Some General Information about Home Education

A picnic is very different from a formal meal with limited menu and everyone sitting at a table - children at a picnic choose what to eat and in what order, they run off and play between bites - and often the food seems to taste all the better for being eaten outside in this way.

Home education is very different from school - children are able to learn in a less formal way. They may sometimes choose to be out and about - at museums, nature reserves, taking their books to the park – at other times they might prefer a DVD and the chance to ask lots of questions about it with a parent – or again at another time they might like to learn from hands-on activities and making things.

All these different approaches (and more) work really well, when children have choice in how they learn. When they have the chance to learn like this, children tend to learn quickly and to enjoy learning very much.

Some questions that people ask about home education:

"Is it legal?"
Yes it is - in English law, parents are responsible for providing their children with an education 'in school or otherwise'.

"What about socialisation?"
Many children who leave school for home education find that their social life and social skills develop better and more naturally than when they spent a large part of each day sitting in a room with 29 other people of the same age. Home-educated children mix with a wider variety of ages wherever they go. Many areas have groups where children meet and play, as well as getting together at each other's houses and going on trips together. Home-educated children can also join such groups as Scouts, Guides, Brownies, sports clubs, drama clubs, etc.

"Don't you have to be a teacher?"
No you don't. Teachers need training to educate a large group of children in a particular way. If a child at home asks a question and the parent doesn't know the answer, the parent can show the child not just what the answer is but how to develop the skills needed to find it him/herself - using reference material or the Internet, for example. We don’t give our children formal lessons in eating, walking and talking and they are able to learn many other things in a similar way.