How do typical families go about a home educating day? This section of the site links to descriptions of seven different styles of home education, from fully autonomous through to rather more planned days organised around workbooks.
The structure - or otherwise - of a home educator's day
When you start home educating, particularly if your children have been in a school which they enjoyed, you - or they - may want some kind of structure to the day. But remember that in 7 hours of attending school, there is probably an hour and a half of recess/lunch break, half an hour of assembly, half an hour generally lining up, hanging up coats, changing shoes, and half an hour of registration, moving to the right desk, handing in homework etc.
So at most there are four hours of real learning time: probably less, since children have to wait to ask questions in class. If you aim to spend 3-4 hours per day in your education time, this is more than sufficient. In practice you may find that in less than one hour per day you can cover the basic National Curriculum (if you wish to do so) leaving the vast majority of the day for the children to follow their own interests.
Some families set aside mornings for educational activities, and keep a log, but the law in the UK does not require this nor, indeed, any record-keeping. The longer you educate your children at home, the more they are likely to become enthusiastic about learning; as a result you will find that 'educational' opportunities can arise from first thing in the morning until last thing at night. If you take time to answer your childrens' questions, whenever they arise, and help them find out what they need to know, you will find that they are learning and teaching themselves all day, every day.
De-schooling to start with
If your children have been unhappy in school, they may need a period of 'deschooling' where they are totally free to do whatever they like, even if that means watching TV all day or playing basketball in the back garden. Many children who spend a few weeks doing whatever they like, unrelated to education, then start to ask questions and even suggest some structure or work books. But some children learn best from TV and computer games, and you may find a child apparently 'doing nothing' is in fact absorbing more than you realise.
Different families approach their home education in different ways. This section of our site gives some individual glimpses into the ways this can work in practice, at different ages and with different philosophies. These descriptions were all originally posted as messages on one of the home education forums (details on the Home education information page); some of them have been updated more recently, showing the wide variety of lives that formerly home educated students take.
Seven styles of home education
Gayle's approach - the children in this family were 13, 11 and 8 at the time of writing. They had moved from fairly structured home education into much more flexibility, with the children taking responsibility for their own learning (last updated Spring 2007, when two of the children were grown up)
Heather's approach - Heather has five children and lived in Grenada when she wrote about her day. She had a hectic schedule with two of the children in school, and various combinations of music and dance lessons each afternoon (added August 2000, updated May 2001)
Henrietta's approach - if you thought home education was difficult with three or four children, take a deep breath and read about Henrietta's typical morning with her family of eight children, who were all under the age of 9 at the time of writing (added August 2000)
Jane's approach - this describes a family who had younger children (6, 4 and 2) who took a fully autonomous path, where the children led the way. Their mother provided a wide range of resources and helped them to explore their interests as they arose. Two different days are described, a few weeks apart (updated Winter 1999)
Kathie's approach - Kathie and her husband both worked from home, and were both involved with home education. They took a semi-autonomous approach, balancing their work needs with their children's education (added Spring 1999)
Paula's approach - this family has daughters who were 13, 11, 7 and 5 when Paula wrote about her day. Although they experimented with autonomy, they were using a flexible regular structure based around National Curriculum workbooks. Two of the daughters are now grown up. (added Spring 1999, updated Spring 2007)
Our approach - this described a typical day in our household, with a look at the way we integrated some structure into our days. This was combined with a lot of freedom for child-led learning and self-motivated study. Our boys were 12 and 10 when I wrote the first part - now they're both grown up (last updated Spring 2007, when they were 20 and 18)
To read more about other families and their outlook on home education, look at my Home educating family sites page; to read about day-to-day life in families with younger children who are currently home educating, check my home educators: blogs page.