Home Education

Parents provide for their children’s education in a whole variety of ways. Some like to adopt a school-style approach where they timetable their day similarly to a classroom day and follow subjects on the National Curriculum. Others use a less scheduled approach and take opportunities that arise in their everyday lives to develop their children’s skills and knowledge. Many families find that once you look outside the traditional systematic way of learning we’re all familiar with through schooling you discover that there are many different approaches which are equally successful. As they grow in confidence they find there is a more flexible, child led approach where the starting point for learning comes from the child’s own interests and their daily lives which helps to keep the children more motivated to learn and avoid them becoming switched off. Some parents use graded work books and schemes of work available through the internet and publishing companies to develop their children’s learning, others develop their children’s skills through activities that occur in everyday life like play, constructive and creative activities, sports, enjoyment of books, outings, workshops, field trips, television and computer programmes, cooking, etc. And most families participate in learning activities and workshops with their local home schooling groups and are often beyond the home. Many tend to adopt a mix of these approaches based around their child’s individual preferences. Some use tutors and other experts to help them in specific areas. Others find their children learn all they need to know with no formal ‘lessons’ at all. Many home schooling families also find that work which would take a whole hour in a classroom session can be achieved in about twenty minutes on a one-to-one basis leaving much more time for the child’s personal hobbies and play. Stimulating play activities enhance a child’s learning and development as much as study does, as does physical activity, and home educating families make the most of those opportunities. Families find that they can be flexible in their approaches, changing as the child grows and their needs change. Home education can be completely personal to each family and as structured or as ‘tailor made’ as each individual family wants to make it. What is home education?