Autonomous Home ed

[Doobydoo]

Please can some one explain to me very simply how they do this?
Ds1 has been home edded for the majority of his school years...he is at school now...will be going into last year of primary in Sept[he stated in April]he will be 10 tomorrow.
We have probably nhome edded in different ways.When he was younger he was extremely motivated and led us and then he went to school for a while ...he has high expectations and was sent back with tons of home work as he was classed as bright and I think they thought we hot housed him[but it was just the way he was and we followed]If we all decide that for secondary he is to be home edded how does the autonomous approach work[happen]?He has been put off,to a degree,by school.But we do not really knowwhat to do and think our mindset is wrong for him[our preconceptions]He likes challenges and tests and would probably enjoy aspects of certain types of schooling but we don't want him to drift.
This is a muddled op but I am worried really about what to do.
Advice HUGELY appreciated.

Have you read 'Free Range Education - How home education works'? ((www.amazon.co.uk/Free-Range-Education-Home-Works/dp/1903458072 )) I was wondering the same thing as you and this book answered my questions re how autonomous home ed can work as they have loads of examples of how different families approach home ed.

I am just working out how I want to do things myself, but I did think the book was fantastic, very informative, it cleared up a lot of questions and worry that I had.

Hope this helps?..

There is a good book called Children learn at Home' by Alan Thomas and Harriet Patterson.

All about research his research on autonomous HE. I think it's a good read and very informative.

There is a Yahoo group for autonomous home educators in the UK and for those who are striving to be.
I think you'd find a welcome there and folks happy to share.

Or if you would like to chat over the phone or by email directly, you can reach me via the Worcestershire Home Ed network The contact link there goes straight to my inbox and I'll reply ASAP.

Happy to talk about this for as long as you want to.

Or of course you can just ask questions here and we'll try and answer.
I'm off to work now but will check back later.

autonomous HE is child led. So if your child wants workbooks and tests and exams, that's what you provide. And if they don't, you don't

very happy to answer any more questions

its just child led. Ask them what they want to do. Mine all went through patches of asking for maths workbooks but generally did their own thing. Runescape lasted several years and I'd ask them if they wanted to go to HE groups or trips (1 would say yes, 1 no way and 1 didn't mind)
At 13 or so they started to ask for more formal learning and thats when they chose to go to school because I didn't have time to sit down with text books cos of number 4. But from 5 or about 13 it was day by day whatever they wanted to do.

Thanks so much for replies.
Ds1 was extremely interested in maths etc until he went to school!
Now he is still interested in these rthings but seems to flit from one thing to the other and I worry that he 'gives up'when things need more thought.I think that is our fault too,as we have expectations of how we think things should be!
If he is homedded for secondary we just want to be able to do it without inflicting our worries on to him[hope that makes sense]
We don't want to force him etc and I see what you mean that it is child led,but don't know if we could let him go on Guitar Hero for months on end!
I will definitely order the books from Amazon when I have the money.
Don't think I have explained myself very well...it is ds1's 10th birthday today so all slightly chaotic.

you have to trust your child. At 10 I doubt if he knows what he wants to do but later on he may decide on a certain career or university course and become motivated to acheive what he needs to do so. Some HE kids do the GCSE courses in 3 months and take the exam as they suddenly realise they want to go toa college or get a certain job. Others don't, work at low paid stuff at 16 then realise there's more to life and go get qualifications. There's no age limit on most things now.
There's now HE young poeple being accepted at university with no formal qualifivations because uni's know they are self directed learners and they pass on interview and with portfolios.
When mine were 10 I did think they'd be playing Runescape for the rest of their lives! But they all chose to use school as a resource about age 13 and ds1 has just passed 11 GCSE's. He now plans to go to 6th form. ds2 is still undecided. He tried school but didn't like it.

Thanks Riven,that is heartening.I am going to look at Runescape as it seems to be a popular home ed activity
Well done to your son.