Talk to me about homeschooling

[FannyTheFlamingo]

Please could those in the know tell me about homeschooling?

Can any parent do it? What are the basic requirements? Does the parent have to have any particular exams? Do you have to follow the national curriculum?

Asking here for a friend who isn't on MN.

I homeschooled my eldest, a few years ago now so rules may of changed. Parents don’t need to take any exams and no you don’t have to follow the national curriculum.

Are there any exams or is it monitored in any way?

Someone comes round once a year to ask what you are doing to teach. In practice, very little teaching is required.

There are many different approaches. Some do 'unschooling' where, I believe, the kids just learn through life and there is no attempt to push them towards any academic learning. Some prefer a more structured approach.

There is a Home Ed board on here (within the 'education' section, of which this board is another) where you may find some more experienced homeschoolers.

We did it for one term only (end of Y6) best thing at the time for DD, but she was isolated and we had to work hard at friendships more than the academics. For us as it was just one term we looked at non-school options like guided tours down Engineering shafts, themed trips to walled towns, nature rambles, identifying different flora and fauna, mostly stuff outside of a classroom. DH ran his own business so was flexible time wise and I bought an extra week leave from work - DD tended to have a day off in the week and one day of the weekend days became an ‘educational’ day for us including museum trips etc. DH did the maths with DD as he is good with that and I did the English so we kept up the core subjects. We did star spotting at night and wrote our own Greek myths about the constellations. DD wrote a journal as part of her home schooling experience. Sometimes I set an agenda for DD to follow and it has fed into self discipline for secondary school. It wouldn’t have been practical for us doing this long term but add our experience in case it is of help to others. In that one short term we had two visits from educational ‘services’ to view what we were doing. They did explain they did find some DCs helping Parents in their shops or girls being flown out at that age for ‘operations’ - all very sobering so we didn’t question what they were doing. Friends who had DSs who did the same homeschooling at that age had fewer visits so although
It seems over the top they are investigating with due cause and reason which I fully support.