how does it work?

Well thats the big question. And get used to questions, people ask them all the time, but usually with genuine interest.

There are many different approaches to home education and how you do it, and the trick is to do what works for you and your children. Basically they fall into two camps - structured, or autonomous - and in reality, most people home educate somewhere between the two.

The structured approach can mean sticking to strict timetables, the national curriculum etc. this can be good if you think your child might be returning to the school system soon or if it just suits - children on the autistic spectrum often do better with 'a plan' and routine etc.

The autonomous approach means following your child's interests and allowing them to decide when and how they will learn.

Of course it is entirely possible to be child led within a structured day

What we do is a bit of everything - we have set times in which home education takes place, although of course learning goes on all the time. We 'work' between 9 and 3 and stick to term times. We keep the same holidays as the local schools as we do also need to have a break, and have found that local places, such as the swimming pool and library, are just far too busy during holidays, so it's just better to avoid them then. However we will swap days around if it suits us. Because it works best for my son - we plan in advance. We go swimming once a week, and spend each morning in a fairly routine way, starting the day with some educational TV, then some literacy and numeracy work and works sheets until lunchtime. Afternoons are more relaxed, with maybe walking, shopping, crafts, swimming, projects, library, music, French, cookery, gardening, social visits and visiting places of interest (castles, museums etc). Often we follow up something that has taken his interest, perhaps in a program we watched, or something we saw when out and about, or a newspaper article, and we can take that where it leads us.

If you take a look at the timetable for your local school, then remove the time allowed for walking from classroom to classroom and assemblies etc etc, you will find that the actual 'studying' going on is fairly minimal, and it is fairly easy to do a lot more in your day. Add to that the fact that you are now in a much much smaller teacher to child ratio - the 1:1 attention makes all the different - now your child is not left behind, nor kept waiting by someone else.

A good bit of advice is to keep a diary. Very handy for demonstrating an education is taking place, should that ever be an issue, but the main advantage is it makes you realise how much education is going on in a seemingly relaxed day. In my first year I would put in brackets next the the activity what this represented in 'school speak' - so a trip to the butchers (independence + numeracy), a walk on the moors (PE, natural history) swimming (PE and social interaction), family tree project (numeracy, history), trip the library (social interaction, literacy), sending emails (IT and literacy) and so on. I also write in my diary during 'holiday' times too - amazing the learning that still goes on - a craft project in his room, trips out, visits from others etc.

With more time on your hands, you will find you have the time to stop and discuss something, go back and look at how something works, take time out to look something up.

The bottom line is there is no right or wrong way to home educate (although often people will think otherwise!) it's all down to doing what works for you and your children. This might involve changing your system, and thats ok too. Whatever works for you works!

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