaking of CGP books (it would likely be similar for other publishers), the rule of thumb is:
Textbook - a wholesome book, covering larger sections of the curriculum (a whole key stage, for example), explaining topics and what's to be learned, useful for those who would teach the topics. Also good for self-study.
Student book - good for student's self-study, or to accompany their learning from other materials, usually targets just one school year.
Revision guide - to revise what you likely already know. A condensed learning material - great for, yes, revision.
Workbook - loads and loads of practice questions, little to no theory, explanation or formulas (usually pairs well with a revision guide).
Practice questions are usually more or less present in each type of book. Workbooks have the largest number of questions. There are usually only a few questions in revision guides (these books often have practice tests though). A sensible amount of questions are in both textbooks and student books.
It's up to you to decide what you need at the moment - the best is to browse the books and see what kind of help you'd find most useful right now, then that's the right type of book for you. You may likely end up using a combination of books as well.
So many students are in a similar situation, it's almost unbelievable. The school system simply isn't suitable for everyone. In an ideal world, it will be much better, with more resources, supportive staff and all rainbows and unicorns regarding learning at school.
But if a child isn't learning well at school for reasons that can't just be dealt with or won't go away, you can pretty much go only to something better. Such as learning at home. So no, disturbing non-functional way of learning is not a bad thing.
While I haven't been in this situation personally, the students who I tutor are often those who deregister in Y10, late Y10 or even Y11 to carry on towards their GCSEs as external candidates. As a home educator, you can also take more time and don't have to do any exams at the usual age - you can do them later. There are also people who don't ever take exams - and it's not all just doom and gloom without qualifications in further life (although usually it's better to have at least some of them).
So it's doable and not uncommon. Even quite close to the "expected and usual" exam time.
Firstly, you'd likely want to discuss with your teen what they want to do in life - further education, work,... Then you can address possible troubles stopping you from these goals.
Does your teen want to go to college? Do they need GCSEs? (And which ones?) Is there an alternative? Some students go to colleges and work towards their qualifications alongside the college courses.
One thing I learnt in nearly two decades of helping students with maths, is that unaddressed anxiety (which is often closely connected to rather poor mental health) is the second biggest problem when it comes to passing exams, right after simply not studying (which is definitely number one).
So it's good to know where you're heading and what you need to do when taking the steps towards it.
It may turn out your teen can "get away" with "just" Functional Skills that can be taken online - which is a massive help when it comes to managing anxieties revolving around exams. Soon, there will be modular maths iGCSE available (see more about it a bit above on this page).
So there are options out there which may turn out to be better than trying to get blood from a stone (i.e. staying at school if it clearly isn't working for your child).
For home educators (EHE - where you have indeed a free choice in this department), if you want just one simple answer, I'd say, most home educators go for iGCSE (International GCSE) Maths from Pearson Edexcel, and it's Specification A that you'll be likely interested in.
It's got only two papers, both with a calculator and, of course, it offers both Foundation and Higher tier (Spec B doesn't), the wordy problems are slightly "less wordy" and it offers a little bit better ratio of time per mark than GCSE (any exam board).
Also, Edexcel is now preparing an option to take this exam in a modular way! That's a BIG incentive - more about it later, for now, >> here's << some information currently available (that's my recent Facebook post I wrote about it, including relevant links).
This page is still growing, check back later for more info and please, feel free to suggest what you'd like to see here. This is a space for you, to help you with your maths home education. I'll be happy to add here what you need for your home education journey - all you need to do is just ask.
Happy home educating!
