Has anyone used this company? www.structuredhomelearning.com/

[jellyrolly]

I need to be quite structured as my DS has Asperger's and structure and routine work well for him.

Thank you for looking, any other info on packs would be much appreciated, he is 8.

[jellyrolly]

Anyone this evening?

[Tinuviel]

Hi Jelly,

I haven't used structured home learning but it looks very expensive! We are structured and I have got a lot of help, information and support from another forum alittlebitofstructure.webs.com/. We are a very friendly bunch and have used a lot of resources between us!

Have you thought about Galore Park textbooks? Rather dry but rigorous and thorough. We also use a lot of American resources from Well Trained Mind/Peace Hill Press, Pandia Press and Evan Moor.

I tend to choose resources with input from the DCs and then put together work plans so they know how much to do each week.

[ToffeeWhirl]

I haven't used it myself, but an acquaintance of mine used it when she first took her DS out of school. Her MIL bought it for her because she was so horrified that her grandson was going to be home educated!

My friend used the national curriculum pack which covered English, Maths, Science, History and Geography. She told me the work only took a couple of hours a days, depending on the number of subjects you want to do. She used three packs and found they helped bring her son up to a level closer to that of his peers.

However, as her confidence in home educating her son has grown, she has moved away from that and now uses online resources such as ConquerMaths and EdPlace.

I have only used one structured pack myself and that was a science pack from Little Arthur. It was fine, but it is cheaper and just as good to buy the textbooks yourself and work from that. I can recommend Galore Park - I've used the English and the Maths ones and both are excellent. You can buy junior versions of Galore Park from Amazon (they don't seem to be on the website ).

[morethanpotatoprints]

If you visit Galore Park website they give examples of pages, not hundreds but if you have time to go through them all you can print quite a bit off free that will give you a free trial.
We decided against this route as dd works better with less structure, but they are really good.

I have managed to keep structure on the days we need to by using a mixture of workbooks and resources and time tabled lessons, rather than the usual free for all.

[jellyrolly]

Thank you everyone. It is expensive, I just don't have confidence yet. I will look at the other resources suggested, I have joined alittlebitofstructure so will also explore there when approved. I think I'll hold off on buying this.

[ToffeeWhirl]

Just had a quick look at the website, jelly. It seems to be £400 for a basic pack for primary age. This pack covers English, Maths and Science. We use ConquerMaths online which is costing me about £110 per year (use the home ed discount code to get 40% off - I think it's homeed, but you can search on Mumsnet for it). I'm using this Galore Park textbook for English and this for Science (although considering switching to Galore Park, but I already had this one at home from home educating my older son). The two books cost £16 in total (cheaper if you buy secondhand). So that means I'm spending £126 per year on the stuff that Structured Home Learning are offering for £400. The only extra thing they seem to be offering is a work schedule, which I'm sure you can work out for yourself anyway.

I would save your money for some great days out .

[ToffeeWhirl]

The discount for ConquerMaths is HOMEED. Just checked. Not saying you have to use this, by the way. You could easily save the money and work from a textbook or another website (BBC Bitesize has lots of online help). Maths isn't my strong point, so it's worth it for me to pay a bit extra for that.

[morethanpotatoprints]

I think cost is a big factor, if you are spending on many other things it is difficult to not get carried away and end up paying a fortune.
In terms of the structure would your ds benefit from structured time and lessons set by time table.
I know this helped us to make sure that dd was learning enough academic subjects and topics. So if maths is on Tuesday at 11.00 it was done then, unless there was a good reason. We choose a topic say fractions or decimals and stick with that for a given amount of time before moving onto another. The dc know exactly what they are going to do and when, if this helps at all.
Our problem at the moment are languages dd has a tutor but wants to do more and start Latin. All the online teaching resources and websites we have found are beyond our financial means atm.

[Hakluyt]

Everyone probably knows this but just in case they don't here is the National Curriculum in great detail. I know that sometimes new HEers are worried that their child is not learning what their schooled peers are- it's easy (ish) to check.

[Hakluyt]

Morethan- have your looked at this? it's a little old fashioned, but I think it's excellent- and free!

[morethanpotatoprints]

Hakluyt

No, I haven't seen this and thank you so much, we must get on to this.
I think sometimes its really good they just come out with something like "I want to learn Latin", but in other respects we are the people who have to source the resources. I know where this has come from, its the boys she met from the grammar school through some work at the beginning of the year and through singing.
She has mentioned it before but as she didn't press me too much I sort of forgot about it after looking at the cost of Maximus the mouse. It is very child friendly but expensive.
Thanks again.

[jellyrolly]

Thank you again, this is really helpful. We were planning to start flexi schooling in September which is all set up but I had to take my son out of school this week as he couldn't cope any more so whilst I am in no massive rush, I did think I had until September to get organised!

It will be good to lower the costs as we found out this week my husband has lost his job, I have given up mine (part-time) to take care of DS so any savings will be very useful.

I really appreciate the advice everyone x

[Hakluyt]

Morethan- it's the one many grammar schools use- so she'll be able to say "Cerberus est in via" with the best of them!