by Francis Harris

Created on: November 18, 2010

Home schooling has two great advantage over conventional "classroom-based" schooling. The first advantage is that the world is your classroom - everywhere you go and everything yo do is a chance to embed the curriculum and reinforced concepts; and the second advantage is that it is a personalized classroom tailored around just one child not a room of their peers.

So how do you create a home classroom?

1. Embed education within daily life. Try and make sure that you bring education to life by using everyday activities and things. For example, rather than having a table where you sit and do maths (repeating the errors of "classroom-based" schooling where it is abstract and removed from real life) try and make sure that you are well versed in the different ways that you might include those concepts in fun activity-based things around the house, or in the supermarket. You don't need a "space" so much as the "time" to create learning opportunities.

2. A private space for reading and reflection. Whether you home school one or more children it is important that they have space to reflect and process what they have learned. Real classrooms are very lacking when it comes to a quiet private space where a child can sit and reflect without disturbances. Find such a place in your home where a child can go away from siblings - and yourself  - in order to think about what they have learned, what they want to learn and generally process information. They might sit on the end of their bed; find a quiet spot in the garden on a nice day, or go to a cubby house where they think about their learning and read.

3. A writing space. Children do need to have a table and chair that is comfortable, well-lit and suitable for writing. While they can jot notes on their knee in the park they should also get used to sitting properly, holding a pencil correctly and writing on a flat surface. For this a small portable adjustable card table is so very useful. The child can decide where they would like to work on a given day and move the table to set up shop. An adjustable table means that they have control over the height of the table to make it suitable for a range of different chairs - including on some occassions the comfy armchair - such are the beauties of home school.

4. Display wall. One advantage of a real classroom is that it gives a child a chance to show off their work for other people in a classroom display. Classroom displays are also an important part of helping a child focus

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