Home education guides
Practical guides for home-educating and neurodivergent families, written from inside the work rather than from a boardroom. No sign-up needed to read any of them.
Planning and curriculum
Building a learning plan around a real child, including the ones who refuse anything that looks like school.
How to build a home education curriculum around your child’s special interestA practical method for turning a special interest, from sharks to Minecraft to horses, into a real curriculum covering maths, literacy and science.What to do when your child refuses worksheetsWhy worksheet refusal happens, what it usually means, and how to cover the same learning without the daily fight.How to home educate several children of different ages at oncePractical structures for teaching a five year old and a thirteen year old in the same house on the same day, without splitting yourself in half.Home education planning for beginners: your first termWhat to actually do in your first term of home education, what to ignore, and why the first few weeks rarely look like learning.Teaching a child who is years ahead in one subject and behind in anotherHow to plan for a spiky profile: reading like a fifteen year old, writing like a seven year old, and why age-based year groups make it worse.How to plan a home education week that survives contact with realityA planning method built for weeks that go wrong: illness, meltdowns, appointments and the days nothing gets done.Unschooling or structured home education: how to chooseAn honest comparison of child-led and structured approaches, who each one suits, and why most families end up somewhere in between.How to teach a subject you are not confident in yourselfWhat to do when your child needs GCSE maths, physics or a language you never learned, and why not knowing it is less of a problem than it feels.Starting home education after school refusal or burnoutWhat the first months look like when a child leaves school in crisis, why normal advice does not apply yet, and what actually helps.
Records, reports and evidence
Keeping a record you can actually show someone, wherever you are, without turning your life into admin.
What records do UK home educators actually need to keep?What the law requires, what local authorities usually ask for, and the difference between the two. Practical record-keeping for English home educators.How to write a home education report for the local authorityWhat to include in a written report, how to structure it, and how to describe autonomous or interest-led education in terms an official will recognise.How to make a transcript for a home educated teenagerBuilding a credible academic record for a home educated teenager applying to college, apprenticeships or employment, and what a parent can honestly certify.How to track progress without testsWays to know whether your child is actually learning when you do not use formal assessment, and what progress looks like for a child who tests badly.How to build a home education portfolioWhat goes in a portfolio, how much to keep, and how to organise it so it is useful rather than a box of loose paper.How to keep a home education learning log without it taking overA five minute a day method for recording home education, what to include, and why the everyday things count more than parents expect.How to evidence autonomous educationHow to demonstrate that child-led education is suitable and full-time when there is no curriculum, timetable or set work to show.What to write in a home education report: worked examples by subjectExample wording for describing maths, English, science and topic work in a report, including how to describe informal and interest-led provision.Homeschool record keeping around the world: what different countries expectHow homeschooling record requirements differ between the UK, US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland and expat families, and what to keep wherever you are.Getting started with homeschooling in the US: what to sort out firstThe practical first steps for new homeschoolers in the United States, why state law matters more than anything else, and how to choose an approach.
Neurodivergent learners
Learning that flexes around autism, ADHD, PDA, dyslexia, demand avoidance and burnout.
Home educating a child with a PDA profileWhy ordinary teaching approaches backfire with pathological demand avoidance, and what actually works: low demand, indirect learning and genuine autonomy.Teaching times tables to a dyslexic childWhy rote memorisation fails for many dyslexic learners, and what to do instead: patterns, derivation, and knowing which facts actually need memorising.Home educating an autistic childPractical approaches for autistic learners: special interests, predictability, sensory load, processing time and why school so often fails them.Home educating a child with ADHDHow to structure learning around ADHD: short sessions, movement, interest-driven attention, and why sitting still is the wrong target.How to teach a child who finds writing physically hardDysgraphia, motor difficulties and hand pain: how to keep a child learning when the barrier is handwriting rather than thinking.Autistic burnout: what it looks like and what to do about learningHow to recognise autistic burnout in a child, why it is not laziness or regression, and how to handle education during recovery.Teaching maths to a child with dyscalculiaWhat dyscalculia actually is, how it differs from maths anxiety, and how to teach number sense when the foundations are not automatic.Setting up a sensory friendly learning space at homePractical changes to light, sound, seating and layout that reduce sensory load, and why the kitchen table is often the worst place to work.How to help a child who has decided they are stupidLearned helplessness in children who have struggled: why encouragement backfires, and what rebuilds a child’s belief that effort works.Learning without demands: covering the basics with a demand avoidant childHow to cover maths and literacy with a child for whom being asked is the problem, using indirect methods, play and genuine autonomy.
AI, safety and accuracy
Straight answers about what AI tutoring gets right, what it gets wrong, and how to tell.
Is AI safe for children to learn with?An honest look at the real risks of AI tutoring for children: accuracy, data, dependence and content, and what to check before letting your child use one.Why AI tutors get maths wrong, and what to do about itAn explanation of why language models make arithmetic errors, why the mistakes are hard to spot, and how to use AI for maths safely.AI tutor or human tutor: which does your child need?An honest comparison of what AI tutoring does well, what only a human can do, and how to decide where to spend limited money.AI hallucination explained for parentsWhat hallucination means, why AI invents facts, books and sources that do not exist, and how to teach your child to spot it.How to teach your child to check AI answersA practical method for teaching children to verify what AI tells them, and why this is now a core literacy skill.AI and your child’s data: what to ask before signing upWhat happens to what your child types into an AI tool, the questions worth asking any provider, and what Different Drums does with it.How to use AI without it doing your child’s work for themThe difference between AI that explains and AI that answers, how to spot dependence forming, and how to set it up so your child still thinks.
Learning that flexes around your child
Different Drums builds curricula, worksheets, tests and learning records around almost any topic, shaped to your child's pace, interests and your family's values. Core practice in maths and science comes from 200,000+ hand-verified questions. Ages 2-16+, used by families worldwide.
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