Along with the rise in home education over the past few years, something else has grown exponentially- the prevalence of online schools. Most often used for secondary age students to prepare and take them through their GCSEs, online schools are frequently misunderstood and parents can be stressed trying to make a decision on which one is right for their child. This article will clear up exactly what online schools are, (it’s not as simple as it seems), and compare a few of the most well-known online schools available to UK and international students. What Is An Online School? Online schools ar ..read more

When it comes to family-friendly fun and excitement, England is home to some of the best theme parks in the world. These thrilling destinations offer a wide range of attractions and experiences that are sure to keep children entertained and enthralled. While not on the grand scale of Disney World or Universal Studios, England’s amusement parks are creative, inventive, exciting, and well worth a visit.  So whether you and your family are exploring England by car, spending a weekend in London, or heading off on a no-fly cruise holiday from Southampton and looking to pack in an extra activit ..read more

Birthday Party Activities For 10 Year Olds Entertaining tween party guests can be daunting, but it doesn’t need to be. This article has some amazing birthday party ideas that are perfect for 10 year olds, and can easily work brilliantly for children aged 8-12. Whether you’re looking for birthday party games, themes or quirky and novel ideas, you’re in the right place! Here are some fun ideas for your kid’s birthday party: Classic Themed Party This is a great way to celebrate your child’s favorite things and each theme lends itself to specific games and activities: Dinosaur party– kids can thaw ..read more

If you are looking for a blog post with cute drawing ideas as a great way to improve your (or your child’s) drawing skills, you’re in the right place! It’s easy to get caught up in ‘how good’ you are at different types of art but ultimately it is supposed to get your creative juices flowing and be a lot of fun. Below is a list of cute, simple drawing ideas along with some resources to help you expand your artistic skills! There is a lot of great subject matter that, when you practise drawing it, is a great base for learning new skills. You might want to produce a simple sketch, learn how to dr ..read more

As you probably know by now, my kids do a variety of classes, clubs and workshops with Outschool. Despite the name Outschool isn’t a school; it’s an online platform connecting passionate professionals who want to share their skills and interests with children and teens- and at Christmas the offering really ramps up! (At the bottom of this post is a $20 free credit to try any Outschool class or session!) During non-holiday time, kids can take classes in everything from axolotl care to French patisserie baking, and from beginner stock trading to coding in Minecraft! With over 140,000 classe ..read more

Christmas is coming (fast!) and this year families increasingly need or want to think of alternative, budget-friendly ideas for Christmas gifts for children.  I’ve posted a few videos lately about how we are doing a “scaled back” Christmas when it comes to gifts. I think a lot of families want or need to do this- either because of the cost of living crisis, or because they have noticed their kids don’t really appreciate or enjoy their massive piles of presents. However, a lot of presents struggle to put this intention into action. This might be for a few reasons; I think one of the bigges ..read more

A good part of my time as a blogger and TikTok creator is spent talking to parents- most often, Mums. We chat about all kinds of things- gentle parenting, home education, parenting autistic children, travelling with kids and more- and something that comes up time and again is ‘mum style’ (or lack thereof). It seems to be a tale as old as time- trendy women who take pride in their appearance have kids, lose all sense of identity (as well as the vast majority of their free time and disposable income) and simply don’t have the resources to invest in their own appearance and style as they’d like t ..read more

If your child believes in Santa, you may have created a tradition of visiting the big man once a year. My kids usually see Santa- we’ve done visits at local parks, garden centres, breakfast buffets and last year a cowboy-themed restaurant (!), but this year we’re going for something a bit different! I’d heard of online Santa visits back in 2020 when over the internet was the only way we could see people, but this year I looked into them more and found that they’ve developed into some absolutely brilliant and magical experiences. If you’ve found that your local Santa visits have become too expe ..read more

Learning musical instruments seems to be one of the things that people assume home educated children can’t do- or at least, not easily. If you’ve read my article on how to find great guitar teachers for online learning, you’ll know that this isn’t the case at all! My middle daughter used to love our electronic keyboard (actually she’s getting a new one for Christmas as the keys snapped, but don’t tell her!) and now that she’s showing a real interest in progressing I started to look for the best online piano lessons. In-person lessons for piano can be great but they’re not very practical with ..read more

Using logic and strategy games and puzzles in your child’s playtime and/or home education is a fantastic way to help them learn while having fun. There are many skills developed through strategy games, such as planning, delayed gratification, mathematics and analytical thinking- all very helpful for real life! My children really love Chess (here’s 4 resources for teaching your child chess), card games, Monopoly, Connect 4, Scrabble and other board games that require forward thinking and strategic planning. They also love online games which we have found incredibly useful- see 5 surprising edu ..read more