What is HE, how does it work?

[JollyHockeyStick]

Keep catching sight of HE threads on the Active threads. Can someone please tell me how it works? Does it work differently for everyone? Do you have a timetable? Do you do structured learning like 'let's sit down and do maths for 45 minutes' or do you just learn when people feel like learning? Do you have holidays? As in, specific time off 'learning' and do you have as many as kids at school do?

DS is only 15 months so we're really far off any decisions about education, I'm just nosy! Thank you

Yes to all those questions. It can be all or any of those things, and varies from family to family and over time within a family.

Basically you opt out of the school system and take direct responsibility for the education your child gets. You can be structured and follow the National Curriculum if you like, or at the other extreme don't do any active teaching (or learning) and accept that kids will learn what they need or want to learn when it is appropriate, or anywhere on the spectrum in between.

You can stick to term times, or make up your own, or do it ad hoc varying day to day.

You get no help from the government, some local authorities are happy to leave you to get on with it, and others try hard to make it difficult for you.

You can move between HE and school education - it doesn't have to be a once only decision (either to HE, or to go to school).

Thank you :)

This site has a good introduction to home education with FAQs and links to other websites, if you want to explore a bit more.

I shall check it out.

There are as many different methods of home educating as there are home educators.
Some are autonomous, some are totally structured, some fall somewhere inbetween.

It really is different for every family - and that's the major advantage of it, that you can tailor things in a way which works both for your child and for the family as a whole. So if schedules and timetables work for you, then you go with that, but if spontaneity suits you better then you can go that way. Same with curriculum - some people like to see what the NC or other curriculums cover and try to include that one way or another, while others take the view that things will come up as you do activities together, and that there's nothing quite like needing a skill or piece of information to encourage you to pursue it and help it to be relevant and memorable.