Learning at home activities this week
Learning at home has become a familiar path for many families, especially when traditional school stops feeling like the right fit. Our own learning‑at‑home journey grew out of a need for calm, connection, and a pace that suited my son and daughter rather than the system. These early weeks were full of trial and error, small breakthroughs, and moments that reminded me we were building something gentler and more meaningful together. Thinking of things to do can be challenging on a daily basis so I thought it might help others so share our learning at home activities one week.
I am currently home-educating my 9 year old son and 10 year old daughter. My 14 year old son attends a local secondary school. As he starts working out what he wants to focus on in the future, I hope to support him more with his learning at home at weekends and in the evenings.
Learning at home activities
1. How we are feeling?
My daughter is feeling enthusiastic about learning at home. My son is reluctant this week and this is getting me down a bit. I am not sure I have the key to making him keen. There are so many distractions in the home particularly video games.
2. What have I enjoyed most this week?
I have certainly enjoyed listening to my daughter. She has some strong views and is not afraid of expressing them. I think this is a very good thing. I enjoyed snuggling up with my son and talking about the human body particularly about growing bones.
3. What has my daughter enjoyed most this week?
She tells me she enjoyed Aesop’s fables most this week.
4. What has my son enjoyed most his week?
Video games! Lord save me from video games!! He did enjoy sharing his knowledge about the human body and laughed loudly when I mispronounced “micro-organisms”.
5. What is my daughter’s proudest achievement this week?
She says opening a box and trying out a Gravity Defying Puzzle.
6. What is my son’s proudest achievement?
Knowing a lot already about the human body particularly the ear.
7. What are our challenges?
I am now feeling fine about home-educating my daughter as she is keen to get involved and to try ideas. My son is more strong-willed and more challenging as he knows exactly what he wants to do but I want to broaden his horizons and ensure he is equipped for a positive future. I feel very isolated with this task and not at all sure I will find the key to ensuring he enjoys learning. He is so very bright. Perhaps that is part of the issue but I am not a trained teacher and I just don’t know what to do. Pushing him causes arguments but I don’t think leaving him entirely to his own devices is right either.
8. What resources have we found particularly helpful this week?
Maths Antics
Potato Council – we have sent for a potato-growing kit
A Baker Ross arts and crafts bundle
9. Top outing of the week
A trip to the local town and a Jenga game. We were supposed to go to see another home educating family but that fell through due to a poorly car.
10. What are some of our plans for the next week?
I still feel I need to plan more to reduce my anxiety levels.
I am hoping to find a good way to talk about the Holocaust with the children.
More Aesop’s fables.
Moving through videos on percentages at a good rate.
Incorporate more music and poetry into our days.
My daughter wants to learn more about sewing.
My son wants to learn more about Iceland.
I do hope you share your learning at home because I think a real truth is that we can all be inspired by and learn from each other
I certainly have a lot to learn.
Conclusion (written in August 2026)
As I look back on this week of learning at home, I’m reminded that progress doesn’t always show up in neat worksheets or perfect routines. Sometimes it’s the small moments — a calmer morning, a spark of curiosity, a task finished without tears — that tell you you’re moving in the right direction. Home education is rarely tidy, but it is deeply personal, and every step teaches you something new about your child and yourself. What happened next was that we stuck with home education until my son was 14 and my daughter was 16. They both made it to university!
Do you have any suggestions for learning at home activities for home educators?
What sort of approach would you say youre using for home ed? I found my daughter used to be very pro learning, before school. After a few years she began hating work. So home ed life for us is really centered around what the kids want to learn & any fun things I can come up with in between.
I dont push math, english or anything like that on mine. If i feel they need to learn it then I will have to make it fun otherwise my daughter wont do it if she finds it boring. Fair enough.
As for computer games, the only ones mineplay are Animal jam and Teach your monster to read. Ill admit, we’re not experts, still finding our feet, we’re learning together so theres bound to be ups and downs. But the beauty to home ed life is there is no time limit. Youre not pressured to learn this subject by next week or youll FAIL. Horrible stress for children (and adults!) so my advice would be to keep exploring what he chooses? He likes video games – would he be interested in finding out how theyre made? Why does he enjoy the game he plays so much? Show interest in his interests & maybe youll learn something new too 😉 Hope this helps x
Hello, it sounds to me like your kids are both doing really well, they’re just choosing different paths, and these paths may or may not be in keeping with your idea of a good education! 🙂 Anyone who reads my blog will tell you that I have been through some horrible lows while I try to find that ‘key’. Looking back on it my advice to myself would be 1. To allow longer to deschool, 2. To meet them where they are, rather than trying to get them to where I want then to be 3. To allow myself to deschool.
I am sure you’re doing a wonderful job, the fact that you care and you’re worried about it speaks volumes.
Lastly, you don’t need to be a teacher – you’re their mum and you know best how to find that key! 😀