How?

There are as many ways to home educate, as there are families home educating. The method of learning which you choose to adopt is entirely up to you and your child; you can use any approach that you consider to be suitable.

Watch Education Otherwise's video "School is Not Compulsory" which gives a useful overview of home education.

A family's approach to home education is likely to grow and evolve over time. It is important to realise that the law does not require you to have to have a perfect plan in place before you begin home education.

Investigate our selection of home education books in the Education Otherwise Amazon store.

Alternative Approaches to Home Education

Education can be highly successful in many ways other than the approach which is necessary in school. Please visit our FAQ page on Educational Philosophies for more information.

Ross Mountney, author of Learning Without School: I'm still anxious about Home Educating - After all, I'm only a Parent" talks about her experience here.

The practice of most home educating families tends to fall somewhere between two "ends" - structured and autonomous. However you choose to home-educate at first, you may find that your methods will change as you become more experienced and confident.

Structured: Some parents may wish to teach in a formal manner, using a fixed timetable which keeps school hours and terms, and a curriculum based on traditional school subjects, perhaps the national curriculum.

Also, if a return to school is likely in the future, many families prefer to plan their education in a similar way to school, and with reference to the national curriculum. Sometimes a structured approach is the child's choice.

Autonomous: Other families take advantage of the fact that home-educated children do not have to follow the national curriculum or a timetable, allowing them to have far greater flexibility. They may choose an autonomous approach, allowing the child to determine the areas of study and to decide how, when and what to learn, using individual interests and a natural curiosity as a starting point. Children whose enthusiasm for learning has been seriously affected by school problems often benefit from this relaxed and child-centred approach.

Exams

Read our page on exams for information on home educated children taking exams.

Learning How to Learn

You do not need to 'know everything' - a more important skill these days, with the ever increasing volume of facts which changes and soon becomes out of date, is learning how to learn, how to think, how to find information and where to look.

We live in an information-rich society, and there is a vast amount of educational information to buy, or for free - libraries, television, museums and historic buildings are available to all - all you need is to investigate what is around.

The Internet

The internet is an invaluable source of information. You can use the internet to meet other home educators and find out how they learn with their children. In addition, if you put keywords or phrases such as "Egyptian mummies" or "Spanish Civil War" or "long division" into the search engine box on Google or Wikipedia, you will soon find links to many pages and articles of interest. [Youtube also has tutorials on a variety of topics.

Funding

The funding situation in England is under review and the Education Otherwise campaign website will have the latest news.

Home Education Discounts

Many local home education groups can arrange group discounts for trips to places of interest and some establishments offer an education discount which is also open to home educators. Education Otherwise maintains a listing of concessions for members.