Autonomy or not?

[morethanpotatoprints]

Not an extensive converasation, but.
Has anybody who has not HE from the start found it difficult to get kids to want to learn by taking the autonomous approach.
I am reading a bit around the theory of this but as not HE from start wondered how this would transfer to a child having been through school.
Will my dd just vegetate and see HE as a huge holiday and not do anything and if I have to motivate is this then not allowing her to be autonomous. Any answers please. Maybe I'm being a bit naive again?

Google search "deschooling"

rule of thumb is: one month recovery time for every year a child spent in school; longer if the experience was traumatic in some way.

When that time is up, just observe them, and learn to appreciate the learning they are doing without it looking like school

the end :)

My kids have only been out of school since feb this year and we are still technically deschooling. My older kids (twins who are 13 and left halfway thru year 8) have found it liberating. They both read constantly, fiction and nonfiction books. They dont tend to vegetate but if they did, I wouldnt have a major problem with that at this stage, dh might find it hard to cope with. I think it depends on the child but I do think it is very important to let the deschooling phase run its coarse. My kids have changed and gone thru several different 'phases' in the last few months of HE, since they left school, even went thru a phase of considering going back to school!... I think that was a bit of disillusionment on their part since socialising has become an enjoyable experience, they suddenly think the grass is greener. I digress... Even if they do vegetate, I would only motivate in the way of saying something like 'We're going to the park today' and they'd all most likely go 'OK! YAY!' but occassionally my younger son(11) would just want to sit at home. One time I let him and I realised how much he missed out on, so I made him go with us next time and he enjoyed it so much that he wants to go everytime now. I find it helps a great deal to meet up with other HE'ers, as in participating with the local HE meet ups. I can see now that this has been a major help in our transition period.

Hope that helps!

Thank you both it has helped me understand a little bit more. Motivation needn't be "come on you need to do x", moreover, you anticipate that your actions will provide learning opportunities.

Another concern I have is if unschooling until such a time as GCSE's by leaving the curriculum how could I be sure that dd would have learned the relevant topics to pass exams? I know I could follow the curriculum to provide this but then it wouldn't seem autonomous.

Would it be right to assume that the child having found a particular route/subjects would choose these for GCSE rather than those encouraged/ prescribed by a school, study them from the boards criteria, hence still being autonomous.

Once you/they decide that certain exams are necessary, you find an exam centre, buy the texbook, grind through the syllabus, do practice papers, and then go in and sit the exam. It's seen as a means to an end.

Studying for the exam usually takes place in home ed over one year rather than spread over two. Although there are exceptions, many home educated children take far fewer exams than children do at school.

Some families choose exam subjects based on what the young person is interested in, others choose subjects they think will be necessary to progress to FE or university. Still others pick subjects for pragmatic reasons where there is a nearby centre to sit the particular exam, or a home ed group is offering shared tuition.

I've got lots of info on my website about home education and exams eg here edyourself.org/articles/examshomeedexp.php

My son is 19 and hasn't done any exams, largely because he's not interested in college or university. We home educate autonomously but "being autonomous" doesn't dictate about exams.

For me, autonomy is more about self-government and questioning why you are doing everything, being driven by intrinsic motivation, rather than "being free to do whatever you feel like."

There's a weekend conference on autonomous home education taking place in Surrey in mid-July if you are interested.

Thank you Fiona, I have looked at your site only briefly for now. I have learned theres not too many HE in my area, about 250 but thats not too bad I guess.
I would love to come to the conference but with dh working away alot during July and dd with several musical things going on, my time is taken really.
I am v. interested in this way forward though as looking back at my own/dh and indeed most peoples school education there was little if no choice over what you could study and everything time tabled. I think learning would be more successful without the barriers of bureaucracy.

I think the point to grab onto is that with home education you have time. A lot of time. For this reason, it doesn't matter if the approach you initially choose later needs to be changed. Your daughter will not be "behind" - unlike at school where the class marches on with or without her.

Suppose you started home educating your daughter when she was eleven and she learned nothing whatsoever for two years. (I don't think that is even possible, but let's assume that for the sake of argument.) Remember that most families who are doing formal learning say that one-to-one attention is so beneficial that they can easily cover everything they need to do in just a few hours a day. So it would not be difficult for you to make up any lost ground once you had found your feet and started working "properly".

I am actually very keen on autonomous education. I am just making the above argument in hopes of convincing you that you can afford to be very relaxed and take your time about finding your way as you go along. Few families choose an approach at the outset and stick with it throughout their home education journey.

Talk to various parents and teens about what they do, choose a method which appeals to you, try it, and if it doesn't feel right then keep tinkering until you hit upon something that does feel right. Then a few years down the line, your child's needs will have evolved and you will find that you need to tinker some more!

I'm not trying to stop you asking these questions! I'm just hoping you can feel able to be in an optimistic and playful frame of mind while you explore the alternatives, rather than an "OMG what if I get it wrong??" frame of mind if that makes sense. People in the school system have to be so serious about their educational choices, because they can't tinker in the way we can. Our lives are full of second chances, and third and fourth chances.