We have finally finished Jacqueline’s Baden Powell Challenge, which is the highest award that a Girl Guide can obtain.

All that is left is an adventure weekend, which Jacqueline will do over the next couple of months.

 

We have covered all sorts of things with this badge, including World Issues, different Cultures, Recycling, Fair Trade, learning about Independent Living and Water Safety, Cooking all sorts of things including a full family meal, running a Ready Steady Cook Night with the Guides, going to a Nature Reserve and creating a campfire songbook using ICT skills.

 

Last week at Guides, we had a challenge night and one of the challenges was to build the tallest free-standing tower out of dry spaghetti and jelly babies- it is not as easy as it looks! There were some incredibly creative inventions.

 

Over time we have worked our way through a good number of the Guide badges, as they offer a huge range of interesting subjects to explore and present in numerous different ways.

 

Jacqueline has done all of it herself and in her own style.  Some things we have explored in much more depth than others as a particular topic has really caught her imagination, but then I suppose that is the joy of home education.

 

Well done, Jacqueline.  We are really proud of you!

 

Amanda Goldston

Tags: fun, guides by Amanda
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Well, we are back into the swing of a “new term” with exam preparations. Stephanie has 3 IGCSE subjects under her belt  (Maths, Chemistry and Physics – all Higher Extended Level) and we are preparing for the next ones in the Summer.

It is very interesting to compare the papers to the equivalent GCSE papers. The Sciences are considerably harder. In one Home Ed forum someone commented that the CIE (Cambridge International Exams) Chemistry syllabus was virtually identical to the O-Level that he took 30 years before and still has the notes for.

For anyone considering IGCSEs, the content pf the syllabus, as well as past exam papers and mark schemes are available from the examination boards.

You can take most subjects without coursework. Some subjects have an “alternative to practical” paper, which is where you need an understanding of the procedures that you would perform in laboratory situations.

ICT and Languages can be a bit tricky to take the actual exams because they have practical papers  and/or  oral exams and there are fewer centres that can or will accommodate students for that aspects.

We have used CIE for all our subjects, as it is so much easier to arrange exams centres than it is through Edexcel. That is just our personal experience, although others have found ways to do that.

Another great source of exam papers and make schemes is www.freeexampapers.com - they have just about every subject in every qualification from every exam board that you can think of.

It is fairly easy to obtain course books for most subjects, as Amazon stock most of them.

The English is a completely different syllabus to GCSE and consists of reading, comprehension and writing, including summary writing and writing in several different styles.

Most colleges now require 5 or 6 GCSEs or equivalent, including Maths and English, depending on the course. Universities generally recognise IGCSEs as do most 6th form and further education colleges.

I have heard lots of 2nd and 3rd hand stories of home-educated children getting into college or university without any qualifications at 16 or 18, and I have no doubt they are true. However, we prefer to be on the safe side with it!

If you are interested in exams for Home Educated children, there is a fantastic forum that I would highly recommend. There are plenty of people with experience of taking exams and are very helpful.

Have a great day.

Amanda Goldston

Tags: home education by Amanda
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