Hi Riffi, we?re mainly h/e at A level, (12 I/GCSE?s at A* to B, and one D) so I feel qualified to say ?clear strategies and learning objectives? aren?t essential as we?ve not been using them despite being semi structured.
Generally we?ve found most of what?s gone badly with us has come as a result of trying to directly ?replicate? school at home, we needed our own neither fully structured, nor fully autonomous method and I needed to be a facilitator, not a teacher.
I admire the autonomous folk on here and their approach, and can assure you few are kidding themselves, but I and mine came to h/e too late to feel we could manage it. (but my g/children are)
So we?re semi structured in that we study syllabuses in an order in pursuit of specific qualifications, but how we study them frightens people who think there can only be one way. (Usually ?teacher pours knowledge into empty vessel? way) As son doesn?t learn in a linear way and is bright but with LD?s, it gets made up as we go along to help him understand and absorb what he needs.
Right now he?s ?playing? with a board with nails and thread, but actually what he?s doing is learning parametric equations for further maths. It may look like a waste of time and thread, dark magic or just kidding ourselves, but proof of the pudding is him being able to plot parametric equations and turn them into polynomial ones. So if you?d be more comfortable calling letting him play, the strategy, and the end result the L/O, then that's fine, but we don?t need to, to get there.
Yes it?s pretty mentally exhausting being around a high needs child all day, and we?ve been known to bicker, flounce, and despair at various points in our journey, but overall I rather like him and suspect I shall miss him when reaches fruition and fly?s the nest.
I think you should read Saracen?s wise words carefully and start another thread to talk to people on here about the problems you?re experiencing and what solutions others might be able to offer.
I?m educating in a very different way to both Saracen, and Julienoshoes, both highly experienced and good posters, and feel t?s very important not to ignore or write off very different ways of doing things as although they may not be for you, it may be through them that you find your own completely different path.
I didn?t think I could H/e at all, but here we are, and I?ve learnt a great deal from the autonomous folk on here over the years.