Home schooling - how do people do it?

[InTheNameOfAllThatIsHonest]

I don't have children. I was not home schooled. I have a degree and a post graduate degree. I am nearly 50 and have a fairly good general knowledge. But there is no way I could teach a child - not in a million years. Maths? History? Science? Are you kidding me?

So I wonder - how do parents who home school their children do it? Given that teachers need to qualify in order to teach, how can parents (without those qualifications) do it? I'm truly in awe of any adult who can suddenly take school books and make enough sense of them to be able to teach some of those subjects.

Primary it’s not that hard. There are great resources, some free, really good work books.

You go with their interests. My son was really interested in Vikings at one point - you can cover all subjects while learning in depth about the topic they love.

I home educated until my son went into year 5 (due to a big blouse move, he decided he wanted to try school).

When he started he was so far ahead of his peers in everything that they didn’t know what to do with him. He’s wasn’t particularly bright or gifted in anyway - he’d just learned a lot.

House move! Blouse 🤣

I don’t speak any languages though so he did “after school” french classes, and he was really into music and drama so attended a theatre school on a weekend for those.

But don't you have to follow a curriculum? Don't you have compulsory subjects and topics within those subjects you have to cover? Or is it up to the parents what to teach?

@InTheNameOfAllThatIsHonest

But don't you have to follow a curriculum? Don't you have compulsory subjects and topics within those subjects you have to cover? Or is it up to the parents what to teach?

Education is up to the parents. No curriculum. We are all free to do as we like.

If it was regimented then what would be the point? They may as well go to school. We mainly did it as we travelled the world.

There are many different ways of home educating. I was more traditional in how I went about it, made sure core subjects were covered in traditional ways, but other families do it differently.

There’s lots of info out there on how many ways of home ed there are.

The beauty of it is that you can taylor it to how your child learns. School isn’t for every child. Some struggle massively, some thrive.

So if there was a curriculum for home education then it just wouldn’t work.

That makes sense, thank you. So you can choose not to teach maths and history but botany and home budgeting instead, for example?

Even schools don't have to follow the national curriculum! So home educators don't have to do anything formally in that way, you can teach your child pretty much whatever you want, however you want. The phrasing in law is "the parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable to his age, ability and aptitude". The definition of what is suitable is open to interpretation!

Which is nice and can be appropriate in some circumstances, where a child doesn't 'fit' into the regular school environment, maybe has SEND or very focused interests and aptitudes. But equally it can mean that parents choose to opt-out of entire topics, and can be taught whatever the parent think they should learn. There isn't a "register" of kids being home educated, you just tell the council you're not taking up a school place and keep them at home. No one can insist you explain what you are teaching or check if education is really happening. So parents can basically raise their children off-grid with no one checking up on how they are and what they're being taught; a situation that has unfortunately been used by parents hiding abuse in the past.

Yes, you could.

You can teach maths through many things. Children are like sponges, they pick up so much.

I mean it’s not a case of choosing not to teach something. You do. There are just a huge amount of ways to teach something.

Don’t forget how many children who attend school are abused too though. It’s not just in the realms of home education.

Home schooling is easier than ever due to the internet. I'd never have contemplated it a decade or two ago. But now, there are so many resources available at the click of a mouse.

I think a lot of people over-estimate how much time you have to spend. You really don't need to spend 6 hours per day or more, just because they're at school for 6 hours. For a lot of that time, they're not actually being "taught". Take out registration, assemblies, lunch, breaks, PE/sports, play rehearsals, reading, etc etc., and you're down to maybe 3/4 hours. You can easily fit that in at home, not in one lump, but a bit AM, a bit PM and a bit in the evening, plus you can also use weekends too. So don't worry about finding the time.

As for resources, a bit of googling and you'll find literally thousands of printable worksheets, youtube videos, etc., covering virtually everything from basic reading/writing right through to A level sciences. There are also lots of relatively cheap workbooks, revision books, etc available from online book stores, WH Smith, etc.

I'd say a pretty averagely educated person would be capable of teaching their kids at infant/primary level. And probably even the first couple of years at secondary. But I think a lot of people stop home schooling at aged 10/11 for the transition to secondary anyway. GCSEs will be more demanding, but again, there are loads of resources and if the parent has achieved GCSEs themselves, then they should know enough to guide their children via the text books, revision guides, and other online resources. At that age, the kids should be able to teach themselves anyway, so the parental involvement would be more of management/support/supervision and finding resources rather than doing 1-2-1 spoon feeding of the subject matter.

And in terms of secondary - everyone I knew who continued did really well.

If a child has a specific career in mind they can go to a college at 14, do BTECs, most home educators I know just paid for their children to do GCSEs in English and Maths and any other subject they enjoyed or were good at.

Then they applied to colleges to do level 3 studies or A levels.

Ds is 19 now, one of his best mates was home educated right the way though and is off to Uni this year to study politics. One other went to college at 14 as she was set on becoming a vet, so did sciences she’s slightly older and has been at uni for two years doing just that.

And you didn’t mention socialisation but people always do. My son was shocked when he went to school how different that was. He still maintains that he had more friends when he was home educated from the groups he attended and other home educated kids than he ever did at school.

There are lots of very good teaching programmes online with tutorials, tailored q&a, hard copy workbooks and online practice sessions. Many parents use tutors where they need to or group together to allow parents to pool knowledge. Teaching lots of children at lots of different stages is very different to teaching a few children who you know well.

Plus many schools are rubbish. There are lots of questions you could ask about how on earth teachers tailor their approach and facilitate 30 odd children to reach their individual potential etc etc. The answer would be 'they don't'.

@Kazzyhoward we only did two hours a day “formal learning” workbooks etc, max.

And it wasn’t so bad a decade ago! I was doing it until 2012.

There is also a huge home schooling network so you are never alone and loads of face to face resources, courses (my son did countless, editing and film making courses at the BBC, science courses at uni labs - there is so much organised).

And although I am a huge home educating advocate - I now have a younger child who is in primary school. Because she is one of the ones who thrives there. All kids are different.

There's no "curriculum", but I think you have to work backwards from the "end game". If, for example, you intend to educate throughout, right through to aged 18, you need to be working to an end-goal which is a job, or university, or apprenticeship, or whatever. Obviously, when your kid is just 2 or 3, you've no idea what that end goal is, but you know that by aged 18, they need to be ready for the adult world or work or further education. Alternatively, you may only intend to home educate until the age of 6 or 11, or whatever, and in that case, you need to ensure you'll have covered whatever fundamentals are required by then.

Whilst you have a massive amount of flexibility, you have to look at the long term. That means Maths & English as a bare minimum, probably with a fair mix of science and humanities alongside. That's just to give your child a good grounding. How you "teach" them is up to you. Other subjects are more optional and subjective, such as Arts, music, drama, sport, cooking, woodwork etc - you can do a lot of "low level" fun activities covering those areas from a very young age, and there are usually lots of non-school group activities than can be done, such as dance schools, activity centres, sports clubs, etc.

Ultimately, if your children are to get decent jobs, they need a good set of GCSEs including Maths & English as a bare minimum. How you get them there is up to you and where you move from "home" to real school likewise up to you. But it would be a massive detriment to your children if you didn't plan it all out and ensure that they get the qualifications they need to make them happy in adult life. What that means will depend on the child, their ability, any disabilities, etc etc.

As for there being no "control", well no there isn't, but surely any decent parent will do what's best for their children. And any parent who doesn't give a toss probably wouldn't care whether their kids go to school anyway, not care about their behaviour at school, etc etc.

You can use a series of textbooks and go through the "curriculum" 1:1.
Or you can go free range into whatever topics interest your child ...chickens, volcanoes, Aztecs.

choose not to teach maths and history but botany and home budgeting instead

The way I understand it, is that you are free to use whatever themes you choose to hang the learning on, because the basics will be covered regardless. For example, teaching hone budgeting would be expected to cover at least addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Maybe not in an hour a week, called maths class but still covering what any one needs to know.

If you think about it, the subjects 'taught' in schools are themselves an abstraction, an attempt to cover what is needed to survive and thrive. Especially in our internet age, simple facts are much less use than knowing how to find information and verify the source of that information.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to explain this. It does sound like it can be a very effective way to tach kids more 'relevant' subjects/skills although teaching maths to A level is probably not a walk in the park for most parents. Hat off to anyone who chooses to home school!

*teach, not tach!

I could cope with the actual learning I think...its my sanity I'd be worried about

By that point, most home educated children will probably have elected to go to Sixth Form College. ..it really isn't necessary to teach A levels
By 14 a lot of children will be independent learners happy to enrol to do BTecs and some GCSEs at local college...or at 16 having gained GCSEs from home enrol in sixth form college.

Yeah, I doubt there are many who would home ed A levels!

The thing I always took away from it is that education after 16 really only cares about English and Maths grades. Ds had to do so many GCSEs. No one really cared about anything other than “did you get a level 4 or above in Maths and English”

It's a bit patronising to say hats off. It's a choice for some, a necessity for others whose children have been very unhappy at school. But it isn't so very outlandish or starry eyed as you might imagine. Like anything involving kids some days home edding are boring and tiring, others delightful and fulfilling. Just like sending them to school you just hope the percentage is 70 percent good days.

@Arsebucket

Yeah, I doubt there are many who would home ed A levels!

The thing I always took away from it is that education after 16 really only cares about English and Maths grades. Ds had to do so many GCSEs. No one really cared about anything other than “did you get a level 4 or above in Maths and English”

At that age, you wouldn't be home-ed'ing, your children would be self learning. Loads of people teach themselves GCSE and A levels, whether at school age or in later life.