Autonomous education is not the easy option! It's bloody hard work, and immensely good fun. Exhilarating and inspiring
But then I've had six years of researching HE, and meeting regularly with other HEors with older children who've been autonomously educated for years and years and who are extremely articulate, intelligent, sensible people.
When I first learnt about HE, I thought it would be all blackboards and workbooks and thought it sounded great - then I learnt that actually that's not the most efficient way to learn and I had to slowly readjust my understanding of how children learn.
Now I have a DD (6) who can read fluently and has done for a while. Although she's done it very young for a natural learner, the point is, she did it. But I didn't do nothing. I read to her, and found books for her, and told her what words say, and found websites for her to play on, and tv. programmes for her to watch, and took her to reading activities etc.
My children know absolutely loads about science, how the world works, history, geography - all more than they are meant to know according to the NC. They've learnt about Victorians from watching Victorian Farm with us, then playing The Railway Children over and over again, and attending a session at our local museum that I organised with other HEors where they dressed up as Victorians.
They know about dinosaurs from an interest sparked by a book, and carried through by buying Walking With Dinosaurs dvd with birthday money, getting more books, arranging to drive to London to visit the Natural History Museum.
They know about different countries from plotting where their cousin has visited on his round-the-world trip, and looking at where their Uncle used to live with my SIL in Russia, and where Paddington Bear came from.
They know about the different states of water from playing with the snow, and bringing in snowballs to melt under the tap in the sink, and from watching ice melt in their drinks, and from watching the steam coming off a pan of boiling water.
DD1 wanted to learn French, so I take her to a french club that runs weekly local to us, and we listen to french cds in the car.
With all these things, I didn't do nothing - I talked, answered questions, found explanations and games to play online to help further their understanding.
NOw I sound smug, but what I'm tryign to say is that autonomous learning does work. It's very efficient, and ours is not the only family to have discovered how wonderful it is. There is even research that shows how efficient it can be.
And when children get to an age where they need more than just conversation with parents and other adults, then they usually are sensible enough to find a course they can go on to learn about the subject in more depth - OU accepts young HE'd students, and there are local courses they can do - or find a paid or voluntary job they can do to learn a skill in an apprenticeship way.