To wonder how people who homeschool acquire the knowledge to do so?

I think some people think it will be an easy option, some do it on a whim, some think very carefully and plan extensively and some, unfortunately, do very little

This is right and the problem is that there is so little oversight that the ones where the kids do very little often fall through the cracks.

At its best HE is probably the best education a child can have. A committed parent can provide a hugely life enhancing education in a totally tailored way. And certainly school doesn’t meet the needs of many kids, which no one is really facing up to.

But the fact that you can off roll children at the stroke of an email without any kind of vetting or monitoring is something I think we will come to regret in future generations.

For your questions:

1. no they don’t
2. if they want to go to university they take nationally accredited exams (A levels, Highers) just like everyone else

Home schooling isn't structured. You don't have to sit at a table doing maths/ English etc all day.. Home schooling can be anywhere.. visiting museums and libraries etc.. going to Home education meetings.. being out and about in nature. Visiting wild life parks/ castles .. places like Eureka ..
On line learning too..
You don't have to have any qualifications.. l Home schooled my kids .. they are now 41 and 33.. my four Grandkids were/ are home schooled.. one has been to uni and two in college.
My two gained GCSE'S and A levels.. ( l only had eight O levels and two A levels ).

The only people I know who do it are parents of teenage girls who fell apart during yr7 due to undiagnosed SEN. They use tutors for English & Maths and online school for other GCSE subjects. Both girls are thriving, one has already secured a place at agricultural college post 16, the other wants to do an apprenticeship and train to be a blacksmith. They are lovely, capable, practical girls who were totally unsuited to the school system unfortunately.

Home education covers a vast spectrum of approaches so hard to generalise.

I know two families who do it: in the case I know best the dad is a former research scientist who is now a freelance scientific writer who teaches maths and science himself, has a tutor for English and history and the kids do drama and music through clubs and he works after hours. It seems to work pretty well in their case although he must be knackered.

Families who do it properly (as opposed to the ones who leave their kids to doss about on Minecraft) are very committed and organised.

Several friends home school. They don't do it themselves. They send them to forest school and clubs etc. They're at work earning the money to homeschool, bonkers huh

I find lots of parents follow the curriculum in maths & English to the best of their ability- this definitely varies! The children often get the facts but really lack the breadth & depth of school- so lots of difficultly following rules/boundaries/figures of authority/social situations- often doesn't show until late secondary age.

My friend, who is a teacher and still works part time, uses tutors to homeschool her DC’s. Luckily they are twins so learning the same age relevant topics

There are some fantastic online resources available for parents. I home educate my daughter, and she is truly thriving.

With 1-to-1 learning, there are no interruptions, no waiting for others, and no need to slow down or hold back—she can learn at her own pace.

It wasn’t something I originally planned, but we reached a point where it felt like the only option. So I stepped up, as any parent would for their child.

I imagine there are as many different ways of home schooling , as there are different types of more formal schooling.

There’s online school, forest school, local groups, individual and small group tuition, social groups and tutoring. Probably lots more too. It depends on motivation, from the child and the parent. It depends on structure. It depends on ability, willingness to learn and participate and work independently.

I think some people think it will be an easy option, some do it on a whim, some think very carefully and plan extensively and some, unfortunately, do very little.

There’s no doubt it works well for some children and parents, but it’s worrying that some are not giving their children what they need.

I had little choice, DD was 13 and about to be excluded from a second school following a managed move. Her stress levels (and mine in truth) were making life unbearable (she had a late diagnosis at 11 of ADHD) and the support to keep her in mainstream was non existent. I took her out of the system mainly for a reset break, and we had a tutor for 2 mornings a week for English/History. We also used a local Kip McGrath centre for Maths. I joined the NT, we went to libraries, museums, art galleries. I did my utter best whilst at times feeling I'd done something really bad in a past life.

Luckily we had great support from the local Ed dept, and DD was given a year 11 course run by a local college where she had 3 teachers along with a small group of similar pupils and they were hot housed through some GCSE's. She nearly lost her place there on 2 occasions but thankfully got through to the end.

I'd like to know where people get the skill to homeschool effectively rather than the knowledge. The primary curriculum can be easy to grasp for an adult, and i could pretty much always have given my DC the correct answers to their maths homework but what I struggled with was explaining a different way to work it out themselves if they struggled, or re-explaining the teacher's instructions in a slightly different way. Knowing when a child has definitely understood a maths concept rather than just copying what the adult has told them can be tricky to work out.

You know nothing about that do you?

for the group that I know, one of the mums didn’t really have a subject she was confident enough to teach, so she organises ‘field day Fridays’ which I am very jealous of for my kids. So every single Friday they go on a field trip somewhere educational - eg the zoo. They pick an animal, She finds out loads of facts about it, the art ‘teacher’ helps them draw it etc. Or another Friday she’ll print off ten maps and they have to find their way somewhere.
homeschooling done well for primary is quite a winner. I imagine it gets harder for secondary.

You don't have to read much about school on MN to realise that other parents than us can see a big difference between the school our eldest two children went to and our youngest's schooling. Our eldest children have both graduated from university now.

As I said we are happy with our decision to leave the English schools. Both the child as a pupil and her father as an employee.

I have seen state school pupils not leaving their rooms because of school refusal and very little has been done for them. There is not necessarily that much difference.

@Homeschooll same way i teach myself different skills, you have youtube, wikipedia, books, etc

They wont learn about sexuality properly at home.

Fines for non attendance of what? Their kitchen? 😊

Going on holiday during term time is a great highlight. Not the reason we home educate, but it’s definitely a perk 🙂

And anyone can enter their kids for exams, you just have to find a private exam centre usually.

There’s a large proportion of home education families who are in that position because school was harming their children, who often have SN. In these cases it’s often not a choice.

My sons were HE because of this, neither did anything in school at all. Out of school we weren’t able to do anything academic as they were too resistant, but we weren’t able able to focus on life skills and employable skills. Both now adults and haven’t been out of work since they were 16, both well adjusted in a way that that they weren’t whilst at school.

Do a little Google search for home ed groups in your local area. You might be surprised! It's thriving in my area. A benefit of Home Ed is that you don't have to follow the national curriculum or a 9-3 routine, it isn't trying to replicate a school education in your own home led by parents.

But don't the parents just....need a break!?

Do home schooled kids get fines for non attendance, or going on holidays during term time? Who assesses their progress when they need grades for University?

I could do it I suppose, but it sounds like very hard work to me without professional tutors. Teaching is a profession for a reason. And no I'm not a teacher I'm retired from something totally different.

This sounds amazing! Do they have jobs??

@Homeschooll , my elder son and his wife homeschool their children. My lovely DIL is educated to masters at a Russell group university and my son is a medical doctor. They have purchased various schemes for maths etc. to be honest you would have to be dim not to be able to support a child through primary education but you do need to be dedicated. They have native Spanish speakers who come to play with their children and our elder grandson (just 6) is doing very well speaking and listening akin to a four year old. My grandson is very happy and his achievements are more than a year in advance of what is expected at his age. My understanding is that they work through their plan for school work for the day early in the day and then later they attend swimming/tennis and forest meet ups with other home schooled children. My son has read through the bible and other religious texts with my grandson as well as touching on much in the way of science and philosophy.
I can’t possibly imagine a better education that a child could have.

The lows of homeschooling are significantly lower than in a school setting.