"There wouldn't be six or more hours a day of hardcore, parent-involved learning."
I have seen it quoted that children get something like 18 mins one to one attention in school per week!
That helped put things into perspective for me!
"Can I be a sometimes idle, not altogether "Tconsistent and definitely imperfect parent who needs time throughout the day to switch off and read a book - and still effectively HE a bright child who seems to suit this approach?"
Absolutely-I know because I have done just that for three of them!
"There'd be a bit of this and that; bursts of activity and also much idleness. We'd jump from one thing to the next, DS would not infrequently have to play on his own while I do household paperwork and chores, we'd have very active days and trips out and visit friends or have them over, and then plenty of lazy days and aimless moments."
Sounds just like us!
"and there'd be some incredible moments when something would click and his progress and capacity to learn would amaze me."
Spot on! Exactly!
I'd suggest you have a look at "Free Range Education" edited by Terri Dowty, where different families explain how home education works for them. Some of them are quite autonomous-child interest led. Might be worth exploring more about autonomous learning.
We area totally autonomous educating family (known as 'unschoolers' in the USA), we haven't done any structured work unless the children have requested it. It has worked fabulously for us.
We have been away at the caravan for a few days. Yesterday dd2 got up when she was ready (about midday), we watched a film together, then she chose to work on her OU course assignment. She spent about an hour on that. Then we tidied up the caravan. Went for a walk to the local farm shop and then came home. We did lots and lots of talking about things she wanted to know about-covering a vast range of subjects, from family history, to what causes flooding, to music she has been listening to.
We came home. She cooked for the family. I worked on the pc.Then her guitar teacher arrived, she had an hours lesson with him and then spent the rest of the evening on her laptop, chatting to friends on msn/listening to music.
There wouldn't be "six or more hours a day of hardcore, parent-involved learning." It never has been. All our days go something like this-learning doesn't have a set 9-3 timetable as it does in school.
But it has been efficient enough to take a very bright (but very severely dyslexic) child from where she left school aged nearly nine, completely unable to read or spell or read even her own name, to a place where, aged 15, she is doing very well on the OU course she has started.
From Joyfully Rejoycing 'A day in the life of an unschooler'To put it in a nutshell, unschooling days are like great days of summer vacation. They can be anywhere from filled to the brim with activities or they can be laid back leisurely days of watching clouds (or playing video games ;-)