The BIG Home Ed Conversations

One child happily gets on with a maths app, and the other says a hard no to everything you put in front of them. If you're home educating more than one child, or just one who changes their mind every few months, working out how they learn can feel like building on shifting sands. In this Season 6 episode of our series on the tricky bits of home education, Kelly and Ashley talk about learning styles: what the research actually says, why what works for one child doesn't work for the other, and how to stop wearing yourself out looking for the perfect approach.

Ashley explains what she found when she looked into the popular VARK learning styles model (visual, auditory, reading/writing and kinaesthetic). It turns out to be a well-known neuromyth. Children do have real preferences, but teaching to them doesn't improve how much they remember. What matters more is letting the content decide the method, mixing approaches, prior knowledge, interest and motivation, and any learning differences. Kelly shares how her son's favourite maths app didn't stick, how a brilliant online chess tutor took over where her own enthusiasm ran out, and how listening to Harry Potter for the umpteenth time turned into real inquiry.

Together they explore how our own school hang-ups (maths GCSE, we're looking at you) shape what we think learning should look like. They talk about why it's okay for home ed to be softer and slower than school, and why a big regimented family might need more structure. Kelly also explains why neurodivergent kids often need to regulate before learning, not after. They finish with the importance of leaving space in the week, knowing when to cut your losses, and giving yourself and your kids some grace.

We'd love to hear from you: how do you mix things up for your kids, and what do you do when something that used to work suddenly stops working?

Next week: The bit nobody puts in the home ed brochure: money. When your child is in school, the curriculum, books, science lab and specialist teachers all come included. When you home educate, every bit of it comes out of your own pocket. We're getting honest about what it really costs and how families make it work.

Want to go deeper this season? Visit our website and join the waiting list for When Home Ed Gets Hard, our reflection and journalling companion with questions for every episode of Season 6, releasing in December. Waiting list members will be the first to hear when it's ready and get an early-bird discount: https://www.bighomeedpodcast.com/when-home-ed-gets-hard/

And if you're navigating ADHD or neurodivergence, whether as a family or for yourself, Kelly offers 1:1 coaching. Find out more at https://www.kellyrigg.mykajabi.com.

Loved this episode? Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. It really helps other families find us.

Whether you came to home ed after your child burnt out of school, or you're the parent running on empty right now, burnout is something so many of us know far too well. In this Season 6 episode of our series on the tricky bits of home education, Kelly and Ashley get honest about home ed burnout: what parent burnout actually looks like, why it creeps up on us, and how to find our way back, for our kids and for ourselves.

Kelly shares how she went hell for leather in her first year of home ed, filled the calendar to the brim with meetups and outings, and burnt out hard and fast, plus the early warning signs she watches for now, from irritability and creeping clutter to answering work emails at dinner. Ashley talks about how disrupted evenings and sleep, solo parenting and being always on as parent, educator, driver, planner and social secretary tip her towards homeschool burnout, and the small changes she's made, from cutting back activities to getting the kids making their own lunches and cosying up the house with soft lamps, candles and coffee-shop music.

Together they explore the pressure home educating parents feel to prove home ed works, the home ed comparison trap, why the well-meaning advice to just relax can backfire for families recovering from school burnout, and why home education is a marathon, not a sprint. Kelly shares a happiness hack (make the bits you hate a little better and the bits you love even better), the family meeting that transformed their car journeys, scheduling protected rest into the diary, and giving yourself permission to lower the bar on tired days.

We'd love to hear from you: what are your tricks for changing the environment or reducing the workload to sidestep burnout?

Next week: Why won't they just...? We're talking learning styles and effort, why one child flies through a worksheet while another needs to build it, act it out or argue with you about it first, and why what looks like not trying is sometimes something else entirely.

Want to go deeper this season? Visit our website and join the waiting list for When Home Ed Gets Hard, our reflection and journalling companion with questions for every episode of Season 6, releasing in December. Waiting list members will be the first to hear when it's ready and get an early-bird discount: https://www.bighomeedpodcast.com/when-home-ed-gets-hard/

And if you're navigating ADHD or neurodivergence, whether as a family or for yourself, Kelly offers 1:1 coaching. Find out more at https://www.kellyrigg.mykajabi.com.

Loved this episode? Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. It really helps other families find us.

Consistency is one of those words that can make home educating parents feel a bit twitchy. Some weeks your home ed routine flows beautifully, and some weeks the maths book hasn't been opened and someone's still in their pyjamas at 2pm. In this Season 6 episode on the tricky bits of home ed, Kelly and Ashley unpick what consistency really means in home education. Do you need a strict homeschool schedule, or is a gentler rhythm (showing up, keeping the curiosity going and coming back to things after a break) enough?

Kelly shares how a week of painting the bedroom turned into an unexpected lesson in life skills and independent learning, and the simple daily rhythm (one helpful task, three bits of learning, then screen time) that works for her ADHD and autistic kids. Ashley talks about swapping school days to fit in a new outdoor meetup, why a predictable routine helps children feel safe, and why getting back into a routine after a long summer break can be such a battle.

Together they explore rhythm vs routine, how much of our worry about consistency comes from school and society rather than from our children, whether structure and child-led learning can work together, why being consistent in how we respond to our kids matters as much as any timetable, how to scaffold child-led goals like becoming a zoologist or a vet, and the small household routines that quietly set children up for adult life.

We'd love to hear from you: what's one small thing you do consistently that makes a bigger difference in your children's lives than any curriculum could? Send us a message through our website or on Instagram.

Next week: burnout. What happens when you've been showing up and showing up with nothing left in the tank.

Want to go deeper this season? Visit our website and join the waiting list for When Home Ed Gets Hard, our reflection and journalling companion with questions for every episode of Season 6, releasing in December. Waiting list members will be the first to hear when it's ready and get an early-bird discount: https://www.bighomeedpodcast.com/when-home-ed-gets-hard/

And if you're navigating ADHD or neurodivergence, whether as a family or for yourself, Kelly offers 1:1 coaching. Find out more at https://www.kellyrigg.mykajabi.com.

Loved this episode? Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. It really helps other families find us.

Welcome to season six of The BIG Home Ed Conversations Podcast, where we're digging into the tricky bits of home education. Not the sunshine-and-nature-walks highlight reel, but the real, unglamorous moments that every home educating family knows too well.

After a summer apart, Kelly and Ashley catch up on what's been going on and why September always seems to bring that big "go" energy, the pressure to have new systems, new attitudes and a whole new approach. Ashley shares what it's like to go straight from a holiday in Italy into a new term with no pause, plus the realisation that her eldest is only a few years from needing to think about what comes next. Kelly talks about why transitions can feel like grinding gears for neurodivergent families, and the simple fridge chart and wall calendar that have helped her autistic kids feel settled and accomplished.

Together they explore finding the right time of day for learning, the tricky balance between child-led learning and the bigger picture, why living alongside all the mess of home ed can feel so much heavier than a classroom, and Kelly's "which hat am I wearing?" mantra for staying focused. They also talk about helping kids face that big wall of "this feels too hard", from handwriting struggles to fractions, and why teaching our children how to learn and persevere might be the most important thing of all.

If you've been feeling the pressure this September, this one is a gentle reminder that none of us are doing it wrong. We're just in the iteration we're in right now.

Want to go deeper this season? We're creating When Home Ed Gets Hard, a reflection and journaling companion with questions for every episode of season six, releasing in December. Join the waiting list at https://www.bighomeedpodcast.com/when-home-ed-gets-hard/ to be the first to hear when it's ready and get an early-bird discount.

And if you're navigating ADHD or neurodivergence, whether as a family or for yourself, Kelly offers 1:1 coaching. Find out more at kellyrigg.mykajabi.com.

Loved this episode? Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. It really helps other families find us.

In this final episode of the season, we’re doing something a bit different. (Please note, no explicit details are mentioned, but use caution if you listen with children as we do discuss things they may be exposed to as they start to use the internet more widely.) We originally planned an episode focused on internet safety and online security… and then real life happened. We were away at our annual home ed camp, the world took over, and we decided to lean into the learning that was already happening right in front of us. So this becomes a wider conversation about:

Why “the plan” doesn’t always happen (and why that’s not a failure)

How real-life experiences can teach safety, boundaries, communication, and responsibility in a way no worksheet ever could

How to start age-appropriate conversations about online safety without introducing scary details too early

We also share practical ways we’ve been exploring digital literacy at home, including:

Noticing how fast-paced videos are designed to keep kids watching (frame changes, zooms, constant stimulation)

Comparing YouTube-style content to slower documentaries and noticing what our brains remember

Talking about influence: how creators shape what kids think is “normal” (including illegal or unsafe behaviour being presented as entertainment)

Helping kids question whether something is real or AI-generated

Teaching “data safety”: what not to share online (surname, location, pet names, family details)

Why pausing, checking sources, and doing a bit of research matters (especially with fake news and misinformation)

A real example of a child being scammed in an online game—and what that taught about trust, risk, and due diligence

And we bring it back to the heart of home education: community, character, and the kind of learning that happens when children are given space to live, play, negotiate, help others, and grow.

Sponsor: Strew - a home education logging app created by a home educating mum and her brother. We have loved using Strew this season, loved the feed its created of the amazing adventures we've had with our kids, the learning insights it has offered and the ease of pulling these memories to the surface when we will need to produce reports for the LA in due course. Try it now: https://strew.app/r/bighomeed or use code 'bighomeed'

We’ll be back in September with a new season. Thank you for listening, and if you’ve loved this season, please leave a review—it genuinely helps the podcast reach more home educating families.